New Teacast is up! With the excellent
over sencha. What you do when you can't make tea, watching doctors watch babies eat little bits of egg, and why terrorism isn't THAT bad.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/podc…/tea-with-alice/id789603540…
So you may have ...
2016-09-27 05:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post
My favourite things at the moment are the cool secret ways we are building to draw attention to our hierarchies of cultural power so we can pretend we're rejecting them while secretly reinforcing them. Like in a bunch of corporate environments it's noticeably rarer for senior people to ask young women to stay late into the night if they say they have other commitments, where men get told to harden the fuck up. Looks like protection and kindness, (preventing personal upset and burnout) ends up ...
2016-09-13 20:07:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Today I woke up and headed in to do savage at City Cafe. I felt a million times better about this show than the first one, which is a good thing. Then I met up with Suzi Ruffell for a cuppa, and then went and did boring laundry things while thinking about the hurdles to getting another visa in the UK. Then I met up with Tiff Stevenson to chat about our mutual and respective fringe successes and defeats. Then I went and did a spot down in the caves, and off to The Gilded Balloon for The Resis...
2016-08-23 14:46:21 +0000 UTC View Post
Hallo punks!
Okay, I know, this is the second double-up day. It's been incredibly hectic, but I will try to keep it daily from now on!
Bad news from home remains steady, but not worse, and that's okay actually. I mean, obviously it's bad, but it's also a salutary reminder that there's life outside Edinburgh, and all of the hype of the thing.
What you've missed in the meantime is a bit of running around, a bunch of socialising, a solid chunk of self-doubt, some momen...
2016-08-22 00:39:27 +0000 UTC View Post
Wednesday I spent most of the morning in bed trying to kick a bit of overtiredness, then met my friend musician Hannah PC of The Raglins to talk about musical arrangements of comedy words, and then went to my show. Socialised a little bit afterwards and then went home to a delightful surprise present from home.
I woke up very early on Thursday to some bad news from home.
I felt no less tire...
2016-08-19 02:33:54 +0000 UTC View Post
My blog-days are getting a bit loose, in that I'm writing about yesterday now, rather than having come home and written it up in good time. So to clarify, I'm talking about Tuesday 16th August.
This is because I ended up doing work for Australian daytime in the wee hours of the morning (Sydney Midday to 6pm, which is a very reasonable time if you're in Sydney but is 3-9am if you are in Scotland. Which I am.)
So I woke up (too early) feeling the kind of shaky awake that happens after a bi...
2016-08-17 13:04:37 +0000 UTC View Post
Today I woke up feeling a bit the worse for wear - slightly sniffly from not enough sleep (that's a thing that happens to other people too, right?) and with my knee still bruised and sad.
But, Edinburgh being the contrarian that it is, turned out an incredibly gloriously blue day, and it was impossible to be mopey.
I got dressed and headed out to do a spot at the Late Nite Lau...
2016-08-16 08:10:11 +0000 UTC View Post
Today I woke up way too early, given that I didn't get to bed til 4. I woke up to say bye to my excellent friend Victoria, who had come to Edinburgh for the weekend, and was going out on the early (11am is early, okay) train.
Then I went and walked up Arthur's Seat, and ended up slipping on a piece of grass that decided to heckle my foot. I banged up my knee, which is annoying given how much I need my knees for walking places and bending appropriately. Hoping it'll be better by tomorrow,...
2016-08-15 00:50:31 +0000 UTC View Post
I woke up this morning and dashed over to Newtown to do a midday spot at the Nightcap, before sitting down to edit some video footage for a project. Then I went and met Tiff Stevenson, to see if any of my helping skills could help her with a nasty pinched nerve. Then I dashed around to some more short spots, bumping into David Quirk for a serendipitous quick hug. After that I went home to work on my show. It's far enough into the festival that it's starting to fall into rhythms, which can be...
2016-08-14 02:30:23 +0000 UTC View Post
Today I woke up and did admin for gigs back in Australia, and edited some video. Edinburgh was putting on an excellent show of rain/sun/rain/wind, which sent the non-natives into shelter. I bumped into these fine specimens en route to my show. My head was definitely out of town, which meant that though my show was full, I felt a little bit out of it until I hit the stage. Then I went and hosted Sweet Release, which was a blast. And then I dropped by Massaoke, and that was a double blast fro...
