Laughter/Pain - Lyceum Theatre, London, 7th June 2010

[biscuitweevil]

I have seat numbers for everyone now except Sepia and Audrey. I'm in a grey top in the cheapo 'orchestra stalls'. Does that mean I have to share a seat with a tuba? No doubt all will be revealed.

[wit of the staircase]

Have fun everyone! Like LittleMole, I'd love to be going, I bet it'll be ace. And the constant tweets about remaining tickets are making it really hard for me to remind myself that I can neither afford to go nor feasibly get there and back.....

Well that's not true, you could get there and back, it would just involve a bit of effort and risk to personal safety on your part...

Shut up little devil on my shoulder! I can't go. Can I?

[writerwho~]

Annoyingly, very, very annoyingly, I probably could have gone after all. I have an exam tomorrow so thought I'd be too busy revising, but I'm not really. I was in London until the weekend so I could have just stayed, and there were still tickets available... Ho hum. Have fun everyone Take some good photos for us stuck at home!

[LollyPolly]

Hello, I'm here...although I'm probably a little late in posting. I'm in seat I tried to get 'round a word filter and failed because doing so doing so really annoys the fairies. Plus, it's in the rules not to use text speak: http://angry-feet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1402(for Laura)34...I'm on my own as The Husband is away on business yet again (in Hong Kong...The Bastard!)
It's happy hour in the bar across the road...I'm on my 3rd Mojito in 40mins....I sometimes get a Lil' nervous when I come to these things alone
4 Mojitos in an hour IS quite bad huh? Sorry...
Will perhaps clock some of you later & say hey-lo
Lolly x

-- Mon Jun 07, 2010 6:42 pm --

Ps, if any of you ARE out there on your phones & fancy saying Hey-lo back you may recognise me by my, slightly piss-ed, pocahontas-y look...

[Vekiki]

I'd completely forgotton this was tonight... Hope you all have muchas fun I'm working just round the corner so an horribly tempted to do a spot of post-show stagedoor stalking, it is on my walk home after all...

[LollyPolly]

Pps. I sincerely apologise for any improper use of the English language...I'm at that annoying stage of pissedness whereby I wish to be intelligent but do not have the required resource...

[kateweb]

That was really fun. Cracking line-up - Ed Byrne, Robin Ince, Isy Suttie, Phil Jupitus, Shappi Khorsandi, Andy Zaltzman, Kevin Eldon, Stewart Lee, Tim (obviously) and MC Al Barrie - all of whom I thought were on really good form.

Ed Byrne doesn't always impress me, but tonight everything just clicked and I thought he was great, and it was the first time I've seen Phil Jupitus live. He did some very funny stuff about his teenage daughter and being middle-aged "This has gone from comedy to West End catharsis surprisingly fast", followed by a brilliant rendition of "Reasons to be Cheerful/Sex and Drugs and Rock n' Roll" with a female close harmony trio called The La Di Dahs (who also did a great version of "Creep"). We'd been told at the beginning that it was Shappi Khorsandi's birthday, so when she came on for her set, the whole audience sang Happy Birthday to her - with a total lack of co-ordination and timing, but it was still rather sweet.

Tim closed the show (following Stewart Lee) and was referred to a few times by other acts as the one we were all waiting for (or as Robin Ince said "I saw Tim changing his socks and his feet look good - you're in for quite a night!"); the audience went predictably mental when he came on He did his normal 20 minute set (Prejudice, If I Didn't Have You, Confessions and Canvas Bags) plus The Pope Song, which went down a storm to the point where people were applauding each verse and he had to keep stopping. I'm zonked, so can't remember many details, but Prejudice was re-titled "Prawns" after Stewart Lee's routine. He did the flipping the mike stand up with his foot thing and almost whacked himself in the crotch with it. Somebody at the front cackled quite loudly and Tim replied with "You've just been listening to one of the great raconteurs of our time, and you're laughing at me nearly getting hit in the balls!". The other ad-lib I remember is at the beginning of Confessions, when Tim said "This movement's called Feminist". A woman on the right (who'd shouted out a couple of times) yelled what I think was "Shut up!", to which Tim responded "Suck my balls, bitch!", then giggled and said that was only funny in context.

