Post Office Scandal - Leicester, Rossendale and Paisley
I don't usually let mere mortals have a sneak preview behind the set of the Scottish Falsetto Socks, but because I'm in a good mood here you are. This is the Socks' set, on stage at Horse & Bamboo Theatre in Rossendale in Lancashire.
And why would I be in such a good mood? Because Post Office Scandal The Musical, something I dreamt up little over a month ago, has turned out to be more popular than our other regular shows. I only wish we were doing it in Edinburgh this year, but I fear that ship has sailed.
Having had a first outing on Zoom in February, POS the M made its onstage debut on Friday Feb 23rd in Leicester. Not bad, with an audience of about twenty, but I knew it needed work. So, the next day, I spent some time in the hotel room in the afternoon editing the script, mostly changing the running order and trimming down overweight jokes. Saturday night when very well, and I video'd it.
But it was Sunday afternoon's show that clinched the performance. I got laughs in all the right places, was at ease with the show, and had really got it into a god shape. It's from Sunday's recording (with the camera off to an angle) that most of the recordings I put in Youtube are taken.
Coming away from Leicester happy with the shape of the show, we then took it to the Horse & Bamboo Theatre in Rossendale, who'd booked us out of the blue a few months ago. We'd never played there before, and had the marvellous experience of audience loving it, saying it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen, and the venue managers asking if we'd come back again. A result indeed.
The following night at Stafford Gatehouse we gave them Eurovision Sock Contest, which was the show they'd booked ages ago, essentially as an overspill gig from last year's tour. And, though it went well and was very well received, I came away thinking Post Office Scandal is a funnier and more satisfying show.
Just a few days later, as part of a trip to Paisley which saw me doing two Comic Art Masterclasses in the day and a Socks show in the library in the evening, we gave them Post Office Scandal again. And, despite some technical problems which included the mic not working so the audience having to rely on my own acoustic voice (which they could hear perfectly, it being a small room), POS killed once more.
I've got performances of it scheduled for Ludlow and Bedford Fringes, but that's it. A shame it's not going to Edinburgh, but ain't that the irony of showbiz sometimes.
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