My stand-up comedy compadre Lee O’Connell will be performing a set at the Alternative World Cup Final Comedy Night at the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath on Sunday, 11th July.  Lee’s a very funny anecdote fiend from North Birmingham who delivers his material with dry wit, easy charm, clinical precision and -- when the situation calls for it -- the vocal mannerisms of Dustin Hoffman.  I recommend him highly.

Lee is also a filmmaker.  Here’s a rather charming short film he made for this year’s Film Dash competition (the one where Brum-based filmmakers have to make a flick in 48hrs):

Anyhow, tickets for the 11th July gig are only £3 and I plan to pop along myself.  I recommend it to anyone seeking an alternative to the World Cup Final, comedy-shaped or otherwise.

Here’s a couple of photos from my stand up gig at Highlight last month:

Pics courtesy of Brum-based MTC Media Productions.

As you were.

Some seven years after it was first published in France, the concluding volume of The Metabarons – cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s brilliantly insane graphic novel series – is finally getting an English language release next week.  This is something of a big deal for Jodorowsky fans like me who have a poor grasp of French and rely too heavily on Babel Fish.

Here’s a substantially revised and updated version of an article I wrote some years ago about Jodorowsky’s life and work. I’ve embedded some video clips from Jodorowsky’s films ‘El Topo’, ‘The Holy Mountain’ and ‘Santa Sangre’.  If you’re unfamiliar with his films ‘El Topo’, ‘The Holy Mountain’ and ‘Santa Sangre’, then it’s worth pointing out that they are – as they say -  NSFW (or ‘Not Suitable For Work’) and leave it at that.

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This morning, Clare, the kids and I watched my favourite ever cartoon, Chuck Jones’s classic ‘One Froggy Evening’.  It’s funny, poignant and poetic.  Steven Spielberg once called it “the Citizen Kane of animated film.”

I can think of no better way to spend six minutes and fifty-three seconds.

Incidentally, ‘One Froggy Evening’ is included in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2 DVD box set which I’ve got and thoroughly recommend.  I wouldn’t normally do this, but HMV are currently selling it at just under a tenner (its RRP is £39.95).  Worth every penny.

For those who like to supplement their audio with moving pictures, here’s a video of my first stand-up gig from last month (my “early, funny period”):

Tom Lennon’s First Stand-Up (in COLOR) from Tom Lennon on Vimeo.

The video was recorded by my good pal Gerry Logan and – just to clarify – I’m now available for bookings.

Watching the video of my second stand-up gig was a painful experience. I knew before I went on stage that it wouldn’t be as strong as my first set.  For one thing, I only had a day to prepare for it; for another, the average comedy audience – like the average person – is sick of hearing about politics.  Being an awkward critter, I’m not sick of hearing about politics, let alone blathering on about it (just look at my Twitter account).  As soon as I found out that I’d be performing just three days after a general election I felt a moral obligation to to be topical, subversive and – with any luck – funny.  I was definitely topical and subversive, but I seemed to struggle with delivering on the devastating funnies.  Which is a shame, as I made a valiant effort to make my proselytising more palatable by increasing the number of gratuitous dick jokes in my set.   Its an old trick, but this time around it didn’t work.

The gig didn’t go swimmingly, then.  In line with modern personal development theories like NLP, I’ve tried to reframe my ‘failure’ as ‘feedback’ in order to learn something new from the experience.  By doing so I may hopefully do things differently, grow as a human being and maybe get some more fucking laughs next time.

For the benefit of fellow stand-up comedy start-ups and anyone else who cares, here’s 5 things I learnt from the experience:

1. Don’t try to write and memorise a brand new set the day before you’re supposed to perform it.  You’ll end up looking like a tit.
2. When St John’s Ambulance start edging towards the stage it probably means you’re dying on your arse.  Try to remain calm.
3. Sometimes that laughter you hear is just the audience in your head.  If it’s not picked up on your mate’s camcorder then it doesn’t count.
4. When delivering an impassioned rant, try not to accidentally spit on the people in the first row.  It breaks rapport.
5. Be funnier.

In case you haven’t had enough of politics this week, here’s my General Election-themed stand-up set I performed last Sunday night:

Tom Lennon Stands-Up Again from Tom Lennon on Vimeo.

As I’ve already said, much of this material seemed quite topical on Sunday night, quite dated by Monday teatime and now resembles a vintage newsreel. So it goes.

Thanks to my good friend Gerry for filming this.

(Yes, my name’s ‘Tom’ and I’ve got a good friend called ‘Gerry’. Deal with it.)

* The title of this blog post was inspired by Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris’s ‘Six Months that Changed a Year’, a fiendishly satirical reflection of 911 that was published in The Observer in 2002.

I just discovered that I’ll be doing another stand-up set this Sunday night (9th May).

Venue is the same as last time:

Highlight Comedy Club (formerly Jongleurs)

Quayside Tower
259-262 Broad Street
Birmingham

B1 2HF

Doors 6.45pm,  Tickets £5

Don’t worry, I have new material.

Courtesy of my good friend Mr Pete Ashton, here’s an audio of my first ever stand-up comedy gig from last night.

Tom Lennon’s First Standup from Pete Ashton on Vimeo.

(This, of course, means I’ll now have to write fresh material)