Last night at the Fringe was a good demonstration of my optimism and how sometimes it can overstretch itself. I said yes to two things, one good, one not so good.
The good thing was Comedy In The Dark, at 11.45 at night, a show where comedians perform in a completely darkened room, with even the exit lights covered up. An interesting concept that is raising money and awareness for ecological charities, and a novel one for the audiences. The other acts went well (especially Rob Rouse, who'd have you in stitches if you were only overhearing him from another room, which this experience is a lot like). For the Socks, however, it was a test of something we've long wondered about, namely how does our act work if you can't actually see us?
It turns out the Socks are very visual. So the opening sock went well, but towards its end when the Socks start bickering it started to become clear that, if you can't see which Sock is talking and which Sock is reacting. it gets confusing. Then the Halloween routine, about the safest guaranteed hit routine we have, fell flat for that same reason. The audience either couldn't follow who was talking, or without the looks, the props, the visual extras, the routine lost so much of its structure as to be just a bit, well, unfunny. Walk On The Wild Side got laughs, only being performed by one sock, and Sweary Poppins also worked, but not as well as it would have done if the sketch had worked. So I was disappointed, because I like people laughing at everything all the time, but the organisers liked it and we started discussing doing it again, and doing a photoshoot for participants tomorrow. Meanwhile the Socks' radio show needs a lot more thinking through.
Before that came the thing I shouldn't have said yes to. I had known in advance that sales for Sunday were low. After 3 sellouts out of four, and with Monday & Tuesday already nearly sold out, I could see this night was going to struggle sales wise. So I'd told my venue in advance that I didn't want any Press in. But I got an email in the morning saying an Edinburgh Comedy Awards Judge wanted to come to my show, expressly tonight Sunday. Would I let them in? And this is where my optimism got the better of me. I had such faith in my flyering technique and my chutzpah and selling skills on the street that I thought that, if I said yes to the Comedy Judge, then that would spur me on to sell sell sell and we'd end up with a full house and another great show. So I said yes to the Judge.
I then flyered for longer than I have on any day so far this Fringe, and by showtime had added little more than a dozen sales to the piddling figure I'd started the day with. The Socks ended up performing to 37 people, the smallest Edinburgh audience we've played to since 2008. No show last year sold as badly as last night's show. And, as a result, there was a lot less laughter, even though they were enjoying the show it simply didn't explode like it has been doing. And as a result of that we even under-ran. It turns out almost 10 minutes of our show is laughter! We stuck in an extra 2 minutes from last year's show just to give them their money's worth. So the audience went away happy, but I didn't, and I can be pretty sure a Comedy Award Nomination will not be coming the Socks way (not that it was on the cards following last year's whole "slagging off the comedy award judges in the press" debacle, about which least said soonest mended read all about it here).
Afterwards I had my first good night in the Loft Bar, inc good chats with Tim Vine, Jobbins, Klarfeld, Ali Cook & team, and got to meet Kirstie who booked a lot of Ali & my tour this year for the first time (that wasn't a well constructed sentence was it? but I know what I mean and you don't care).
My low sales were, apparently, not unusual with a lot of acts reporting a Sunday dip. I learnt, from an Avalon flyerer, that one of Avalon's acts (who will, obviously remain nameless) performed, in a Pleasance Courtyard venue, on Saturday night, to an audience of four. FOUR!?!??!?? I don't know how that can physically conceivably actually humanly be possible. Surely in the Pleasance Courtyard you're going to end up with an audience just by accident cos they can't get into a show they've heard of, or they're looking for the loo. But 4 people? At about the same time slot as I was getting a sellout in? And promoted by the biggest comedy agency in the country? That did indeed make me feel a little bit better. Because schadenfreude is a wholly admirable emotion and doesn't make me a bad person shut your face.
Today I need to flyer to get the rest of the week's sales up the levels we need. And it's pouring with rain. Hallelujah.
