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CRADLE TO RAVE VS MAGICIANS
Posted Monday, November 29, 2010
It's really odd when something comes in from the side and knocks you off your trajectory.
I wasn't supposed to be hosting a magic show on prime time BBC one for the new year;
what I was supposed to be doing was writing / trying out and rehearsing for Cradle to
Rave ,which is the title of the new tour. (I get the Cradle thing ,but what's the deal with Rave Len? You
don't like rave music , never have ,you like the boom ,the bip, the boom bip...)
The whole show is about music , rather than just a ten minute section as I do normally.
I've always parodied music on television , from 3 of a kind and Da Doo Ron Ron to the Lenny Henry show
and Michael Jackson's Thriller (I'm getting Thinner ,thinner now..- these zombies look like fans of Aston Villa etc)
I've always loved the idea of music and comedy - it's a good match. Some of my favourite comics are obsessed
with music - Billy Connolly's a fine banjo , guitar and mandolin player, Steve Martin's a banjo freak, Bill Bailey plays
everything, Richard Pryor played guitar and sang - had a great voice , listen to him sing/preach on his albums
it's electrifying.
So all my favourite comics have a musical thing they do , a rhythm - Eric and Ernie's wannabehollywoodstars showbusiness -ness.
All those sixties stars could do a soft shoe shuffle and give it warble at the mic -it was what you did back in the day.
So for me , an entire show about music is a no brainer. I get to sing , dance, pretend to be a big band guy, pretend to be a funkateer. I talk about my childhood propensity for NOT practising guitar or piano but INSTEAD learning how to burp the alphabet , or 'gooin' down the canal and walkin' down the tunnel to Netherton cos there might be GHOSTS down there' making the the choice between doing that stuff or sitting in a room with a bully with a ruler was frankly easy to make - I'm outside playing rather
than inside practising...but now , as a 52 year old music loving freak ...I kinda wish I had learnt an instrument..
It's tough though now because we open in mid Jan and THE MAGICIANS has come along. This is a BBC 1 prime time
entertainment show that features three sets of magicians; smooth , handsome Luis De Matos who won illusionist of the decade -Macabre pranksters
Barry and Stuart won Comedy Magicians of the year last year.. street hustling Chris Korn is the king of close up magic - they're all good - all of them spent their child hoods in their bedroom learning the craft of stage magic from books , and they are all about to become big stars ..
and I'm the host , the glue , the ring master holding the whole thing together - I think it's gonna be really good - the producer (Karen Smith who presided over Strictly ) pitched me the whole thing one day over coffee and I was hooked. I realised -I've got magic in my showbiz DNA- Performed with Paul Daniels for two weeks at the New Cresta club in Solihull -check. 2 Summer Seasons with Martin P.Daniels (son of Paul) -check. Several tours with John Lenehan (great club and close up magician) check - a sneaking admiration for the Great Soprendo (Geoffrey Durham)'s wacky magic (check) - a deep affection and love for Tommy Cooper -check ....Penn and Teller at the Beacon theatre in L.A. (I'm the black guy on the front row with his jaw ON THE FLOOR-) check...I could go on and on about why this show is also a no brainer.
So - I'm having to be across two big projects simultaneously - plus learning to play the Piano with Jen Dobson and Benedict Westenra , and trying out new material for the Tour at Old Rope and the 99 nine club - (come check me out....) and writing stuff for The Magicians..
You'll excuse me if I don't blog for a while..
All details for the tour elsewhere on this site ..
Magicians begins on New Years' day...
Dip your bread..
peace
Lenxxx
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