Tuesday 31 July 2018

Hartlepool to home to Edinburgh - travels with my art




Blimey, is that enough driving for you? Check out these two Google Maps, plotting my trip from home on Tuesday morning to Worcester, then to Darlington, Hartlepool, Stockton, Leyburn then (cos you couldn’t fit that many destinations on one Google Map) to Nottingham, Kibworth, Derby, Sheffield, home again, and straight off the next morning all the way to Edinburgh, where we’ll be for the next month.


I didn’t bother including the map for Monday’s trip to Barnet and back, and the preceding weekend’s flight and drive to Enniskillen and home. But add those on and you can see I’ve spent 10 solid days travelling, of which more than 24 hours were spent behind the wheel of a car. If I’ve ever earned my Edinburgh rest, of not having to drive for a month, I’ve earned it this year.

In fact I will be driving a little bit, with schools to do, and who knows what other eventualities might occur, but hopefully for most of the next 27 days my car will be parked up a long walk away, and I’ll get healthy with a lot of traipsing the streets of Embra.

I could certainly do to lose some weight. The big curse of travelling is eating unhealthily. I try to do better, but grabbing sandwiches at lunch, being unable to resist a hotel breakfast, and catering for myself in the evening means I’m inevitably eating less well than one does at home. I’ve gulped down a few slices of raw garlic in my hotel room, but it’s not as easy to do as when you’re in your kitchen. And there’s something about shop-bought food that’s more salty and sugary and less fresh than what your body needs. I talked to a comedian not long ago who’s developed gout and put it down to Ginsters pasties. So, let’s see if a month of flying and eating in our lovely new Edinburgh flat works its wonders.


Any big observations from my trip (which was, of course, to do a string of Comic Art Masterclasses which are well documented here)? Well Hartlepool is pretty run down, with a lot of effort being made to try and boost it, but with a lot of work to do. They have Wesleyan chapel whose roof is burnt out and that you can see ,from the neon Carling sign out front, spent its last days as a night club. Called The Wesleyan. It’s what he would have wanted.


Stockton On Tees is less run down, and included this Georgian looking building, with thick cobwebs in the window making it look like it’s been empty for 50 years, but panning up to the sign you can see it was a wine bar until quite recently.

I stayed in The George Hotel in Piercebridge, which is where the song My Grandfathers Clock was written, and was in the pretty market town of Leyburn in North Yorkshire when the rains finally came, ending the two months of blazing sun, most of which has been happening while I’ve been indoors doing classes, or sat in a chilly air-conditioned car.




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 - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here

Sunday 29 July 2018

Bob, My Gran & Guinea Pigs - comics by kids


My mega marathon tour of the north with my Comic Art Masterclass continued this week taking me, in one day, to Hartlepool and Stockton. It was inevitable that Hartlepool's comic would have Hangus The Monkey in - their most enduring legend. Meanwhile Stockton's cover has a drawing of a toy husky that one of the kids had with her.


The lovely market town of Leyburn in North Yorkshire played host to me for two sold out classes. This Summer Reading Challenge, of which all these classes have been part, does seem to be working as a project to get kids into the various libraries. Hopefully it will keep them coming.


To be honest I don't know why I bother inserting these Adsense adverts into my blogs. They upset the flow, and do you know how much I earn from them? In the last seven days - 1p, this month 3p. There is almost literally nothing I could do that would earn me less money that putting Adsense adverts in my blogs. What do you say? Should I stop?


The final day of the marathon saw me at Wollaton and Sherwood libraries in Nottinghamshire, making one of my favourite covers out of Bob. I'm particularly pleased by the way I got David Attenborough's name onto the cover. You are all aware that I include in every cover a reference to the celebrity the kids have chosen to appear in my demonstration strip? Good. Just making sure these details aren't wasted on you all.


I've had a chance to produce a few nifty flipcharts at most of these libraries. It really is a matter of how far in advance I can get into the room, and how much other setting up there is to do. Clearly Stockton and Hartlepool had done all the table-shifting to my satisfaction before I arrived.