THE SCOTTISH FALSETTO SOCK PUPPET THEATRE
Edinburgh Fringe 2010: 9.15pm 4-29 August, Gilded Balloon
Monday, 9 August 2010
Sunday, 8 August 2010
**** 4 stars, National Student
The Socks 2nd review is in, another 4 starrer from National Student
Review: Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre – On The Telly
Posted on08 August 2010.
4/5
Pocketfuls of punnery and an overflowing bag of TV geekdom is just what the Falsetto Sock fans ordered and the new recruits lapped it up too. The Falsetto Socks’ fans are legion, having established quite a following on YouTube, any moment when participation is invited promptly gets followed by a request for some of their popular online material.
It’s worth noting that despite the inclination to refer the socks in the plural, they are of course the work of one man; Kev F Sutherland; a comic artist, comics aficionado and author of numerous Beano strips. This man has written comic strips for the Bash Street Kids and Doctor Who Magazine, there aren’t many credentials as geekily impressive as that. He also knows his telly, oh boy does he know his trivia and can casually rattle off details of classic TV shows with ease.
Nippy costume changes, funny ditties, snappy cultural gags and demonstrative punnery is the order of the day and Sutherland has refined his glorious socks act to be as slick as it needs to be. It’s always entertaining and constantly funny.
It can’t be easy for a guy to hold an audience and interact with them whilst sitting behind a tartan cloth and emoting with socks as a one-man double-act, but he bloody well does it, year after year and always does it brilliantly.
by Ian Phillips
Review: Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre – On The Telly
Posted on08 August 2010.
4/5
Pocketfuls of punnery and an overflowing bag of TV geekdom is just what the Falsetto Sock fans ordered and the new recruits lapped it up too. The Falsetto Socks’ fans are legion, having established quite a following on YouTube, any moment when participation is invited promptly gets followed by a request for some of their popular online material.
It’s worth noting that despite the inclination to refer the socks in the plural, they are of course the work of one man; Kev F Sutherland; a comic artist, comics aficionado and author of numerous Beano strips. This man has written comic strips for the Bash Street Kids and Doctor Who Magazine, there aren’t many credentials as geekily impressive as that. He also knows his telly, oh boy does he know his trivia and can casually rattle off details of classic TV shows with ease.
Nippy costume changes, funny ditties, snappy cultural gags and demonstrative punnery is the order of the day and Sutherland has refined his glorious socks act to be as slick as it needs to be. It’s always entertaining and constantly funny.
It can’t be easy for a guy to hold an audience and interact with them whilst sitting behind a tartan cloth and emoting with socks as a one-man double-act, but he bloody well does it, year after year and always does it brilliantly.
by Ian Phillips
**** 4 stars, Edinburgh Spotlight
First review of Fringe 2010 is in - 4 stars from Edinburgh Spotlight
FRINGE REVIEW – The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre: On The Telly (Gilded Balloon)
Ladies & gentlemen: there is a comedy double act on the scene you may not have heard of yet; one which deserves to rub shoulders – or perhaps ankles – with the greats.
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are a perennial Fringe favourite, and have brought their shambolic undergarment-based chaos to small, sweaty venues in Edinburgh for several years.
This year, they return to the larger (though equally sweaty) Sportsman’s Bar at the Gilded Balloon, with their hour of goggle box themed nonsense, On The Telly.
If you’ve seen the Socks before, you know what to expect: the stage is empty, save for a ramshackle tartan puppet booth. Then, as the lights dim, the stars of the show appear: a pair of grey woollen socks with googly eyes and lolling tongues.
They then proceed to sing, bicker, pun, ad-lib, improvise, crack jokes, perform sketches and generally speed through the performance without stopping for a second to hitch themselves up.
So, we get them acting out a period drama (complete with impressive costume quick changes); singing songs about the World Cup (complete with obligatory vuvuzelas); performing the death-defying ’sawing a sock in half’ magic routine: and much more inspired lunacy besides.
Yes, they do speak and sing in falsetto voices with Scottish accent – and at around a million words per minute. Non-English speaking audience members might therefore find themselves missing some of the humour – as would anyone not overly familiar with the depths of UK television the Socks sometimes plumb.
