Monday, January 7, 2013

My Creative 2012

In much the same way that I committed my summer holidays to paper at school every September I've decided to cast my eye back over what I've done in any creative capacity over this last year. With the nature of this industry being so fleeting and inconsistent it's easy to feel one has nothing to show at the end of a hard working year. So, in order to avoid that, it's nice to remind yourself what you have actually managed to achieve. I don't know when in life you're supposed to reach which particular milestones. Personally I feel that, at 25 years old, I'm way behind in establishing myself an actual career but, on the other hand, it's possible that doing it the long way is doing it right. Either way, although I believe that I should be earning my living solely, or at least mainly, through creative endeavours I'm not judging this year's success on financial reward because frankly I'm not there yet. I include this information because, although it's not strictly anyone else's business, I promised to be honest about my work here and this is no exception. 

So, first things first, I don't think 2012 was as jam packed as it could have been. I definitely intend to increase my pace in 2013 but here are a few of the things I did end up doing.
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As regular readers of this blog (or anyone who has probably ever met me) will know, I run a comedy club with my business partner Sam Gardner. We opened in January 2010 in Canterbury, Kent and have been running clubs and a variety of other comedy events ever since. 2012 was quite a unique year for the company. For the first half we ran as per usual with monthly clubs at our resident venue The Parrot and two or three times per term at The Attic on the University of Kent campus plus Chatback Kid's Hour at The Gulbenkian Theatre. We are very lucky that our audiences are enthusiastic and loyal but it's still very hard to make a living in live comedy, especially when we were both working numerous other jobs and living in separate cities. We took a six month break before we realised two things. Firstly, we missed the gigs like hell and secondly we were being inundated by Kentish residents asking where the shows had gone. That's all the encouragement we needed to relaunch again in September! So that's the crazy ride Chatback had in 2012. Obviously the initial issues had to be addressed and we didn't shirk that. To this end there'll be a few changes in 2013. Keep your eyes peeled! 

Our audiences come to our gigs with open minds and wanting to be amused. This means we get to invite so many interesting and exciting acts to perform at our shows, faces both familiar and unknown, to showcase the incredible array of talent currently on the circuit. At the bottom of this post you'll find the websites of all the acts we welcomed last year, please do go see anyone who takes your fancy. One last note: A wonderful side effect of struggling under our ever growing workload this year was the  support we received from all the local arty types culminating in the creation of our amazing Chatback marketing team. Many lovely UKC students have stepped in to give us a bit of a lift just when we most needed it but special note must go to our core of helpers Soph, Daphne, Grace and Faith. Special note must also go to Daniel Tollady for his tireless design work and to Andy Jeffs for his pre-show music extravaganzas at The Attic gigs.
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In 2011 I wrote, directed and produced a play at the Edinburgh Fringe. It was the true story of a pre-op transgender lady called Rachael Jones who I met in Indiana where she lives, and runs a cafe, on the Bible Belt. The ethos of the cafe is inclusivity. It's motto is 'Everyone is welcome, no exceptions'. I was entranced by this and by Rachael and her sunny optimism. The play was a solo piece and was performed by actor Graham Elwell. I'm very proud of the play but probably just as proud of the logo I painstakingly scrawled into a cup of coffee. That's why that, and not the official poster of the show, is stuck here for all to see. From the start this has been a collaborative project. My family have been super supportive and we've run this theatrical operation like a family business. Mum on Stage Management, Dad on FOH and internetting, Grandma on publicity! Even the sister starting facebooking about the show! In 2012 we added Faith (remember her from Chatback!?) into the Stage Management division and we took the play to two festivals:
These were really good fun and, in many cases, educational! We got the chance to meet many other writers, actors and performers peddling their wares and, when we weren't rushed off our feet, we went to watch their shows too. So I have Dublin to thank for introducing me to Collin Clay Chace and his beautiful Rock 'n Wrestle Roadshow and Brighton for Andie Davidson and her poetry book RealIsations and Greenwich Theatre's Lillies boys and their gorgeous production. We also performed a fundraiser at Central School of Speech & Drama's Embassy Theatre in aid of Gendered Intelligence,  a charity that uses the arts to educate on the topic of gender. The show was packed full and they even created a mini Rachael's Cafe in the bar area selling cookies, cupcakes and wine! 
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WRITING
Rachael's Cafe was my debut play and it still has a fair bit of work that needs doing to it. Between 2011 and 2012 I learnt more about how to edit, rewrite and workshop a play so that the  performances in Dublin and Brighton were markedly different to their debut in Edinburgh. This gave me the confidence to have a crack at writing a little bit more. As a result there are numerous notebooks and untitled documents on my computer harbouring bits and bobs of attempted masterpieces! I suppose the semi-success stories so far are:
1. Keeping my blog up to date-ish. In 2012 I wrote 40 blogs as compared to 24 in 2011. 
2. Writing for TheGayStage.co.uk as their featured playwright specifically about the gap between GLBT and mainstream theatre.
3. Writing the first few drafts of a new play which is being workshopped this year with The Comedian's Theatre Company. 
4. Reviewing theatre and comedy for the Camden New Journal
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 LEARNING
I hope that in 2013 I attend more classes that are specifically directed towards what I want to be doing but I'm glad that I got quite a variety in 2012. 