The celebrities these six groups chose to star in my demonstration strip were Usain Bolt, Tom Cruise, The Queen, David Attenborough (twice), and Chris Pratt.



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 - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here

Friday 27 July 2018

Aliens, Beer & Toothpaste - comics by kids


A busy stretch of comic art masterclasses in the run up to Edinburgh began in Barnet Libraries. Barnet is bigger than you realise, taking in 15 different libraries, so I hope I impressed them enough to have me back to the other 13. As it was, these two classics were the produce of groups in Colindale and Finchley Central.


At The Hive in Worcester - and I'm seeing my fair share of shiny new library buildings this week I must say (Barnet's libraries included one you can't get into without a card and two sets of state-of-the-art electric security gates, while The Hive had hi-tech codes on all the doors right alongside a toilet door handle that had fallen off so no-one could lock it) - I worked with Greenfingers, who are cared-for kids of various backgrounds, all of whom were smashing.



Up the A1 to Darlington Library where we produced one comic in the morning with a sellout group, then to Cockerton Library in the afternoon for the same again. Great groups, and some well-promoted classes by Suzy at the library who's had me back a few times. It's good when your reputation grows and word gets about. Did I mention all of these classes have been tied into the Summer Reading Challenge's Mischief Makers project, which is Beano-themed this year? I could have booked August solid with these gigs if I wasn't doing Edinburgh.


The celebrities these five groups chose to star in my demonstration strip were Lionel Messi, Kim Kardashian, Michael Jackson, Bear Grylls, and, most original of the week, Bob Ross.



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 - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here

Tuesday 24 July 2018

Happy happy sales sales, and travels with my art


I'm fully aware of the fact I'm overly obsessed with my sales figures at this time of year, in the run up to Edinburgh, but you can allow me a few indulgent smiles of joy as I look at my graph at the moment. Though these things can turn on a sixpence, right now Superheroes is our second best selling show - at this stage in the run-up - ever.

Last week it overtook 2015's Minging Detectives, which I see from blogs of the time was riding high having had some high profile previews, including nice photo pieces in the Welsh papers and in Metro, and ahead of last year's Shakespeare. Of course all this decade's shows have ended up tying for total sales in the end, let's just hope Superheroes keeps up with that.

(As previously noted, we've never since compared with 2010's record sales, when we had a show on in a 9.15 slot - the primiest of primetime - and had notched up record TV appearances and reviews, with a Youtube videoing trending into the bargain. As always, hope springs eternal).


Of course it maybe these animated gifs that are helping. You would tell me if was overdoing it with these things, wouldn't you?

The big news at the moment is that Mum's not very well, so Jude has been visiting her a lot and I've been visiting as much as I can. Her chemo earlier in the year was making her feel bad, so they changed the dose which made her feel worse, and in the last couple of weeks she's found it's spread so she's needing fresh radiotherapy. She's had a couple of falls and is needing a lot more help and attention, pretty well round the clock. We're hoping she's going to see some improvement, but obviously I've picked a rather unhelpful time to be shooting off to Edinburgh for a month.


My travels, during this, the hottest driest summer since 1969 (yes, who knew 69 was drier than the famous 76 of our childhoods?) took me to Enniskillen over the weekend (where it's not all that hot or dry, compared to the South Of England), and as I write this I'm in a busy week of Comic Art Masterclasses which goes Monday: Colindale and Finchley Central, Tuesday: Worcester, Wednesday: Darlington and Crockerton, Thursday: Hartlepool and Stockton, Friday: Leyburn in North Yorkshire, Saturday: Woolaton and Sherwood in Nottingham, Saturday night: visiting Mum in Kibbie, Sunday: Socks previews in Derby and Sheffield, then Monday to Edinburgh. Enough miles for you?


UPDATE: Monday July 30th, the day Hev and I drove to Edinburgh, check this out:


It might not look much to you, but that's a record uptick in our sales for one day, before the start of our run. That's 35 tickets sold in a day. Once the show opens on Wednesday, you aim to do that and more every day. But in the run-up it's pretty impressive. Ooh, I loves my graph.