Nice to see so many Feeters there (many more than I saw/spoke to, I think) and hope everyone enjoyed the show as much as I did. I really did. Please do fill in further details, all those who can remember them....

[Sepia]

Sorry for not posting my seat number! I didn't catch up on this thread before heading into London..! Not that it makes much difference now, but we were in X 18 & 19!

Had an awesome night tonight! Thoroughly enjoyed most of the comedians (just a couple that I wasn't too keen on..).

Got a nice soggy Tim hug too

Hi to everyone that got soaked by the stage door, and to whoever it was I was talking to on the tube afterwards!

One last thing:

PRAWNS.



I think I should go get some sleep.

[biscuitweevil]

Oh Sepia, I was in row X, we passed each other in the night.
Prawns MASSIVE prawns.

Spoiler! :

The final act of the night, Tim enters the stage and knocks over the mike stand deliberately (what is it with you guys and microphones?). 1) He sits at the piano and announces the first song: ‘Prawns’ (a reference to Stewart Lee’s previous spiel) then ‘Prejudice’. There’s a mid-song attempt to get the audience to sing along (we were feeble). 2) Standing at the mike now, Tim introduces Sarah saying “I thoroughly recommend my wife” then launches into ‘If I didn’t have you’ with casual wiggles. Afterwards he refers to giggling at the other comics and Shappi Khorsandi (not that Shappi wasn’t amusing, she was just standing in the wings with his water bottle). “Don’t give me the finger” retorts Tim. 3) Now Tim introduces ‘Pope’ as a wordy song he doesn’t often do (fourth outing?) and adds a jazzy afterthought. Blonde office worker walks out early on – train to catch, or other issues? 4) On to 'Confessions' with some female heckling at his announcement of the ‘feminism’ verse. During the long gap towards the end a heckler reminds him of the word…oh yes. Afterwards Tim says this gig is like a “huge Jongleurs” club. 5) Then a song to leave on a serious message. “Thanks for the memory” came a male heckle from upstairs. And so on to ‘Canvas Bags’ and another gentle attempt to involve the audience “Sing you b*astards!”. Then the electric-fan-carrying mike-gymnast left the stage to loud applause. Fashion note: same outfit as Hay, but the trousers need darning a bit.

[wit of the staircase]

Ok, I am officially sick with envy! Glad you all had a good night, and well done those who managed to meet him after - hope you had fun!

[Aims]

What a fantastic night
It goes without saying that the show was awesome, but it was so lovely to meet other feeters! Thank you for coming to find me in the interval! And thanks to the little group standing out in the rain afterwards- you made the wait much more fun
It was great to meet Tim too- fifth time lucky!!
Hope everyone else had as fantastic a time as I did, and hope those who didn't can enjoy experiencing it vicariously through us!

P.S. Massive MASSIVE Prawns!

[elainepixie]

Wow, another brilliant show!

The line-up was great, highlights for me being TIM (of course and easily worth the rest of them put together ), The la de dahs (very entertaining, as Kateweb has already described), Robin Ince (as always), Ed Byrne... and Alistair Barrie of whom I had not previously heard but who did a great job as MC and was very funny. The biggest disappointment for me was Stewart Lee, highly thought of by many I know - and he seemed to go down well - but I just didn't rate him at all... I thought his routine dragged painfully, and knowing he was the act immediately preceding Tim found myself growing increasingly impatient with him! We evidently don't share the same humour niche.

