Last updated 23/07/07
Marcus has made a great number of festival appearances this year with more
to come. Thus far they have included -
MAY 11th - The Daphne Du Maurier Festival, Fowey, Cornwall. This was the
first time I'd been invited to play this festival in the stunning town of
Fowey on the South Cornwall coast. It started as just a celebration of Du
Maurier's work, but is now a thriving arts festival with music, literature,
comedy and drama. The weather was shockingly bad and the marquee was being
blown about all night as the wind whipped in off the sea. None of this,
dampened the audience at all and the show was great fun. We had a debate as
to the relative quality of Cornish and Devonshire Clotted Cream - Cornwall
won, but the vote was geographically weighted in their favour from the
outset. Then we discussed the departure of Prime Minister Blair (he had
officially announced it the day before in Sedgefield). I'd recommend a visit
to the one room Fowey museum. The contents were fine but the best bit was I
had a chat with the curator who told me she'd like to drive all the liberals
into the sea - well worth the entrance fee and knowing liberals they
wouldn't complain much.
MAY 27TH - the Hay-on-Wye literary festival. What can one say about this
festival that hasn't already been said? 'Woodstock for the mind' - Bill
Clinton. It is the most joyous carnival of knowledge, enlightenment and
inquiry that a person could hope for. A feast of ideas. I saw so many great
things at this year's festival, Richard Dawkins, David Dimbleby, Baaba Maal,
and sessions on the future of public service broadcasting and the rise and
rise of the Supermarket. I was also lucky enough to do my own show to a
packed house of very enthusiastic people who were, simply put, the most
divine audience a stand up could hope for. My only regret was that I had to
stop after only an hour. I also recorded Just a Minute, which was as fun as
ever, but when I buzzed in to tell Maureen Lipman that she had hesitated
there was palpable sense of disapproval from the Hay audience - 'no no no,
one doesn't interrupt young man, why Maureen hadn't finished her point'.
Peter Florence, who set up the festival, is one of the worlds greatest human
beings - chiefly for being able to assemble so many of the worlds other
great human beings all in one place for a few days of unabashed idea
swapping and brain feeding. I can barely wait for next year when I hope we
will be able to do the Early Edition.
JUNE 22 - 24. Glastonbury. It was hard this year. The mud was gruelling, the
new expanded site so big that I never really felt I knew where I was and the
security set up (even for performers) was a trial. The festival itself was
the usual mix of anarchic joy, great music and bizarre happenings, but it
was difficult to get the best of the bands in the conditions and the sound
on many of the stages was not ideal. The comedy tent was fantastic - full to
bursting and even though there is an element of preaching to the converted
at Glastonbury they were very receptive and appreciative and made me feel
wanted and loved - not easy in a foot of mud and humous. In the Left Field
tent I followed Tony Benn - I used to think going on after really great
comedians was hard, but walking out onto a stage where the most eloquent,
lucid and succinct speaker of my lifetime has just wowed the faithful was
terrifying. Thank goodness he didn't do his Paris Hilton Blow job material -
very hard to follow. The gig was an anti-trident / anti-WMD one, so it
suited me and it turned out really well.
JULY 13 - 15. Latitude. This is the one as far as I'm concerned. It's a
glorious site, very pretty and nicely laid out so that nothing is ever too
packed or aggressive. An imaginative choice of bands including Jarvis
Cocker, Alabama 3, The Good the bad and the queen and the almighty Arcade
Fire. But Latitude is not just about the bands there's so much else that
happens there. Robin Ince ran his hilarious Book Club for most of the
weekend including a kids show reading Horrid Henry as a book at bedtime - a
3 to 7 year old rude words competition which ended with a 5 year old girl
shouting bitch was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. The Kids field
was lovely and there were secret stages in the woods and sheep painted funny
colours. I did a fun Improv show with Phil Jupitus and the Early Edition was
a joy both on Saturday and Sunday - we had Mark Steele and Phil Jupitus
along with Carrie Quinlan Andre Vincent and myself playing to around about
1000 people both days. Apparently Geoff Hoon was there too. We set up Hoon
watch and there were three significant sightings but no confirmed contact
and as yet no comment on that whole Iraq thingummy. Latitude is truly
inspiring festival with an atmosphere to rival any I've seen.
