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Put out the light
Posted Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Sorry there's been a blog blight - I've just moved house and I've been up in Yorkshire attending casting sessions for othello and all sorts , so excuse the lack of communication.
Moving house was weird .. there are some people who , if you give them the right incentive , i.e. bacon sandwiches , cash money and as many free comics as they can hide under their jumpers - they'll come and move house for you! it was great , they just show up and and start packing your stuff! They were so enthusiastic I had to unpack the dog several times, they were so eager.
It was sad moving away from our lovely house in Berkshire ,but in the end it had to be done; we'd been there a long time and our daughter had grown up in that area , all her friends were there..it was a major deal.
So we've moved - and we're in and it's great. Had a big do to celebrate the new place and our combined birthdays (101 years old and counting!) -all our pals came down to eat pasties , drink cider and work out just how come there aren't ANY black people in Cornwall ... apart from annual Darkie day (!!!!!) and the odd hippie , it's just me down there.
It's kinda cool though -when my family came down we sextupled the ethnic population down there !
Poor White Trash and the little Big Horns performed , as did Ella Edmondson who really tore the place apart ...my friend David Knopov sang as Perfectly Frank the bastard scouse child of Frank Sinatra and got a really warm reception and the legendary Dean Freidman of Lucky Stars fame - was excellent. So it was party and a half...lots of drinking ,dancing , singing...Wooh Hah!
We had a good dj who used one of those CD turntables , he played some great tunes...
I know you got soul
it takes two
Got to be Real
Sex Machine
Think -
September
I found lovin'
Groove is in the heart
Music sounds better with you
Flawless
I don't know why , they were a strange mix of people,but they danced their asses off.
Last night of French and Saunders at Drury lane -legendary! I've never seen such an adoring, devoted audience. The atmosphere was nuclear by showtime and the girls got majorly busy and delivered a killer show that had them bursting at the seams. I was really proud. Adrian Edmondson , promoters Phil and Paul and myself were in one of the posh boxes and Robin Williams was in the box next door! ROBIN WILLIAMS! He's over here to do the Prince's trust show
that's coming up ,and he's doing warm up gigs all over London ... inspiring really. He could just rock up and piss about and get big laughs ,but he chooses to come over early and warm up. That's why he gets the big bucks I guess.
He inspired me to get my ass in gear and throw myself into these warm up gigs I've got to do for Live at the Apollo. I've worked out what I've got to do with Jon my co writer , so I've just got to hurl myself onto the audience's mercy and figure out what works and what doesn't.
Agghhghghghg !
I'm slowly gearing up for Othello with Northern Broadsides and Barry Rutter -we just did casting for Emilia , Bianca and Desdemona....Barry does these group auditions where everyone sits in and watches everybody else. It's incredibly pressured but they all seemed to thrive on it.
Some great talent out there...I had to get up and do stuff too and it was nerve wracking - this was me reading stuff directly from the text with other grown up actors ...yikes! I somehow managed to slog through though , with Barry reminding me to 'Breathe lad!' every so often..
Barry has told us all NOT to learn the text before we start rehearsals -but in my researches on Shakesepare I've been talking to various actor chums like Alan Rickman ,Suzanne Bertish, Miranda Richardson and the like have all been saying -'Learn it, because when you get up to rehearsals you're gonna want to rock and roll -off the book' . My gut instinct says learn it ,but I'm listening to Barry ,who continually says 'be familiar but don't have it nailed because rehearsals will affect your performance and if you have a pre-set thing in your mind , you'll have to un-learn it ...' It's very confusing. I'm enjoying it though ,but I'm shitting my pants...how do people do this?
Anyhoo...I'm gonna be reporting in much more from now on ,and I might start including some stuff from my M.A. course ,just so you know what I'm getting up to.
Take care , ya'all....
Len
P.S. I bought a DVD on Amazon the other day , The Tonight show comedians -presented by Johnny Carson - it's some of the biggest comics in the USA , having their debut performances on American TV - Roseanne Barr, Garry Shandling , Steven Wright ,Brett Butler ,Drew Carey, Ronnie Shakes (R.I.P.) and I have to say - I got to the end and I was cheered for the whole day. Comedy can do that ; So if you're feeling down , watch this DVD and you'll want to fly!
Comedy rocks.
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