2016-08-13 01:02:20 +0000 UTC View Post
Hallo Punks! Today was a day of lots of different directions. I woke up and went to have breakfast with an Agent, talking about the landscape of comedy here. Then I went to the City Cafe, and had a cup of tea with
and
, whose parents were in town. It's always nice to talk to parents at the fringe.
Today I woke up and went over to The Free Sisters to do
lineup show.
Then I went over the bridge to Newtown. I bought some tea and also shoes (for later). I bumped into Craig Quatermaine in the shoe shop and we had a lovely chat.
Then I went down to The Caves to do the2016-08-11 01:14:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Today was a long day again. I woke up to help a friend through some Edinburgh heartbreak, and then dragged my sleepy brain along to Sameena Zehra's poetry show, Poetry Can F*ck off. They have their banner in the room, rather than out on the street advertising their show, because some adults complained that their kids could figure out what the word was. This fact entertains and annoys me in equal measure, because the deductive reasoning of the children has to exist on top of prior knowledge of ...
2016-08-10 10:39:24 +0000 UTC View Post
Today I woke up and had brunch with my friend Yasmin who I used to play Theatresports with back in first year university when I had no idea that I'd end up down this path in life. Her partner Jeff was also there, and he was lovely despite Yas and me dominating the conversation with reminiscences and catchups.
Then I walked up this guy to get a breath of fresh air and perspective.
After that, I did some flyering, and a few lineup spots at free shows, the most enjoyable of whic...
2016-08-09 07:02:26 +0000 UTC View Post
Today being the first Sunday of the Fringe I decided I should take a rest day, insofar as I decided I would only do the show that I'm meant to be here doing.
I woke up, had breakfast, went for a run and then hung around for a bit before doing my show. Not exactly a blog'sworth of activity, but I decided I should give myself one day a week of doing not many spots or other promo things. Like a little mini weekend.
The show was (of course) to a small Sunday crowd, and a handful ...
2016-08-08 03:50:49 +0000 UTC View Post
Today. Was. BUSY.
I woke up and then spent some time looking for my SD card which has my most recent podcasts on it, and I seem to have put it somewhere very clever and important.
Then I went over the bridge across to Newtown (the beautiful picture above), and did the Poetry Can F*ck Off show at The Stand. Which is to say, I didn't even do a comedy spot. I read an ac...
2016-08-07 01:10:18 +0000 UTC View Post
Today I woke up earlier than was entirely wise, and went to meet my friend Alana Zivanovic, who is a jazz singer I met when I did that TEDx Talk. She contacted me after that particular weird gig and asked if I would talk her through some techniques for on-stage comedy banter as she was about to head off for a Lounge Singer gig in a Hotel in a 2016-08-06 01:44:30 +0000 UTC View Post
Oh man! The show! It's back!!!
I woke up on the morning of day two... actually that's a lie. I didn't properly sleep after my opening night - being wracked with doubt and also having a few work bits to do in the wee hours of Australian time. So I opened my eyes from a patchwork of naps feeling a bit shaky and then went to do some Edinburghing.
I went to a fancy press event at my venue 2016-08-05 06:45:56 +0000 UTC View Post
Today was the first day of the rest of the fringe.
I woke up and jittered around all day, torn between working on my show and flyering for my show, and wandering around saying hallo to people and retreating into a podcast bubble with my big headphones on.
I walked into the cool home-made chocolate shop where the ladies chat to you for ages to buy a present for Larry Dean, and thought this chocolate novelty treat said "Not Dad", which is a nice gift to offer on either the occa...
2016-08-04 00:49:55 +0000 UTC View Post
I have a motto (or do I mean mantra?), which I use sometimes (all mottos should only be for sometimes – that’s my motto). I use it when I’m anxious or panicky, because comedy is a fickle mister, and sometimes the ebb and flow of opportunity and chance feels like I’ve thrown down years of my effort on the table for a desperate gamble with my life.
The motto/mantra is ‘nobody’s going to die’. I follow it up with ‘we’re all going to die.’ “Nobody’s...