However it is to the credit of Kev F Sutherland (The Man Beneath The Socks) that, if one joke flies over your head, there will be another one along in a few seconds which will quite literally sock you in the face.
This year’s show has the premise of the Socks trying to impress ‘industry’ types who may be in the audience. If there are indeed any TV talent scouts out there, they could do a lot worse than giving these hilarious and witty knitted duo their own primetime slot.
Although it’s unlikely they would be co-starring with Fern Britton…
Ticket information is available on the Gilded Balloon website.
Review by Keith D
FRINGE REVIEW – The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre: On The Telly (Gilded Balloon)
Ladies & gentlemen: there is a comedy double act on the scene you may not have heard of yet; one which deserves to rub shoulders – or perhaps ankles – with the greats.
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are a perennial Fringe favourite, and have brought their shambolic undergarment-based chaos to small, sweaty venues in Edinburgh for several years.
This year, they return to the larger (though equally sweaty) Sportsman’s Bar at the Gilded Balloon, with their hour of goggle box themed nonsense, On The Telly.
If you’ve seen the Socks before, you know what to expect: the stage is empty, save for a ramshackle tartan puppet booth. Then, as the lights dim, the stars of the show appear: a pair of grey woollen socks with googly eyes and lolling tongues.
They then proceed to sing, bicker, pun, ad-lib, improvise, crack jokes, perform sketches and generally speed through the performance without stopping for a second to hitch themselves up.
So, we get them acting out a period drama (complete with impressive costume quick changes); singing songs about the World Cup (complete with obligatory vuvuzelas); performing the death-defying ’sawing a sock in half’ magic routine: and much more inspired lunacy besides.
Yes, they do speak and sing in falsetto voices with Scottish accent – and at around a million words per minute. Non-English speaking audience members might therefore find themselves missing some of the humour – as would anyone not overly familiar with the depths of UK television the Socks sometimes plumb.
However it is to the credit of Kev F Sutherland (The Man Beneath The Socks) that, if one joke flies over your head, there will be another one along in a few seconds which will quite literally sock you in the face.
This year’s show has the premise of the Socks trying to impress ‘industry’ types who may be in the audience. If there are indeed any TV talent scouts out there, they could do a lot worse than giving these hilarious and witty knitted duo their own primetime slot.
Although it’s unlikely they would be co-starring with Fern Britton…
Ticket information is available on the Gilded Balloon website.
Review by Keith D
Wish I Had Something To Say*
* That was a record by the Goodies, by the way. A really obscure track from a really obscure comedy album from, I think, 1975. And that may be as interesting as today's diary gets.
I've just been rereading my Edinburgh diary from 2009 and finding it passing interesting, but only to me. This year has had a similar start. My show, the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre has had three sellouts out of four nights and is looking at low sales figures today unless I flyer very hard (last year was a different permutation because of diferent special offer and preview days, but amounted to the same ups and downs).
We've had a quick appearance on the telly - last year it was a few seconds live on GMTV plus a live clip on BBC Scotland and the BBC website, in 2008 it was a brief appearance on the Culture Show, this year it was a fleeting few words on The One Show, all a nice fillup and a boost to the ego and possibly the sales.
And I've been doing Comic Art Masterclasses in the afternoons, as I did in 09, but unlike last year those have now finished so I will now be able to flyer more in the daytime, see more daytime shows, and most importantly stay up later pointlessly socialising in the Loft Bar (and, I imagine, trying to get into Brookes Bar at the Pleasance and, when I succeed, meeting no-one of any interest.
This year already has a major advantage over last year in that our flat back home hasn't flooded (a dreadful accident that marred not only our August holiday but also our entire autumn, which went on to involve months of building work and disruption). And a couple of nice extra fillips, the Socks have been invited to appear on some other shows; Comedy In The Dark which we'll be performing tonight, and Hardeep Singh Kohli's Chat Masala which might happen this week. Like The One Show, these have come out of the blue without any plugging from me, which is delightful, and reminds me how successful I might be if I were to do a bit more proactive self-promotion.
