The Sock of the New

Last night the Socks tried out the first new material for the new Edinburgh show. Didn't go badly, but I'll be amazed if 10 per cent of it makes the cut. In fact I've rewritten half of it since, and it was only 10 minutes long. Still, baby steps. (The bulk of the show was Socks In Space which we previewed in Bath a year ago and got a 5 star review for, though that show contained only about 20 percent of what became to S.I.S. we've ended up with.)

The venue was the Natural Theatre Studio (above), a cracking venue where shows are being put on by the amazing Nick Steel, who put us on for a New Material night and got us a goodly sized audience. And the material in question was from the Socks sitcom pilot, Pub, which I wrote five years ago when a BBC producer took an interest in us, and which I promptly forgot about.

I then dug it out and entered a 10 minute portion of it into The Sitcom Trials, and it did well enough in the online voting for it to be part of the live show this coming Friday April 4th. It will be very much a homecoming for the Socks who, of course, began life in The Sitcom Trials when, as part of a Shakespearian themed show, I put a couple of socks on my hands to perform a couple of scripts I'd written which I didn't want any actors to bugger up.

So last night was a tryout for something that I'll be trying out again on Friday and then deciding whether this sitcom material is the stuff that'll make the new Edinburgh show. Having been performing Socks In Space for over a year, since I started testing it way back at the Feb 2013 Leicester Comedy Festival, I'm now finding that show my favourite of the Socks' shows but it may have made me complacent. It seems forever since I wrote some new Socks material, and now having the starting point of the sitcom script, and occasional chances to start testing it, is quite an inspiring place to be.

And, of course, if the Pub sitcom doesn't turn out to be the structure of the new show, we have the Art 30 minute script full of all-new material that I wrote for some more BBC producers who took an interest at the end of last year. There's something about being wanted that suddenly makes me able to write half hour comedy pilots in a day.

Of course, if neither of those shelved pilots isn't the one, I'm feeling inspired again, maybe the whole show is yet to be written. Watch this space.



The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are on tour... NOW!
Apr 3 - Adam Smith Theatre Kirkcaldy
Apr 12 - Stroud Subscription Rooms
May 9 - Exeter Barnfield
May 14 - Camden Head, London
May 17 - Brighton Komedia
May 23 - Keighley Exchange
May 31 - Aylesbury Limelight
June 6 - Hazlitt Theatre, Maidstone
June 7 - Butlins, Bognor
June 11 - Camden Head, London
June 19 - Phoenix Arts, Bordon Hants
June 20 - Derby Assembly Rooms
June 21 - Halifax Square Chapel
June 22 - Derby (family show)
July 4 - Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham
July 9 - Bedford Fringe
July 11 - Beverley Puppet Festival
July 13 - Sheffield New Barrack Tavern 2pm
July 17 - Larmer Tree Festival, Wilts
July 18 - Leeds Carriageworks
July 19 - Cradley Heath Comedy Festival
July 22 - Comedy Den Cardiff
July 23 - Taurus Manchester
July 30 - Aug 25 Gilded Balloon, 10.30pm - Edinburgh Fringe 2014