What is not so funny, is seeing this kind of behaviour on the political stage, which is what seems to be happening more and more these days. People who are quite out of their depth being put into situations which they are not equipped to handle, and are then making important decisions when they have no clue what they are doing. It is like sending a qualified HR Software consultant out to repair a broken helicopter. They are not stupid, they simply do not have expertise in that area. Similarly, the politicians are not stupid, they simply are not knowledgeable in the areas which they are being forced to make decisions.

What I am mainly talking about right now is the new on-line piracy laws which are being forced into action by a number of governments. The people making these extremely important and far reaching decisions actually have no idea about internet security, privacy and safety, and they are giving police and government officials more power than they should ever be entitled to. Simply going on the knowledge that they are fed, they have decided that it is OK to give powers to governments to shut down websites without reason, block IP addresses, and search through peoples mails and on-line conversations. All in the name of stopping piracy and on-line terrorism we are told. The Problem with this is that they already had enough powers to stop piracy without any new laws, which was proved by the massive clamp down that they had only two months ago, when they shut down and prosecuted the owner of the largest copyright infringing site on-line, Megavideo. This is why it seems like a big improvised game that they are playing. People in power are handed a snippet of information by an advisor, and they have to play out a role , make decisions, and react to the consequences. It is just like the well played and loved comedy game, but without the funny results.

ShareThis

No rioting in Scotland

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe took place without any disruption or violence, despite the unrest in many English towns and cities at the time. This was an excellent opportunity for the Scottish Government to reinforce the fact that these riots were in fact English riots, not UK riots. Since many people interpreted these events as a grim consequence of the Government’s spending cuts, the event was seen as a more of an English problem that a UK-wide one.

Should comedians joke about the riots?

Comedians with an exhibition stand need to be careful not to offend too many groups when they raise jokes about specific issues. Offending people is part of the nature of comedy and no joke would be funny unless it did offend someone. However, the riots wrought havoc on a large number of communities and numerous businesses, the effects of which are still being felt in 2012. Therefore, any jokes about events of this nature should be carefully planned and appropriate to the audience that is listening to them. In the case of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, much of the audience would have been Scottish, so joking about the English is likely to score high marks in a Scottish city (and a country that is potentially on the verge of independence from the United Kingdom).

Similar Posts:
Jersey Boys the Musical in London : Jersey Boys is a jukebox…
Best summer in how long – Comment : A blog on the World Cup…
Big Energy Business : Poor energy saving. It used to be the kid…
Connected Youth : There was a time when the older generation…

ShareThis

Of course, I’m kidding. I know exactly where any UK or even international comedian worth his or her salt has headed during the month of August; Edinburgh. The problem is that since I decided a few months ago I wasn’t going to bother with the Fringe Festival this year, I’m now left in the capital without any decent comedy shows to keep me laughing. I haven’t felt this desperate since that fruitless search a few years ago for red diesel when even red diesel Lancashire seemed to have sold out.

I’ve been reduced to desperate measures. Don’t worry, I haven’t decided to get up on stage myself or anything completely crazy like that. Instead I’ve been sitting at home on an evening, watching all my comedy DVDs right from beginning to end, including extras, out-takes and commentaries. I decided to be a bit OCD and am watching them in alphabetical order according to surname. The problem is that my comedy collection is so huge we’re almost at the end of August and I only just finished watching my first Dylan Moran DVD! I fear this project might have to run into September. Only, by then the comedians will have returned and I won’t have all this spare time on my hands…

Similar Posts:
No Dairy for This Moggie - is milk dangerous for cats? : We…
How To Groom Your Cat : Most of us think that cats are pretty…
A Starring Role? : I would love to go back to the Universal…
Obsession with ‘Chicago’ : It is absolutely right to say…

ShareThis

Eddie Izzard is surely my favorite comedian at the moment, the thing that seems to get me glued to his comedy acts for many reasons narrows down to his random art of just saying things as it comes to his head. He just seems to blabber anything he wishes and it really works.
However, the secret to Eddie’s success over other comedians is cause of the fact that man speaks a great deal of sense, in between all that jibber jabber one can see where he comes from. He has stern views of religion and god and rules and regulations and knows why he doesn’t really follow them, hence his success. He skillfully converts these thoughts into a comedy show where people with these similar thoughts come together and have a great laugh on how the world runs based on things that were never really proved.
Surely you and I do follow something, I am not an atheist nor am I a believer in any religion, but I do believe in god and in good deeds, and I do believe in some force but sure a person from an Orthodox and Catholic background would be better off sitting at home cause some of Eddie’s comedy to strike offensive.
Nevertheless, for those who aren’t faint at heart, do check your schedules and find some tickets for his shows as you will guaranteed have the laugh of your life. Never have I see such an act that has a touch of grace, insanity, knowledge and comedy all in one package in one show.

