Socks Do Shakespeare at Chortle's Fast Fringe

You wanted a three minute taster of Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre Do Shakespeare as performed at Chortle's Fast Fringe? You got it. Click to play.


Fast Fringe is a fascinating experience, with around 25 acts appearing on stage in rapid succession, performing for no more than 3 minutes each. For those of us who find an hour's not long enough to squeeze everything in, it's a challenge. And by golly I think you'll see we managed it (though I notice our clip is over 4 minutes long - why it's almost as if I couldn't see the red light telling me my 3 minutes were up for some reason).

The Socks will be performing at Chortle's Fast Fringe again during the Edinburgh Fringe. However, if you'd like to see the other 57 minutes of Socks Do Shakespeare, then there are Edinburgh Previews to come, followed by our month-long run at the Fringe. Book now, we'll see you there.

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre do Shakespeare at the Edinburgh Fringe August 2016 - see the previews in your town!

★★★★★ "Accessible, contemporary and ridiculous" - Brighton Argus May 2016
★★★★ "Eat your heart out, Olivier" - What's On May 2016 
★★★★ "Comedy genius at work" - Theatre Bath April 2016 

July 8 - Flavel, Dartmouth
July 10 - Tring Festival 
July 14 - Market Harborough Theatre
July 17 - Sheffield New Barrack Tavern 2pm

July 17 - Greater Manchester Fringe , Kings Arms Salford 7pm

July 21 - Barnes Fringe
July 22 - Bedford Fringe
July 28 - The Lansdown, Clifton, Bristol - NEW DATE ADDED
July 30 - Blaenavon Rhymney Brewery 
Aug 3 - 29 - 10.30pm The Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe  

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre do Shakespeare at the Edinburgh Fringe August 2016 - see the previews in your town!

★★★★★ "Accessible, contemporary and ridiculous" - Brighton Argus May 2016

★★★★ "Eat your heart out, Olivier" - What's On May 2016 

★★★★ "Comedy genius at work" - Theatre Bath April 2016 

July 8 - Flavel, Dartmouth

July 10 - Tring Festival 

July 14 - Market Harborough Theatre

July 17 - Sheffield New Barrack Tavern 2pm

July 17 - Greater Manchester Fringe , Kings Arms Salford 7pm

July 21 - Barnes Fringe

July 22 - Bedford Fringe

July 28 - The Lansdown, Clifton, Bristol - NEW DATE ADDED

July 30 - Blaenavon Rhymney Brewery 

Aug 3 - 29 - 10.30pm The Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe  

Your Mum Lives In A Wheelie Bin Outside Tescos - more comics by kids

From Felixstowe to Norwich, via Romsey and four days in Hexham, it's been a busy week and a bit of Comic Art Masterclasses, and here's what they've come up with. Felixstowe's comics were produced on a Sunday in the library, in a group including kids and parents, and thus featuring farting in the title. At schools, during the selection process, I usually have to squeeze out farts.

Again with the kids and Donald Trump. And, being year 7s, you get un-ironic suggestions like Timmy, where the South Park guys create a character who was never, I'm sure, intended to give teenagers an excuse to mock a disabled kid in a wheelchair, but that's what happens.

Not every cover's a classic, and I can inly come up with what there's time for. At the time I thought these two were a bit ropey, the first being based on one of the kids' designs, and the other an uninspired picture of a Nan in a bin. But oddly I've warmed to them.

The celebs they variously came up with for the demo strip were Simon Cowell, David Cameron, The Queen, for the first time Jeremy Corbyn, also for the first time Chewbacca Mom, and, most original of the month, Uncle Ben off of Uncle Ben's Rice.

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres. After a morning or an afternoon every pupil goes away with a photocopied comic containing a strip by every single one of them, and an individual caricature by Kev F. Please email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video   

Roman Trump Builds A Wall - Roman themed comics from Hexham

This week I was involved in a special project, promoting a travelling heritage art centre called The Mansio, as part of Hexham Book Festival, visiting six different primary schools over three days, producing comics with a Roman theme. The schools are all within a spear-chuck of Hadrian's Wall, so they enjoyed doing my usual Comic Art Masterclass, learning how to write and draw comics, then going the extra length to give their work an ancient Roman spin.

Well, almost every class did the Roman thing. Unfortunately, as a result of my travel problems (explored in detail here) I totally forgot the Mansio project for my first class, hence the Shaftoe Trust school's Flying Pig comic, but by the afternoon we were back on message.

The title Hadrian's Wall's Got A Toilet came about slightly by accident. The year 3 pupil who wrote it on a little piece of paper actually wrote Hadrian's Wall's Got Talent, but I misread her handwriting, and by the time I noticed my error, it was too late. The kids seemed happy with their choice.

