On Wednesday I recorded my first three Comic Cuts podcast episodes, and I'm genuinely pleased with them. Technical issues notwithstanding that is. I've found that I need to give a little more attention to the quality of sound recording, and I'm working on it. The first recording was with Ashley Storrie and Louise Leigh. You can see their comic panel choices in the episode image (above) and I won't be spoilering any of these by giving the answers away before the broadcast goes out. I had this one edited and ready to go before I recorded the second show, I'll be scheduling it in the weeks to come.
Recording number two was Doug Segal and Iszi Lawrence, and this is the episode I've chosen to go out as our debut. Doug & Iszi both recorded their own vocal tracks separately and sent them to me. Had I recorded my own separately this might have been a perfect recording. As it is, my voice came only from the Zoom track, meaning it has the other guys voices in the same track. Inevitably this one took longer to edit than the others have done, but it was worth it. We have a great and wide ranging conversation, that takes us away from the source material in inspiring ways I couldn't have anticipated. And all squeezed into a 35 minute episode (I was trying to get it down to 30 mins, but sometimes you can only trim so much).
Episode 1, Doug & Iszi, is here on Buzzsprout, and already comes up on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, as well as Amazon Music Podchaser, Podcast Addict, Deezer and others.
The third recording of the day was Sonia Leong and Nigel Parkinson, and is going out as episode two (on Friday, after which we'll release them weekly). Once more the conversation was wide ranging and inspired, and I struggled to edit it down to 38 minutes.
This one, however, suffered from the worst of my tech issues. Though my microphone was set at the same level as it had been for Ashley & Louise in the morning, for some reason there's sound bleed through my headphones which means you get an echo on Sonia and Nigel's voices which are all on the Zoom track, and my voice is peaking. Hopefully the "Magic Mastering" feature on Buzzsprout has equalised our voices slightly. But I'm going to have to address my microphone issues (which haven't cause me any problems for the last year of Socks performances, but are suddenly noticeable in podcast recordings) before the next batch of shows.
Episode 2, Sonia & Nigel, is here on Buzzsprout, and should be on all the usual outlets.
On Monday I'm recording Peter Hogan with Bethany Black, and Jessica Martin with Wil Hodgson, and on Wednesday I have Jaleelah Galbraith with Okse, Laura Howel with Nigel Auchterlounie, and David Leach with Laura Watton. Here's to perfect sound and even better chat, eh?
Talking of changing the subject, I've produced my first ever banner, for use at comic conventions. It should be appearing at LFCC in London in July, the Lakes in October, and Thought Bubble in Harrogate in November. It makes its debut in Clevedon next month...
My first live Comic Art Masterclass, open to the public, is Sat June 12th at Princes Hall Clevedon. Book now!
At the weekend I chatted in the car with Hev about the idea of doing a podcast - because she's started doing one with Dr Jude Montague, which you can hear here, and I was inspired.
Lo, by the end of Monday, I've got rsvps from probably 25 guests (the tally keeps going up) and have lined up my first recordings for Wednesday.
The title is Comic Cuts - The Panel Show. Steve Noble can take credit for the second part of that title, reminding me of the "panel" pun inherent in the concept (having googled and found there are already shows called The Panel, and one about comics called The Panel Panel, we wound up with what you now see).
The concept is, to be honest, borrowed from a TV show that was on Channel 4 in the 80s called Gallery, where George Melly and guests, including Maggie Hambling, would see a tiny detail from a painting, try and guess what it was, then chat about it. That's what we're doing, with two guests per show, and all about comics. My starting point being that I wasn't aware of any podcasts covering British comics. It turns out there are in fact quite a few, which I've started dipping into. Though, to date, I'm mostly hearing discussion of 2000AD or American comics. Let us see if my format, which also owes a lot to Radio 4's A Good Read, works when I've recorded the first few.