IdeasTap: This is a great resource for creatives. They run a lot of free sessions that cover so many different bases. I attended a puppet workshop where we learnt how to manipulate different everyday objects such as socks and carrier bags. I went to Zena Edward's 'From Page to Performance' where we practised writing techniques for creative self-performed work. I attended a couple of sessions of the 'Down to Business' course where we learnt about running a creative business, grant funding, loans, equity and more. 

Masterclass at TRH: These are free (for under 30's) masterclasses held at the Theatre Royal Haymarket where actors, writers, directors and others from the film, tv and theatre industries come to share their expertise. This year I saw Danny DeVito with Thea Sharrock (click for review of this session here: Danny DeVito) and Alan Yentob the Creative Director of the BBC. 

StageOne New Producers Course: This is a three day course that you have to apply and be accepted for. It's run with a view to developing new commercial UK producers. We had masterclasses and panel discussions with so many shining stars of the industry including Michael Lynas, Neil Adleman, Julian Bird, Ros Povey, Vicky Graham, Becky Barber, Andrew Treagus, Joseph Smith, Nicola Seed, Blanche McIntyre and more. We covered producing, general management, contracts, writers, directors, actors, devised pieces, intellectual property, budgeting, raising capital and so much more. 

Si Spencer 'The Script Doctor's' writing class: I attended this five hour session at the Hen & Chicken's Theatre. It covered the aspects of writing such as plot points, character development, dialogue etc. I really enjoyed it. Si was friendly, interesting and fun to listen to. 

BBC at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 'Writing for Radio & Theatre': This was a really interesting session held at the Fringe this year and run by the Artistic Director Orla O'Loughlin of the Traverse Theatre. 

I still maintain that much of my most effective learning takes place by watching theatre and comedy shows, by reading and by keeping my eyes and ears open. 
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ACTING
Woefully little this year. This is really no one's fault but my own. I'm listed on Spotlight still but a combination of taking on too many roles on other shows meant that auditions and the roles themselves never really had a place to fit in. For the performances of Rachael's Cafe in Brighton and Dublin I added in a very small role with about six lines at the beginning of the play which I played. This wasn't created so I had the chance to shine or anything! It came out of something practised in rehearsal and worked better than anything else we'd tried. So I did that for a couple of weeks and then again in London. I also filmed a short segment as a presenter for an online company's viral.
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TEACHING
On Fridays I go to an organisation in Hackney called Core Arts where I work as front of house and teaching one-on-one sessions on Interview Technique and Communications Skills for people with mental health problems. Core Arts is an organisation which uses the arts to both break down prejudices about mental health and to engage their members to help them express themselves and develop skills. They have recording studios, music lessons, MIDI suites (I think I got that right), an art studio, stage, poetry writing classes and more. My sessions focus on developing the skills so that members are able to communicate with and express themselves in job interviews, housing or benefit queries and meetings or sometimes simply on a day to day basis. It's a pretty cool place and it has helped lots of people. 
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Dan Simpson (Poetry Team Captain)
& Paul Sweeney (Comedy Team Captain)

The last thing I did this year was to collaborate on a project with Dan Simpson (spoken word poet, compere of The Word House) on an idea we've had brewing for a while. Basically Dan works with poetry, whilst I work with comedy and, for the most part, they get pretty different audiences. This struck us as weird because ultimately they are both spoken word and they are both art forms. So many people see comedy as boorish and performance poetry as dull but the truth is that they are so much more diverse than that. We wanted to unite the two audiences. We wanted to shatter preconceptions. So we made it a competition! Stand Up & Slam! is a format somewhere between a poetry slam and a traditional comedy club line up. We have two comperes, or captains, one of whom is a poet and one a comedian. They mock battle with each other, create the 'friendly' sense of competition and introduce their team members. A number of rounds follow which will see one comedian and one performance poet perform ten minutes of material each. The winner of the round is determined by audience applause. For our first show we also had a headliner in the shape of comedy poet Tim Clare. The show launched on December 8th 2012 at The Gallery Cafe in Bethnal Green and was kindly supported by Apples and Snakes. The audience were wonderful and enthusiastic, all the acts top notch and, I'm ashamed to say, poetry beat comedy 3 to 2. Here's to next time!
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SHOUT OUTS: 
Chatback and our comedians
Dr George Ryegold - http://georgerye.wordpress.com
Carys Nia Williams - http://www.carysniawilliams.co.uk
Daniel Tollady (Designer) - http://danieltollady.blogspot.co.uk

