Well , it’s been a while since I’ve updated for you my one blog reader ; ). How the fuck are ye? All good I hope. That rash cleared up yet? What do you mean “What rash?” relax, it’s just you and me here. You’re amongst Friend.
So the riots huh. They were fucking mental were they not? I live in Finsbury Park. Nothing happened here. Nothing at all. Although our neighbours in Tottenham and Camden did not fare so well. It’s like everyone who might have caused any bother in Finsbury decided not to shit on their own doorstep and pissed off to make trouble elsewhere.
Apparently an Argos was looted in Streatham and all I remember thinking is , seriously .... have some aspirations! I reckon they smashed the first window with a catalogue and had to wait 20 minutes to pick up their loot at the other window!
Kiruna was staying at mine and we sat up monitoring all forms of media for updates. We were following the news on Twitter, Reuters, BBC Website, Foreign Media and others. The flat felt like a hub of political and global communications. There was a moment I felt like I was in a scene from Mission Impossible but lack the physique of Tom Cruise....I’m a bit taller...a bit. However I do own a few masks although I don’t think we would ever see Ethan Hunt in a fetish club or at a Halloween party! What was great to see was how after a while a new trend on twitter appeared in opposition to #londonriots....#riotcleanup and people began to rally and mobilize to work together on cleaning up London the following day. It was great to see people making an effort to win London back from the madness.
EDINBURGH FESTIVAL:
It’s been a really busy month of gigs with so many acts out of town doing the Edinburgh Fringe. Do I miss not going to the fringe? No...I’ve earnt money and not lost money. However I did 4 years of Edinburgh festival. Two of them with solo shows and working on Phatcave with Mickey D AKA Michael Dwyer....the best late night gig in Edinburgh when it was there. Edinburgh was good to me when I was there. I got some great reviews and nice quotes but it’s a hard slog and lots of networking which is not something I love doing unless I’m just naturally hanging out with people and things come together.
However I really enjoyed previewing my new show Gareth Berliner: An INCH of Integrity at Brighton Fringe this year , will take it to Adelaide next year and if I’m really happy with it by then I’ll also take if to Edinburgh too.
DOCUMENTARY NEWS:
I had to work out my first tour budget as the producer of the tour for the documentary I am producing (A tour featuring very specific kinds of comedians). I’ve done this before for myself as a solo artist but it’s the first time I had to factor in other acts and crew etc...Also because we have no idea with certainty what venues we are performing at yet I had to roughly work out venue hire and travel and based that on visiting 4 major venues round the UK using London, Swansea, Manchester and Glasgow as my models.
This is all proving to be great experience and to have got something working like this so far off my own back with the support of Ed Stobart and Alleycats TV I am chuffed. Just hoping it all comes together. It looks like both the other acts are on board and keen and we would be shooting the tour/ docco in April of next year after I get back from the Adelaide Fringe festival. I’ll also be celebrating my 40th Birthday! April 1st 2012 . Jesus...that snuck up on me! I say snuck but it’s been a slow 39 years of waiting for that one. I know, I know... you can’t believe I’ll be 40...you were thinking I couldn’t possibly be older than 38 right?
ADELAIDE FRINGE FESTIVAL:
Kiruna is coming to Adelaide with me and will also be doing her first solo stand-up show Why Dwarves Hate Christmas. Hopefully she will be able to trade off of the Lifes to Short (Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, BBC, HBO) exposure to drum up interest and business and we’ll be sharing a double sided flyer so it should hopefully work well for both of us. I will be taking Gareth Berliner : An Inch of Integrity to the fest. This is the great new show I debuted at Brighton Fringe Festival. It includes the story of me being date raped by a German Lesbian! You really don’t wanna miss it. Book your flight now for a cheaper deal.
Adelaide Fringe is my Favourite festival by far. The year I went was the last year of the festival being Bi Annual and the level of support, friends I made and fun I had was awesome. All the other UK acts out there had been taken out there by producers and promoters and were all headliners and I was the only UK act out there off my own back. It also marked my first ever paid headline gig doing 30 mins. It’s also the first time I ate a Berliner. Don’t freak out at that statement. It’s a kind of doughnut with a cream filled centre. Not dissimilar to me then ; )
Next year will be interesting since more UK acts of all levels now attend the fest and I’ll be just another UK act vying for an audience.
BATMAN LIVE:
Batman Live at the O2 was mental. Kiruna shouted us the tickets and we joined a throng of fanboys, kids and grown-ups dressed as Baman and Robin to watch this live action extravaganza. It was awesome and the set was incredible. They made great use of an LCD screen as background which provided scenery and comic book cut aways. They also had the Batmobile turn up and fire some missiles. I tell you something it looked like Fathers for Justice had decided to put on one hell of a show. If they wanted to hijack any event ... this should be the one. It’s the easiest public event to walk into dressed as a superhero!
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