Hello!
Happy July!
I hope you are all keeping hydrated and are protecting your wonderful skin in good high-factor suncream. I am currently the beautiful colour of a mildly-off prawn due to my over-confidence that my pale irish complexion could handle factor 20... it couldn't.... factor 60 for me it seems *sigh*.
My sincerest apologies that this blog entry for June is so late - I was on a rollercoaster of gigging madness last month.
Thus, below is a round up of all the cool things that happened last month...
JUNE ROUND-UP
DAWN SEDGWICK MANAGEMENT
I am very excited to announce I am now represented by Dawn Sedgwick Management. An awesome talent and literary agency who represent many acts I really love and admire, so I am really happy to be apart of their team. Follow them on twitter here.
ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL
After writing about festivals for my MA Dissertation at Queen Mary University London last year it felt like a right of passage to be able to perform Being Barbarella in the Cabaret Noir tent on the 12th of June at the Isle of Wight Festival. To say I was giddy with excitement at the time was an understatement. Decked out in my Smiffys Space Suit I performed my nerdy sexy show to an audience of 100+ in the lovely black blox theatre space. It was super fun. Also, I got to see Fleetwood Mac live and James Bay, so, overall, great weekend....
COMIC DIVERSIONS
It is fair to say this was one of my favourite gigs of all time.
A single decker bus. Four comedians I love. A beautiful sunny day in London and a really up-for-it-loud-laughing-enthusiastic international audience.
On the 20th of June, as part of the Open City Documentary Festival in London I got to curate and compere a brilliant immersive comedy experience. An intimate audience of 20 sat in their seats as myself, Amy Howerska, Matthew Highton, Joe Hart and Angus Dunican each performed whilst holding onto the yellow handrails for dear life as we wobbled to and fro whilst the bus transported us around some of the most beautiful landmarks in the city. It was a first for the Open City Documentary Festival and it was a first for us the comedians too. It felt like a very chilled out version of the film SPEED, but with jokes.
Thank you to Dianne for driving the bus and Tegan and Chloe from Open City for helping organise and create this event!
THE PENULTIMATE SECRET COMEDIANS
It was the penultimate Secret Comedians at Paper Dress Vintage on the 24th of June.
The line-up was very very talented with Fosters Nominee Mike Wozniak, charismatic Ben Van Der Velde , Radio 1 DJ Tom Deacon, pro-storyteller James Loveridge and my dear friend Charlie Barnes all performing, whilst I m.cd and talked about Cystitus. I always enjoy these gigs at the kooky Paper Dress Vintage in Shoreditch. The last one is taking place on the 29th July (*sob*) so do make sure you come.
THE LAUNCH OF PLAYGROUND
The launch of PLAYGROUND, my new monthly clown 'soiree' at The Canvas Cafe in Brick Lane was a perfectly eccentric event.
Intimate and one-of-a-kind, a lovely big audience of sunday afternoon coffee drinkers keen for a nice cultural event to ease their saturday night hangovers came to The Canvas to watch six performers experiment and play about with new ideas and comedy forms. Despite compering the event with a serious chest infection the 'soiree' went well with moments of true fringe beauty occuring within the two hour time frame. From The Underground Clown Club performing poetry about rabbits, to Scarlett Belle doing her FIRST performance of a snippet of her new Ed Fringe show, to Iestyn Evans creating an audience of sock puppets singing collectively to Eels, with Helen Duff concluding everything with her impressions of a Vagina and a Sperm... it is fair to say it was an afternoon event that was unlike any other.
OTHER WEIRD THINGS....
I had all my hair cut off.
I turned 24.
I came into the ownership of two kittens called Bob and Penelope.
I attended my brothers 18th birthday party and felt VERY old.
I compered the Wolfson Howler at the Wolfson College ball in Cambridge.
I completed a one week workshop with performance artist Bryony Kimmings - it was so helpful and I highly recommend you watch her work and do a workshop with her if you can as she'll change your creative life.
I started weight lifiting at the gym.
Overall, a great month!
THUS, MY ROUND UP OF JUNE!
I'll be blogging next week about gigs to come this July, my favourite new comedy and fashion discoveries and about the importance of good lubricant, so keep your eyes peeled.....