I feel after my initial good intentions I have been somewhat neglectful of this blog. I am continually impressed by comedians like Richard Herring and Tiernan Douieb who write a daily blog. But then they have much more interesting lives than me, and hence things to write about. And lets face it, they have a lot more time on their hands than I do!
Anyway I’ve been busy for the last few weeks with final rehearsals for the amateur production of 42nd Street which I’ve been appearing in all week. I first went on stage when I was 4 years old singing and dancing to Zipadee-doo-dah in a church hall but by the age of 6 I had progressed to a production of Alice in Wonderland at The Grand Theatre in Blackpool. I think I was pretty spoilt by my theatre experiences as a child – my dancing school put on an annual show in either The Grand or The Opera House, both are big theatres and made me pretty complacent about being on stage in front of hundreds of people. I went to dance classes until I was 18 when I went away to university and discovered drinking beer and smoking fags were much more appealing ways of spending my time.
When I moved to Scotland I decided that getting involved with dancing and amateur dramatics might be a good way to meet people (which it was – although don’t ask me why I thought I might also meet a nice young, single, straight man. That was never going to happen). For the relative size of the towns and villages around here there are a surprising number of amateur musical companies so I had a fair few to choose from. Amateur dramatics is a strange phenomenon – mainly because there is no pre-requisite for talent. There tend to be a few playing principal parts who actual do have some semblance of talent, some dancers like me who aren’t too terrible and then the ‘chorus’ made up mostly of middle aged women and a couple of men who’ve been claiming their pension since I was at primary school. I think most people just do it because it gets them out of the house for rehearsals a couple of hours a week rather than for any real desire to entertain the public. I enjoy it though and I get to indulge my inner show off without anyone telling me to shut up which can never be a bad thing.
I do have to suffer for my art though – I didn’t want to wear a wig so I decided that I would go for an authentic 1930s curly look, which involved inflicting hair based torture on myself every night this week (and the slight embarassment of having to go to work looking like a less deranged Bjork on Friday). Here’s the before and after shots (with a few of my fellow perfomers) – I think you’ll agree the effort it was worth it!
My Mum and Dad were visiting this week too – they came up after their Easter weekend away to see the show and so my Dad could do some of the DIY jobs I’d been saving for him. It also gave me an excuse to go to Anstruther for officially the best fish and chips in the UK. An hour’s drive for fish and chips is a bit excessive ordinarily but when I have visitors it’s an opportunity not to be missed! If you ever find yourself in the East Neuk of Fife I would highly recommend a visit.
And finally, I was really looking forward to the three Gilded Balloon comedy evenings we had coming up at The Alhambra – I was going to work and get to see three nights of comedy for free. Then all of a sudden the listings just disappeared from the website without a word as to why. Apparently it’s not just The Alhambra gigs that have been pulled but the whole tour. Personally, I think they aren’t coming because Rhona Cameron is a cunt.