The celebrities these pupils chose to go into the demonstration strip were Kylie Jenner, Simon Cowell (twice), Justin Bieber, Alan Shearer and David Beckham.

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres. After a morning or an afternoon every pupil goes away with a photocopied comic containing a strip by every single one of them, and an individual caricature by Kev F. Please email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video  

Manchester Felixstowe Hexham - travels with my art

Socks backstage selfie at Dancehouse in Manchester. When I put it on Facebook, Mum's first question was why the room was empty. She thought we hadn't sold any tickets. It was, of course, before the (sellout) crowd came in. The Socks were on the bill of Chortle's Fast Fringe, doing a three minutes slot, alongside some of the finest comic talents on the circuit. Honoured to be asked.

And look at how honoured we were! Only the joint biggest names on the flaming flyer! How's that? Like we said, honoured and flattered to be asked, and it was a cracking gig. A three minute slot that gets video'd and used to promote our Manchester show in July and our Edinburgh show in August. 

It was also the highest miles-to-gig-minutes ratio travelling I have ever done. 

Satnav thought, and I was hoping it'd be right, that Manchester was just 3 and a quarter hours away. I've been there a million times, that's about how far it is. Only tonight, a Friday, someone had decided to close a stretch of the M5 and a stretch of the M6. Precisely the two roads I was hoping to use. So it was that it took me 5 hours to get to the gig. And another 5 hours to get home. 10 hours driving, to perform for 3 minutes. Definitely a record.

The following day, Saturday, I then had a day's work caricaturing in the street in Blaenavon, up the Welsh valleys. After which I had to head straight to Felixstowe in order to be ready for a Sunday during which I'd be doing a day of Comic Art Masterclasses. 4 and a half hours there, 4 and a half hours back the next day.

Luckily for me, I'd be getting more of a rest the next day, Monday, when all I had to do was wake up at 4am and set off at 5am, then I could have an hour's snooze on the one hour flight to Newcastle before doing three days of classes in Hexham. I got to the airport at 5.45 to read this message...

Cancelled. Okay, but they were offering me the chance to transfer my flight for free. So when was the next flight to Newcastle..?

8pm Wednesday night? Not so useful. So I cancelled my flights, got a refund of the flights, and the car parking (minus a fiver - they charged me a fiver for not cancelling my parking in advance! I know) and set off on the long drive to Hexham. I arrived in Hexham at 3pm, just in time to have missed my first day of schools. Luckily they were able to reschedule my schools, so I'll be here until Thursday instead. Oh sure, I was looking forward to Thursday being my first day off for a week, but that's okay.

It's not as if I have to go to Romsey in Hampshire for a day of schools on Friday, then to Norwich for schools on Saturday, then Derby for a matinee Socks Preview on Sunday...

Did I mention I arrange these travel schedules single handedly. It's a gift.

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres. After a morning or an afternoon every pupil goes away with a photocopied comic containing a strip by every single one of them, and an individual caricature by Kev F. Please email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video  

How Remain Lost

Thinking more* about how Remain lost the referendum, I believe it was very clearly a battle that was won by triers and lost by the weaker fighters. Obviously I believe the Remain cause was just, and backed up by facts, but that's not the point. The Leave Campaign had two campaigns for starters - a Pincer Movement if you will - with  Boris & Gove's team reaching one constituency who overlapped in a Venn diagram with the group reached by Farage's attack from the other flank. 

           So there was already twice the work being done by the Leave side, compared to Remain's defence which lacked a figurehead, a champion, and an "angle." All it had were the facts.   

           And do you know who knows how feeble facts alone are? Journalists. And who were the leaders of the Leave campaign? Two journalists. Gove and Boris are both journalists. They both know how a story works, how to construct a headline, and how a soundbite - even one that's proved wrong every time it's said - becomes the thing you believe if it's repeated often enough.  

           Gove & Boris, and Farage, got out there. In person. In a big red bus with a memorable headline on the side. (No point arguing that it was factually incorrect - "Print the legend"). They went into peoples territories, giving people the real impression they were being listened to. And, most importantly, they had friends - their fellow journalists - who could ensure everyone was singing from the same songsheet.

            What did Remain have? Cameron, who was already the natural enemy of half the electorate, and...? Well Jeremy Corbyn was despicably conspicuous by his absence. And one of the few interviews I saw him make about the referendum was The Last Leg where he was avowedly disinterested in the whole thing. He was needed, and he let the side down big time. 

            There were other good campaigners for Remain, from the Greens to the luvvies. But whether they were denied access to the TV, by broadcasters who find Farage more camera-friendly than  Cumberbatch and Beckham, or just weren't sharp-elbowed enough, one thing was sure, they weren't united. And there was no clear message.

