Trump notes

Reading Facebook posts happily gloating at the demise of Paul Nuttall and Milo, suggesting that's the last we've seen of them, it seems some people have never come across an Unflushable before. I am reminded of a book I saw, just this weekend in the charity bookshop. From 1991, John O'Donnell's book Trumped is proudly subtitled "His Cunning Rise and Spectacular Fall". Yeah, he certainly fell all the way, didn't he John.

It's a well know adage that life is like a chemical toilet, the biggest shits always end up on top. Trump, and all those of whom you've ever heard the phrase "now this one will really finish them off" just keep on rising despite all hopes of karma or natural justice. People of my generation will recall Jeffrey Archer, and I notice Piers Morgan and Rebecca Brooks seem to be doing fine despite their criminal activities and widespread unpopularity. There are many more examples (before we even get to the Jimmy Saviles of the world who, to be fair, genuinely knew where actual bodies were actually buried, which is unfair competition).

Excellent. "Prank" may be among my least favourite words, right up there with Banter and Lolz, but this is a good'un. Prankster makes Trump supporters wave Russian flag at him.



Feb 25: BBC barred from Whitehouse briefing. I look forward to hearing the BBC-bashing, non-licence-fee-paying anarchists on my Facebook rejoicing at this. Also banned were The Guardian, CNN, New York Times, The Daily Mail - yes, that's right libertarians, the Daily Mail - and half a dozen others. Since Trump is calling the media "The Enemy Of The People" and the Mail recently used that same phrase as its front cover headline, maybe the two will get into some kind of paradox and disappear up each other? We can but hope.

Vanity Fair Just Accused Trump Of An "Impeachable Offense"

Trump just made the crucial mistake that could sink him for good.

OCCUPYDEMOCRATS.COM|BY DAN AREL

"This one will finally bring him down" says someone on Facebook about Donald Trump every day. Yeah. And my arse can play the banjo. I predict we'll hear no more of this story ever again.

Comic Art Masterclasses coming up:

Mar 18 - Prema Arts, Gloucestershire

April 5 - Rickmansworth Library

May 7 - Dorchester Festival

Jun 4 - Martlets Hall Burgess Hill

2017 TOUR
March 9 - Aberystwyth Arts Centre
March 15 & 16 - Dram! Glasgow Com Fest
March 23 - The Bill Murray, London
Apr 1 - Rotherham Comedy Festival
Apr 6 - Victoria Theatre Halifax
Apr 8 - Rondo Bath
Apr 13 - Hexham Queen's Hall
Apr 22 - Swindon Arts
Apr 27 - Stroud Subscription Rooms
Apr 28 - Merlin Theatre Frome
Apr 29 - Perth Concert Hall
May 1 - Chiddingstone Castle Kent
May 5 - Artrix Bromsgrove
May 6 - Stafford Gatehouse
May 13 (4.30pm) & May 14 (5.30pm) Komedia Brighton
May 19 - Carriageworks Leeds
May 26 - Aberdeen May Fest
June 2 - Eden Ct Inverness
June 15 - Crescent Arts, Belfast
June 17 - Dalkey Festival, Dublin
June 23 - Hertford Comedy Festival
June 24 - Ludlow Fringe

Buxton & Leicester - tour starts with a sellout

Okay, re that headline, not a sellout on the very first night. The very first night of the tour was Buxton Opera House, and that ended up with a small but perfectly formed crowd making a lovely noise in the Pavilion Arts Centre Studio. But, no, not a sellout. We also didn't manage a sellout on the first of our two nights in Leicester, despite the publicity effort. (Photo above by Elliott from NCF Comedy)

Last Saturday we left the house at 4.30am in order to get to Radio Leicester for a 7.30 interview. Later that day I, as Kev F, did an hour long podcast interview on the subject of the old comedy clubs of Leicester, and took the opportunity to leave some flyers around. So you can't say we hadn't made the effort in plugging Leicester. Burton, by the way, had also had a phone interview with the Socks and High Peak Radio which may, indeed, have made a difference to the audience size.

