I made my first ever documentary in February this year. In it, I tell the story of my quest to find a computer program that can write better poetry than I can. The whole thing is now online and you can watch it here. Happy New Year, everyone!

ONE THING: COMEDIAN DIES IN THE MIDDLE OF JOKE

For the last couple of years, I’ve been developing a piece of interactive theatre called Comedian Dies In The Middle Of A Joke. Next Thursday it has its LONDON DEBUT at Battersea Arts Centre. After some great scratches at Sampled and the Forest Fringe, it’s getting a proper full release, and I cant think of a place we’d rather do it.

At its core, the show is a piece of Comedy Karaoke, with audience members taking it in turn to read the auto-cue. There are scheduled opportunities for heckles, which become more and more savvy as the show progresses. Here’s a nice writeup from social gaming supremos Hide and Seek, who came along to a scratch in Edinburgh.

At that same performance, comic Daniel Kitson came along and gave some useful feedback, which I’ve duly incorporated. I think the piece will continue to grow like this, as the whole thing is carefully centred around the unique experience of the audience. So, if you’ve participated before and have some ideas, leave me a message.

The dates are December 1st, 2nd and 3rd. There are two shows per night: 7.15 and 8.45. To buy tickets, click here.

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TWO THING: STANDBY FOR TAPE BACKUP (SCRATCH)

I am also scratching some ideas for a new one-man show on Wednesday 30th at 5pm. It’s free! And it also features a new poetic form, which I’ve derived from the opening credits of The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. For further details, click here.

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THREE THING: TRUE STORIES OF FRIENDSHIP, with MOLLY NAYLOR

And I am also also hosting a night of true stories at the BAC with the poet Molly Naylor on December 8th. All of the stories are themed around Friendship: tales of unusual alliances, breakups and reconciliations, told by the BAC’s resident artists, its staff, and members of the public. Plus wedding band The Middle Ones. For more information, click here.

To tie in with National Poetry Day, I’m releasing a free e-book of 12 illustrated sonnets, each based on a different character from Street Fighter 2. That’s right: ANOTHER BOOK OF STREET FIGHTER SONNETS. Sheesh.

At the back of the book is a personality test. Find out which streetfighter you are most like! My dad is Zangief.

You can download the book for free from Penned in the Margins, who have done some great last minute work to get this ready in time. There’s also some more information about the project and how it came about.

Sometimes the website doesn’t work for iPad and iPhone users, so here’s a direct link as well.

Hope you like it you guys!

OK, I’m back from Edinburgh, and my immune system has gone into some sort of critical meltdown. Is it possible for someone to have TWO COLDS SIMULTANEOUSLY?

I was trying out a lot of new stuff over the summer, and I’m happy to say all of it went pretty well! I got some great feedback on both Hinterland and Comedian, and I’m hoping both projects will continue to develop over the next year.

I also had great fun with my two commissions for Detours. I was commissioned by Trigger and the Edinburgh Arts Festival to produce two pieces: one in response to the David Byrne exhibition, and the other in response to the David Mach show. Here’s two short films about the project, made by the amazing Daniel Warren.

For the David Byrne exhibition, I played the opening five minutes of Tutti Frutti, and layered an autobiographical story over the top of it. My new story was meant to be synchronised, shot-for-shot, with the original film. I did this three times over: first with a story from when I was 6, then one from when I was 15, and a final story from when I was 27.

Me and Daniel spent a Sunday morning at the Swimmer One/Eye Of The Duck HQ, turning the middle story into this:

For the David Mach exhibit, I read a short story called In The Beginning. In it, a man tries to understand his loveless marriage by comparing it to various creation myths. Here I am rehearsing at the City Art Centre after hours:

This are two of eight films made by Daniel Warren in response to the events. Watch commissions by Josie Long, Aidan Moffat and Nigel & Louise Shunt right here.

www.danielwarren.tv
www.edinburghartfestival.com
www.triggerstuff.co.uk

The final few days of Edinburgh Fringe, and I’ve got a bit of a safari party lined up.

On Friday 27 August at 7pm I’m doing Neu! Reekie! at the Scottish Book Trust

(Trunk’s Close, 55 High Street, Royal Mile) with Kevin Cadwallender, Michael Pederson and the mighty Stevie Jackson from Belle and Sebastian.

Same night, I’m running over to the Edinburgh International Book Festival Spiegeltent in Charlotte Square Gardens (9pm start) to do a 10min set for Words Per Minute Unbound. Also on the bill: Chemikal Underground’s M Hubbert and

McSweeney’s author Adam Levin.

THEN, at midnight, I’m running back over to Forest Fringe for LIVE ART SPEEDDATE (running from 11pm-1am), run by the mighty Stoke Newington International Airport.  I’ll hopefully  be doing one-on-one performances for audience members. After that, there’s a closing party until 3am. Its one of the last nights of the Forest, so come along and say your goodbyes. I’ll be one looking tired & haunted in the corner.

After a week of play at Forest Fringe, The Hinterland has accumulated a great deal of worthy adventurers. See my dope infographic above.

Today, we had our first player reach Canto Four! It’s a matter of time before they reach the centre of our diabolical maze. This is very exciting for all of us involved.

