Here’s a first. 4 x @edfringe programmes sent to an eBay buyer just arrived looking like this.
Someone has nicked 2007, 08, 10 & 11 #edfringe progs and replaced them with…
A lump of wood!
I know I’m slow, but it was only yesterday, thanks to a Facebook thread, that I got the Chicken Joke
Why did the chicken cross the road?
To get to The Other Side.
Did anyone else, possibly raised in a secular household like me, not get this gag? Or am I literally the slowest joke-getter on the planet?
It’s an American music hall gag, from at least the 1890s. Around then, two things were big and new: motor cars and spiritualism. "The other side". I tell you - Mind Blown!
I'd totally forgotten I'd based the character design for Cobweb in my Midsummer Night's Dream Team on Lily Savage.
What better tribute could you pay than buying it? Now!
(Or giving money to Battersea Dogs Home, obvs)
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Re: Article about art students' fears over AI taking their jobs
A very interesting take, from present day art students, on AI. Speaking as someone who graduated from art college 40 years ago this year, I can’t imagine how it would have affected my career decisions.
Other fellow graduates include a couple of professional photographers, and a number of us have had exhibitions of our work. But I’m not sure how many have the fine art they studied as their sole career.
I do know that the only one of our year to get a First in painting went on to work for the London Transport Police and didn’t paint a thing for 30 years.
Who else would have reconsidered what they studied, if they knew AI could do it?
That awkward moment when you start by going “ha ha they look so old now” then suddenly realise you’re older than all of them.
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April 25: Fun on eBay. Muriel Gray is now in a bidding war for a copy of Punch with her face on the front cover. I expect the other 8 issues in the batch to go in her recycling instead of mine.
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April 29: I appear on Jim Judge's Character Comedy podcast, as he explains:
In association with my friend and manager Jim Judges I can announce that episode 2 of "The Character of Comedy" podcast is now available - this is a bumper length edition featuring super talented and experienced comedian Kev Sutherland and The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre. From drawing for the Beano and Marvel to wowing the crowds at Edinburgh and beyond with the most famous socks in show business, this is a super listen and a perfect meander through Kev's vast experience as a comedian and comic artist.
Neal Adams 1972, Ron Smith 1979, me 1978.
A set of three Comic Swipes as posted by me, in the fanzine Fantasy Advertiser, back in 1985
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Re: The weekly Succession recap in The Guardian
As I find myself having to read these articles every week, to explain the bits I wasn’t following in last nights Succession (don’t read till you’ve seen the episode), I wonder if there used to be someone in Shakespeare’s London doing the same?
I genuinely need the same sort of explainer in order to follow Richard III and any of the history plays. Am I, perhaps, not a very smart person?
Made up pot calls made up kettle “made up”.
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April 17: Re Grand National
Just a “1.21% fatality rate”? You get a lower fatality rate working on an Alec Baldwin movie.
What I don’t understand is why there are humane societies that insist, by law, in the credits of every movie and TV show that “no animals or insects were harmed in the making of this”, yet horse racing gets a pass.
It was a three horse race. Three dead horses*.
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April 30: Started this day 50 years ago: The Tomorrow People.
This was my favourite TV show at the time, displacing Doctor Who in my affections. I made a Jaunting Belt in metalwork (if you know, you know).
And look at that cast: 4 leads, one female, one black. Turns out TV was more diverse 50 years ago than it would be for most of the subsequent half a century.
A comic selling half a million copies? What is this? 1956? No, it's Japan, 2023.
Those are actual book sales! And one of the top ten (Blue Lock) is a football comic! Like Roy Of The Rovers! How did we, as it were, drop the ball so badly here in the UK?
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April 23: Re Death of Barry Humphries
Anyone with a character comedy act worried about not achieving instant fame can take consolation from Dame Edna. As this obit tells, she first appears in 1955, debuts in London at the Establishment in 1963, gets pretty dismissive reviews for show after show in London, despite being massive in Australia, not becoming a smash in the UK until 1977’s Housewife Superstar. Even then Broadway resists her charms for another twenty years!
There’s hope for all of us. (Says he, looking forward to international superstardom in his early nineties).
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Recently someone on my Facebook brought up the old “I’m not paying my TV licence cos I don’t watch the BBC” line, which is promoted by the BBC’s cultural enemies including GB News, the Daily Mail, and Talk TV
So it’s always fun to check the rules and be reminded that the licence fee pays for all live, and recorded, TV. Which means if you want to watch GB News or Talk TV, you need a licence - they’re part of what you pay for.
PS: Also,amazingly, none of your licence fee goes directly to Jimmy Savile, despite what half the people in any comments thread on the subject seem to think.
My Books and where to get them:
Findlay Macbeth - Amazon - Etsy
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy
Midsummer Nights Dream Team - Amazon - Etsy
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy
Midsummer Nights Dream Team - Amazon - Etsy
Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Amazon
Eurovision French edition - édition en français
Eurovision Spanish edition - Libro para colorear
Eurovision German edition - Popstar Malbuch
Eurovision Italian edition - il libro da colorare
Eurovision Swedish edition - Popstjärna Målarbok
Eurovision Colouring Best Of British - Amazon
80s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon
80s Superstars - Amazon
2020s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon
Bowie Colouring - Amazon
Scottish Pop Star Colouring - Amazon
Rom Com Colouring - Amazon
Royalty Colouring - Lulu
Christmas Movies Colouring - Amazon
NB: Etsy editions are signed and posted by me, and generally cheaper