Rachael's Cafe
LittleFlyTheatre (Rachael's Cafe website) - http://www.littleflytheatre.com
Graham Elwell - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2937698/
Dublin Gay Theatre Festival - http://www.gaytheatre.ie
Gendered Intelligence - http://www.genderedintelligence.co.uk
Lillies & Greenwich Theatre - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdSsNJOtZD0
Collin Clay Chace/Rock 'n Wrestle Roadshow - http://juhamusic.com/Juha/The_Rock_N_Wrestle_Roadshow.html

Writing

Learning
Masterclass at TRH - http://www.masterclass.org.uk

Acting

Core Arts
Core Arts - http://www.corearts.co.uk

Stand Up & Slam
Apples and Snakes - http://www.applesandsnakes.org

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Friday, January 4, 2013

Comedy is Subjective. Newsflash!?

Why is stand up comedy such an unreliable art form? How come a comedian can absolutely smash it at a gig on Monday night and die an anguished comedy death 10 metres down the road on Tuesday? Why is a joke deemed hilarious by friends in the pub suddenly completely lacking when delivered at an open mic night? Why does a comedian suddenly feel the need, mid-show, to edit or ad lib part of a set that was working fine over the past three months? And really, how is it that the 8pm show is nothing like the midnight show at The Comedy Store, London!? It's the same acts! It's the same material! 

The answer is simple: The success of a joke, of a comedian, lies solely in who's listening. 

It's part of why people gaze admiringly at comedians, those loveable ego-driven funny machines clutching a pint to their sub-par physiques, and declare breathlessly 'You're so brave!', 'It's the hardest job in the world', paramedics, soldiers and fireman instantly swept to the side. 

The same happens in real life. Yes, real life! Some people are naturally the more amusing jokers, some just happen to have found friendship groups that enthusiastically enjoy their wit and wry observations whereas the rest of us just assume that we're not funny. And maybe we're not. But if we look a bit closer we'll see that many of these successful jokers are not nearly so funny when removed from their group-with-built-in-comedy-fans or that they have a hit/miss ratio on par with many professional stand ups depending on their company, the time and the event. 

It all depends on who's receiving the joke. My sister has a very dry sense of humour. Unless I whip out a corker any joke I ever make will always be met with a disapproving glance and a distinct lack of laughter. My best friend will most likely be in hysterics but she's a compulsive giggler and wants to be amused. That makes a big difference. So I might be utterly unfunny, I might be the comedian of the century (it's unlikely yes). The truth is that it depends on who's listening. Also on how drunk they are.

It's a basic truth that comedy is not always funny. Or not always funny for everyone. Look to improvisation and you'll see a clearer illustration of how the power of comedy lies in receiving feedback from audiences, from keeping alert and developing in response to the audience's level of appreciation. This is how newbies with one good joke and twenty minutes of crap can end up honing incredible sets that speak perfectly to his or her generation of fans. This is why Michael McIntyre worked the circuit for years before becoming the only comedian in the list of highest earning arena tours 2012. 

It's a truth that's been covered by the success of TV panel and 'live' roadshows that edit down sets until only the laughs remains and any unnecessary awkwardness is quietly removed. TV audiences then feel disappointed when a live comedy show contains jokes that fall flat on their faces or sink without trace, when the laughs don't consistently come at neat five second intervals nor does every comedian end his set on a high note. The comedians are now the 'new rock stars', the untouchables who define what is funny and it's very hard for up-and-coming acts to live up to that in person. 

This isn't another rant about TV killing comedy. Panel shows, roadshows, they all have their place. I watch many of them myself. And while I'm not trying to encourage new talent to enter the industry, it's hard and pretty oversubscribed right now, I would like to ensure that clubs remain where comedians can break out new material, can try to do or say something innovative and where people are still willing to listen. Because, at the end of the day, comedy only matters if someone is listening. 


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