Hello Again

It's come to my attention that there's not been a blog post in a while, so it's time to redress that balance. We're almost a quarter of the way through 2014 now - and what have Colchester Comedy Network been up to? Well, quite a lot, actually. Though we've been fairly inactive on the meetup front (though that's changing, more later), the NonConformist Comedy Clubs have proved very popular. We've hosted two already at the Waiting Room, both attracting respectable audiences and each with a completely different bill of performers. The next NonConformist Comedy Club will be on the 15th March, again with a completely new bill. You can register your interest in the event here. As previously mentioned, we've done less on the meetings front recently, mainly as a result of being "too busy", or whatever that's meant to mean. But as of late, there's been a resurgence of interest, with a few writers getting together weekly to work on sketches, throw a few ideas around and see what comes of it. There's plans to record new podcasts, videos and hopefully develop a live show. Not only this, we're hoping to put on a monthly comedy cabaret in Colchester too, from the end of April - this will be for non standup forms of comedy, where no idea is totally rejected and chaos can potentially reign. So things appear to be on the up for Colchester Comedy Network - our next meetup is pencilled in for Monday 10th March at St Botolph's Waiting Room, so join us there from around 7.30pm if you fancy a bit of fun. Over and out for now....

Noncon? Noncon!

A deliberately enigmatic title for this blog, designed to reel you in and make you think "how intriguing. What on earth is a Noncon?"

Well, Noncon is my abbreviation for the newest comedy night in Colchester, the NonConformist Comedy Club, which debuts in the town on Wednesday 8th January, 2014. It's a chance for performers new and old to test out material in an open mic setting, with a leaning towards alternative comedy. I am of the opinion that within Colchester itself the opportunities for alternative comedians are few and far between (though nights do exist, such as the Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club at Missoula and the Hole in the Wall Comedy Night), and by putting on Noncon another platform is created.

Typically a slot will last for 5-10 minutes and it'll also give the crowd a chance to give anonymous feedback to performers via comment sheets, so that the experience is interactive and engaging.

Hopefully, this will become a monthly fixture on Colchester's cultural calendar, as I'm certain that there are a number of alternative comics there who are gasping at the chance to perform locally, get their chops and help them along with a burgeoning comedy career. A man can hope...

Anyway, if you'd like to sign up to perform at the event, you can do so via the Facebook event page. As stated, we are more in favour of alternative rather than traditional comics so if you think you fit the bill, please get in contact and we'll be glad to have you

In the meantime, check out this largely unknown gem from the 1990s, Cluub Zarathustra.

Happy dreaming.

AltCom! Number 2! December! 6th!

As you can see, I've been both liberal with my exclamation marks and lax with my grammar with regards to the title of this blog post, but that's because I'm very excited about the next Altcom on December 6th. I've just about managed to hold it together and not wet myself.

So what is the Altcom, exactly? It's a compound word, abbreviating "Alternative" and "Comedy" to make it sound appealing. And appealing it will be. At the first Altcom, we had performances from Stuart Gardener, Timmy Pippins and The Rev. Dr. Ian Prolix?, and was a success, at least in my eyes. That was at 15 Queen Street (http://15queenstreet.org), one of Colchester's Creative Hubs that has groups such as Colchester Write Night and The Arts Forum operating out of it. We've moved from there to St Botolph's Waiting Room (http://www.st-botolphs.org), one of the newest spaces in our historic town that hosts an incredibly wide range of events. I've had the pleasure of hosting two Poetry Open Mics there, as well as going to Phil Mill's (a friend of the workshop) Illuminated Sound evening, which is part of a series of events going under the name Ekohcitra - yes, that is Artichoke backwards - and you can find out more about what they're doing here: https://www.facebook.com/Ekohcitra?fref=ts

Who's on the bill for Altcom? First up we have Dr Yorick McCarthy, a retired doctor who has decided in his dotage that reading skew-whiff Sci-Fi stories is worthwhile. Watch Yorick tell one of his stories here.

Next is Amanda Lay, who takes observational comedy in new, interesting directions, tempered by a cynical yet enthusiastic delivery. Follow Amanda here.


Our headliner for the evening is Keith Sparrow, finalist at this year's Colchester New Comedian of the Year. A very physical, occasionally intimidating performer. In the video below, he talks about the spirit of Christmas.

 

It's going to be worth your while joining us at The Waiting Room on the 6th December. Entry is FREE and there's a licensed bar. If you are very lucky and treat me nice, I'll buy you a drink. That's the ultimate incentive.

Register your interest for the Altcom here, on the Facebook event page. 

My apologies to Holly Powis who was meant to be the next blog poster. I was just too damn excited.

You can also join us at the Workshop next Thursday, where we will be hosting one of our regular meetups at Slack Space. 

Event page is here.- let us know you're coming! Perhaps send us some sketches via colchestercomedyworkshop@gmail.com too. Let's see what you're made of.

Sarek out.

Unplugged

A mere eight days after James filled you in on the latest CCW happenings, here am I fulfilling my duty! That's because I take this blog very seriously, and feel it's vital that I do my bit to support this great institution, and definitely not because I have stuff to plug.

On an entirely unrelated note, have you heard about Clever Dicks Productions? It's a thing that's been started by Colchester Comedy Workshop veterans me and Holly, in no way like rats deserting a sinking ship and forming a comedy double act on another ship and posting hilarious ratty videos to youtube. Though as it happens, we do do that.

