Funny couple of days...the HBO project, which now has a Secret Name, has been very well received in its latest incarnation, which means I am now compelled to dive back in and tune it up even more. I like that kind of work. I have also begun the scripting of talking points for my next show, which also now has a Working Title...it's delightful to be that far along. For me, the title is 70% of the journey, and the search for the right code can be totally consuming. It seems trite, and maybe to others it is, but when I have the right titles it clarifies and congeals my vaporings down from ranting to reasoned prose. Ta-da!
More on Daniel Kitson--I've been to see Mr. Kitson last weekend and the performance has been haunting me. After winning every comedy award in Britain (and there are many) he decided this year to create a story--to tell a story, with characters and arc and all that nonsense--and do it about fictional people.
This is a fairly crazy idea in the stand-up world, and Mr. Kitson succeeds brilliantly. In what can only be described as a twee fairy tale that mixes Amelie, Abbey Road, and Short Cuts, Kitson has created his own misathropic, lovely world. In the Pod, a fantastic venue where he performs in the round we can see big video screens on which additional pieces of his story is plotted out...how wonderful to see multimedia that doesn't look like ass! So, so refreshing and sharp and clean. I have an unusual perspective, having a vested interest in the blurring of the lines between stand-up and storytelling, but this should delight anyone who sees it.
Sat down today and made a chart of the shows I want to see with JM--not as many as you would think. Perhaps I am older, but my appetite for bad theater, once inexhaustible, is now smaller--I don't have the time for it, and the trully bad stuff sometimes clogs up my pipes rather than pleasing me with its unutterable horribleness. So we've picked out a smorgasboard of site-specific shows, one-person performances that intrigue us and a smattering of other things, a lot of which is based out of the Assembly Rooms--the venue we are at appears to have some of the very best things at the festival.
In closing, here's a picture of JM, silhoutetted against THE CASTLE.
What a doll.
8:15 AM