Sunday 12 July 2009

War Journal : Masons Comedy Club 4/6/09








Me doing stupid voices.

This one was a bit crazy. The harsh financial reality of our impending Fringe trip had begun to set in and it became very obvious that we needed to make a shit load of money on this one or else we were gonna be up cack alley. As a result of this i was absolutely shitting myself for a few days before hand. The acts had all agreed to perform for free, and Masons were behind us , so i don't know what exactly it was i was worried about , i just knew i was worried. Basically we all needed a shit load of people to turn up.
When people talk about a picture being worth a thousand words they mean this picture

As it turned out we needn't have worried about it . All the acts were awesome , in particular new friend of the Concept Shane Todd, and the crowd was massive, so large in fact that i was reminded of the days when DR Page would stand behind the curtian and ask " who are you people ?" over and over again. Our set went quite well, although I felt there was an awful lot me doing stupid voices. There were a couple of sketches that i felt flat out did not work ( propaganda) , but overall the set goes well. Sorcha stole the show with her monologue. FUCKING BITCH. Post show activities inclue the usual drunken madness , with the strabane contingent in particular doing themselcves proud. A good time was had by most.


Two more satisfied customers seeking shelter neath the Freebirds wing

Saturday 20 June 2009

War Journal . 12/06/09 Fibar Magees Ballyshannon


So as it turned out, Leckys' mate Christian ( a fine man) , had taken over running what could be best described as a caberet style club in the mighty city of Ballyshannon and thinks we might be the right type of act . Therefore The Concept ( as the kids call us) were Donegal bound for the first time. There was a great deal of concern going into this , that some of our material might be considered a little.......inappropriate for such a place . We therefore were compelled to remove all the blasphemy(boooo) and blatant excuses for bad words ( double boooo) from our set list. Fortunately for us hard ons and general bad taste are all right in Tir Connal , so we still had a rather cheeky set list.
Our hosts for the evening was Eavan King ( Ballyshanon resident, comedy promoter par excellence , and our Brian Epstein) and her lovely mum Mary , who made us feel right at home ( which they will come to regret I'm sure. A little nervous before this one, being that it was a new audience , and also the first gig we've done without Sorcha ( which felt like working with a missing limb). Always interesting to watch everyones pre show rituals. Pete seems compulsively to organise and reorganise things over and over , often it seems to me on details that are ultimately inconsequential. Lecky retreats into himself, going over lines and bits and accents in his own head ( as i imagine a real actor would). Me ? I get pissed up and schmooze with whoever is available.
The venue is great , sadly the crowd is small ( but appreciative ). It seems most stuff is well received, Philomena goes over great ( bah!!!) , and Pete steals the show with his Emu bit. The bastard. Post show we get pissed up and have a great time , i get some good advice from Maura, and a lesson in knowing my rights from Christian and his lovely partner Catalina ( who tells me at length about how she does not really drink, but has a full bottle of wine while telling me this). We return to Ches King were our requests to go and investigate the nearby hydro electric plant fall on deaf ears , and we instead drink more. Ireland's' Oldest Bridge!!!!!

The next day is just brilliant as we visit Ireland's' oldest fridge( sorry, bridge), have fun on the beach , and i renew my attack on all the birds of the world, starting with the majestic swan.


FUCK YOU SWAN

Anyway long story short it was a great show that hardly any fucker saw. We had a great time and a great night, got some good feedback, and had a much needed day of fun after all the recent stresses infighting and general bullshit. Made me feel confident and energised for upcoming gigs and hardships.
PODER~!

Thursday 11 June 2009

Unread Book Review :3 Kings By Ralph Reigl





Kind of ashamed of this one. Myself and dr page reviewed it without reading it. Still. Its Funny i think .




Three Kings

Ralph Riegel’s

Books by journalists carry one major health warning. Sometimes, they amount to little more than a series of columns linked together by a hastily written narrative. Absent is the sense of perspective that time provides and present is all the minutiae; alternating between tedious and lurid. Sports and Crime writers are particularly guilty. Ralph Riegel’s previous effort, an (admittedly excellent) account of the disappearance of Robert Holohan and the subsequent trial of Wayne O'Donoghue, was such a read. So now naturally he turns to sport; ‘three kings’ his account of the age old hurling rivalry between Cork, Kilkenny, and Tipperary. Gripping stuff, you might think… Sadly you would be wrong, as generating even a smidgen of interest in such a topic is a Sisyphean task which the author is just not up to. Maybe it’s just me but isn’t t the age old battle for supremacy described here of so little interest, to anyone outside those three Counties, that you might as well be describing the all Ireland Tidily Winks championship. And Hurling? Get to Fuck!!!

All told; if you know anything about the sport (and God knows, ‘True’ Sports fans are nothing if not anal) you will learn nothing new, and if you don’t know the sport you probably won’t want to read this anyway

And Hurling? Seriously: Get to Fuck!!!

I give Three Kings Three Stars. Out of 17

Graphic Novel Review: My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down


My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down

David Heatley

Jonathan Cape

I wish people would stop sending me autobiographical comics to review. It’s not that I don’t appreciate them. I do. Its not that I don’t read them. I really do. It’s just that the type of person who sees fit to do such a thing is typically going to write a head frying work of staggering oddness. Why can’t they be more straight forward like super hero comics? Why don’t you send me super hero comics? Call me old fashioned but isn’t the simple story of man with a magic ring being made a space cop by an army of blue midgets from the planet Oa ,much easier to deal with than the day to day life of some poor schlob and his hang ups?