It was the 2nd night of our Leicester Comedy Festival that was the bonafide sellout, and a cracking show too. Before Buxton, we hadn't performed Socks Do Shakespeare in full since November 11th last year at the Nottingham Comedy Festival, which is a long time to go rusty in. Blimey, until I wrote it just then I didn't realise that's three months! Well, we did pretty bloody well then, though Buxton lacked a little spark, and some of that fluidity that comes with the confidence of a show that's on a roll. By Leicester it was all back to its Edinburgh form and great fun was had by all.

Another thing that was had by a few was the merchandise, including the freshly minted Socks Do Shakespeare DVD. It's a limited edition of just 50 copies, each one individually burnt, hand-packaged, signed and numbered, intended to be sold at gigs. It makes it quite clear on the outside that it's not broadcast quality, but I think it's a cracking memoir of the show, and I'm pleased we finally managed to make a show worth recording in its entirety, and managed to record it in full.  You;ll get that at the rest of the tour gigs after which, if there are any left, they'll go on sale online. (Photo by Deb Green)



2017 TOUR
Feb 15 - Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre Studio 
Feb 17 & 18 6.50pm - Kayal, Leicester Comedy Fest
March 9 - Aberystwyth Arts Centre
March 15 & 16 - Dram! Glasgow Com Fest
March 23 - The Bill Murray, London
Apr 1 - Rotherham Comedy Festival
Apr 6 - Victoria Theatre Halifax
Apr 8 - Rondo Bath
Apr 13 - Hexham Queen's Hall
Apr 22 - Swindon Arts
Apr 27 - Stroud Subscription Rooms
Apr 28 - Merlin Theatre Frome
Apr 29 - Perth Concert Hall
May 1 - Chiddingstone Castle Kent
May 5 - Artrix Bromsgrove
May 6 - Stafford Gatehouse
May 13 (4.30pm) & May 14 (5.30pm) Komedia Brighton
May 19 - Carriageworks Leeds
May 26 - Aberdeen May Fest
June 2 - Eden Ct Inverness
June 15 - Crescent Arts, Belfast
June 17 - Dalkey Festival, Dublin
June 23 - Hertford Comedy Festival
June 24 - Ludlow Fringe
August 15 - 17 Camden Fringe

Othello and Love Story - new Socks Shakespeare videos

I'm dangerously close to having put Socks Do Shakespeare online in its entirety. With only Romeo and Juliet still to do, the rest of the show is now up there in bite sized chunks, thanks to me getting Othello edited and uploaded (click to play) and also Love Story.

Surely, you say, putting the whole show up there is going to decimate the sales for your tour dates? Well, it would seem not. Sales for the shows are looking healthy, with Buxton, the first show, less than a week away, and the bulk not happening till March. And the videos, unlike these Youtube sensation kids you read about like Pewdiepie and Jake Septic Eye and I don't know what (I am so old), who get millions of hits for everything they upload, are getting only a few hundred viewings a time.



It's true that you have to see the Socks live, so the videos act mostly as a reminder of the show you've enjoyed on stage. My plan is to make a DVD of the show, from these edited chapters, which we can sell as souvenirs. Let's see how that pans out shall we?

UPDATE: Romeo & Juliet's now online as well.

UPDATIER UPDATE (Mon 13th): F Up Some Shakespeare is now on Youtube too. That's the whole show. For the first time ever!

You'll find a full running order, with links to every clip, and analysis, of Socks Do Shakespeare in this blog here. Warning, it's a little naval-gazing and a bit self-congratulatory. But if you like detail about how I develop comedy material, it's there to be seen. See you all at the tour dates.



2017 TOUR
Feb 15 - Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre Studio 
Feb 17 & 18 6.50pm - Kayal, Leicester Comedy Fest
March 9 - Aberystwyth Arts Centre
March 15 & 16 - Dram! Glasgow Com Fest
March 23 - The Bill Murray, London
Apr 1 - Rotherham Comedy Festival
Apr 6 - Victoria Theatre Halifax
Apr 8 - Rondo Bath
Apr 13 - Hexham Queen's Hall
Apr 22 - Swindon Arts
Apr 27 - Stroud Subscription Rooms
Apr 28 - Merlin Theatre Frome
Apr 29 - Perth Concert Hall
May 1 - Chiddingstone Castle Kent
May 5 - Artrix Bromsgrove
May 6 - Stafford Gatehouse
May 13 (4.30pm) & May 14 (5.30pm) Komedia Brighton
May 19 - Carriageworks Leeds
May 26 - Aberdeen May Fest
June 2 - Eden Ct Inverness
June 15 - Crescent Arts, Belfast
June 17 - Dalkey Festival, Dublin
June 23 - Hertford Comedy Festival
June 24 - Ludlow Fringe
August 15 - 17 Camden Fringe