UPDATE: Weds Aug 1 10.45am. Hubris is your worst enemy. Never hubriscate. Hubriscation nej tak. Having boasted about my 35 sales on Monday, Tuesday almost flatlined with a feeble 13 sales. And as of Wednesday morning we've not sold a single ticket in twelve hours. Huuuuuubriiiis!


The Award Winning* Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are Superheroes at The Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Fringe from August 1st to 26th - ON SALE NOW! 

*Winners of the Bath Comedy Festival Lovehoney Best Joke Award 2018


Previews:

Saturday 21 July 2018

Man Made Of Bottoms, and Simon Cowell - comics by kids


What's more delightful, on the cover of a comic book created with a group of schoolkids, than a unicorn climbing up a rainbow lamppost? Well the answer, obviously, is seahorses, fire extinguishers and a man made of bottoms. What are the chances that two of the most delightful things should come from classes in Hemel Hempstead library?


From the air conditioned luxury of Hemel, on the hottest day of the year (NB this being the 30th consecutive hottest days-of-the-year of the year), it was up the road to the Latitude Festival where the kids and I produced these two comics in a tent. Then didn't actually produce them as there was no photocopier. Cos we were in a tent, in a field, on the hottest day of the year (31st consecutive thereof).



In Enniskillen, in contrast, it was quite cloudy and overcast. But the kids were as brilliant as ever, and their comics equally so. Though, I'm told, Kill It With Fire is a "dead meme". Me neither.


The celebrities these 6 groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip were Simon Cowell (a career-resurgently three times), Jake Paul, Tom Cruise, and - best suggestion of the month - William The Conqueror.



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 - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here

Tuesday 17 July 2018

Animated gifs and Neath Preview


The Socks Superhero Preview in Neath on July 11th was the most surprising for the very fact that it took place.

Having done a Comic Art Masterclass in the afternoon, I was quite prepared for the evening show to be cancelled taking place, as it did, slap bang in the middle of England v Croatia in the World Cup Semi Final, England's most important football match for 28 years. As it happened I needn't have worried. Neath is a rugby town, in the valleys in Wales, and no-one gives a toss about either the English or football, so I got a bigger audience than last week in Harrow. About twice the size in fact.


(Here, have an animated gif. This was my first attempt at trying to look like a 3D lenticular. I'm sure I'll master it in time.)

The Neath crowd was mostly folks who'd seen the Socks before so were very supportive, but also a good test of when material wasn't as strong as the rest. As a result of which I was going through the whole show thinking "this bit goes on too long", and "this is good, we need to build on that", etc.


So we were doing exactly the same script as Harrow, and I'm now sat at my desk script-editing. Having run through the script, and all the prop changes, with the fully erected fully propped socks' set in my office, my various notes go:

Motion Capture - needs tightening
Ang Lee - needs shortening
Batman - needs to build on audience interaction
Various costume changes - need off-stage banter to cover
Joker calling Harley and Ivy - now has a new prop, and is separated into two scenes
Doctor Strange - needs more action
The Kents - need tightening
Falling out scene - needs callbacks
Final Brother scene - shorten
Finale - more callbacks

So, Bedford Fringe on Thursday should get the best script ever. I hope they're ready for it.


The Award Winning* Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are Superheroes at The Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Fringe from August 1st to 26th - ON SALE NOW! 

*Winners of the Bath Comedy Festival Lovehoney Best Joke Award 2018


Previews:  
July 19 - Bedford Fringe

Friday 13 July 2018

Bible The Sequel - comics by kids


This week's classes were blissfully short of long distance travel, indeed a couple of them could be classed a positively local. These two comics, produced at Bridlewood Primary school in Swindon and Swindon Academy, were a mere hour's drive away. Luxury. The Trump theme was a coincidence, but also notable that we've hardly ended up with a Trump cover for months, after the dozens we've had in the past year or two.


St Katherine's Academy in Pill, just 20 minutes from home, came up with a possibly contentious title with Bible The Sequel, and also another of the many Pineapple titles that occasionally crop up. Pineapples and potatoes are the most popular edible subject matter for kids comic, for reasons I can't fathom.



