Superheroes First Preview Leicester Feb 17 2018

This clip, the closing song from the preview show, is on Youtube as an exclusive clip for Kickstarter supporters. Every else will see it in the fullness of time but not yet.

Scottish Falsetto Socks - Superheroes First Preview Leicester Feb 17 2018

I felt this preview went very well. Leicester are always kind to us, and this was a near-as-dammit sellout so a full house were very supportive of all the new material. And it was mostly new material. Here's what we did and how it went.

For starters we had more than an hour's material, as became clear when I was starting the 10 minute finale with less than 5 minutes to go. But, of course, a lot will change with this show in the coming months.

Intro - Leicester gags. 5/10 mostly groans and, of course, no use for any other venue

I'm A Sock Song - 8/10 Good as always. I was tempted to start with a different song, but I've only ever risked that twice in 10 years and it didn't go well.

Cosmopolitan (mistaken words routine) - 7/10 Good, but could we have something stronger here?

Smell Like Xmas Song - 7/10 Very good song, lots of good laughs, but are audience confused by non-Superhero material starting the show?

The Christmas/Superhero misunderstanding - 4/10 not funny to begin with

 - Batman/Robin/Flash gags - 7/10 groaners but okay

- Wonder Woman visual gag - 4/10 fell flat

- Xmas/Superhero misunderstanding - 4/10 not funny enough

Motion Capture - 7/10 I love it, but it got mixed reactions. Needs expanding

Nursery Rhymes - 6/10 Getting good laughs with some lines, floppy on others

Peter Parker Song - 6/10 Good, I think will improve

Science - 7/10 Very good laughs, but does it continue well from previous routine?

Horror Song - 0/10 Disaster, the music wasn't on the iPod! Very eggy moment.

1st Appearance of Brother - 8/10 Very good. 

- Panto good, Cockney Rhyming Slang very good, great laughs

Racist Brother Song - 7/10 Good, some laughs, will get better. Are audience confused by where the show is going, with so little Superheroes by this stage?

Joker teeth - 8/10 Need more material around it, but good visual

Superman Part 1 - 7/10 No laughs for Jor-El/Kal-El, though I like those bits. Will improve.

More laughs for Ma & Pa Kent.

Glasses - 9/10 Brilliant.

Dead Ringer Song - 8/10 Getting most of its laughs from the glasses, but song will catch up.

Superman gay - 3/10 Not funny

Little Baby Jesus - 5/10 Good laughs and built, could improve if worked in better

Cross Channel Superman - 9/10 Excellent, and will improve.

Split up - 3/10 Needs work

Return of Brother - 6/10 Rhyming Slang and some lines very good, but whole thing loses it way halfway through, not satisfying conclusion. Needs work.

 - Captain America costume wasted

All By Myself song - 7/10 Good in parts, maybe needs editing. Piano and drums v good. 

Christmas Carol - hard to say as we only did parts, but 8/10 for the parts we did.

Fannying Around Xmas Song - 8/10 Good song, but do we have too much Christmas in the show?

And that was the end of the show. I am worried that I am possibly writing two different shows: A Christmas show and a Superheroes show, each of which has half a show's worth of good material. I may yet have to take the drastic step of separating them out into two shows, which means we'd have Christmas to do in a future year, but that means the weakest material, and the show with the most new writing still needed, is the Superheroes one. The Brother character has great room for expansion, and I want to see what I can do with him before the 2nd preview on Saturday. Whether I can replace much of the very good Xmas material by then I don't know. Let us see.

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

 - with more preview dates to be announced