Look, here's our youtube channel! There are lots of wonderful things on there that will keep you entertained for hours. And when you've watched everything on there thirty times and want to watch it another thirty times because it's so funny but think you probably shouldn't, what then? Why, you can read our blog! And in case you're afraid of missing anything, you can also like us on Facebook to get all the latest news! In fact you probably should do that right now.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, saying how I don't have stuff to plug. Well I've run out of things to not plug now, so I shall wipe clean the baton on the dirty old rag I keep in my pants for just such an occasion, and pass it on once more. Given the dwindling membership of the CCW I'm not really spoilt for choice, so I shall hand it back to Holly. I wonder if she might have anything she wants to plug.

PS. This was posted by Simon, though it may claim underneath that it was posted by James. This is due to something getting cocked up with multiple Google accounts so that now when I log into the CCW account it actually takes me to James's account, allowing me to steal his identity and take over his life. Luckily for James, his life isn't worth stealing, so I'm not going to.

It's been a while, folks...

I believe it was Holly Powis who once said "James Sarek is to write the next blog post". Or words to that effect.

And here it is.

I know you've all been champing at the bit to find out what's been going on in the world of the Colchester Comedy Workshop and I can only apologise that I have left you there waiting with bated breath. Well, exhale, and let the bate out. The workshop has been in a period of transition and me personally, I've been busy (which includes procrastinating).

So, what have I got to tell you? Two of our stalwarts, Stuart Gardener and Agnes Henson, have moved onto pastures new, namely Sidcup and Leeds, to further their educations and hopefully make their respective marks in the regions comedically. But that doesn't mean things have ground to a halt, oh no - there's lots of fun to come this year.

We're hoping to put together another Comedy Night in the wake of the vaguely successful AltCom held at 15 Queen Street in July, with late November potentially pencilled in at a venue near you (near you if you live in Colchester Town). We aim to bring local quality at an affordable price so that you can all share in the laughter, the tears you cry from laughing too much and the stomach pains you have for the very same reason. There's also a chance we'll have a Comedy Open Mic so you lot can get some chops on the circuit. Sounds good no?

Not only that, we still run two meetings a month - though our regular Tuesday meeting has changed location! We're now at The Waiting Room on the first Tuesday of every month, a new venue in town aimed at us creative types. The second meeting remains at Slack Space on the third Thursday, both starting at 7.30pm. There'll be agendas for meetings sent out in advance so do be on the lookout for that, and get in contact if you'd like to join our mailing list: email us at colchestercomedyworkshop@gmail.com.

We'd also welcome filmmakers into our bosoms to have a go at recording our sketches, our wonderfully funny sketches, some of which have been committed to audio in our fantastic podcast that you can find on Soundcloud, just search for the workshop through Google and you should find it. That'll be something else we hope to keep going.

To my mind, times are exciting and we really welcome newcomers with open arms. Arms that'll we close round you, hug you with, but not to the point of suffocation. You can't say fairer than that.

So, I sign off, and pass the baton onto Simon Goodway to post next. Over to you, Mr Goodway.

Obligatory Blog Post

I have volunteered to quell the lull and create a blog post for our precious blog, which has been so neglected of late.

What with organising the lightbulb festival, performing stand up, moving house, getting into university and
generally lolling about, the members of the marvellous Colchester Comedy Workshop thingy have been far too busy to pour their thoughts into your faces.

I haven’t even updated my own blog! Shock! (plug)

However after a thrilling and slightly clammy meeting last night, ending at the ‘Odd One Out’ for no particular reason, a plan was discussed. A mighty plan! A plan that could see us launching ourselves forward and taking over the world!

We are going to actually become organised!

At least, that is the plan.  

I have suggested (because I am a genius) that we will start a sort of blog relay thingy in which the baton will be passed onto the next willing participant to create a post within a suitable interval. This will DESTROY ALL LULLS! And will probably prevent an overexcited day in which three posts are posted at once. Which is generally thought to be silly.

There will also be more excitement at the meetings! Inspired by the stand up comedy night at our last Tuesday meeting, there will be more of a chance for performance, feedback and evenings dedicated to some passion or other of one of the members. Some could be quite… interesting.

Check out our events page for the dates for the next six months, and keep checking back for more information on each meeting.

So, now is the perfect time to get involved either by storming in and organising your own event, or just turning up and sitting quietly in the corner humming to yourself.

It’s all good.

So in the new great tradition of old I will now end this bloggity blog post and pass the baton of greatness onto our dearly bearded James Sarek.

Showtime!

Saturday 25th May 2013. That date will go down in history as the first ever live performance of the Colchester Comedy Workshop! It rather crept up on us, and we were perhaps less well rehearsed than we'd have liked, so some of us were a bit nervous, and those of us who weren't, quite frankly, should have been. Would it be a triumph, or would we make fools of ourselves - except in the ways we intended to - in front of tens of hundreds of thousands of millions of people? I may be exaggerating the size of the audience.

There were one or two teeny weeny hiccups. The time it took for me to transform myself into a mad Italian chef was longer than had been allocated, leaving poor James and Aggie sitting on stage in silence, but I think we got away with it. And when I performed my incredibly sexy striptease routine, perhaps I shouldn't have put my shirt down in the pasta salad (ably played in this performance by some macaroni cheese). It seemed like a good idea at the time, but for the rest of the show there was macaroni cheese on everything. If you've ever thought it would be really good if everything was covered in macaroni cheese, I can tell you now that you're wrong.

But people laughed in all the right places, so all in all I think we can chalk it up as a magnificent, triumphant debut. Next time we'll have more rehearsals. And less macaroni cheese.