Superheroes 2nd Preview Leicester Feb 24 2018

The Socks appearing on BBC Radio Leicester this morning. Not a bad interview we must say.

Superheroes 2nd Preview Leicester Feb 24 2018

Our second ever preview for the new Superheroes show went down very well at The Kayal at Leicester Comedy Festival, and I think I've come to a clear conclusion - the Christmas material has to go.

It was another excellent show, a sellout as far as I can tell, with a higher proportion of Socks fans in the audience than last week (about 50% had seen us before), so a very good test of the material. And, though the only direct feedback I have so far as from Hev, Mum and Diana Stevens, who were all there, I'm pretty sure that there's one criticism that most viewers would have - where were the Superheroes?

The biggest changes since last week's first preview were:

 - New Audience-In music (Holding Out For A Hero, which need re-recording because the music drowns the vocals out)

- New song Steed & Mrs Peel, which is too long, but parts are funny

- I'd already dropped some Christmas stuff, so we had no Christmas Carol at the end, and no Fannying Around The Christmas Tree. I also staggered Smell Like Xmas, so we only got the first line of it at the start of the show, then the complete song at the end.

But, with 60% less Christmas, there still seemed to be too high a ratio of Christmas to Superhero material.

The fourth and biggest change was that I'd built up the part of The Brother, and that was really promising. I'd written too many Rhyming Slang pieces for him - three in the show are funny, 6 are not. But when it looked like The Brother was likely to usurp the Sock on the right, when the Sock on the right returned he got a sympathetic aah from the crowd. We also got pantomime boos for The Brother when he returned. That's all working very well in the structure of the show.

Last night's performance was let down by messy changeovers, which meant some parts weren't made clear. Cross Channel Superman, for example, made no sense because it wasn't set up properly.

So, notes for the next stage of writing are:

Smell Like Xmas - and the whole Xmas storyline - has to go

Wonder Woman - now good (with full spin) but needs costume change added

Joker teeth - very good, but needs Batman story around it expanded

Motion Capture - badly set up so no-one seemed to get it

Nursery Rhymes - lose this

Peter Parker - still good, but could be relegated to Audience In music

Brother scene 1 - lose one rhyming Slang, keep it tighter

Racist Brother Song - good, but we're straying from Superheroes by now

Horror Song - good, but not Superheroes. Need something like this but on topic

Little Baby Jesus - good but we could use something better

Steed and Mrs Peel - good but too long, & again not Superheroes. Needs Avengers after

Superman part 1 (Jor El) - not funny enough

Superman part 2 (glasses) - excellent. Hooray, the show has 15 seconds that are perfect.

Dead Ringer - very good. But we need Superman story to end satisfactorily here

Brother scene 2 - good. Is this the best place for it? Interrupts flow, just when we were getting stuck into Superheroes

Cross Channel Superman - a bit of a mess because it was set up badly (didn't segue well from Brother scene). Would prefer strong new sketch here.

Split up - messy

Brother scene 3 - messy

All By Myself - messy but getting there

Finale - at this point we're all set for a finale, so I'd better write one. In preview 1 we did Christmas Carol, which was very funny but not the right thing. This week we did Smell Like Xmas, which was very good, but not satisfactory because it's not Superheroes.

The bottom line is we need good, complete Superheroes sketches - our "plays within plays" as Hev calls them - and we need to replace the Christmas material, and the weak parts, with them. Hev & I came up with a great Ant Man routine in the car last night, so we're getting it together. The good thing is that the structure of the show works, and that the new character of The Brother plays well with audiences and can do more in the storyline if he's used well.

Next stop, March's previews in Glasgow and Bath. By which time we'll see what's become of our Kickstarter campaign. it has a few days to run, and you can join in with it here:  https://tinyurl.com/soxkick18

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are Superheroes at The Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Fringe from August 1st to 26th. 

Support their Kickstarter Campaign - no contribution too small

Previews:
Feb 17 & 24 6.50pm Kayal Leicester
Mar 14 & 15 8pm Dram Glasgow 
Mar 29 - Bath Comedy Festival
May 26 3.45pm & May 27 5pm Komedia Brighton

June 16 - Zion, Bristol

July 13 - Neath
July 19 - Bedford Fringe

 - with more preview dates to be announced