Funny Looking Presents… Update #06 Fringe 02!

Long Form Comedy for the discerning, that’s you!
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Summer is upon us. But Fringe Autumn is Coming…

It has been a while hasn’t it? I did say I wouldn’t bombard you.
But I have been thinking of you. Often.

There’s just too much to tell you and I am brimming with excitement.
Listen. Let’s grab that coffee sometime? And even if we don’t because of the pace of life that we lead, let’s just think fondly of each other now and again.
Maybe we will meet in the dark in the back room at the fringe event. Perhaps you will sidle up to me look at me and tell me and I am Funny Looking.

But in truth you are Funny Looking.

Gav

Line Up & Tickets

With first time hours, master works in development and acres of finely honed comedy that is fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival; we are a broad church of choice.

Comedy for kids, music, podcasts, impro, stories, sketch, magic, mayhem, chaos, jokes, japes, jumbles and a joint we will get jumping with laughter. There is something here for you and all your pals. Bring them.

Look out for special announcements on Facebook & Twitter. Pop up Gigs. Late night surprises.

Come along, take a punt, stay for a coffee, cake and a beer. Be entertained. Be enthralled. Be challenged. Be part of the Liverpool Comedy Fringe that is Funny Looking.

https://funnylooking.co.uk

Our website is in development!

Oh My G…
It’s actually happening sooner than you imagine. The Funny Looking Fringe at the Liverpool Comedy Festival.
Over 40 gigs all at the mighty 81 Renshaw Street.
The old hands, newcomers, experimental, podcasts,  award-winning and nominated, sketch, character, top nonsense & bargains aplenty.

This is the Fringe. The Funny Looking Fringe.

Bringing you so much good comedy that you so bloody deserve.

Have a skip down the ticket listing here and tell me there is something for you?

Line Up & Tickets

It’s impossible that there isn’t. I did this for you. And your friends. And all their friends too.

This is a grassroots Fringe, unfunded & dependent on your help sharing the list, telling people about it retweets, shares and likes really do help. Get excited with me will you?

Sean Morley – Scriptless Standup
A Comedy Workshop

This is an exclusive. BBC New Comedian of the year semi finalist Sean Morley is bringing his workshop to Liverpool for us. Your chance to jump on board the Morley Train.

Tickets for this workshop will be £20 and limited in numbers but there are a few early bird tickets for £15 on the link right now. We do expect this to sell out quickly.

Golden Ticket Competition

Would you like to see every single funny looking fringe at the Liverpool comedy festival gig for free? Of course you would! Who wouldn’t?

Funny looking is going to give away a Golden Ticket. Allowing you the ability to just swan into every gig and not have to hand over any of your sweet folding.

Click here and add your email address and enter the draw.

Drawn mid Sept.
Not transferrable to anybody other then the winner.

(If you have already bought tickets for any of the gigs, and you really should do, I will ensure you are refunded and not out of pocket – Gav)

Arthur Smith at the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival
Gig Report
Funny Looking Presents stretched its wings and promoted Arthur Smith at the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival. You can have a read of the gig report here:

https://funnylooking.co.uk/arthur-smith-vs-hebden-bridge-arts-festival/

Beware its features Americans, Lance +1 and a bottom.

Merchandise
A Funny Looking badge for a minimum donation of £2 will get you a pound off every single Funny Looking gig for life (terms and conditions apply)

Just £8 will get you a Funny Looking mug and as you sip your cup of joe you will know that you have supported our endeavours to give new and alternative comedy a gloriously different at home in Liverpool.

Finally if you just have to have one of our logos printed on a T-shirt, pair of leggings, or even a cushion, you can go to our red bubble store and support as that way. (Though it’s a bit expensive and then they sting you for postage so look out for the days when there are discounts)
(Basically, by a mug)

Shiny New Festival
@ The Lantern Theatre – Comedy
Pulse of the podcast and the Presents… Alastair Clark and Francis Greenfield has curated a beautiful set of preview gigs at the Lantern Theatre.
Have a butchers here but do it quick.
http://www.lanterntheatreliverpool.co.uk/#top
Volunteers & Help Needed
Funny Looking Fringe needs your help.
Want to be part of the first fringe of the Liverpool Comedy Festival?

We need people who will donate a few hours knowing that a lifetime of regard will be passed their way from myself.