What did I say? This post-school session at Neath Comedy Festival gave us another potato classic. And the next day at Churchill Academy (again, just 20 minutes drive from home), which was an all day class with one group, was the first of the summer to mention the World Cup. The day after England got knocked out, and they come up with a cover rubbing it in. Kids eh?


I produced a couple of good flipcharts this week, maybe not as busy as the ones I managed the previous week. But this one from Churchill managed to include Gareth Southgate and his characteristic waistcoat from the World Cup. The other one's from St Katherines in Pill.


The celebrities these 6 groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip were John Travolta, David Beckham, Boris Johnson, Taylor Swift, Kim Jong Un, and Theresa May.



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 - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here

Tuesday 10 July 2018

Chuffing Wazzocks - new comics by kids


If it's the latest hottest weekend of the year, then it must see me spending three days in Scunthorpe. Thanks to the smashing 2021 Art Centre, I had an extended trip, which included staying in a hotel with a view of the Humber Bridge and lakes all round. V pleasant. One thing I was up against, for my class at Scunthorpe Library on Saturday afternoon, was the England v Sweden World Cup Quarter Final. Amazingly we attracted a class of 12 and did a fine class. On kid, oddly, was wearing a football shirt but wasn't bothered about the football. I shall be hoping this same syndrome extends to Welsh comedy fans when, this coming Wednesday, The Scottish Falsetto Socks attempt to do an Edinburgh Preview at the same time as the Semi Final.


The trip began with two Scunthorpe schools in a day. Well, to be accurate, it began with a 90 minute drive from a hotel on the M1 near Nottingham which came, in turn, after a drive from the Socks gig in Harrow which took three and a half hours (longer than it should). So these classes were managed on five hours sleep after five hours driving. Ironically they only added up to four hours of teaching.


Scunthrope's 2021 Visual Arts centre had organised the three day trip, and they got the final day's classes, on a hot and humid Sunday. Two more perfect classes, though I say so myself.




The timing of the two classes on the Friday meant that I had more time than usual on my hands to draw the flipchart. Sometimes I arrive in school just when we're about to start and getting nothing drawn. In this case, I arrived at a primary school at 8.30 in the morning and they didn't need me till 9.30, then in the afternoon at the secondary school I was there at midday and not needed till 1.30. So, a couple of nice looking flipcharts to leave them with.


At Scunthorpe Libray on the Saturday I gave them a tribute to Steve Ditko, whose death was only announced that morning. And on Sunday I took the opportunity to reference 2000AD comics - which hardly ever happens as no kid has ever heard of 2000AD and I haven't read it myself for ten years, sadly. It was too good an opportunity to miss to make the 2021 logo look like 2000AD's classic masthead.


It wasn't all Scunthorpe this week. There was also a one-off class at Coleford Library in The Forest Of Dean. Jolly good fun, and nice to work somewhere that doesn't take half a day to get to.


The celebs these seven groups chose to star in my demonstration strip were Kim Kardashian, Dwayne Johnson, Simon Cowell, David Walliams, Will Ferrell, Kim Jong Un, and, most original of the week, Sir Isaac Newton.



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 - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here

Friday 6 July 2018

Quad posters and Harrow preview


I think it's been 10 years since I paid to have posters displayed on the streets of Edinburgh during the Fringe. Way back in 2007 there was a company called Diabolical Liberties who did it. We celebrated them in song in fact. (With a video that's not aged well...)



Back then it was the last days of flyposting when, as we say in the song, "a man with a bucket and a big fat brush" would stick your posters on any available surface. This was, obviously, rather destructive to the look of Edinburgh, and you'd find remnants of many of these posters clinging to their various surfaces when you returned a year later.