Shrek Hugs Kermit - new comics by kids

The first comics of the year from my Comic Art Masterclasses have taken a month to emerge, largely thanks to me being busy at my desk drawing actual comic strips for a living. For a change. So only one day of classes in January, and now I'm into the swing of February. (You wait till you see the coming months. Some weeks I'm not out of schools from weekend to weekend, so let's make the most of this oasis of calm shall we?)

On the very first day of this year's classes (above, at Kings School Worcester) we had the first appearance of something that's going to become a trope we might not see the back of for a while. Donald Trump. Last year he was on more than 25 front covers, this year he's already cropped up on 2 out of 6.

I can never tell when a comic title, as suggested by the kids in each class, is going to inspire a good looking cover. I draw them quickly, during the class or occasionally at breaktime, and there's no time for a second stab if it doesn't work out. So, what I'm saying is, I'm well pleased when something like Shrek Hugs Kermit emerges. That second title, Whallabanasakayapanteyosemak, sounds for all the world like a real place name, but is just some random gibberish dreamt up by a Primary 6 (year 5) pupil in Denny, near Falkirk.

I've just spent two days teaching Newly Qualified Teachers how to do what I do, and how to teach how to do what I do. They came up with Michael Gove (nothing to do with schools any more, I hope, but fun to draw) and penguins. Good on them.





The celebrities these six classes chose for my demonstration strip were Donald Trump (twice), Simon Cowell, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, David Walliams, and Daniel Craig.

I have a few Comic Art Masterclasses coming up in spring 2017 that are open to the public. Book now, they'll most likely sell out quickly.

Mar 18 - Prema Arts, Gloucestershire

April 5 - Rickmansworth Library
April 10 - Zion, Bristol
May 1 - Chiddingstone Castle Kent 
May 7 - Dorchester Festival
May 11 - Guernsey Literary Festival
Jun 4 - Martlets Hall Burgess Hill 

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.

Feck News - and other trivia

I went on one of those Speak Your Weight machines. It said "2 decibels, 5 decibels, minus 3 decibels". I thought, that speaks volumes.

"Dave, can you redesign our tour logo in the style of - "

David Hockney: "Nailed it."

A t shirt design I did for a charity event the Chapple family will be doing in Edinburgh in August.

Just heard a story about Father Jack. Feck News.

So how come we see here 5 US satirical comedy shows, and we don't have one? You do realise the USA's population is only 5 times the size of ours, not 50? So they get Colbert, Noah, Myers & Fallon every night, with Samantha Bee weekly, and we get Have I Got News For You every few months, scheduled to run inbetween good news stories and always at exactly the same time as The News Quiz? Come on BBC (other broadcasters are available, but really?). Oh yeah and also, apparently, they don't get irony.

Everyone saying I'm not wearing eye make-up. It's Bowling Green Mascara.

For all of us hoping for Olivia Colman to be the next Doctor, it'd be a good idea to look at her trophy shelf. If she signed up for as long as Peter or Matt did, she'd be turning down the chance of another Golden Globe (win + 5 noms in other awards, for The Night Manager); a BAFTA, an RTS, a Crime Thriller Awards and a Press Guild Awards (4 wins + 5 noms, for Broadchurch); and those are just recent ones, being nudged off the mantlepiece by 15 other Winners trophies from everything from Sundance to Monte Carlo and back. And she still has to nab a Big One - yes, that elusive Comedy Award that she's been nominated for three times and still not taken home. Oh, and an Oscar, she'll want one of those. (Photo via DoctorWhoTV)

When Goebbels' secretary dying at the age of 108 is trending on Twitter you know you can dial the Celeb Death Alert down a peg.

You hear the phrase "We hope this year's Eurovision song will change all that" almost as often as "this Woody Allen film is his best since..."

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.

