American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story
I idly re-read this over the last few months.
Category: Comedy
blood and snow?
Hogfather
I’m a fan of Pratchett’s writing. The man is frighteningly good.
However not every one of his books is a masterpiece. Witness Hogfather.
This book is part of the Death/Susan sequence, which is not my favourite one (only Mort is superb). I’ve never really loved a Susan book, even though on the face of it she should be a really appealing character.
The plot involves a plan by the Auditors of Reality to have the Hogfather (Discworld analogue of Santa Claus) inhumed by a crazed member of the Assassin’s Guild.
I can say that I found it mildly diverting, no more. Which marks it out as rather poor in terms of Pratchett’s output.
Hogfather (Sky One)
This was a 4 hour adaptation of the book starring a host of luminaries from the British acting community. While the art direction lovingly recreated the Discworld, the piece as a whole managed to suffer from poor pacing, confusing editing and a total lack of humour.
Unfortunately the thing was done with rather too much reverence for the source material and not enough of an eye on what would make entertaining television.
pocket potato?
Tony Benn
Saint Jude’s Infirmary
Nick Doody
Richard Herring
Get Up Stand Up, The Three Tuns, Edinburgh
It’s not often you find yourself at the very epicentre of extreme cognitive dissonance but I managed it last night.
As mentioned before I’m friends with the guys in Saint Jude’s Infirmary and I went along to this gig because of the early start and finish suiting my commuting schedule. I knew it was a night of comedy, music and politics, but I really wasn’t prepared for how weird it was to watch your friends be supported by Tony Benn?
First off they showed a trite and overly simplistic film pushing the anti-WMD agenda. I happen to agree with that agenda but I do wish that they didn’t talk down to people so much.
Then Tony Benn wanders up to the stage and for the next 45 minutes or so talks about politics. The man is still pretty sharp for 81 years old, but his talk was filled with crowd pleasing rhetoric and very little of actual substance. He took some questions but they were all soft soap stuff. Mind you it wasn’t really the kind of crowd where you could ask him difficult questions about his role in government, etc.
Next, Saint Jude’s Infirmary, who I continue to have no perspective on. It’s hard to be objective when you know people quite that well.
The first comedian was Nick Doody, who was really quite funny with his drink and relationships stuff, I quite enjoyed it.
Last act was ex TV comedian Richard Herring, who did a blue act with an absurd interlude about potatoes, apples, French and English – the pedantic little bugger. I laughed but it wasn’t that great.
So yeah, from left-wing politics to knob jokes via the music of friends in the space of a couple of hours. Really weird experience.