We need-

  • Front of house and ticket support on the nights of the fringe gigs
  • Volunteer technicians to make sure the legends and champions of the fringe can be seen and heard
  • Marketing specialists with the uncanny ability of being able to hand a piece of paper to people on the street. (This is a really key one and just an hour or two of your time will really make a difference to all the acts)
  • Event & Admin support – do you want to be in at the sharp end of making a fringe happen? Are you interested in making events fly? Then we need your help. A few hours of your time getting the message out and helping with promotion online and beyond could be an excellent opportunity if this is something you’ve wanted to do for yourself.
  • Sponsorship – do you know a company, organisation or Internet millionaire who would like to help with this Fringe? As I say we are grassroots but with small amounts we can do a lot – we can get logos onto thousands of flyers and we can get sponsors names in front of readers of finest marketing outlets. This is a genuine request.
Season 2 & Podcasts
PODCAST!

Funny Looking enters its 3rd year as the official podcast of the Liverpool Comedy Festival. Search iTunes or your pod catcher for Funny Looking.
(During the festival look out on Twitter for our guerilla Funny Looking Live podcasts and mayhem…)

Funny Looking Live has returned to Spreaker on a Sunday night.
Chat calls and topics. It’s either the best or the very worst way to start or finish your week.

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Funny Looking Live

 

Sundays 9pm http://www.spreaker.com/show/the_funny_looking_show

  • It’s nonsense
  • It’s self-centered
  • It’s indulgent
  • It’s difficult to justify
  • live on Spreaker.

You could:

  • Listen live
  • Listen back on Spreaker or via itunes
  • Join in the live chatbox
  • Skype in: funnylookingpod
  • Call 0151 528 3575

A chance to:

  • Respond to the topics
  • Try ideas
  • Test characters
  • Complain
  • Plug something
  • Be part of a community of malcontents, aspirants, lonely & desperate.

If any of this appeals then god bless you and you seem perfect.

You can call and leave a message before the show.

Or not.

Tell all your friend.

Gav

@funnylookingpod

Funny Looking Presents…

 

 

The embarrassing enthusiasms of an ageing misanthrope

In the past couple of years that I have re-submerged myself in the world of live comedy and I have discovered the joy of preview shows. Works in Progress.

I love them and I actually feel grateful that I get the chance to see these sometimes half formed ideas, or robust structured hours that require some polish. It still amazes me that comedians do this.

Think about the painter that takes their sketches out and says “what’dya tink?” to an pompous RA over opinionated member. The composer that hums a nascent tune to a passing Classical Chill Out CD owner and then asks their opinion. The comedian that scribbles an idea into a Tesco version of a Moleskin and stands in front of a paying audience and speaks out loud for the first time, something they feel and hope is funny. Must be terrifying.

It is why I think that the art form of the comedian is one of the bravest, the rawest and the trickiest. Alright, alright. I know we are not talking about bomb disposal, a Paramedic on a Friday night, or a teacher with the future of our children in their wherewithal. But we are talking about artists. People that balance what they do with who they do it for. People that have to make what they want to make. Say what they want to say and then for pragmatic reasons, try to shape that into a vaguely commercial form. Something that we the public will fork out for, will support.

With the increase in awareness and availability comedy in so many delivery forms and outlets, lots of people have become ‘experts’ in comedy, very quickly. And then you can take that opinion and push it out to 30 people. Really easily. We do.

Funny Looking was never imagined as a review outlet. Sometimes I will say, out loud even, “all reviewers are cunts”. I don’t think I mean it. Some reviewers raise the form high and show a dignity in their writing, an honesty and more importantly a high degree of self awareness, that lets the reader know that this is what that performance means to them, personally. Bruce Dessau stands out to me as a reviewer that balances knowledge, honesty and opinion. And I certainly don’t agree with everything he says. But he says it compellingly well.

Two things stood out recently. One was the conversation I had with the three people I took to see David Trent at the “How The Light Gets In festival of ideas” in Hay on Wye. This was a preview show for This Is All I Have, his show for this years Edinburgh Festival and the follow up to the hugely brilliant Spontaneous Comedian. This was the second time I had seen the preview show, the first at Mach Fest. It is a testament to to what I think about the show so far that I returned to see it again and if I get to Ed Fest this year, I fully intend to see the final product.

Another testament to the show, as well as the rolling swell of laughter throughout, was the fact that three people who had known nothing of David Trent were discussing the show, how much they enjoyed it, how much they got from it, how clever and funny it was and how original they considered it. There. That is my review in this paragraph. I’m not going to talk about any content. It was a preview. Bits will change. Come in, go out. I will say, there was real progression and development since Mach and my very favourite bit, a video piece was still in it. But what right do I have to even offer this observation? I feel arrogant even committing that to Flog.

There was a point in the show, not even noticed by one of my party, where somebody left. The show wasn’t for them, they didn’t want to stay, they were not enjoying it. They left. (On a secondary note their stated reason for leaving was at massive misreading of a bit that nobody else in the room agreed with).