( wedding suit )

Similar Posts:
No Dairy for This Moggie - is milk dangerous for cats? : We…
How To Groom Your Cat : Most of us think that cats are pretty…
A Starring Role? : I would love to go back to the Universal…
Obsession with ‘Chicago’ : It is absolutely right to say…

ShareThis

One of the captions that I love to see in the Readers Digest magazine is ‘laughter: the best medicine’. How else can you get a laugh without comedy? I normally will do anything for a good laugh; that’s just the kind of person I am. A colleague recently asked why I appear so happy all the time. She wanted to know if I have ever had problems at all in my laugh. You can guess my response; if you do not have problems on earth then you are not alive. It’s just that I have a good sense of humour just like most of the other members of my family. We joked about taking up primary teaching jobs or any other thing we find. We even joked about each other sometimes. None of us however does it like the masters of the trade themselves.

We have to give it to them because being a comedian is not an easy task. I remember trying to crack jokes in my secondary school days and I ended up failing woefully because people refuse to laugh. You can really blame me because all we watched as a family was comedy. I grew up liking a lot of comedians. We had some local ones who were pretty good as well but they were known only within our country. Some of them were even known in one region alone especially if they act or do stand-up comedy in a local language or dialect. Out of the well-known ones around the globe, Eddie Murphy was our family favourite. I have always felt Eddie was incredible the way he acts. There are many more but in our family; Eddie Murphy led the pack.

Similar Posts:
No Dairy for This Moggie - is milk dangerous for cats? : We…
How To Groom Your Cat : Most of us think that cats are pretty…
House, but in different roles… : He’s a doctor….
Obsession with ‘Chicago’ : It is absolutely right to say…

ShareThis

Actors shouldn’t shy away from improvisation as a tool. I am aware of some schools of acting – who shall remain nameless – that believe that improvisation is not an actor’s skill and isn’t necessary to their work and is therefore ignored. But when more and more companies across a lot of aspects of the industry are using improvisation in their projects why close yourself off to this way of working. If an actor was offered a job working on a project with Mike Leigh in which he was required to improvise would he turn around and say “sorry Mike I don’t do improvisation, it’s not apart of my method”? Actor’s struggle for work as it is and they have to have as many skills under their belts in order to keep working. Improvisation is and always should be one of those skills.

Similar Posts:
No Dairy for This Moggie - is milk dangerous for cats? : We…
How To Groom Your Cat : Most of us think that cats are pretty…
Is there anything that Hugh Laurie CAN’T do? : If you ask me,…
Obsession with ‘Chicago’ : It is absolutely right to say…

ShareThis

I could probably quite happily spend all my time in Edinburgh in August just hanging out on the Royal Mile. Not only is that the best place to see some free snippets of shows, enjoy some impromptu theatre or music, pick up a small forests-worth of leaflets about upcoming shows, but you can also just sit outside one of the many bars in this part of town and watch all the tourists go by. Or get yourself a quick Indian head massage if the crowds and the noise all get to be too much!
They come from all over the world to the Edinburgh festivals, so you can always be guaranteed of at least a couple of amusing conversations between totally dazed and confused first-timers. And there’s always at least one American businessman fussing over whether he’s got the best worldwide sim card, while his wife soaks up all the culture.
There are always huge groups of Italian language students, identifiable by the huge matching rucksacks they wear. If I had a pound for every time I’ve seen one of those same Italian language students smack a child in the head with their unnecesaarily large bags then I’d easily have enough to cover my bar bills for the entire festival!
Watching the people come and go, and watching their reactions to the free shows they are watching is as entertaining as the festival events themselves. Every one of these foreign visitors who has spoken to me talks about how welcome they have been made in Scotland. If only they knew that I had been sitting and listening in to their conversation for the last hour….