2016-07-23 11:03:13 +0000 UTC View Post
One of the things I’ve noticed recently, with the increasing
vitriol on both sides of politics and a surge in popularity of far right
ideologies across Europe, the UK, Australia, the US, is how people have begun
describing the actions of ideologically driven killers as arising somehow from a
‘toxic’ political landscape.
It seems at first glance to be reasonable to assert this toxicity. I find it an appealing explanation, but I want to take it apart a little b...
2016-07-02 20:44:33 +0000 UTC View Post
I have a friend who's 6.1 and he lives in a very different world from the world I live in.
First, I'm never going to see the top shelf at the video shop.
What a wonderland of opportunity taken untimely from me because of my lack of man-height and the fact that there are no video shops left. All those badly produced pornographs and sequels that I will never see eye-to-eye with.
Second, he's much much much less likely to be charged a...
2016-06-14 11:30:37 +0000 UTC View Post
Hallo Punks! I'm landed in London! It's surreal. I'm missing the love and comfort of home, but I have the love and comfort of home, in my twin, whose house I'm crashing in, and in all of the London-friends I have bower-birded into my life over years of throwing my head around the world (the picture above is of tea at Tiff Stevenson's house) And the scene, and the work, and my walkin' boots. I've been thinking about reputation (O Iago), and the ways that professional and personal reputation ove...
2016-06-01 20:45:58 +0000 UTC View Post
The last few days have been a strange floating bubble feeling. All of the joys and stresses of this job packed into 36 hours: a corporate gig entertaining a group of incredibly disparate people at the end of a three day conference (no swearing please, and nothing political, we split along party lines); and writing an article about 8 trees that hate you for SBS Comedy; and doing a heart-wrenching podcast with novelist Dean Mayes about the surgery he has to get today; and talking with the direc...
2016-05-27 04:14:15 +0000 UTC View PostHi Punks!
I am back from New-Zealand and chasing projects in all directions like a rabbit-octopus hybrid. Flying out to the UK next week, and trying to lock some solid things down. Anyway, as happens when you have too many things to do, my brain's been busy cross-pollinating. Here are a few ideas.
Eddie Perfect was talking about the other day our habit of importing cast for Musical Theatre in Australian Productions (mainly of American and UK pieces). He said this on ...
2016-05-21 02:06:45 +0000 UTC View Post
I feel very strange. I'm in NZ at the moment, running Savage like a hot knife through the New Zealand Comedy Festival. It feels like travelling back in time.
I mean, New Zealand itself feels like a time or dimension warp, sort of back in time to Australia 15 years ago, but maybe more progressive politically... Everyone's very friendly and everything's very beautiful. I landed on Sunday and everything was closed. No late night teas for this girl.
But it also feels like time ...
2016-05-09 08:56:42 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey Punks
I am back in Sydney for a few days, doing my show at the Enmore Theatre. It feels like nothing special until I see the water and then every time I catch a glimpse of it, it feels like home.
New podcast for this week is out, with Osher Günsberg. It was a really interesting chat, talking to someone who has so many years of broadcasting and presenting experience that he'd have the skills to give or withhold anything. It felt like he made a deliberate effort to be present ...
2016-04-30 04:39:32 +0000 UTC View Post
I've been thinking about how people write shows. Of course I have. But mainly about how I write shows. I thought of a good way to explain it the other day (midway through explaining it. This is a good way to figure things out for me - because how do you know what you're thinking til you've said it). Anyway, I think (at the moment) a good way to articulate the process is to say that my shows are working backwards from a feeling. For me to explain this, I'll make sure you're up to date with ...
2016-04-26 11:06:22 +0000 UTC View Post
Time and space are funny and daunting abstractions. In some ways I ignore both on a regular basis. I don't need to check my emails til later. I don't feel the need to claim a part of the world as my own. Carrying my own little nest with me means I feel pretty relaxed when I travel for gigs or plant myself in a new city. If I've got my banjo and some clean underwear, a door to close against the world and decent wifi, I tend to feel relatively comfortable. That said, there's about a week lef...
2016-04-23 04:03:12 +0000 UTC View Post