Milquetoast

A week or so ago, Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival launched their website, and with it, listings for all the shows that will be taking place. In a move that is sure to delight all Leicester-based lovers of comedy shows with semi-archaic words for titles, one of these shows will be mine! (I’m actually doing three shows, but this is just me on my own - details of the other two are here).

The show is called Milquetoast (definition here) and this is the blurb:

“We must not fear daylight just because it almost always illuminates a miserable world” - René Magritte.

This is not a show about fear.
The debut hour from Leicester Mercury nominee Chris Turner (as heard on BBC Radio 2).

Contrary to the blurb, it is a show about fear – that copywriting quirk is a tip of the hat to Magritte’s famous pipe - and parts are inspired by some of his thoughts and works. The full show will be written by mid-January, and I’ll be previewing it in a few places in the run-up to the Leicester show, so it’ll be all ready and stage-worthy.

The show is on Sunday 10th of February, at the Criterion Pub in Leicester, and tickets are £5 or £4 for concessions, available here. It would be lovely if you came.

Details on the LCF website here. Details on my solo show page here.

That’s all for now, Merry Christmas!

Preston.

On Saturday I was in Preston, gigging in a tent, in a car park outside the Adelphi pub.

It was part of ‘Bangfest’, a three day music festival with lots of (I’m assuming) local bands and DJs; and a comedy tent was part of the proceedings. One of the organisers was involved in last year’s Preston Tringe (their version of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe), and I had spoken to them about the possibility of doing a show there, in the end, this didn’t happen – I was doing my degree and there wasn’t time to put a show together – but they got in touch to ask if I’d like to do an ‘Edinburgh’ preview as part of the comedy tent at Bangfest.

I’ve been putting together a show for a while, and though it’s not going up to Edinburgh this year (see here for what is), I’m hoping to take it to Leicester Comedy Festival next year, as this year’s show with Adam Hess was really fun, and we managed to sell out 60 seats both days (more down to the promotion of the show by Mike, Shaun and LCF; and the popularity of the festival as a whole, than people coming for our handsome faces), showing that it’s a very good place to try stuff out to really nice audiences.

So on Saturday, I gave the show – my pretentious blurb/poster can be seen here – its first ever run through, and it turned out just fine. There’s a lot that can be lost, and there’s a lot that needs to be added to make the show hang together more, but the general thread worked and listening back to the recording, there were laughs all along the way, and a nice finale that capped it off. Some kind words about the show’s profundity from a philosophy and ethics tutor were also very helpful in allaying fears of any glaring inaccuracy and pseudo-intellectual/philosophical bullshit in there. Hopefully it’ll stay that way, and I can continue to improve it until its next outing.I’ll keep the page updated with details of any further previews, although I don’t expect any for a while, what with Edinburgh fast approaching. 

Thanks to the organisers for having me, and to the audience, the sound tech and to the comics who performed and watched.

Upcoming Shows

Hello!

Just a quick note about the shows I’m doing for this year’s Leicester Comedy Festival:

I’m doing a show with the marvellous Adam Hess – it’s on the 11th and 12th of February, and all the details are here.

I’m also nominated for the Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year, which is nice, and is on the 18th February at The Y Theatre – details and tickets here. The line-up is fantastic, and Jarred Christmas is MCing, so come if you can.

Lots of Love. x