Andrew College dared to enter my house of death this week to record our
120th (127th) podcast together. I don't think you will find many people who disagree that this works better when we are in the same room and actually interacting, but apologies to anyone who hoped that we might do the whole thing in two separate sections from now on.
We discussed
the Fosters Comedy God poll, which Stewart Lee has attacked correctly
for being against the spirit of Edinburgh and crass, but which if I am honest I am mostly annoyed about because I am not on it. This isn't entirely fair. Having an award for comedy does cast a cloud over the Edinburgh Fringe and turn it from a celebration of the arts into a competition, which is a ludicrous notion and comedy should be about railing against corporations and sponsorship, not trying to win money off of fizzy water companies and beer makers. But it is a little galling for me personally to once again not even make consideration for these lists (which I might not hate as much if I got on them - who knows?), especially one that revolves around Edinburgh, which I think I have some claim to be considered in the top 173 comedians who have appeared here. But I have never been nominated for a Perrier (as I think we should insist on calling them forever) so I am not on the list. But nor is Stewart Lee or Robin Ince, two of the most influential and inventive figures in the Fringe in recent years. And despite the scatter gun approach which has seen so many acts nominated it's interesting that other non-noms include figures as influential as Bill Hicks (generally seen as the greatese stand up ever) Dara O' Briain (who was on the list originally before it was pointed out that he had never been nominated), Frankie Boyle and Ricky Gervais. It seems that far from blowing its own trumpet the people behind the award should be considering how their system has allowed these influential names to slip between the cracks. Especially when a nomination is a leg up in the industry, as lazy producers and journalists will take it as a definitive decision on the best acts of the year. Stewart's objections are all good and of course it is a fatuous exercise to even attempt this vote (and there is nobody qualified to know which of these acts spanning 30 years was the best as no one has seen them all - so even more ludicrous to put it to the public who will have seen maybe an average of two of the acts live), but I think the awards failures might be more interesting than its successes (and there's plenty of names on the list who have amounted to little). If I was a journalist, which I only am on the vaguest of levels, here and now, I would take this opportunity to question the validity and the effectiveness of an awards which could have failed to recognise the talents of such major figures (even if it was just Stewart Lee, Bill Hicks and Ricky Gervais you could argue that it had pretty much failed to spot the three most influential comics of our generation). Add to this such stalwart Edinburgh names as Lucy Porter, Adam Bloom, Andy Smart (who has appeared at the last 30 Fringes) and Richard Vranch (missed three since 1979) and I am sure many others that I haven't called to mind. They may not all be household names, but maybe they would have been if they had had their talents recognised or if there wasn't this contest in the first place and producers and journalists had been forced to do their job and seek out talent by themselves.
The funny idiotic nerds on
the notbbc.com comedy forum made two excellent suggestions, firstly Rob Sedgebeer pointing out that in 2008 every act on the Fringe had
(stupidly) won the Spirit of the Fringe award and thus there should be a lot more names on the list and secondly, Paul Twist suggesting a protest against the notion of such a poll, by encouraging everyone to cast their vote for
Frank Chickens who let's face it might be the best act on the list, but who would know, because only people like Andy Smart and Richard Vranch have much chance of remembering and they were probably lying pissed in a bar somewhere when the Chickens were on. For a brief few minutes this afternoon after some Twitter prompting the Frank Chickens got to the top of the poll. They currently are lying third. The vote goes on for a few more weeks so it's unlikely that they will manage to defeat the army of teenage fans that Russell Howard can command or the legions of people who support Michael Macintyre, but it's worth a little click if you cab be bothered.
Or maybe it isn't. Maybe to draw attention to it all is just playing into Fosters' beer soaked hands. Perhaps we are just generating publicity for something that thrives off publicity. As the Frank Chickens will no doubt discover it's hard to win. But moreso if you never get nominated.
But it's fun to think that this minor sabotage has had some effect. Hopefully it will encourage the Frank Chickens to think they have an enormous fan base in the country and to come back to the Fringe. If they do, we all have to go and see them.
I headed down to Newbury this afternoon, but had the wrong venue details on my website so ended up at the Corn Exchange rather than the New Greenham Arts centre, much to the amusement of the staff at the former venue. They then rang New Greenham to say I was on my way, and so I got another round of amused faces as I pulled up at the correct venue and comments of "You had some trouble finding us then!"
I was using my own projector for the first time. The last time I had used it was for the Hercules Terrace show, but I did lend it another act about three or four years ago. On opening the case I discovered that they had neglected to return the power cable to the box. This is why you should never help anyone else. Luckily the tech at the venue found one that fitted and I probably have something at home amongst my box of leads (that thankfully I didn't throw away) that will do the job. And despite having sat unused for so long the projector worked fine, which was a relief.
I thought it was a bit of a better preview tonight and the audience were up for it from the start, though a bit quiet in the middle. There is still a lot of tinkering under the bonnet to do.
Apparently Edinburgh sales are looking healthy - I think everyone is a bit surprised about how well it is doing - so don't leave it to the last minute, especially for those early cheaper shows
Book here for Christ on a Bike.
And
here for As It Occurs To Me.
and
here for Collings and Herrin (which will all sell out quite soon so don't delay.
I don't need awards and recognition as long as I have you. And drunk blokes on tube trains telling me I am shit.
