June 2013
Update 1/7/13. Bill Bailey has just announced a further London date, at Wembley Arena on November 29. Tickets go on sale at 9am on July 5 here. Or via telephone on 0844 815 0815. Pre Sale from 9am on July 3. Full tour details here.
An early Week Ahead this week, as it involves a big gig at the start of the week that might take some forward planning. Bill Bailey's recent tours have taken in venues of contrasting sizes, from arenas – or "enormodomes", as I think he was the first to dub them – to the Royal Albert Hall, Leicester Square Theatre and larger West End Theatres.
Aziz Ansari's one-off in London last night at the Apollo was a major step up from his last visit here in 2011 when he played the intimate Soho Theatre. You can put that down to Parks & Recreation, the post-Office workplace sitcom in which Ansari plays brash, go-getting fall-guy Tom Haverford. There was no mention of the show onstage, but that did not stop a packed crowd really enjoying a slick, professional set.
A bumper crop of gongs for our comedy brethren in the Queen's Birthday Honours List this morning. Tony "Baldrick" Robinson gets a knighthood for his public and political work and Rowan Atkinson is awarded a CBE for his services to drama and charity. Rob Brydon bags an MBE, while veteran producer Jon Plowman pocketed an OBE and founder of the Leicester Comedy Festival Geoff Rowe trousered a BEM.
Update 15/6 – Following the announcement below yesterday it soon became clear how unhappy the people involved from the comedy world were. I received a further email from the organisers and Alan Davies, one of the big stars due to appear along with Al Murray and Ed Byrne, tweeted me that "the local residents objected. Nimbys. They could have left it to see how it went. It may have gone back to Greenwich next year."
After a hard stressful week isn't it delightful to slip into something nice and funny and not likely to get the Daily Mail huffing and puffing and hot under the collar? I resisted Would I Lie To You? for a while. Maybe it was the Have I Got News For You baggage Angus Deayton brought as first host, maybe it was the show's initial resemblance to a pub-gossip Call My Bluff. But at some point late to the party I decided that I loved this programme and now I'm hooked.
The third Amused Moose Laughter Awards, supported by 2entertain, launches today. The London club will be searching for the best show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the winner will receive £5000 towards the development of their comedy career, a commercial standard promotional DVD filmed at the Soho Theatre, a potential DVD deal, extensive promotional and development opportunities and a trophy.
If you want to get an idea of the sheer sweat, graft and toil that goes into preparing an Edinburgh Fringe show you should follow Richard Herring's daily Warming Up blog at the moment. As well as talking wittily about life in general he entertainingly charts the struggle to get to his preview gigs, the difficult audiences and, most importantly, he also dissects his set as it evolves.
I'm usually reluctant to give the opposition the oxygen of publicity, but this week Time Out's comedy section has done a nice round-up of the Edinburgh Fringe's work-in-progress shows coming up in London. I'd been working on a similar piece myself to launch BTJ's new Preview Section and will be posting Preview of the Day tweets to highlight the shows you really must see
Good news for Mighty Boosh fans – or at least Mighty Boosh fans who can afford transatlantic flights. The duo will be reuniting to appear at the Festival Supreme, a one-day comedy festival organised by Jack Black and Kyle Glass, aka Tenacious D. Also appearing are Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifianikis, Eric Idle, Adam Sandler, Demetri Martin, Hannibal Buress, Reggie Watts and lots more.
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