Socks Shakespeare Tour flyer

It's taken long enough, but I've finally got the Socks Do Shakespeare tour flyer off to the printers. Last minute gigs keep being added, and there are two on there that might change by the summer. But the vast majority are set in stone, and I can only apologise to the shows that happen earliest in the run for them not getting their flyers as far in advance as everyone else.



For the record, 20,000 flyers (yes 20,000, that's twice as many as I produce for Edinburgh) cost £209 from Out Of Hand, including delivery, and I'll have them next week. At which point I may have to pay as much again to post them to all the venues that need them.

UPDATE: 400 flyers, in brown paper wrapping, costs £2.83 to post 2nd class. However 500 flyers tips you over the weight limit and costs over £12. So I've been sending each venue 3 packets of £400 flyers, so they receive 1200 flyers for £9. The same amount sent as one item would cost 50% more. Top tip for future reference.

2017 TOUR
Feb 15 - Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre Studio 
Feb 17 & 18 6.50pm - Kayal, Leicester Comedy Fest
March 9 - Aberystwyth Arts Centre
March 15 & 16 - Dram! Glasgow Com Fest
March 23 - The Bill Murray, London
Apr 6 - Victoria Theatre Halifax
Apr 8 - Rondo Bath 
Apr 13 - Hexham Queen's Hall 
Apr 22 - Swindon Arts 
Apr 27 - Stroud Subscription Rooms 
Apr 28 - Merlin Theatre Frome 
Apr 29 - Perth Concert Hall 
May 1 - Chiddingstone Castle Kent 
May 5 - Artrix Bromsgrove
May 6 - Stafford Gatehouse
May 13 (4.30pm) & May 14 (5.30pm) Komedia Brighton
May 19 - Carriageworks Leeds
May 26 - Aberdeen May Fest
June 2 - Eden Ct Inverness
June 15 - Crescent Arts, Belfast
June 17 - Dalkey Festival, Dublin
June 20 - Grassington Festival, Yorkshire
June 23 - Hertford Comedy Festival
June 24 - Ludlow Fringe
August 15 - 17 - Camden Fringe

Book of Ruth written

Having just put the Comic Book Of Esther to bed, then woken it up by drawing an all new splash page for the whole thing, then put it back to bed again, I've this week completed the first stage of another project, The Book Of Ruth.

Once more working in my favoured method of laying the entire script out in visual form, as you can see above and below, I've adapted The Book Of Esther as a comic strip, on a nine panel-per-page grid, that comes out as a 12 pager.

I'm not entirely sure whether Bible Society will want it. It was mentioned over a year ago, when Esther was commissioned, but a lot of water has been passed since then. I hope I get the chance to draw it up, as I think I've written another witty and whimsical piece of Biblical adaptation. Fingers crossed.

I've learned so much about these Bible stories by doing these adaptations. In so many ways, the two main stories I've tackled so far, Esther & Ruth, demonstrate so many classic tropes of storytelling that we see in novels and movies to this day. One key thing both of them share is their "marketing."

Both stories are called The Book Of and the name of the female protagonist. Yet in both books it's other characters - Mordecai in Esther, and Naomi and Boaz in Ruth - who drive the story and bring about the biggest twists in the narrative. So why name the books Ruth and Esther? Marketing.

These are stories, passed on by word of mouth over hundreds of years before they ever got written down. So they need to be sold. You need your audience to hear them. And The Book Of Ruth is, essentially, a story that explains how a non-Jew gets to marry in and pass on the family inheritance.

So if you're in a marketplace in 2nd Century BC Judea and you've got the choice between the Rabbi who's going to tell you the story of The Role Of The Go'el Or Kinsman-Redeemer In Inheritance Law or the story of Young Romantic Heroine Ruth, who are you going to listen to? If you've got one Rabbi saying he'll tell you The Loophole In Talmudic Law Called A Levirate Marriage and another saying roll up roll up and hear about Sexy Shenanigans On The Threshing Floor With Ruth & The Rich Older Man, the choice is a no-brainer.

In the ancient Judean marketplace, as in the modern multiplex, women choose which movie we're all going to go see.

UPDATE: My editor "bloody loves it", now we have to hope it'll pass the theological tests.

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.