Hey Edinburgh, Can’t We All Get Along?

I’m back in Edinburgh people!

This year I am playing with the marvelous Vikki Stone and The Flashbacks from which you can buy tickets for here

I am also doing the tech for Rayguns Look Real Enough. Tickets for them are here

I also worked on the music for The Segue Sisters show. Tickets for them are right here

 

So that’s the admin out of the way.

What’s it like to be back? Pretty cool. Good to see a lot of friends who you don’t normally have living on your doorstep. Of course there is a lot of stress in the air as well. It often feels like a giant office party, where the veil of fun is clouded by the fact that we’re all in reality, still at work. But we get by. Whisky helps.

We’ve had some dodgy tech problems with Vikki’s show the last couple of days. Made all the more tense by knowing the reviewers were in last night as well as the Judges for the awards. However, despite all of that the show blew the roof off last night. Couldn’t have asked for a better audience and the show ran really smoothly. Score.

My evening was somewhat soured unfortunately.

Now I’m not going to name anyone in particular. I’m not wanting to start a war of words. Plus, I can’t remember the guy’s name anyway. He was THAT memorable.

We mentioned a musical comedy act we had both seen and the conversation went something along the lines of:

Guy: They were really something else. I mean they use songs which is cheating but they were fun.

[Me standing awkwardly with my guitar case]

Me: Erm… I do musical comedy too you know…

Guy [dismissive]: Yeah, but that [referencing my guitar] is just a six string applause machine.

[Guy starts chatting to other guy next to me about his hair and begins ignoring me]

 

So… Some guy who has never seen me perform has the gall to judge my act before he’s even seen a second of me perform. Rather harsh don’t you think? Especially as he smugly spouted ‘six string applause machine’ like it was a term he created. Vikki in some recent interviews has spoken out about how frustrating this term is to musical comedy performers since Sarah Millican said it in a promo for a competition. And I doubt Sarah Millican originally coined that phrase either. Unfortunately, this attitude isn’t restricted to that guy and Sarah Millican. A lot of comics feel this way.

The question is… Would they turn to Bill Bailey, Rich Hall or Tim Minchin and call them cheats?

Bizarrely, they probably would.

For some reason, musical comedy has a a reputation for not being ‘proper’ comedy. The way I see it? If it makes you laugh, it’s comedy. Musical comedy is just another genre of comedy.

You have Stand-Up, Sketch, Character, and Musical.

Sometimes musical comedians combine it with stand-up. Character mixes with stand-up too. Sketch comedy is also basically character comedy. IT’S ALL COMEDY, PEOPLE!

So why do musical comedians get looked down upon?

In the 80s when Not The Nine O’Clock News finished a show with a brilliant funny song, would anyone switch it off and say “HACKS!”??? Would they? Of course not. It’s still regarded as one of the best classic comedy shows. Monty Python did some of the most memorable comedy songs all the time. Hacks? Cheats? NO! Don’t be ridiculous.

So, to any comedian who thinks using music is cheating, then I ask you to write a comedy song yourself. Put it out there. See how easy it is. See how you don’t always get an applause when you play funny songs. A funny song can die just like a joke can. So don’t tell me it’s fucking cheating!

And more importantly, why should anyone not use their talent to entertain? If someone can do something, ANYTHING that can make an audience, from one person to a 20,000 strong crowd smile, then what’s the problem?

Isn’t THAT entertainment?

 

More cheery blog coming soon.