Comedy 365

We’re often asked what Miles Eady and Liam J. Stratton (pictured above) have been getting up to since Blue Pepper split in the autumn of 2006.

Miles is currently writing and recording some new solo material, which will be coming to Comedy 365 in the weeks and months to come.  Although he is not performing on the circuit at present, he’s helping to produce Comedy Inc., a monthly night of live stand up at The Albany in Deptford, London.  Last month’s show saw Robin Ince headlining, and this month’s show on May 31st sees Shazia Mirza topping the bill, with support from Ian Smith, Del Strain, and Nique Woodhouse. For further information and to book, click here.

Liam, meanwhile, continues to perform as half of his (relatively new) duo The Scarlet Pimps. They’re currently writing new material but will be performing next Friday evening (May 16th) as part of the Rough Sketch night at Taurus in Canal Street, Manchester, along with Kerry Leigh, Williamson & Jones (The Brides of Comedy), Not2Bad, and Pippa Evans. Full details are here.  They will also be performing at the Etcetera Theatre in August as part of The 2008 Camden Fringe.

We’ll be airing a Best of Blue Pepper show in the coming weeks, along with some new material - hopefully from both of the ‘Peps - before the end of the year.  A couple of their most fondly-remembered sketches also appear in Comedy 365’s third birthday special, which will be aired on May 16th. 

Following on from the much-praised Classic Sowerby & Luff compilations, which tied up some of the highlights from Big Squeeze and everything that went before, Comedy 365 proudly presents a new series of S&L highlights, this time from the 50 episodes of The Sowerby & Luff Show.

Thrill once again as 365’s podcast pioneers get an Elbow in the Boobs, expose panda porn for the fraud that it is, champion the interrobang, invent extreme boules, complain about Noisy Dad, travel to Edinburgh, New York, and the Far East (no, not Romford), and much, much more.

Episode 1 is on the feed right now, with subsequent episodes appearing weekly on Sundays.

Also, if you’re in London or Hampshire (or thereabouts), Brian and Georgina will be previewing material from their forthcoming Edinburgh fringe show, Sex Tips for Pandas, on the following dates:

May 13th - 8:30pm - Funny How, The Hope, Whitfield St, London W1 (£4)
May 20th - 9pm (doors 8:30) - Ryan’s Bar, 181 Stoke Newington Church Street, London N16 (FREE)
June 3rd - 9pm (doors 8:30) - Ryan’s Bar, 181 Stoke Newington Church Street, London N16 (FREE)
July 16th - 8pm - Doug’s Sketch Night, Lowdown at the Albany, 240 Great Portland Street, London W1 (£7/6 conc.) (Pre-bookings: 020 7387 5706)
July 17th - 8:15pm (Doors 7:30) - Laughter-House, The Red Lion Hotel, Red Lion Lane. Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 7NY (£7) (Pre-bookings: laughterhouse@hotmail.co.uk)
July 30th - The Lamb Tavern, 10-12 Leadenhall Market, London, EC3 (Time and price TBC)

All information is correct at time of going to press. We will endeavour to keep you informed of any changes or additions.

Sex Tips for Pandas itself will run every night at 6:40pm between August 3rd and 23rd at The Dragonfly, 52 West Port, Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH1, as part of the PBH Free Fringe. There’ll be sketches, guest acts, and a podcast recorded every night. More details to follow.

COMING SOON: A brand new series of Sowerby & Luff’s FLUFFY TV in mind-blowing HIGH DEFINITION. Experience every last pixel of fluff in EXPLICIT detail. See Dr Rabbit’s fur as you have never seen it before. Filmed in breathtaking Fluffyvision!!! Watch this space…

You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Brian Luff as a 3D avatar. And look out for Georgina in her virtual pants. To visit Sowerby and Luff’s studio in Second Life go to www.sowerbyandluff.com  Meanwhile, check out the video below.

This week, one of our all-time favourites here in leafy Crouch End from the prefab four, the living legends that will live long after lots of other living legends have died, Dirk, Stig, Nasty & Barry - The Rutles.

(Feel free to comment on this clip with your favourite Rutles quotes.  We’re in that kind of mood.)

The number of businessmen with just the right amount of charisma to front their own television commercials has always been very low indeed.  For every Victor Kiam or Freddie Laker, there are countless Bernard Matthews’, Freddie Barretts, or Joe Williams’.

Even in America, where 82.3%* of salespeople think they have what it takes to be a movie star, television viewers are well accustomed to seeing their local car dealer or department store owner addressing them directly to camera.

In a previous life, this writer used to produce local radio commercials, and always got a shiver where he shouldn’t whenever any client intimated that he or she wouldn’t mind a crack at writing and performing their own copy.

I therefore cannot imagine what I would have done if I was approached by a gentleman such as the one you are about to watch. He runs a flea market in Montgomery, Alabama, and would like to get the fact across to you via the medium of rap.

This commercial is, by a long chalk, the worst I have ever seen and probably wouldn’t be improved even if Cameo singer Larry Blackmon himself appeared (avec codpiece, naturally) to assume the vocal duties.  (And those eyes…what has he done to his eyes???)

Our apologies to subscribers in Alabama (if we have any), who must be sick to death of this ad by now.

*statistic utterly unreliable

This just in from Digital Spy:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a90907/fielding-admits-to-most-haunted-fart.html

Words fail us.

Most of our discerning American subscribers have probably seen one or both of these already, but I felt that I should make these clips our picks of the week for no other reason than to convince the British public just how poor our chat shows are by comparison.

British TV chat shows rarely give viewers enough reason to stay tuned throughout a single edition, let alone a series, but ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel is an old hand at what we media professionals call “the long tail”.

For some time, there’s been a running gag in Kimmel’s show about the actor Matt Damon being bumped from the show due to the overrunning of previous items.  When Damon finally did appear on the show, the two of them ended up having a fight.

Cue Kimmel’s girlfriend, Sarah Silverman, appearing on his fifth anniversary show with some important news.

[Sorry about the interference - this is the best quality copy I've found that can be embedded for viewing worldwide.]

Smarting from this, and not one to be outdone, the spurned Kimmel decided to get his own back.  See how many famous faces you can spot.

Beat that, Jonathan Ross.

[Kudos to Kulvinder Gill for these.]

The Liar was a popular online satirical newspaper, which sadly ceased publication after its proprietor fell off a yacht at the 2005 London Boat Show, smashed through a stone floor, and died.

His company, The Liar Media Group, was the subject of some frenzied bidding last year, famously captured for posterity on BBC1’s Large Media Conglomerates Under the Hammer, but was eventually purchased for £1 by the communications company Inconticomm.

Today marks a new chapter in the chequered history of The Liar Media Group, with the launch of its brand new podcast, Liar News, exclusive to Comedy 365.

OK.  You know when I said this week’s Video Pick was going to be less puerile than last week’s?  Well, I was lying.

Cue Fry & Laurie, with Stephen Fry’s appearance being more than a little reminiscent of Jeremy Clarkson…