TOUR NEWS!!!!
John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme did a tour! Yes, the radio show I'm in! It's over now though, sorry. But I bought some great stuff at CEX. And the Finnemore gang were angels over those two months, only funnier, and John wrote an incredible show obviously and I prefer saying lines when I've memorised them anyway, which I did! Here we all are, peeking at how good the show was, not believing our luck:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmUE2j5T3hwXAEukrmmZTjEujUhOAvYyoqULT3lzbB7_Vex8LcX1HT4-PqRf8x_5X8v2LT1qb43BaWI2wIsn0T-aJ9k3QL4kDlJtgRewsPWh_dc4ApVGnlxs_zHRq8OiX2vFY8g9VApgUs/s400/IMG_20190915_191422_396.jpg)
Yes, it was a good-looking show. Here's a thing though: there's a sketch in which Patsy Straightwoman interviews Cabin Pressure's Arthur Shappey which made me suddenly notice a parallel between Martin Crieff and his far less irritating creator that had never before occurred to me in over a decade's acquaintance: Arthur explains that Martin has to take a citizenship test in order to get married, but it's okay, because you only have to get sixty per cent. But it's not okay, Arthur then clarifies, "because Martin does NOT want to get sixty per cent!"
Now that sounds very John.
Remember the finale of last year's Souvenir Programme? The one with the heist? The most impressive single episode of a sketch show possibly ever written?
Of course we had to do another series this year. How do you follow something so perfect? Well I have a theory about Series 8, and it's been online for almost year now, fortunately so you can go and check it out for yourself. Here's my theory: The only way John could follow the finale of Series 7 was by pretending he'd never written it, nor indeed written any sketch show before, ever. This is why, for example, the first two Since You Ask Me's of the new series (our name for the plays at the end) sound so much more like actual spoofs of M. R. James and Conan Doyle than anything that has gone before... why there's no sense at all of what-have-I-not-done-yet about any of the material, yet it's all still so miraculously fresh... because Series 8 was in fact - subliminally at least - not the eighth series at all, but the first series again, only now from a Parallel Universe! Now obviously this theory is nonsense, or so I thought... UNTIL I happened to look back over John's own blog written when the show's very first episode aired back in 2011... and there, on the disused leg of a spider diagram illustrating how he'd come up with the idea for the sketch about the man who wants to make the noise for the Tardis... I was dumbfounded to find notes for a sketch that appears in Series 8's episode 3 about a princess who wants to become a police dog handler, notes which John now claims to have no memory of writing!
Some things one just cannot unknow. As for what ghastly deal John must have struck to be able now to mine such pan-causal seams, however, (because I honestly and absolutely believe John has never had the time to read through those old notebooks), or with whom he struck this deal... or what... that I shall leave unguessed. But note, even in that post from 2011 celebrating the realisation of "the one thing" the author claimed to have wanted more than any other, he provides in the Tardis sketch a clear warning against the sanity-extinguishing consequences of "following your dream", a warning made all the more stark by closer examination of the illustration chosen to accompany it: Pooh tied to a balloon, trying to steal honey from some bees, or to quote the show, "the reckless desperation of an addict!"
Series 9 records next year.
(John also drew both of the superb diagrams above, of course. More photos of the show can be found here in lieu of me actually being able to find out who took them, although I know our excellent sound engineer Nick Burkinyoung took the one of our bums and shoes. Thanks entire to all who turned up as, well. I loved that show. I still love it. I hope John never loses his addiction. And in other news, here's hoping your today has been, oh go on then, this:)
I managed to get tickets to this show in Folkestone at the Leas Cliffe Hall. It was pant wettingly hilarious and should you be doing another tour next year would urge anyone to get tickets, they won't be disappointed.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for series 9 to air, here's hoping you have more opportunities to display your amazing singing abilities as per "December 27th"
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DeleteSee below
DeleteTa, Peter. Folkestone was great. I got to stay with my mates Nav and Charlotte who used to work at the london Dungeon but now run a superb kids' stuff shop called "Moo Like A Monkey". Anyone in the vicinity should have a look. I can't do links, but here: https://moolikeamonkey.com/
ReplyDeleteEverything is a circle, but also, John's mind must be a truly wondrous place. (I'm starting to think the whole Ed's Schnauzers SYAM was not so much a metaphor as it was a way to tell us that he did indeed find the much fabled chord that pleases the Lord - of Comedy.)
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to series two from the parallel universe (or should that be series one all over again, except from a different parallel universe this time?)