And that is that. How much more technical, boring, and self-obsessed could I possibly be? Maybe today a mix of flyering, shows, guest slot and interviews (two lined up for today, already done Real Radio and Edinburgh Podcast) will throw up something worth talking about.
Oh, and we had reviewers and some telly in last night, and I didn't think the show was as good as previous nights. What will that turn out to have done to our chances? Let's just see. In the meantime, let me relive last year's media highpoints...
Our TV profile got off to a great start with GMTV:
...and the BBC:
And Heather became the lead story in ArtMag:
And the icing on the cake of our first week was the 4 star review in The Scotsman, along with a big photo:
I've just been rereading my Edinburgh diary from 2009 and finding it passing interesting, but only to me. This year has had a similar start. My show, the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre has had three sellouts out of four nights and is looking at low sales figures today unless I flyer very hard (last year was a different permutation because of diferent special offer and preview days, but amounted to the same ups and downs).
We've had a quick appearance on the telly - last year it was a few seconds live on GMTV plus a live clip on BBC Scotland and the BBC website, in 2008 it was a brief appearance on the Culture Show, this year it was a fleeting few words on The One Show, all a nice fillup and a boost to the ego and possibly the sales.
And I've been doing Comic Art Masterclasses in the afternoons, as I did in 09, but unlike last year those have now finished so I will now be able to flyer more in the daytime, see more daytime shows, and most importantly stay up later pointlessly socialising in the Loft Bar (and, I imagine, trying to get into Brookes Bar at the Pleasance and, when I succeed, meeting no-one of any interest.
This year already has a major advantage over last year in that our flat back home hasn't flooded (a dreadful accident that marred not only our August holiday but also our entire autumn, which went on to involve months of building work and disruption). And a couple of nice extra fillips, the Socks have been invited to appear on some other shows; Comedy In The Dark which we'll be performing tonight, and Hardeep Singh Kohli's Chat Masala which might happen this week. Like The One Show, these have come out of the blue without any plugging from me, which is delightful, and reminds me how successful I might be if I were to do a bit more proactive self-promotion.
And that is that. How much more technical, boring, and self-obsessed could I possibly be? Maybe today a mix of flyering, shows, guest slot and interviews (two lined up for today, already done Real Radio and Edinburgh Podcast) will throw up something worth talking about.
Oh, and we had reviewers and some telly in last night, and I didn't think the show was as good as previous nights. What will that turn out to have done to our chances? Let's just see. In the meantime, let me relive last year's media highpoints...
Our TV profile got off to a great start with GMTV:
...and the BBC:
And Heather became the lead story in ArtMag:
And the icing on the cake of our first week was the 4 star review in The Scotsman, along with a big photo:
Saturday, 7 August 2010
The Socks on The One Show
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre promoted their show, On The Telly, last night by appearing... on the telly. On BBC1's The One Show, to be precise, live from the Pleasance Courtyard alongside Gyles Brandreth and other select acts.
A cough and a spit, sure, but an honour and great fun. Now we're off out flyering to see whether it'll put more bums on seats. Did we mention last night was a sellout too? That's two out of three so far, and counting.
A cough and a spit, sure, but an honour and great fun. Now we're off out flyering to see whether it'll put more bums on seats. Did we mention last night was a sellout too? That's two out of three so far, and counting.
Thursday, 5 August 2010
Sellout start to the Fringe
Thankyou the public, the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre began their Edinburgh Fringe 2010 with a sellout show. All 90 tickets sold (though bizarrely a couple of seats remained empty, I remember this has happened before) and a lovely audience who seemed to like it all.
I have to confess I was more nervous before this show than any show I can remember in ages. Having toured our previous show "Goes To Hollywood" all spring & summer, I've become so attached to its great songs, routines and really good ending (it was the show with the Facebook Song, Michael Jackson, The Western, Sweary Poppins and Star Wars) that it's been an incredible wrench to throw it all away and do a totally new hour. I've been full of doubt that the new show isn't as good as the last, though preview after preview has been getting better and better, I still wasn't sure.
