Oh God. I can't sleep. I'm just so stressed about Edinburgh. Why? Because even though the script for our show is great and we've done some really good rehearsals for it that have added a great deal of extra professionalism to our performances, there's no way in hell that I can see any of the technical side being sorted out in time.
In the past all the Edinburgh shows I've done have either had a producer to sort out everything for us, or we've made sure that if we're doing it ourselves we keep the requirements for props, sound effects, set and so on as simple as possible. This year, for the first time ever, Mark and I are going to the Fringe as professionals, we're being taken up by our agency, we want to make as much of an impact as possible, and that means video projection, costumes, ten-foot hight nuclear missiles, a giant bath-plug, an amazing gun made entirely of cutlery -- the list goes on. And for some reason, despite being part of a professional outfit, we have no-one to help us.
So what I'm thinking is: who's going to make this stuff for us? How on earth do we find someone to make us a nuclear missile that not only looks brilliant but won't fall apart for at least a month and, oh, we need to have it by Monday. Questions assail me constantly. Where can we buy another Russian hat? How can I get two dining chairs re-covered in green baize? Is it possible to buy a monitor cable long enough to stretch from my iBook to the video projector? Can we actually suspend the projector in a sensible place so that the image isn't tiny anyway?
I can just see us on the third of August coming on stage to a set of two plastic chairs and a fold out table, nearing the end of the show and then bringing on a large cardboard box with 'missile' written on then turning to the audience with a pitiful look as if to say, 'We wanted a massive realistic one, honest, but we just don't know how to make these things happen. Sorry.' All the advantage of having first written our show four months ago just seems to be slipping away second by second. There's so much to do and so little time. And we've got to finish a couple of sitcom scripts by the end of the month.
I think this has the opportunity to be my first majorly disappointing experience of being a professional comedian without proper support. All I want to have to do is get on stage and perform my half of the show to my best ability. It'd be nice if green baize and nuclear missiles were someone else's responsibility. §
Bachman and Evans preview their new Edinburgh show 'Hmm...' at the Etcetera Theatre, Camden on Monday 23rd and 30th July before taking it to the Assembly Rooms at the Edinburgh Festival (3rd to 27th August, 5.45pm). So book your tickets now.
(Time Out, July 18-25 2001. Comedy section. Obviously.) §
Good Lord. Two of my oldest friends are getting married. It's about time -- they've been together now for somewhere near fifteen years -- but this really is an announcement out of the blue, the pair of them having previously made everyone very aware that it was something they'd do eventually but 'not yet'. In the medium term. Very surprising. And in yet another illustration of the technological age we live in the announcement was made via email. Hell, if you can divorce someone by fax, why shouldn't you be able to announce an engagement by Outlook Express?
So congratulations, Robert and Katie. May your wedding be lovely, and may you seem almost no different afterwards, which won't be hard given that you've been together all the time any of us have ever known you. §
Rooting through my hard-drive for a new desktop background, I came across this photo of myself and four friends performing in a revue at university. God, I look young. And thin. (I'm second from left.) But enough about me; what's interesting here (at least to people who read this but don't know me personally) is the group itself. From left to right we have:
- Dan Mazer
Producer and co-creator of Ali G and currently producing the film Ali G in Da House which he and Sacha Baron-Cohen co-wrote. - James Bachman
Me. - Jonathan Dryden Taylor
Playwright whose frankly exceptional new play The Learning Curve obtained him a great literary agent and a possible rehearsed reading at London's prestigious Soho Theatre. Oh and he won't thank me for ignoring the fact that he's also an actor and director. - Robert Thorogood (suspended)
Actor and screenwriter whose latest script My Dog Has Fleas is going into development with the film company who made Saving Grace. - William Sutcliffe
Author of New Boy, Are You Experienced? and The Love Hexagon, several if not all of which are being turned into films.
Some of us already wildly successful, others on the cusp; and none of us in the same arena. Nice, isn't it? And yes, I know this might all seem like thinly disguised name-dropping, but I was just reminded that I had the great fortune to go to university with a load of extremely talented people. §
Interesting developments concerning the supposed pulling of the new Brass Eye Special on Thursday evening. According to Channel 4 sources (also reported on Guardian Unlimited in an article that has now mysteriously disappeared) the show, which apparently deals with paedophilia and children in the media, was postponed at the last minute because of the disappearance of the schoolgirl in France and the current furore over the Bulger case. Indeed, I had reason to believe that the description of the content of the show was genuine, having been told much the same by friends of mine who knew the show's producer well.
But it turns out that things are not all they seem.
Today a posting appeared on the Chris Morris fansite Cook'd and Bomb'd discussing the 'real' content of the special after one of the site owners received a tape containing a partial edit of the show. It now seems that it's actually about the internet, in particular the incredible ease with which a few well chosen words on a bulletin board or forum can quickly spiral into 'absolute truth'. It appears Morris and his collaborators have been involved in a convoluted hoax of AI proportions, disemminating false information about the programme and the objections to it which lead to its being 'pulled' (the claim here being that the show was never going to be broadcast on Thursday on the first place).
Morris always produces great, innovative and challenging comedy, but to be honest I can't see a half-hour programme about scamming a small number of his own fans on the internet making anything but dull television. My suspicion is that this current revelation is no more 'real' than any of the others. If it is, he may well have disappeared completely up his own arse. The special is apparently rescheduled for August 2nd, so we'll get a definitive answer then, and whatever it is I'm sure it'll be up to Morris' usual standard, particularly as he's often at his best when totally pulling the wool over people's eyes (the 'Cake' episode of Brass Eye; the suicide column in the Observer).
Fascinating stuff though (and currently being extensively discussed on a SOTCAA thread entitled 'THIS just in...'). Just had a thought: maybe he's responsible for the Kaycee Nicole saga... §