Lined up for Wednesday I have Louise Leigh with Ashley Storrie, Iszi Lawrence with Doug Segal, and Nigel Parkinson with Sonia Leong. And the following Wednesday I've lined up Okse with Jaleelah Galbraith, Nigel Auchterlounie with Laura Howell, and David Leach with Laura Watton.
On the rsvp'd list I have Dean Friedman, Juliet Myers, Peter Hogan, Bethany Black, Jessica Martin, Paul Savage, Gary Northfield, Wil Hodgson, David Roach, Alex Collier, Simon Donald, Rik Carranza, and of course Steve Noble and Hev, with more on the possibles list (and only two No's, who I'll leave anonymous, they were both very polite). I'm trying to keep the male/female balance even if I can, to avoid being another two-blokes-in-a-shed cast.
Let us see how flat on its face this venture falls, shall we?
My first live Comic Art Masterclass, open to the public, is Sat June 12th at Princes Hall Clevedon. Book now!
These two comics were produced by pupils at Colmore Junior School in Kings Heath, Birmingham. And eagle-eyed readers of this blog may notice something they've not seen on these comic covers for a while: little doodles by the kids themselves. Yes, for the first time in a year (apart from a one-off visit to Coventry in October last year, during the false-optimism-break) I've been back in a real school in person and it's been great. Having had to skip 2020, my annual visits to Colmore have resumed, teaching all four groups of Year 5s. They took away photocopied comics, and I found I could remember how to do everything as if I'd never been away.
These are from day two at Colmore, where an obsession with nans and grandads seems to have set in. Note how I swerved the dumping image they were obviously going for. The little scamps. Classes were done without masks even, those only being needed in the corridors, and it all felt very back to normal. Though I did hear from a teacher in the staff room who'd suffered from quite bad Covid just this year, being hospitalised and, ironically, catching it in the week after he'd been vaccinated. So we shouldn't get too complacent just yet.
Ropetackle Arts Centre in Shoreham was a Zoom class on a Sunday afternoon. Another perfect one, with kids on separate screens, and without me having to travel to Kent, which is the sort of luxury I'm going to miss when we do get fully back to normal.
Selskar College in Wexford was the first of my two totally coincidental classes with Wexford schools in little over a week. This one had to be done on Teams, which is the most frustrating of software, but went smoothly and was great fun.
Arc Arts Centre in Stockton's class also had to be run on Teams and was much more frustrating, with me discovering more vagaries of that annoying software I hadn't encountered before. When kids are watching on a phone the Teams software zooms in on their image so as to fit a widescreen box, meaning I was seeing an ultra close up shot of peoples noses and couldn't understand why they wouldn't get further away from the screen to be drawn and to show me their work. I guess, before now, when I've been obliged to use Teams, people have been on tablets and laptops so this hasn't occurred. It is such a user-unfriendly system, Microsoft Teams is the biggest thing I won't miss about online classes.
Kennedy College in Wexford rounded up a busy week, and indeed the month, of classes, in style. They have to wear masks in class still, and I came up against my first, and only to date, pupil who wasn't comfortable taking her mask off, even to be drawn. She relented later, so ended up with two versions of her caricature (you can see them on the back cover, above). Zoom on two big screens, now you ask.
The celebrities these eight groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip were Elon Musk, Ariana Grande, The Queen (twice), Michael Jackson, Harry Styles, Da Baby (a rapper), and Mr Beast (a Youtuber).
My next Comic Art Masterclass open to the public - and my first in the flesh since March 2020 - is on Saturday June 12th at Clevedon Literary Festival. On Sale Now!
And the winner was.... the UK. Quite to my surprise, waltzing away with 48% of the vote in the Socks' Eurovision Sock Contest last night, was Fine Fare singing Stick Your Brexit Up Your Arse.
I'd rather overlooked it as a contender, as it was the only song in the show that had been written before last week (it featured in Roll Up in 2019 and had been included in live shows before that, certainly as long ago as our Denmark tour in 2018). And the punters loved it, which is great.