But last night, with the brand new closing number getting an airing for the very first time (I recorded the music on the Monday night before we drove up here), and a brand new costume to go with it, which I finished sewing an hour before the show, the hour ended well and they loved us.
Quick notes: A member on the front row asked us to move the set back a bit because they had bad sightlines. This wasn't as greedy as it might sound. Afterwards she came up and had a word and pointed out that, because our new venue has an odd L-shaped seating area, our set was off-centre for half the people closest to the stage and would be better off moved about a foot and a half right. A small detail that won't interest you, but true and I'll be changing that tonight.
The biopic is a star routine of the new show, wherein the Socks improvise the life story of a celebrity suggested by the audience. Tonight it was David Hasselhoff. That will be an interesting knife edge to walk every night, as sometimes it is bound to go less well than others. Tonight it went well.
We were also spurred on by the fact that shows were over-running (we got into the venue 10 minutes late) so we had to keep things tight. With more leisure I hope things will still have the same energy.
There you go, an Edinburgh comedian is totally self-obsessed and immersed in the minutae of something that'll never interest anyone else on the planet. Tell you what, you all just come along and enjoy the show, and we'll stop going on about how it's done and spoiling the magic.
Now, while we wait for the Socks to get their act together to make any new videos, here's a hit from the Edinburgh pit:
PS We did an interview on Real Radio in the afternoon, don't know when it'll be going out, so stay tuned, and we may (just possibly) have some telly on Friday. Will let you know if that goes to plan.
I have to confess I was more nervous before this show than any show I can remember in ages. Having toured our previous show "Goes To Hollywood" all spring & summer, I've become so attached to its great songs, routines and really good ending (it was the show with the Facebook Song, Michael Jackson, The Western, Sweary Poppins and Star Wars) that it's been an incredible wrench to throw it all away and do a totally new hour. I've been full of doubt that the new show isn't as good as the last, though preview after preview has been getting better and better, I still wasn't sure.
But last night, with the brand new closing number getting an airing for the very first time (I recorded the music on the Monday night before we drove up here), and a brand new costume to go with it, which I finished sewing an hour before the show, the hour ended well and they loved us.
Quick notes: A member on the front row asked us to move the set back a bit because they had bad sightlines. This wasn't as greedy as it might sound. Afterwards she came up and had a word and pointed out that, because our new venue has an odd L-shaped seating area, our set was off-centre for half the people closest to the stage and would be better off moved about a foot and a half right. A small detail that won't interest you, but true and I'll be changing that tonight.
The biopic is a star routine of the new show, wherein the Socks improvise the life story of a celebrity suggested by the audience. Tonight it was David Hasselhoff. That will be an interesting knife edge to walk every night, as sometimes it is bound to go less well than others. Tonight it went well.
We were also spurred on by the fact that shows were over-running (we got into the venue 10 minutes late) so we had to keep things tight. With more leisure I hope things will still have the same energy.
There you go, an Edinburgh comedian is totally self-obsessed and immersed in the minutae of something that'll never interest anyone else on the planet. Tell you what, you all just come along and enjoy the show, and we'll stop going on about how it's done and spoiling the magic.
Now, while we wait for the Socks to get their act together to make any new videos, here's a hit from the Edinburgh pit:
PS We did an interview on Real Radio in the afternoon, don't know when it'll be going out, so stay tuned, and we may (just possibly) have some telly on Friday. Will let you know if that goes to plan.
Monday, 2 August 2010
The Socks on Canadian TV
Wow. We have just discovered that the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre were featured on Canadian national TV news earlier this month and we didn't even know. Check this out:
About 2 ins 20 seconds in, the article ends with us, namechecked and everything. Brilliant. Can a Canadian tour be far away?
About 2 ins 20 seconds in, the article ends with us, namechecked and everything. Brilliant. Can a Canadian tour be far away?
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