Oh hello again!

Date: 01/04/12
Author: Peter

Well.
It's been a while. 4 Months and 7 days, to be precise. My last entry was candid and odd; an obvious signature of Edinburgh's build up of negative mental effects and extreme-emotional highs and lows. It felt like a smiley face painted onto a corpse.
Don't worry; this entry won't randomly turn into an overly-sentimental look at the ins and outs of a 15 year friendship (with absolutely nothing to do with 'Mechanical Tiger'!), or self indulgently over-analyse a fictional character.

I should probably fill you in on what's gone on since the 26th of August, 2011, then....

It's probably not my place to fill in the others' lives for them, but I'll give a quick (and mostly fictional) breakdown;
Chris Cosentino's comedy career has blossomed, and he's through to the next round of this year's Laughing Horse New Act competition. He's also currently designing MT's Chelsea Flower Show entry for 2012.
Tom Harrison has become a popular R&B singer/songwriter, tossing the writing of various shorts and a feature film to the back-burner. Here's a short video of Tom in action- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shltkq0cBVI
Sam Hutchinson recently invested a small fortune of $68 into a series of erotic-dancing videos and now plies his trade on the streets of Plymouth. He also shot his new web series in late November, which will be online sometime soon!
Matt Lavender disappeared in October following an odd spate of LOL-cat videos (bordering on animal cruelty), appearing on his youtube account. It's rumoured he's living in downtown LA and working on his latest feature script, under the pen name 'BigBoi'.
After furthering his stage-lighting and script-writing careers (respectively), Lloyd Morgan finally succumbed to his secret desire to become a character in an American Civil War/Star Wars mash-up manga novel. His weekly adventures can be read up on here(?)
Sophie Petzal has gone from strength to strength, and is now the world's second strongest woman (after Jodie Marsh). Nah, she's working for the Beeb now, and practising her bicep curls in time for the Olympics.
For legal reasons, I can't divulge any information on writer-director Josh Vince. His name, details, and past, will soon be wiped from existence (as demonstrated in this handy 'how to' video)
And as for me?
I was recognized as the next face of Vogue, and my latest photo-shoot can be seen here....


The boring truth?
Well, I came away from Scotland on the 29th of August with moobs, a genuine career worry, and an alcohol problem. A few weeks later I was somehow lucky enough to begin temping at a well known production company in Soho. After going back to Bournemouth to complete my third year of University, I was very kindly offered a role in a professional production of A Streetcar Named Desire, and was then given representation by Poole based agents, Dramatic Productions. Meanwhile, I tried to get a feature script off the ground with a group of pals on TV Production, and we began shooting what became Soap. Which is what I'll be writing about on here from now on. I was also offered a nice little job with online company streamuniverse.tv, and spent December battling exhaustion and a few other personal demons left behind by the Edinburgh experience.

Now, in 2012, I'm fatter, happier, and sober (for now).

So, Soap....

Agh, I'm all written out. You can read up on 'Soap' on the facebook, or wait 'til next time.

Happy 2012!

Is Professor Green Just An Evil Michael Cera....?

Date: 14/08/11
Author: Peter

Since my last post things have improved (although not for Chris. See above).

After discussing life with director Josh and fellow cast member Tom over pie and mash (and beer) my mood very rapidly lightened. You could say the alcohol was a massive help, or just the fact that I really do love pie, but I think the main thing was the realisation that we're here to have fun. Yes, FUN! There's stuff I should be doing work-wise whilst I'm here, definitely, but I think lightening up can only help the pesky work ethic.
Creating the balance between social interaction and 'me' time is definitely key to my enjoyment of this month of my life.

Yesterday we had our largest audience ever (somewhere between 60 and 100 people), and there were laughs in all the right places (and some others!). Weekends are brilliant for performers here at the Festival.

I'm watching Ibiza Rocks whilst I write this for some reason. Has anyone else noticed how Professor Green looks a bit like an evil Michael Cera....?

p.s. Thanks to Arron and Scott for their wise words on tumblr in response to my downbeat blog :)

What Are We Doing Here?

Date: 11/08/11
Author: Peter

Edinburgh’s lost some of its charm for me.

This could be a result of the heavy non-stop rainfall (dampening moods), the mixed reception to the play, or cabin fever at spending so much time together. Will I commit a murder? It’s a distinct possibility....

Ok, it’s not as bad as I’ve made it sound. As someone used to the lovely warmth of the south (Bournemouth, I promise never to curse your stuffy days and cold nights ever again), I’m not built to last in this sort of environment. It’s no coincidence that the sunnier days of the last week or so have been amongst the times I’ve enjoyed here the most. If we didn’t have to go out and flier every day, the rain wouldn’t be so bad, but an hour or so of being soaked to the bone and rejected by nine out of ten of the people you thrust a piece of paper at to the tune of ‘free comedy play at 4pm, ‘Killing Bill Gates’!!’ does grate on you a little.

Yesterday we had to cancel the show due to another performer having pulled apart the sound system at some point earlier that morning, and had to turn over twenty people away. Despite being a little disappointing, this was probably for the best, as it gave us an hour to rehearse some script changes. Taking in audience response, we’d decided to cut down on some of the more vulgar jokes (better to get no laugh than the occasional small laugh and offend someone), and twist about the lines to help with pacing.

A few weeks ago, before the Balham performance, Josh wrote an interesting entry on how reviews/instant audience reaction might affect his view on the play. After being criticized for our acting, pop references, style of humour, choreography, characters and pacing (not only by the critics) I now know what he meant. Is the play actually any good? Or does it just not appeal to the more theatrical/arty types here at the festival? After all, we are listed under ‘theatre’ rather than ‘comedy’, between a production of ‘King Lear’ and the works of Brecht or some other major practitioner. After the brilliant response we received from our friends in Bournemouth, we may have over estimated the reception we’d receive up here. Perhaps they were just being kind? Or maybe they were the precise audience who would definitely get the references and enjoy the ‘real-time’ structure and blue humour? Who knows, but, as predicted by our director, these are elements I’ve come to question in the last few days.

I’m not sure I should be posting this online, I mean, this blog is meant to be a place to big ourselves up and sell the show. If it gets removed you’ll know I got in trouble. But I think it’s more interesting to be honest and attempt to dissect how I (and perhaps the others) are currently feeling about the entire situation, than to smile and pretend that everything is dandy. No-one’s fallen out, we’re all still enjoying one another’s company (as far as I can tell) and I don’t think anyone feels as if they’re wasting their summer here. Perhaps a bit of space will be a good idea in the next few weeks, but we’ll see.

With about sixteen more shows to go, things can only get better right?

My work ethic is non existent, my appetite is more irregular than ever and I seem to be flipping from full-grinned happiness to the depths of depression by the moment (may even be evident in this post). Oh well, grin and bear it Peter, grin and bear it....