I must admit I was surprised by most of the voting. The song that I thought would win easily came in fourth, and my other two favourite compositions got no votes at all. The biggest delight for me, though, was that all 6 new songs were written in the past week. It was only last Saturday, in the shower, that I came up with the idea for the East Bloc and French songs. Then, in the car to the shops, I started busking ideas for the Austro-Hungarian song, which Hev took down as dictation and emailed to me later. On Monday I recorded those three songs and came up with the Ireland song, and on Wednesday wrote and recorded the Scandinavian song. As a last minute afterthought, easily the quickest to write and record, I rattled off the German entry, secure in the knowledge it would get no votes whatsoever. Here is how the show went...
In The Bins - Graham Norton (Ireland). To the tune of It's A Sin, I thought this was a fun idea, singing about the presenters' booths at Eurovision, but didn't expect it to get votes. It came 5th.
Nous Somme Francais - Johnny Forrina (France). I thought this was the funniest set of lyrics, and it did indeed get some good laughs. It attracted, however, no votes. (Had we been able to do a more sophisticated voting system, I'm sure it would have been lots of peoples' second choice).
Thumping - Deconstructivist Kollectiv (Germany). I honestly thought this was a throwaway filler and would get nowt. It came joint second. Hev loved it and thought it was the closest to an actual Eurovision entry, Steve (Noble) compared it to the stuff we did at art college, and even name-checked Einstürzende Neubauten in comparison. Who'd have thunk it?
East Bloc People - Azherbi-curious (Former Macedoslavian Republic of Serblakia). Because it was written to someone else's tune (Pulp's) I thought less of it, but it was the first song I came up with in the shower and I can see why it came in joint second place.
Scandi Noir - Sexiblonde (Norway/Sweden/Denmark/Finland/Iceland). I was most proud of this because it's a totally original composition (as are the German and Autro-Hungarian songs) rather than a re-wording of someone else's tune, and I thought the premise of it was very clever (that the Scandinavians will get Scandi Noir on your ass if you don't vote for them). The voters thought otherwise, nul points.
Stick Your Brexit Up Your Arse - Fine Fare (UK). The outright winner, as previously seen in our 2019 show, but not by most of the viewers of tonight's show. I guess it is a very funny number, tried and tested on stage many times, with a sentiment the audience agree with. A deserved winner, even though I'd have loved something else to get that much love.
Ignore The Song - Deep C Diva (Austro-Hungarian Empire). Far and away my favourite song of the night. An all-original composition, with lyrics lampooning Eurovision stage productions, it was also the only entry to have a video production, with the Socks performing in front of clips from actual Eurovision shows. I thought this entry would walk it, and the others would trail in its wake. Shows what I know, it came in fourth. I still think it has genuine merit and beats lots of genuine Eurovision entries for quality, though I may be delusional.
Dean Friedman did two numbers, knocking everyone out with his rendition of Lydia at the end of the show, and the aftershow chat was great, with nearly 30 people staying and joining in. We eventually wound up around 10.30.
I haven't announced the next Zoom show yet, concentrating on the live shows we have lined up. Let's hope the punters are champing at the bit for our return when I do.
Belatedly (ie the day before Eurovision Sock Contest) I'm getting round to writing up Social Club 2. Let's see what I can remember. You can see the entire show here. It was a greatly enjoyable show, and I was disappointed by the size of the audience. With pubs having reopened, and the weather having turned sunny, it was always going to be hard to drag people indoors, and this ended up with our second-lowest paying audience. A shame, because quality wise it was an improvement on the first Social Club, and I'd love to keep these going. But, for the time being, I'm putting Social Club on hold.
Our guest comics were the best. Nerine Skinner was a fabulous opener, with the strongest 7 minutes of the night; Ian Crawford, having been postponed from last month, gave his brilliant spoons lecture, which had great interactivity including a screen grab of our actual punters, which went down marvellously; Michelle Malizaki did a cracking set from her cupboard in LA; and President Obonjo was a fab headliner, rounding the show off in style.