JULY 18th Ealing Comedy Festival. In a park in Ealing, sort of round the
back of the old film studios there's a very groovy little festival. A big
tent playing jazz and comedy and who know what else. I was on a mixed a bill
with Ricky Grover and Lee Mack and the audience were amazing. Very nice to
play to and comedically nimble given that Ricky, Lee and myself couldn't be
more different. They seemed to really enjoy all three of us. I watched Ricky
and Lee - they were great and the relaxed atmosphere allowed me to try a
load of new stuff which went very well. I'd hope to play it again next year
- as long as the council who organise it promise to make the paperwork and
contracts easier. But if you live in south west London this a great
afternoon and evening out.
JULY 21st. Bug Jam, VW festival, Santa Pod Raceway, Wellingborough. I love
Beetles. I always have, I know about the whole Hitler thing but I like them
as cars and I have long since secretly wanted to own a VW camper van too so
I thought I'd put this one in. When I arrived and was greeted by security -
the guard said 'you're that comedian bloke aren't you?' very astute as I
said I was playing the comedy stage and asked several times where it was. He
then said 'tell us a joke then' about ten times and as I explained that I
didn't really do jokes as such he proceeded to tell me a racist joke about
'a bird with silly coon implants'. I should have turned around and left
then, but no, in I went to spend the afternoon with some shouty petrol
heads. The last time played the festival was years ago - before my political
epiphany and I remember it being fun. Not any more. Most of the people there
were very nice and 'hippyish' in the way I want beetle and camper owners to
be, but a lot (mainly near the front of the comedy tent) were stupid and
shouty and dull. I hate having to put down obtuse, abusive heckles right at
the start of a gig, it sets the show off to a bad start and in this case set
the pace for the rest of it. I did my time, wanting it to end soon
throughout, all of which is unfair on the lovely folks who were in there
doing their best to fill an increasingly unpleasant atmosphere with good
will and laughter. I was on after Andrew Maxwell - to my mind about the
finest live stand up working at present and he played to a fair bit of
bafflement and moronic yelling, so I knew I wasn't in for storming
afternoon. It was compared by my friend Dave Johns afterwards as like
watching a heavyweight boxing match, very few punches, a lot of leaning on
each other, and a feeling of exhaustion throughout. He said I'd won on
points.
NB - if you go to Bug Jam don't arrive in a new Beetle - you get stared at.
In fact the looks might have seemed less appalled had I been dragging the
still twitching corpse of a Labrador puppy behind the car.
JULY 25TH. Canizaro at Wimbledon. Well it rained a fair bit,
and the layout seemed odd for a stand up gig. Two
banks of seats on either side then a big empty space in the middle for
people to sit on the floor. It was cold and not very full... But what a
great a crowd of people - they could scarcely have been more receptive and
filled the cool Wimbledon night with more hearty laughter, even when I was
rambling on about religion (working out new bits for the tour). They were
lovely. The night was expertly compered by Shappi Khorsandi, an increasingly
impressive Iranian comic, who's material gets better every time I see her.
She had a great Edinburgh last year and I hope will do so again this year
despite being heavily pregnant. Adam Hills went on first - he was as assured
and hilarious as ever and the audience loved him. Then I closed the first
half. After the break were Jeff Green and Rich hall so how's that for line
up? Pretty good I thought. Canizaro has a great atmosphere, is very
beautiful and only suffered attendance wise because of the summer having
been stolen by thieves. If you live in south London and have time next year
this a very enjoyable way to spend an evening and the variety of stuff they
put on is tremendous.
AUGUST 4 - 26. Edinburgh. I'm looking forward to this year's festival, there
are a lot of great people up there, so there's much to see. The Early
Edition will keep me busy as we get up early each day to prepare for the new
show with that day's papers. Then I will previewing my new touring show YOUR
TIME IS UP on the 20th and 21st at the Assembly rooms. Fingers crossed.
SEPTEMBER 7TH - 9TH. Bestival, Isle of White. I've never done this one
before but Phil Jupitus and I will be hosting the Early edition every day
with two guest comics so it should be fun. The line up of bands seems pretty
solid and who know summer might have arrived by then.
APRIL 5TH - 20TH 2008. Altitude. I am artistic director of the first ever
Alpine comedy and music festival, and we are raising money and awareness for
Climate Change. In a ski resort? Yes in a ski resort. Meribel - right in the
middle of the largest ski area in the world that is melting fast. Carbon
neutrality is what we're going for, that skiing, comedy and music. It looks
like it will be the calendar highlight of next year.
Tour Dates
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