Month: August 2009

Leave a comment Posted on comedy, me me me

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Well, I’m back from Edinburgh. My goodness, what a week! I had such a lovely time. Did about 14 gigs, met loads of great people from all over the world, danced til daft o’clock with half of ’em, failed to win* my So You Think You’re Funny heat, and I ate a haggis.

Haggis is quite tasty! For a bit.

My stand-up improved immeasurably while I was there – but I still have so much to learn, and so many more jokes to write. I guess it’s time to start thinking about either stepping up the ambition, working harder, travelling round to do as many gigs as I can, or, alternatively, maybe giving it up entirely.

Or perhaps there’s a grey area in the middle somewhere. I’ve always been happy to plod on at my own pace but I can’t escape the fact that time’s ticking on. How long do you chase a dream, Harris? Particularly when your default speed of pursuit is “slow saunter”. Dreams move fast, man. You think you’ve grabbed one, and, whoosh! It’s off and running over the next hill.

Some dreams are worth chasing, some are not. The trick is working out which is which. That dream I had last night about the car with a hot dog oven in the glove box? Let it go. The dream about one day flying over the rainbow to Emerald City, the mystical realm of magic and music and stripey socks – hell, I’ll follow the Yellow Brick Road for that one. The comedy? We’ll see.

If I only had a brain.

In other news, Moon Shot UK was a runner up in Propeller TV’s Comedy Fest competition, judged by David Nobbs and Toby Foster amongst others, so that’s nice. Comedyfest will air on Propeller TV, Sky Channel 195, on Monday 14th September at 10pm.

 

*or, to put it more positively, succeeded in losing

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Edinburgh

Looks like I’m off to the Edinburgh Fringe for a few days – the plan is that I’ll be there from Saturday 15th to Thursday 20th of August, and hopefully I’ll be practising my 7 minute So You Think You’re Funny bid for glory at various venues until it becomes a beautiful comedic butterfly fluttering above the heads of the audience, dropping glittery little butterfly plops of amusement into their open minds. Or something.  

What can I say? Right now the transient, empty approval of a bunch of strangers sitting in a darkened room is all I have going for me. Well, that and my newly-pink tiger t-shirt (Don’t mix whites with colours, you dolt. Now my favourite shirt looks like something Apollo Creed would wear. Mind, it also looks like something I would wear. Roar.) And if you’re going to escape from horrible reality for a bit, it might as well be to a city that sells nice porridge.

Many thanks to the Laughing Penguin crew for the offer of a lift and a place to stay. Much appreciated.

Leave a comment Posted on acting, short film

Bewick’s Mambo

old lady harrisBewick’s Mambo, the short musical film by Peter Snowdon, has won a prize at the Malescorto Festival in Italy, which it turns out is a film festival and not a convention of Spanish man-whores. Bonus! Anyway the prize couldn’t have gone to a nicer, or more deeply psychologically troubled man than Peter. Well done sir!

Plus I’m in it*. I play an old lady and a bear that’s au fait with the Dewey decimal system. It’s that kind of film. And it gives me my first ever mention on IMDB:

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: James Harris was not available on two occasions when the bear had to appear in shadow, so other people had to stand in for him – first runner James Boughen, and later Lou Wenzel, who took time off from her role as the demure Eve to savage and, apparently, eat Adam alive. 

It was a grand experience. I do love acting – it’s the one work-type-thing I do that I actually enjoy when I’m in the moment. Well, that and stand-up. I absolutely loathe writing, and directing gives me ball ache but performing makes me very happy indeed. Especially Even when I’m wearing a bra (which actually, now I come to think of it, probably wasn’t necessary. Particularly when I was in the bear suit. Or when I just wrote this blog. I’ll take it off. Later.)

*really briefly, but IT STILL COUNTS dammit.
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So You Think You’re Funny 2009

Think_Youre_FunnyI got through to the semi-finals of  ‘So You Think You’re Funny?’, ” the most prestigious of all the Edinburgh Festival Fringe stand-up comedy competitions” (they say that, not me). I am quite excited about this, and already a bit nervous.

Past winners include Phil Kay, Rhona Cameron, Lee Mack, Dylan Moran, Tommy Tiernan and Peter Kay. I feel that statistically I would stand more chance of winning if my last name was Kay.

My show takes place at 10.30pm on August 19th at the Gilded Balloon.

So if you’re in Edinburgh on August 19th and would like to see an excited, nervous old man talking about chickens and French bread in a lovely venue, tickets are on sale now:

Line up and tickets.

If you would like to see a drunk and deflated old man talking about missed opportunities and “the man” grinding him down, hang round outside the venue just after midnight. I’ll see you there, and we can laugh at that old man, cos I’m going through to the final, obviously.