Once more I used this format as an excuse to write novelty and experimental material that might not fit in a full Socks show. The Tombola was a half-baked idea with cardboard cutouts of Tom Jones and Tom Hanks (which one has the Ebola? was the schtick). It was only the next day I worked out how it should have been structured. Musical Bingo made a return, with songs by the Bee Gees, Desmond Dekker, and George Ezra. It's the one item that's muted on the Youtube clip, so you'll have to guess how it worked (it went well). And The Quiz was an idea that got a bit beyond itself, based on the Two Ronnies Answering The Question Before Last. Those who got it, got it. Everyone else may have been a bit bemused.
Fine Fare did a couple of older numbers, We Can See You and The Ballad Of Cannon And Ball, which went well as most people were hearing them for the first time. We also threw in the Perfumes routine, and were also going to do Macacque but had to cut it for time. Just as last time, I think I'm not going to fill an hour and we end up with a show that runs to one hour 20.
It was followed by the most enjoyable after show drinks, which is my favourite part of the night. Only a small cadre of a dozen stayed on, not surprising given the size of the main crowd, but it was quality not quantity that counted.
I'd like to revive Social Club sometime, and maybe it'll happen in the Autumn if online gigs are still a thing. Till then, I'm glad to have done the two experimental shows. Our next Zoom show is Eurovision, after which I'll be considering whether, what, when, and if we do more. Let's see.
Fri May 14 - Eurovision Sock Contest
https://www.wegottickets.com/event/514948
Live shows:
May 29 - Leics Showground Harborough https://www.facebook.com/events/3871337586282773/
June 11 - Bath Widcombe (20 mins) https://www.bathcomedy.com/whats-on?id=1293
June 26 - Zion (Shakespeare at Zion’s 10th anniversary party) https://zionbristol.co.uk/whats-on/
June 28 - Frog & Bucket Beat The Frog https://frogandbucket.com/
Here's a bit of fun, a Top 15 chart of the Socks' Zoom shows based on ticket sales. Audiences have always included extra guests, so this doesn't reflect the total number of people in the 'room', and also bears no relation to the quality of the show. So, which show's our biggest seller to date?
15 - April 17 - Superheroes - 21 (See what I mean about quality? Our award-winning show sold fewest tickets to date)
14 - April 30 - Social Club 2 - 25 - (Not, as I thought, our lowest-seller ever. But, at £5 a ticket, our lowest takings)
13 - Nov 7 - Roll Up - 26 (A last-minute addition to the schedule, when its live outing in Birmingham got cancelled)
12 - April 2 - Social Club 1 - 30 (The first of our brave new venture with guest acts)
11 - Dec 31 - Hogmanay Quiz - 32 (Another gig announced at short notice, with stiff competition on the night)
10 - Sept 25 - New Material Night - 33 (Actually featured less new material than the subsequent show)
8 = Aug 13 - Socks In Space - 37 (Our first Edinburgh Fringe Zoom show, that won us a 4 star Scotsman review, and bigger audiences for its successors)
8= Jan 22 - Burns Night - 37 (A fun themed night, I was pleased with how much new material we came up with)
7 - Mar 19 - Talking Of Changing The Subject… - 40 (Some have called it our funniest show, made up mostly from material that pre-dated our current fan-base, from our 2009 & 2010 shows)
5 = Oct 30 - Hallo Ian - 54 (The most new material of any Zoom show, one I'm very proud of)
5 = Aug 21 - Boo Lingerie - 54 (Our second Edinburgh Zoom show, benefitted from the previous week's 4 star review)
4 - Feb 12 - Murder Mystery - 55 (Working with Bedford Fringe's box office helped here. Hopefully not an experiment too far)
3 - Aug 29 - Shakespeare - 56 (The best show, and the biggest crowd of our Edinburgh Zoom season)
2 - July 31 - All Request - 62 (Our Zoom debut. After which, it would seem, some had had their fill)
1 - Dec 11/13 - Xmas Special - 64 (Scores the biggest sales, by dint of us having to re-perform it two days later, because of broadband problems, netting an extra 8 sales for the second night)
Let's see how well we do with our next show. Will it be our last before live gigs take over in earnest? Only time will tell...