Similar Posts:
No Dairy for This Moggie - is milk dangerous for cats? : We…
How To Groom Your Cat : Most of us think that cats are pretty…
House: Grumpy Or Genius? : No matter where I go online, I keep…
Obsession with ‘Chicago’ : It is absolutely right to say…

ShareThis

The Fringe Festival has been taking place for more than 50 years and is now known as the world’s biggest open air art festival. Indeed, the Festival Fringe Society’s chief executive, Kath Mainland, says the festival commands a high level of respect and is also an excellent opportunity for businesses, such as recruitment software firms. There are numerous shows, some of which may take place inside public buildings, others of which may occur in dark basements and even apartments! The experience is definitely worthwhile and the long Scottish summer days (regardless of the weather) provide a great opportunity to make the most of everything on offer. The event is situated over Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, which leads from Edinburgh Castle to the Holyrood Palace, the Scottish residence of the Queen. The Fringe Festival aimed to re-establish the cultural life in Europe following the devastation of World War II and since then, it has grown to the extent that in 2010, over 20,000 attended.

Similar Posts:
No Dairy for This Moggie - is milk dangerous for cats? : We…
How To Groom Your Cat : Most of us think that cats are pretty…
Adama’s Apple : Universal is a studio that consistently…
Obsession with ‘Chicago’ : It is absolutely right to say…

ShareThis

I’ve been to Edinburgh every year for the last five years now and, to be honest, I’m getting a bit bored of the whole thing. Sure, it’s a wonderful city and a fabulous festival, but have you ever heard the phrase “too much of a good thing”? Because that’s how I’m starting to feel about the Fringe!
So I’ve been exploring alternative comedy festivals to try out, bearing in mind that London is off the list, seeing as I live there. What’s the point in going to the London Comedy Festival events when I spend most of my spare time hanging out in those venues anyway? Yawn!
Originally I was only looking in the UK, thinking that it was pointless looking abroad as I wouldn’t be able to understand any of the jokes, but then my friend told me about his trip to the Barcelona International Comedy Festival at the end of 2010. This claims to be the first multilingual comedy event in the world, with performers not only from Spain, but from the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany – yes, German comedians actually exist! The UK was represented by, among others, the fabulous Andrew Maxwell. I would have loved to see how his scatterbrain, train-of-thought comedy went down with an international audience…
Anyway, my mate had a great time. Not just at the festival but in the city itself. He managed to find a great cheap ostelli Barcellona to stay in as the city was pretty empty in December, yet the weather was a lot milder than back at home! There weren’t hundreds of events a day, like you get at the Fringe, but that actually appeals to me. At Edinburgh you have your whole day planned out like a military operation so you don’t miss any shows. With fewer shows to take in, there’s more time to just relax and enjoy your holiday. Sign me up for this year!

Similar Posts:
No Dairy for This Moggie - is milk dangerous for cats? : We…
How To Groom Your Cat : Most of us think that cats are pretty…
Botox Generation : I wonder when Botox became really rife?…
Obsession with ‘Chicago’ : It is absolutely right to say…

ShareThis

So I put of my email marketing to go see the improve play ‘House of Cards’. This is a production by a group of students motivated by the different card suits in a deck and using them to present each short play.

‘Hearts’ inspired the first play and is about an assassin and her clumsy and panicky assistant who go through a number of wrongful and hilarious situations. The play offers the audience funny and entertaining aspects of murder and vengeance.

The second play deals with the ‘clubs’ wherein a social misfit with the prodding and support of her fairy godmother and trying out a potion which boosts her self -confidence to join a club, but somehow everything leads to devastating consequences.

The third play is about ‘diamonds’ wherein a bewildered couple tries to find out if their future life together would be a happy one so they sought the help of mysterious foreigners.

The final play focused on the ‘spades’, where a magician and his group failed to perform magic acts convincingly, forgot their script and the play became quite unpredictable but was able to provide a lot of laughs and funny antics to the audience.

Despite it being a production by a group of students, the presentations were done in good humor and candidness. There was spontaneity in the script and actors played their parts well enough to provide entertainment.

The stage had simple backdrops and lighting was simple enough to provide a good view. The pianist on the stage was able to provide music and a sense of balance without disturbing the plays.

Nonetheless, the performance was successful. The audience had plenty of laughs, found most scenes funny and had fun watching the plays.

Similar Posts:
No Dairy for This Moggie - is milk dangerous for cats? : We…
How To Groom Your Cat : Most of us think that cats are pretty…
Botox Generation : I wonder when Botox became really rife?…
Obsession with ‘Chicago’ : It is absolutely right to say…

ShareThis