Tim gave an amazing performance as usual and the audience were wildly appreciative of every moment. The woman who kept heckling during Confessions (I think she had an Aussie accent) was sat somewhere not far to our right and has already been mentioned by Kateweb, but I would just add that after the initial "Shaaaddap!" at the mention of feminism, followed by Tim's cheeky retort, she also called out at the end of that verse, "I still don't like it!" to which Tim replied by casting a wink in her direction. This seemed to satisfy her. Despite the number of pregnant pauses in that song I didn't hear her call out again.

It was once again fantastic to meet up with more Feeters: it really adds another dimension to shows! We managed to identify Jellybean and say hi, rather awkwardly talking across the poor lady sat in seat 13 in between us! (Although, as it happens, Andy got chatting with her and found that he recognized her from Twitter!) Thank you to biscuitweevil who came and found us - lovely to meet you! - and likewise to Aims whom Andy spotted and accosted. Also lovely to meet joneshs again, whom I saw hunting for her seat and waved madly at, Kateweb and Simone who were sitting behind us and Shell who found us all in the interval! I sincerely hope I haven't missed anyone and also that I've got all my whos and whoms right... I'm aware from reading the thread that there were Feeters there with whom we didn't manage to make contact... Hopefully next time?

So sorry we had to dash at the end and couldn't hang around the stage door in the rain with everyone, but we had to rush off for our train... with friends who live a few streets away from us, who we didn't know were going to the gig but who we spotted sitting two rows in front of us! What is going on with all these coincidences?!

[joneshs]

Such a fantastic evening! Thoroughly enjoyed the varied line-up (lots of musical comedy I noticed, not just Tim) and ofcourse Tim himself was sublime. The live experience is always unique: even having heard all the same songs at Hay, they were fresh and vibrant once again, with subtle changes here and there which made the Lyceum versions special just as the Hay versions had been special. As has been already commented upon, the Pope's song got a HUGE response and was one of the particular highlights for me.

It was great to meet so many lovely Angry Feeters, beforehand, at the interval and (in a couple of cases) round at the stage door in the rain.

Tim was extremely lovely at the stage door when that modest-sized and rather bedraggled group of us delayed him for chat and photos and hugs and autographs. So gracious and warm, albeit a little perturbed intially - or, rather, concerned on our behalf - that we were mad enough to stand there all that time and get soaking wet just to meet him. Since I had to leave once I'd had my share of his attention, in order to be sure of catching the last tube heading homeward, I don't know how long he stayed in the end - or how late it was when he could finally head for home himself. He really is very very nice to his fans.

I'll do a another posting in a bit, including a bit more on my stage door exploits (subtitled 'how I overcame my Hay tongue-tiedness and gained a nickname'), but for now just wanted to mention a couple of things, including a (rather corny) joke glossed over in an earlier post.

The heckler didn't in fact call out 'Thanks for the memories'. It was just after Confessions , as Tim was beginning to introduced Canvas Bags, describing it as serious - 'like that last song in many ways' - which got a big laugh - but, as Tim reported it to the rest of us, the heckler had then yelled 'Thanks for the Mammaries'. Then Tim said something I didn't catch and then 'It's fuckin tough up here, y'know?' and then something about 'one of the best gags he'd heard (or had?) all night (??) - anyone hear that bit more clearly?

But in any event, I got the impression Tim quite liked this groan-worthy Mammaries pun (after all he has in the past indulged in the corniness of 'why the big pause/paws'

Oh, and I thought I should perhaps explain the Prawns reference for those that weren't there. Stewart Lee, who directly preceded Tim, had spent the whole of the 2nd half of his set having a go at the (non) 'quality of life' of emmigrants from this country to former-colonial parts of the world ('no, there's no good theatre, but it's hot' - etc) It was never named, but Tim obviously took such former colonial countries to include Australia.