So it was that the council and the venues and promoters got together and got the distribution of posters officially licensed, and every year since it's got a bit more professional, and a bit more expensive. Ten years ago I paid £250 to get (I think) 100 A2 posters flyposted all over Edinburgh. This year I decided to dip my toe in the water and found, for £150, I could afford to have two posters put up. They are, it has to be said, quite big (Quad size, which is 30" x 40") and printed on thick vinyl, and attached properly to specially erected stands. But, blimey, the amount some companies are paying for posters is mind boggling. I'm perfectly aware that my tiny drop in the ocean will go unseen among the millions, but if they put 15 and a half bums on seats, then they've justified their investment. (That's fiftenn bums and one buttock, and don't think I won't be counting).



Oh yeah, and we did another Preview of Superheroes, and it went brilliantly. Too soon to be getting cocky, but I think, short of a few nips and tucks, we have the show that we'll be keeping. We were on at the Trinity Bar in Harrow, and many thanks to Alison Kent for putting this on. We didn't get a big audience - this being the hottest summer for years, and most people being more interested in football than going to comedy shows - but the dozen or so in the room gave us a marvellous reception, and a perfect test of our stuff. There were only two people who'd seen us before, and so we won over a handful of strangers then really made them laugh with all Superheroes and no fallback stuff.

The running order is now:

SUPERHEROES RUNNING ORDER, Thurs July 5 2018
(All items good as before unless mentioned)

Opening Batman/Ditko/Flash 
I’m A Sock song
Cosmopolitan / Bob Kane
NEW - Wonderful World song - Perfect! Why hasn't this been in the show all along?
Motion Capture
Scottish Superheroes
Hulk Ang Lee
Plot/ Maguffin 
Batman/ Teeth / etc
Bechdel Test song 
NEW - Joker calls Harley & Ivy - good, works
Cock Robin 
Science/Faraday/Sagan
Helium routine 
Brother 1
Racist Brother song
Avengers
Avengers Reel 
Dr Strange / Wong / Thanos
Wonder Woman routine 
Fantastic 4 
Superman / JorEl / Kents / Glasses
Dead Ringer song
Brother 2
Science 2
Joker 2 
Harley & Ivy
Brother 3 - now shorter
What I’ve Learned - now shorter
All By Myself song 
NEW Finale -  with extra Thanos, even better.

The show came to about an hour & ten minutes last night, with a lot of audience play (we adlibbed Saltire Man from audience suggestion and had some good banter) so we can lose a lot still. If anything it's the Brother subplot that's now not as funny as the superhero material, which is pretty much the opposite of where we were back in March. I'll just keep trimming as we go, and hopefully the adlibs and banter will bed in while the structure stays the same. Well done us. (Cue the next preview being horrible and me wanting to rewrite the whole thing. Wouldn't be the first time.)


The Award Winning* Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are Superheroes at The Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Fringe from August 1st to 26th - ON SALE NOW! 

*Winners of the Bath Comedy Festival Lovehoney Best Joke Award 2018


Previews:
July 11 - Neath Comedy Festival

Tuesday 3 July 2018

New Socks Superheroes t shirt - available now



Here it is at last, the 2018 Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre: SUPERHEROES Official t-shirt and it can be yours now! Ready to post now! Am I using too many exclamation marks?!?

It's our traditional black t shirt, available in Small, Medium, Large, XL, XXL, and Female Medium, bearing the new Socks Superheroes roundel (detail below, clearly fake shirt in photo above)

To order one, simply pay £20 (UK) /$30 (to USA) by Paypal to sockpuppets@sitcomtrials.co.uk including in your order the size you want and your full address. A shirt will be yours by return.

The print run has been made, so sizes are limited to the ones shown above (thanks to those who pre-ordered kids sizes and super-duper-large shirts, those are now sadly out of stock). In Edinburgh the shirts will be £15 each direct from me (ie postage free).


Thanks in anticipation for your orders. Love The Socks.

NB: Postage. Two shirts are £35 / $50 inc postage, three shirts are £52 / $75 inc postage, four shirts are £70 / $100 inc postage.

Here's the actual shirt itself (though this time it's the Socks that are fake):





The Award Winning* Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are Superheroes at The Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Fringe from August 1st to 26th - ON SALE NOW! 

*Winners of the Bath Comedy Festival Lovehoney Best Joke Award 2018


Previews:

July 11 - Neath Comedy Festival

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