30.12.09

κωμῳδία

wednesday will definitely be comedy day. i work (sorry, "work") in comedy. as a consequence i have lots of reasonably strong opinions. but i have decided that i will not be voicing half of them - the negative half. there isn't really much point in doing so and i'm very sick of the mcintyre jealousy. so, i shall be telling you about comedy wot i like.

the best show i saw at the edinburgh festival this year (and i only know of one other show that any of my friends thought was best) was nitwit by william andrews, a man i am lucky enough to know reasonably well. it was billed as a one-man sketch show, but in truth it was a great deal more than that. many of the scenes had real emotional truth and all of them were super funny. i had just read born standing up, steve martin's autobiography, and the show really put me in mind of its author's determination to let people decide for themselves. a couple quotes (from martin) about his work that i think apply to will:

i was seeking comic originality, and fame fell on me as a by-product. the course was more plodding than heroic: i did not strive valiantly against doubters but took incremental steps with a few intuitive leaps.”
he had an... um... unfortunate time at the festival. all the reviewers came on the same day when his (massively tech-heavy) show went wrong... so people didn't find out about how wonderful the show could be. he is supposed to be doing a show this year, but his resolve his weakening. i hope that he continues down the path...

another rule was to make the audience believe i was fantastic, that my confidence could not be shattered. they had to believe that i didn’t care if they laughed at all, and that this act was going on with or without them.”
...of comedy righteousness. his reward will be great in comedy heaven.

1 comment:

  1. COMMENT FROM I. MACFARLANE:

    Yes, you are being a douche. There is an English word for Copenhagen: Copenhagen. If you are in Denmark and you want to call it K... See Moreøbenhavn then I would commend you, particularly if you also spoke some Danish while there. That's the Danish name. By a similar, and more instantly recognisable token, you would look like an uber douche if you called the capital of France 'Par-ee'; in English it's 'Par-is'. But Hautes-Goulaine would be pronounced pretty much as similarly as you can manage to the locals, because there is no English name.

    How about that?

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