The crescendo of Stewart Lee's final sequence was going on and on (in the voice of the Emmigrant/ Oz-dwelling ex-pat) about the 'Giant Prawns.. they're 5 times bigger than the ones in Britain, you know....giant prawns.... prawns....prawns, on the barbie....giant prawns And on and on and on. I can understand why it wasn't Elainepixie's cup of tea but I did find it bizarrely funny, like a verbal kind of slap-stick in its ridiculousness, and nearly poetic in its stretching out of just a very few conceits to take up such a long amount of time, where a word just gets funnier and funnier the more times it's repeated.

When he came on, Tim (jokingly) pretended to have been offended by this (as Tim put it) 'racist' material by Stewart Lee. Hence the addition of Prawns as the first offered title of his first song:
'This song is about Predjudice......and the language of prejudice...... It's called....Prawns...no, Prejudice...'

[wit of the staircase]

Wow, sounds like a good meet up with Tim - looking forward to more details!

[joneshs]

Right, here's the rather lengthy account of my stage door experience with Tim. I jotted down a rough draft late last night while it was all still fresh in my mind and have just been tweaking it a bit today. Was intending it to be a blog: it's rather too long for here, but I can't bring myself to edit it down. I will put it under spoilers and post it anyway, although once i upload it to my blog I can replace with just a link to that, if that would be better?

Spoiler! :

Meeting Tim Minchin at the Stage Door – Lyceum, 07-06-2010
(How I overcame tongue-tied nerves and gained a new nick-name)

After my experience in Hay, I was determined not to be tongue-tied this time. I had actual things I was hoping to say.

Delighted that Vekiki appeared just as I found the stage door! (She’d just finished work, so seemed silly not to come along) Nice to be able to chat during the long wait in the rain - we both became very bedraggled, having no umbrellas. (to be honest, Vekiki was also a delightful sight for my sore eyes for another reason - since she was bearing a working camera: my camera battery was stupidly dead so I’d only got my iphone camera– which has no flash). Others I recall being at the stage door - and whose user names I know - were Aims - plus her v patient dad - and Jellybean (not sure of others’ names ).

So, there I was - I had a (Hay Festival) canvas bag – but no sharpie; I had a Watsonian notebook; I had a bag of jellybags. I had no umbrella & was sporting the ugliest anorak in the entire universe. I had, however, remembered to put on some eyeliner.

Ok, so eventually Tim came out, all lovely and saying ‘Aww, you guys’ cos there we were standing in the rain. There were quite a few of us, but not toooo many. Aims’ dad was so indulgent and lovely. (although when the moment came to take the photo, he had real trouble with the camera – I think the flash hadn’t had time to recharge or something. I do hope the photos came out ok, Aims?)

As he joined us, Tim ducked under various umbrellas, one after the other, all held by much shorter female people, so they kept forgetting to hold the umbrella high enough for him, and Tim’s long mane-like hair kept getting caught in umbrella spokes, which he jokingly complained about ( Vekiki’s hair also got tangled in a spoke at one point – while having her photo taken with Tim I think). I managed – this time – to operate Vekiki’s camera correctly, I think, and (hopefully) got a photo for her ok. (hope you can reassure me on that point, Vekiki?)

I can’t really quite remember the order of my attempted banter to engage Tim in something like a normal conversation (determined not to be tongue-tied this time, after Hay embarrassment), but here goes, although not necessarily quite in this order:

I borrowed someone else’s sharpie (huge thank you for that!) and got Tim to sign my Hay Festival canvas bag (although I didn’t get/take the chance to mention that I’d seen him in Hay – he probably didn’t even notice it was a Hay bag – nor did I mention that I had also been a ‘Hi…Bye’ tongue-tied idiot then – but why would I want to remind him of that!)