Great. I’m not enjoying this. I’m leaving. I get that. I respect that. (They were massively wrong in my opinion but they stuck to theirs)

What I struggle with is:

I’m not enjoying this.

It isn’t funny.

I’m staying to the end no matter how unfunny it is to me.

I’m going to make sure I enthusiastically tell you how unfunny it is.

Paid reviewers. Maybe I understand. But others. Leave. Forget it. Let it go. Why would you tell us why it isn’t funny? How can somebody be definitive?

This links to the second point I have been thinking about. It comes from a rare comment on the website. Very welcome but intriguing.

On the previous Flog, about the Brian Gittins Radio Show Archive we have going, (for shits and giggles), (you can see that here), somebody left a link at the bottom to a review of Gittins at Glastonbury from the prestigious local-to-Glastonbury website. The reviewer didn’t enjoy Gittins. So much that they would have left – but: ‘stayed to the end so I could write about it.’ swiftly followed by ‘If I’m honest, the hokey cokey segment at the end did actually have me crying with laughter’. So a bizarre, confusing, mixed bag of a review, left at my doorstep by somebody I do not know, wanting to let me know they don’t like Gittins.

It all seems like a lot of effort for something so meaningless.

A couple of recent podcasts have really resonated for me. (And I listen to a lot of podcasts) Tom Allen on the brilliant Comedians Comedian podcast and why comedians as artists deserve our support. It is so worth a listen to and moved me with it’s honesty. Also John Hodgman on the Nerdist podcast, talking about the schism between the world of being a nerd and the negativity of hipsters. Have a listen to them both. They are worth your time.

Then again my enthusiasm for them might move you to take the time, effort and consideration to find an obscure review, telling me something I like is disregardable and un liked by you. I’ll be alright with that. Or take the honest route and walk out. You might still be wrong though.

David Trent will be appearing at Group Therapy Comedy in Manchester on Saturday the 30th of June.

 

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Flog – The Michael J Dolan Study Circle

http://michaeljdolan.co.ukHere at Funny Looking Podcast it is our aim to educate… entertain… and er…

Well.

As I am sure you are aware, this month, March 2013, we have a fantastic interview with Michael J. Dolan. Michael is a stand-up based here in the North West and is one of those annoying comedians that thinks and cares and strives to be both funny but also thoughtful and entertaining.

Because of this terrible affliction of being both self reflective and empathetic he recently came out as a misogynist.  Here, in this Flog post, we are going to give you all the component parts, put together in handy package, to allow you the informed Funny Looking listener the chance to see all the facets of the discussion and come up with your own response.

Could your discursive essays, finally squeezing all the fun out of comedy, be handed in next Monday. Alternatively leave us a comment below on how annoying we are.

Fit the 1st

Listen to the first part of our podcast, up to the first part of our interview with Michael. You can find it here. Of course!

Fit the 2nd

Go to Michael’s website order and buy is recording of the show in question. Alternatively listen to it free, on Spotify here. Shame on you.

Fit the 3rd

Now read the article that Michael wrote on the fantastic website The Skinny. Have a think about the things he says. Do you agree? Is Michael being too harsh upon himself? Should Michael go to jail? I’ll be at risk of being too flippant about this very thoughtful discussion?

Fit the 4th

Now listen to our special Spreaker podcast. Here I have put an extract of the Woman’s Hour discussion in question. Listen for yourself.

Fit the Final

Now listen to the remaining part of the interview with Michael J Dolan. (Remember the full interview you will be published as a Bonus podcast by the end of this month)

Extension Activities (for Spoffs)

I mentioned a very famous joke by Billy Connolly from the mythical 1970s, time almost forgotten by many people but not Gav. You can watch said joke here and perhaps compare and contrast.

Please hand in all essays with Harvard referencing as usual – much love and looking forward to parents evening.

LIVE – Podcast Tonight!

http://www.spreaker.com/show/the_funny_looking_show

We will be watching “Gittins”
Tonight – 11:00pm – Channel 4
And straight after hosting a live chat as a response to the show and we want you to be part of it!
We

will be found at:
http://www.spreaker.com/show/the_funny_looking_show
Straight after the show

and hope that you and the “Brian Gittins Spreaker Chat Box” regulars to call in!
Skype us at:
funnylookingpod
or just chat in our chat box.

A live, late, silly little podcast watch

it – have a beer – call in!
In the Spirit of the Gittins podcasts themselves – we can only guarantee shambles and our embarrassment and failure.

Invite your friend that likes comedy to the nerdy degree we do…