Podcast Extravaganza

Hello all. I come to you at the tail end of a week which I have spent frantically editing together a disparate collection of audio clips into a (semi) cohesive collection which will form the first Colchester Comedy Workshop Podcast. I hope you will all subscribe on Itunes and take a listen as we should be producing one every month. I bring you this blog today to explain some of the trials we all faced in the making of the podcast and the things I learned in editing it together over the course of this week.

On Sunday 17/2 I bravely opened up my house to the oddballs and clowns of the workshop in the hope that they might be obedient, stand in front of microphones and read sketches. The day was, for the most part, a glorious success. We recorded three full sketches, created a couple of links and bore witness to Modal Robert's moral bankruptcy as he whipped off his trousers in the kitchen during the recording of a particularly lascivious monologue about wanking. Everyone seemed to have a laugh, which is what really matters (take that, audience) and all of the snacks were eaten. There was even talk of us all going for a lovely sit-down meal. Unfortunately one of our company rejected the offer in favour of returning home for a meal of tofu and plantain (or something).

None of us knew what to expect; however I tried to do a good job of looking like I knew what to expect so that everyone would feel at ease. I set up a vast array of equipment in the living room. It looked very professional; unfortunately it sounded relatively amateur and kept hissing at me. I learned that despite the best will in the world, I lacked the experience required to make the day go off without a hitch. However, I have gained a few insights into the world of voice recording. For example, when people haven't learnt their lines, it is a bad idea to have double-sided scripts as apparently turning a piece of paper over in the middle of the sketch makes a noise like a pipe-bomb. I also learnt that copyright is a complete bugger, and that the best way to deal with the issues surrounding the use of other people's work is to steal it and hope that they never notice. (If anybody from the workshop is worried that I might end up dropping them in it, have no fear, I'm more than willing to take the heat if and when the feds knock at the door.) I also learned that there are very few available audio effects that are suitable for approximating the sound of a woman made entirely of tinned goods falling into a cuckoo clock.

The end result, whilst being somewhat rough, was certainly encouraging. We ended up with some relatively good recordings of people's work and everyone got to be involved in the performance in some way. Regardless of the number of listens we receive, I think it is an achievement for us to have got together and created something half an hour long which is not utterly despicable. I spoke to Gavin, one of the members of the workshop, yesterday and he mentioned the fact that being involved in something like this had been an ambition of his for a long time, but that he had lacked the requisite platform. I think that is a common problem amongst comedy types. Thinking you might be capable of writing and performing is a far cry from actually doing it and the lack of opportunities can be infuriating. It was a feeling of such frustration after performing comedy at a poetry slam last year which made me decide to set something up in Colchester. The fact that we have accrued about 60 sketches on celtx.com and are now at a point where we have released half an hour of material means that the workshop is at least a partial success. I have ridiculously high expectations for the rest of 2013.

I am very much looking forward to the next podcast, when material can be custom-written for it and we will have more time to hash out a cohesive structure. It will also, hopefully, be slightly shorter so I can actually earn some money during the week after instead of spending it editing.

Stuart

Here is a rundown of the sketches one by one with credits provided:

1) Dr Yorick McCarthy's Sci-Fi Bookclub
2) Pirates Will be Prosecuted - Simon Goodway
3) Peter Scott's Sportworld (Featuring Arsene Wenger) - James Sarek & Stuart Gardener
4) The World of Modal Roberts Parts 1/2/3 - Modal Roberts
5) The Art of War - Simon Goodway
6) Filth Warning - Holly Powis
7) Audio Diary of a Nobody - Modal Roberts
8) The Perfect Date - James Sarek
9) Jekyll and Hyde - Stuart Gardener

Additional material was provided by Agnes Henson and original music was composed by Louise Byrne.

PS. The following interviews were shot by me as part of my "making everyone feel at ease" campaign.