UPDATE - Eurovision Sock Contest sold 33 tickets, putting it at joint 10th place in our chart.
I've kept quiet about them on social media, partly cos I don't want anyone to feel offended that we haven't come to visit them, and partly cos we may have been pushing the "stay local" rules of the recently relaxed lockdown, but Hev & I have been doing a lot of day trips in the last couple of months.
Perhaps the most significant is to Chepstow. You see, we have plans to move house, and have had for the past year or more. We've now put the flat on the market and are seriously looking at places to move. Because of how expensive Clevedon is, we've genuinely considered such places as Worcester and Bath, and ruled out many more including Stroud. It was only last weekend that, with cross border travel being relaxed after 6 months, that we had a look at Chepstow, and fell in love with it.
OK, fell in love might be going a bit far. But on our first visit, last Sunday, we got talking to the people at a gallery who asked Hev to exhibit, and bumped into Socks fans Nigel & Kerry Thurgar and chatted. Everyone seemed friendly and there's a great vibe to the place. And it is very very affordable. We returned the very next day to look again. And again on Wednesday when we ventured as far as Tintern (above, abbey just out of shot). And yet again on Sunday, when we visited Monmouth, walked a bit of Offa's Dyke, and continued to give Chepstow a thorough exploring. Though we've already ruled out a handful of properties and not found anything that matches our current flat for fabulosity, there's no doubt we can have 4 bedrooms and a garden in our budget, and get a period property that's somewhere quiet. Let us see.
The biggest journey of the past fortnight was to London. We've been dying to return and were amazed to find an art gallery that was actually open. Hev had got tickets to the new Gilbert & George exhibition at the White Cube in Piccadilly. The night before we watched the live interview with G&G - who answered a question texted in by Heather! The next day we were standing on the very spot where they'd been speaking, and we were looking at their giant screen prints all round the wall. It was brilliant.
We also took in Trafalgar Square, where we ate outside a Pret - the first cafe food we've eaten in six months - walked down Denmark Street again, and bought guitar strings in Regent Sounds; did Carnaby Street, Liberty, Covent Garden, Regent Street and Fitzrovia, and breathed in the city. It was brilliant. Feeling slightly guilty that we didn't see Jude and the family, but there's only so many hours in a day and we wanted culture culture culture. And we got it. It does you good, and you miss it when you're cut off from it for so long.
(Here are Gilbert & George, answering Hev's question, probably)
Our travels have also taken us, in the past month or so, to Exmouth where we walked up coastal paths and round backstreets that we recognised from when we last trod there, forty years earlier; to Exeter, more than once, where the nostaglia for our student days will never truly fade; to Minehead (pictured below, I'd forgotten about that excursion until I searched for photos to upload); to Worcester, where we considered moving, but which, on a return visit with specific properties in mind, never quite feels quiet or connected enough to be right; to Bath, again more than once, where we go to show anyway, and where, with properties in mind, nowhere seemed to have quite the right vibe (except for places like Widcombe where we could never afford to live); to Stroud, which was inexplicably voted most desirable place to live by someone somewhere, without providing any evidence to us of why this should be the case.
We've strolled through Taunton, breezed through villages and suburbs from Burnham to Gloucester, Weston to Cheltenham, and all points Bristolian, to such a degree you'd think we're never at home. Oh, and we go for a walk almost every night on the back streets of Clevedon. It's going to be weird when lockdown finally ends and my travels begin in earnest. This is the longest period of time that Hev and I have spent without staying overnight anywhere outside our flat (save for one night, last August, at Audrey & Dennis's in Bod) in all the time we've been together. Even back in the Leicester days we'd have done the odd night in Kibby, and had a holiday at some point in the year. We are very lucky people that we can bear each other so well.