If you’d like to register, pop into Forest Fringe 12-6pm every day. We’re in the box room at the top of the stairs.

As part of my curatorial contribution to this year’s Forest Fringe, I am showcasing two performances of Comedian Dies In The Middle Of Joke: a interactive play about comedy & repetition.

Here’s the blurb:

November 1th, 1983: the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war. Comedian Joe “Pops” Pooley is headlining his local comedy club. As if his job wasn’t hard enough this evening, the venue has found itself trapped inside a six-minute time-loop.

Comedian Dies In The Middle Of Joke is an interactive play for fifteen people. Each time the stage resets, everyone in the room moves one seat along. Suddenly you might find yourself playing a heckler, or the barman, or even the comedian himself. All you have to do is read the autocue and follow the prompts. The comedian is doomed to fail every time. the question is: can you die with some dignity?

17th & 18th August 5pm – 6pm, Forest Fringe, Bristo Place, EH1 1EY.

The show was devised by me, produced by Sarah Ellis, and written in collaboration with the cast: Richard Morris (BBC’s Extras), Geradine Coyne, Maria Hosdon (both from The Aspidistras), and Joe Deeney.

This will be the second ever outing for CDITMOJ. Our first was a scratch at the excellent Sampled festival at Cambridge Junction earlier this year. Its great to be able to come and try it out at Forest, funded by Escalator East to Edinburgh and the Arts Council.

Tickets are free, from Brown Paper Tickets.

If you fancy coming along, but don’t want to participate in the show (we acknowledge that reading an autocue on stage is many people’s worst nightmare) there are seats at the back for people who just want to watch.

Hello.

My principle project at the Edinburgh Fringe this year is an exciting new collaboration between myself & social gaming legends Hide and Seek. It’s supported by Escalator East to Edinburgh, Arts Council England and the Jerwood Foundation. We’ve been putting on the finishing touches over the last month, and  finally it’s ready to LAUNCH.

Hinterland is a long poem, hidden in four locations across the city of Edinburgh. Anyone that goes looking for the poem will have a different experience. The poem responds to your actions, changing every time.

In order to hear the first canto of the poem, you must collect a free booklet of instructions from the Forest Fringe (Bristo Place, Edinburgh).

These instructions will ask you to find a particular kind of stranger; a random person, somewhere in Edinburgh, with a particular skill. Maybe you’ll bump into someone that can help straight away. Maybe you wont meet them for days. Either way is fine. There’s no rush.

Once you’ve found them, you and the stranger must work together to answer a couple of simple questions about yourselves. When the awkward conversation is finally over, you phone up our special phone number and leave your answers with our operator.

A few minutes later, we send you back the first canto of Hinterland, which you can listen to on your phone. Once complete, you can return to the Forest Fringe for Canto 2.

The poem responds to the answers you collect, using your experience in exciting, unexpected ways. The more Cantos you collect, the more the Hinterland seems to know you. Each new canto leads to new jeopardy, leading you deeper into the world of the Hinterland: a landscape built from misunderstandings, invisible borders, crossed lines and untranslatable sayings.

COME VISIT US AT THE FOREST FRINGE, BRISTO PLACE, 12-6pm, 15-27 August.

More info, videos, etc to follow

I am doing lots of fun stuff at the Edinburgh Fringe this year. One of those things is called DETOURS.

DETOURS is a series of impromptu performances in art galleries, happening across the length of the Edinburgh Art Festival. There are two performances from me, two from comedian Josie Long, two from musician Aidan Moffat, and two from performers Nigel Barrett & Louise Mari of Shunt.

Here’s what I’m doing:

“I’m Just A Lonely Guy” at the John Byrne exhibition,Open Eye gallery, 6:30pm.

I’ll be playing a clip piece from Byrne’s legendary 1987 TV series, layering a new story from my own life over the top of it. “I’m Just A Lonely Guy” was the b-side to “Tutti Frutti” on Little Richard’s original release of the song.

“In The Beginning” at the David Mach exhibition, City Arts Centre, 7pm.

I’ll be reading a short story about Edinburgh, astronomy, and the birth of the universe. My story follows a university lecturer as he searches backwards through his failing marriage, looking for the initial spark that made him fall in love.

Both events are free! Spaces are really limited, so I recommend booking early. These are both brand new pieces of work, which is really exciting for me, and I’m totally blown away to be in the same lineup as Josie/Aidan/ Nigel&Louise DONT FUCK IT UP ROSS

This whole project was designed and commissioned by the awesome people at Trigger. Go to their website for more info & to book tickets.

Hello theres. This afternoon I got an email from my long-time video collaborator A Line & a Dot, containing a brand new film based on one of my poems. HERE IT IS RIGHT HERE:

Me and AL&aD have already collaborated together on three films: Things To Do Before You Leave Town, A Brief History of Combat Simulation, and The Three Stigmata Of Pacman. Check them out why dont you.

This new one is taken from my limited edition chapbook Twelve Nudes (buy it here). There’s only 50 copies left, and me and my publisher have made some sort of mystical blood-pact that means that when they’re gone, we cant print any more.

AL&aD is about to relocate to America in 7 days! The house that appears in this film is hers. No doubt she will have an awesome time. Still, I hope she will occasionally watch British sitcoms and for a second think, “aw”.