Pre-Taped Call In Show

David Cross is, as ever, brilliant in this odd and slightly confusing little sketch from Mr Show.

Sketchy Future

I had a nice day in Leeds yesterday, meeting up with a few comedy writers and performers, and in a room above a pub we took the first baby steps towards starting a working sketch group with the aim of performing stuff live, maybe doing an Edinburgh show in 2010 and then… well, taking over the world with our amusing skits and vignettes, obviously.

There seems to be a diverse mix of styles in the bunch, both in writing and performing, so hopefully something interesting will come of it. At the very least it’ll be good to be take control of the process again, and do stuff for ourselves, as those of us who’ve written (or tried writing) for telly have got a bit sick of the ball ache (or the lady equivalent) of trying to please people who don’t appear to know what they want. We know exactly what we want: to be funny.

Anyway, it’s early days yet, but it’s quite exciting nonetheless.

Architect Sketch – Monty Python

Why I like this sketch: it’s ramshackle. From Graham Chapman’s (presumably booze-related) line flubbing, to Eric Idle’s building prop not working properly (watch his right hand at around the 3.30 mark), it’s the rough edges which give Python a lot of its charm for me. Plus you get a great John Cleese tantrum and I learned the word “sedentary” from this sketch. It’s edutainment.

I also like it cos it’s funny, and cos I think a lot of buildings could be improved by the addition of rotating knives.

Funny or…

This man is in hiding after ruining my punchline

A sketch I wrote, Selling Out, has been filmed as an exclusive for the Funny or Die website.

You can see it here: Selling Out

It’s not too bad, as far as it goes, although it doesn’t so much end as just stop, cos they couldn’t use the punchline I wrote due to music clearance issues.

Basically, Robbie Williams ruined my sketch. How many people can say that? I feel almost privileged.

Apart from lopping off the last 20 seconds, the only other change they made was swapping the word “mint” for the word “sick”, which I assume is what kids these days say when they want to say something’s good. But “sick” is, like “bad”, the opposite of good! I just don’t understand those crazy kids! I’m so out of touch!

Still, all in all the sketch is “terrible” (that means “good”, right kids?).

Help the Police

Cos they’ll tickle you until you’re giggly.

Adam Buxton writes and performs a good-natured sketch using a bad-natured song. I love it. I love you, Adam Buxton.

In fact, to tie up the last couple of day’s posts thematically, here’s a clip of Adam Buxton talking disarmingly frankly about his experience with magic mushrooms. His sincerity and honesty turn an already funny story into something sublime. Just the tonic for a sad Tuesday. (The clip also features Bonnie Tyler, her from 2 posts down. I don’t just throw this thing together, you know*.)

Don’t go to university kids, it’s fucking disastrous!

If you don’t listen to the Adam & Joe show on BBC 6 Music of a Saturday morning, you are dead to me.**

* Not true
**You’re not really. I love you just the same.

The Works – live sketch show booking now.

The Works: I got a sketch in this, I did. Wee!

The Works is a team-written sketch show that combines the crème of established comic writers and exciting new talent. It’s a unique venture giving comedy writers the chance to show off their very best work live on stage.

Performed by David Armand, Mathew Baynton, Isabel Fay, Katherine Jakeways, Nick Mohammed, Renton Skinner, Isy Suttie and Rosalyn Wright.

Directed by Justin Edwards

Written by Stuart Beale, Blakewill & Harris, Burge & Way, Carter & Cooke, Crockatt & Scott, John Foster, Ben Green, Ali Griggs, James Harris (I’d make it flash if I could), Harrison Banks, Lee Henman, Scott Kingsnorth, Giselle Melanson, Jonathon Morris, Dale Shaw, Siddons & White, Rob Smith, Tim Smith, Vincent & Allen and Catie Wilkins.

Tickets available here: Ticketweb (£8/£7 in advance, £10 on the door)

Absolutely Audition Sketch

I remembered this as being much funnier than it actually is, but as a sometime actor and director, I can relate…

Absolutely followed the Python format of having the sketches run into one another, so again, no big punchline, although I did like the complete pointlessness of the actress’ part at the end, so hey. Who’s complaining? Not me. I’m not, no.

League of Gentlemen Audition Sketch

‘Scuse me, has anyone got a bottle of orange juice?

Kewl.

The format of League of Gentlemen, while obviously different from that of Monty Python, still meant they could get away without necessarily needing a killer punchline for every sketch. So this one does fizzle out a little, but it worked much better in context.

Mr Show Audition Sketch

Head Shot (see below) got me thinking about auditions, which got me thinking about this sublime sketch from Mr Show. It’s one of those sketches where you kind of know what’s coming, but it’s still funny anyway.

If you’ve never seen Mr Show, it’s well worth tracking down. Pythonesque absurdity and theatricality, and, oh, I don’t know, David Crossity and Bob Odenkirkity.

The Works

So there’s this new live sketch show in London on July 10th.

Performed in the heart of Soho The Works is a gang sketch show in the style of Saturday Night Live, and an unmissable night out!

“A new generation of sketch” The Independent

I think they’re using one of my sketches, Why I Hate Mechanics. They had me rewrite it, and split it into two parts. I hope they don’t drop it, cos I’d really like to see how someone else performs it (me and Mr George did it live in Edinburgh).  Might even be worth a trip to the smoke.

(Me and George doing it in Edinburgh.)

It’d be cool to see all the other sketches too.  But, y’know, mostly mine, obviously.

The original call for sketches came via their Facebook Group, so if you want to get involved with the next show that would be an excellent place to start.