        Leave had: I want my country back. 

        Remain only had: You already have your country, what do you mean?

        Leave had: £350m a week goes to Brussels

        Remain only had: No it doesn't, what are you talking about?

        Leave had: No more immigrants

        Remain only had: I say, wait a minute, you can't say that...

In short, it was an offensive game with a pitiful defence, and now it needs those of us on both left and centre to get our act together to stop the winners doing the things they might get away with if we continue being so ineffective.

*(I drove for 10 hours yesterday and 6 hours today, I've had a lot of thinking time)

My Brexit Facebook Diary

The last week has been a horrible and mesmerising time. Not least on Facebook, where rabid discussions, arguments, passive aggression, and bitterness has mingled with bad gags, and voices crying in the wilderness. It was the week of Brexit and I couldn't tear myself away from Facebook. Here are some of the things I posted, shared and joined in with.

I updated my avatars for a day or so. To no avail.

June 15 at 9:24pm · 

AHA!

June 15 at 6:27am · 

Has anyone done the "Brexeunt pursued by bear" gag yet? Can I bagsy it for later? I got an angle.

June 20 at 1:35pm · 

Most frustrating thing about the Brexit debate? Not getting the chance to say face-to-face to a Brexiteer the stuff that you've rehearsed 100 times in your head. Eg: "Oh yes? Tell me again which bit of Europe you think Syrians, Afghans, Somalis and Nigerians come from." That sort of smart-arsed thing.‪#‎Bremain‬

June 16 at 8:57pm · 

"Not all Brexiteers are racist, but all racists will vote Brexit" - Billy Bragg

June 19 at 10:58am · 

"When I hear the word intellectual I reach for my revolver". Sadly this turns out to be a mis-quote, and not even said by a real Nazi. (Such a shame, because it sounds so much like a Michael Gove expression, doesn't it?) Here's its origin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst ‪#‎VoteRemain‬ It's: "When I hear the word culture ..., I release the safety on my Browning" read on...

June 22 at 9:48pm · 

Confirmation Bias, thy name is Facebook. Since, obviously, almost everyone I know thinks like me, I'm reduced to picking petty fights with the few "friends-of-friends" who are Brexiteers. Pathetic. If I'm a real man, why don't I go out into a proper pub full of baldy blokes and shout "I'm for Remain - anyone got a problem with that?" (Then engage in constructive debate).

Kev Sutherland

June 23 at 7:52am · BuzzFeed · 

Yes, but you can prove anything with facts, and the people have had enough of experts...

We Factchecked 17 EU Referendum Claims So You Don't Have To

There are untruths, half-truths, and statistics.

WWW.BUZZFEED.COM | BY JAMES BALL, SIRAJ DATOO|BY SIRAJ DATOO

June 23 at 11:52am · 

Sockdolager: the decisive, winning point in an argument or debate. Also known as a recumbentibus (a knockout punch). Morning. (Thanks to @Susie_Dent on Twitter, I now know this)

Attack Of The Rainbow Pig - comics by kids in Bethnal Green, Backwell & Wiltshire

In the last month it's been hard to find a group of Year 6 pupils who didn't want to call their comic something to do with Donald Trump, but at last here were two of them. Entirely Trump-free, these are the ideas of the pupils at Preshute Primary in Wiltshire (a school I've been going to for years, I first visited them back in 2004, as one of the very first schools I taught at). Let's hope that's the last we've seen of Donald Trump, eh?

And there he is, right back on the front cover, in a suggestion from (you guessed it) year 6s at Bonner Primary in Bethnal Green. Due to a last-minute confirmation for this school visit, I had to drive to London rather than taking the train (which, at a day's notice, is impossibly expensive). So it was that I ended up driving 8 hours, to teach for 4.

As well as the pupils at Backwell school, on the left, we have here a comic I did for a 13th birthday party. I'm always surprised when people want a Comic Art Masterclass for their party - everyone turns up to eat cake, and I sit them down and force them to draw. They seemed to enjoy it though, and it's a novelty. As was the example you'll see in the middle of the montage below, where I had to stay a little bit longer at a school (Albert Bradbeer in Birmingham, now you ask) to draw (on top of having drawn 60 pupils in the two classes that day) every single member of staff. 40 of them in all. It's nice to be popular.

The celebrities these six classes chose for my demonstration strip were Donald Trump, Stevie Wonder, The Queen (twice), Simon Cowell, and Selena Gomez.




Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres. After a morning or an afternoon every pupil goes away with a photocopied comic containing a strip by every single one of them, and an individual caricature by Kev F. Please email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video