I did, however, remind him that it had been me, Joneshs, who had recently tweeted him the link to the ‘mr whippy fallacy’ 21st floor blog featuring a critique of Peter Hichens’ bizarre observations on anti-depressants and serial killers. Thankfully, he remembered it. I then tried to reference the latin name for that causal correlation fallacy (which he quoted in the Hay show, but which I can never remember), mentioning along the way that my son had studied Philosophy A level, but that the latin name ‘was all greek to me’ – and then, catching his eye, did the old ‘did you see what I did there?’ comment. He laughed and made some quip in reply, which (sadly) I can’t recall (but I do recall that I could see the cogs of his mind whirring at that point, which was fun)

I then offered him a Jellybaby (‘don’t know if you like these, but would you like a jellybaby?’. He initially responded 'I love jelly babies' but then went on to ask me, slightly suspiciously, 'you haven't poisoned them, have you?' (I hadn’t, and fortunately he was trusting enough to believe me) He took a couple – and later came back and grabbed quite a few more, saying he was really hungry.

Ok, so what else? Oh yes, I asked him, as a favour, to sign the booklet accompanying the ipod for the Mark Watson TYSIC ipod challenge. (I’d only just met up with some other Watsonians earlier that evening and received the ipod & booklet for my leg of its journey around the country) It was hard to explain this to him when I didn’t want to monopolise his time too much –I just mentioned his friend Mark Watson and gave the briefest gist of what was going on, although I’m pretty sure he didn’t really get it. ‘Ok, so what do I need to do? ‘ he asked ‘ Just sign the booklet, really’; - so he did – a nice wee autograph, which is great – I do hope the eventual recipient appreciates this addition! (In hindsight, I suppose I should have asked him for a recommendation of a music track really - something he likes to listen to. Oh well – will just stick with my original plan to include a Minchin track as my addition to the ipod – not sure which song yet)

At one point, a bloke who was a drummer put a note of his contact details into Tim’s hand, offering his services, any services– if he should ever happen to need a drummer …(at which point Vekiki pipes up, offering to do Tim’s lighting – go girl!: between us all we could probably source and service every aspect of his forthcoming tour, I’m sure – although I couldn’t think, at the time, of a single thing I could offer to do..) ‘So, are you a good drummer? An ace drummer…?’ asks Tim – but bless him the bloke wasn’t arrogant or self-confident enough to say an up-front ‘Yes’ to that .

Oh, just remembered, at one point, seeing other people getting hugs (including the drummer), I was brazen enough to outright ask ‘Can I have a hug?’ And of course I got one, bless him (probably not too pleasant for him, cos my anorak was soaking wet; and, to be honest, lovely as it was, I didn’t get quite as much of a thrill from it myself, as I had from my hand-round-waist cuddle at Hay, cos there were just so many layers of wet-weather gear this time!)

Also, a bit later, after other people had had lots of photos, I suddenly realised I hadn’t had my photo taken with him at all this time. SO, again I was brazen – but polite of course – and asked if I could also have a photo too. ‘Aw, Jonesy’ he said (YAY for getting a nickname from Tim!)

As he put his arm round me for the photo (taken by Vekiki on her camera – what a star she is!), I expanded on the reason for my request for a photo: ‘I haven’t had my wet photo yet’
‘A Woto’ he quipped.

SO, that was about it. I did ask if he’d like to keep the whole bag of jelly babies and he was obviously tempted, but In the end he said ‘No, I’d only eat them all’
So now I’m eating them. Ah well, I’ll be the fat one and he can stay skinny, I don’t mind.

So there you have it: lots of happy memories.BUT do you know the one important thing I forgot to do: I bloody well forgot to tell him how fantastic his performance had been that night (I guess we all assume he knows that we love what he does - and that it’s been amazing - hence the standing in the rain - but it wouldn't hurt to tell the fella!) Am kicking myself.

It was so hard to leave while he was still there, with a few other patient people at last getting their turn, but Vekiki and I pulled ourselves away and off we went in the rain, in search of a way home (so glad I made the last tube and didn’t have to resort to night buses!)

But as we walked away, glancing back at Tim with the others still around him, I couldn’t help wish I could just linger till the very last moment when he himself would have to say goodbye and head for home…