Guitar, maaan

I’m currently sat all beatnik-ed up in my room, ready to go and perform at the inaugural night of The Village Preservation Society‘s monthly residency at The Betsey Trotwood this evening.

Slight changes (or rather: additions) are now afoot in my cabaret offerings following my jaunt up to the Edinburgh Fringe last month.  I went up to busk on the mean streets of the Royal Mile and prepared some cover versions and original bits to sing and play guitar to.  I even made the very serious investment of purchasing a kazoo and bastardised harmonica holder to spice up the proceedings.

Considering I would never have dreamt of singing and playing in front of people under normal circumstances, coupled with the fact that I haven’t picked up my guitar regularly for ages, it went really well!  I made a few bob (I do really mean ‘few’), didn’t have rotten food thrown at me and massively upped my confidence levels.  I had NOWHERE NEAR as big a crowd as some of the old hands, but it was muchly useful nonetheless.

I subsequently had a radio interview on Leith FM, where I played a couple of my original songs (I’ll upload the catchily titled ‘A Chinese Food Loving Vegetarian’s Lament’, based on a song you’ll aaaaall know, soon…) and a couple of gigs at the legendary Bongo Club Cabaret where I had a fantastic time and realised that playing and singing in front of people and actually speaking(!) in between that, isn’t actually all that bad.  Lovely friendly place to discover that.  Thank you Bongo and Rhymes with Purple!  Who’d’ve thunk it?  Lois of the Lane made a brief but triumphant appearance at the Bongo too.  She’s definitely here to stay 🙂

So, on the back of this, I’ve decided to start writing some more songs and do them on the comedy/cabaret circuit – as well as Ms of the Lane – and this evening I’m premiering a jaunty new song entitled ‘The Last 2 Zombies in the World‘ which I knocked out on Sunday.  A month or so early I suppose, but it’s good to be prepared.  (You never know when they might strike..)  I’ll get it recorded at some point soon and stick it on my singing page.  Keep your eyes/ears peeled for more…

Since I’ve been back from the beautiful ‘burgh I was a part of Jennifer Farmer‘s première performance of her new immersive theatre/sound play ‘Conversations I Wish I Could Overhear’ which was part of the Spit ‘n’ Scrub open studios at ASC Studios in Bow.  I’ve also just found out that I’ve got a cracking part in a great piece called ‘No Surprises’ by Mikail Chowdhury, that’s going to be part of a one off charity event on the afternoon of Saturday 16th of October.  More details on this one soon.  Really looking forward to getting my teeth into it!

Until then, here’s a couple of picture of me busking on the Southbank, just before heading up to Edinburgh, taken by my friend Sarah:

You’ve gotta love a kazoo…

Tragic Cabinet Freakshow Twin Application Symposium and Waterloo East Busking!

Another 4 months appears to have zipped past.  They do that don’t they?

Well, in April I was being all tragic in a masked version of The Bacchae for Chris Vervain which was filmed for use in schools.  Helloooooooooooo Thebes!

In May I had another private Lois of the Lane gig and then subsequently found myself hanging out at Paul Zenon‘s cabinet of Curiosities at the Brighton Fringe:

I was generally being a helpful sailor and keeping an eye on Paul Garner‘s freakshow artwork:

June saw me freaking out with the Gawkagogo Freakshow again – this time at the Udderbelly on the Southbank as part of the Time Out Live Friday Night Freakshow.  There was pigging and a bit of Siamese Twin action:

(Lots of black wig wearing going on over the past few months!)

Also finally put in an application to the Arts Council in June, for funding to re-develop and re-vamp Super Situation.  ALL TOES ARE CROSSED.  I’ve just been on a fund raising course too, so NOTHING WILL STOP ME…

Moving on to July, last Thursday I was part of Jennifer Farmer’s 10 minute slot during the Brand writers symposium at the Southbank Centre as part of the London Literature Festival.  She presented 4 small sections of piece she is developing entitled ‘thefadingcity’ which will ultimately be a large scale immersive theatre piece.  I was doing random, absurd, interactive improvised stuff with kitchen implements, imaginary toxic ingredients and song.  Love it 🙂

Coming up…

I’m putting on Super Situation and Glitch at the (almost) newly opened Waterloo East Theatre on Brad Street next week.  Here be map.  Also on the bill is ‘Baby Rice Cakes’ by Michele Hallak; performed by Michele and the Director of Super Situation: Jamie Rocha Allan.  (We have the honour of being the first professional shows on there – whoop!)  Important details below:

Thurs 22nd and Fri 23rd of July

7:30pm – Super Situation
9pm – Baby Rice Cakes followed by Glitch

£8 for one time slot, £10 for both

Box Office: 0207 928 0060

Click here for Facebook event.

It’s part of the Best of Festivals season produced by Theatre6 which is warming up the theatre before it officially opens in September.  Looking forward to cracking on with rehearsals next week 🙂

In August I’m going to be disappearing off to the Edinburgh Fringe to do a bit of busking for just over a week.  As yet, I still have to dust off my guitar and come up with the songs, but, seemingly, I like a challenge!