Speaking of which, young David Heatley has some ......intriuging, things to say in My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down. The feel of the art makes it seem almost like a modern day Peanuts but I can assure you, Charlie Brown and Snoopy Never got mixed up in anything like this. He tells his life story, but does it in part by giving an account of every sexual experience he has ever had. EVERY SINGLE ONE. IN GRAPHIC DETAIL. Quite why he felt the need to do this I can not comprehend, but it’s strangely compelling, and there is an almost child like innocence to it. Possibly because, you know, its cartoon figures in explicit sexual situations. A second section gives an account of every black person he has ever met. He has some interesting things to say about race relations, and this section is handily interspersed with his notes on Hip Hop culture giving it the feel of a visual De La Soul album.




The rest of the book deals with his relationship with his parents. Race, sex, and his parents? I would say it sounds like someone in need of therapy. But of course there are whole sections devoted to his therapy. I have no idea who the target audience of this book is supposed to be. I liked it. Many people I showed it to thought it was either disgusting or racist. Heatley is clearly a complex individual and the ups and downs of his life are funny, disturbing, thought provoking, sad, and insightful

The ideal gift for the pervert or gangsta rapper in your life.

Tuesday 9 June 2009

Fringe Festival Artwork




Check this shit out: The artwork for our Edinburgh Fringe Festival flyers : in a word , awesome. Love The Concept play the Gilded Balloon 6.15pm aucgust 6th - 31st . Be there mother fuckers.




Also many thanks to the Evil Galactic Empire and the troopers of the Emerald Batallion for endorsing the Concept. Word. So there you have it: LTC the choice of galactic despots all over the universe.

Monday 11 May 2009

Review : An Essential Guide To Music in the 1970’s

An Essential Guide To Music in the 1970’s


Johnny Zero (if that is his real name!) has struck just the right balance here between cold hard statistics and commentary on the sights and sounds (well sounds anyway) of what was to my mind, largely a wretched decade for both fashion and music.

Top ten singles and charts for every week of the decade, appear alongside songs of the month, albums of the year, notable sporting events and a whole lot more. You may be inclined to think that such a book sounds like the work of a tedious pub bore. Well as one such bore, I say that this is one reference book that will be gracing my bathroom for many moons. First rate. Eighties next please?

Ciaran Flanagan

Tuesday 5 May 2009

Comics reviews: Unpublished

It were all different with comics when I were a lad let me tell you! It used to be the case that comics were just a bunch of funny pictures with people doing stuff and nothing more. A momentary distraction on a fine spring day before you went out to chase a ball around a field with thirty of your mates for four hours. They didn’t have a message or a point; they were just something you had. Like measles. All right, fair enough there might have been a message or two in the odd issue of Spiderman (chiefly, don’t be a criminal or have 6 foot long robotic arms protruding out of your back), and The Bash Street Kids was in my opinion an almost prophetic vision of the Asbo Culture that we live in today, but in the main just simple harmless fun.

But those days are long gone. The rise of the Graphic Novel as a format has brought a new generation of comics that aren’t aimed at kids and with it a whole new knowledgeable world wise, intellectual Guardian reading audience. How has this worked out? Mixed results I’m afraid.

Jamilti and Other Stories (Hardcover)



By Rutu Modan (Author)

Israeli born Rutu Modan made quite a splash with her first full length graphic Novel the suberb.Exit Wounds. The story of the relationship between an Israeli soldier and a Tel Aviv cab driver received critical acclaim and won the 2008 Eisner Award for Best New Graphic Novel .So her latest effort Jamilti & Other Stories an anthology style short story collection has a lot to live up to and I’m sad to say it falls way short. The seven pieces collected here are all over the place content wise. Some of the stories do have charm and one or two are quite readable but the differences between the various strips are so disparate that there is no real link. Just a bunch of stuff. And if it were supposed to be just a bunch of stuff that would be fine. But the whole book practically screams “Look at me. Look at how worthy I am. I am sooooooo poignant. I have much to teach the world about relationships and family. And Israel. ” Exit wounds had at is core a cohesive narrative and I feel that is something sorely lacking here. It all feels just thrown together.

I’m not saying there isn’t an audience for this type of thing because I can see them now, reading the book whilst stroking their chin and saying “yes, I understand. The world is a complex place, mmmmm, Christine pass me the houmous.” But from a strictly populist viewpoint this collection equals no buys. If I were a fair man I would say the strips were written over a period of nearly ten years so the difference in quality and content can be attributed to Modan developing her style over the years. But I’m not a fair man so I won’t. I will say however that the art is never anything short of superb ( strangely putting me in mind of late period Max Fleischer or Robert Crumbs more cohesive moments) .The strip entitled Homecoming in particular is a real stand out . But in the main I can’t recommend this. Read Exit Wounds instead.


The Burma Chronicles (Hardcover)

by Guy Delisle (Author)

Burma Chronicles is at the very least a novel idea. How do you best report on a year spent living in a strict military dictatorship with an appalling human rights record who use concealment and isolation as social control , where rumor is often times the most reliable source of information because ( literal ) scissor wielding censors monitor the newspapers ? Simple you write a comic about it. Which is exactly what Guy Delisle has done. A sort of graphic travelogue if you would. And it works perfectly. Delisle’s informal humorous style is perfect in a “confused outsider learns a counties foibles “type scenario. The artwork is stark minimalist and cartoonish which leads to a very strange feeling when reading. As if it was a Peanuts cartoon about life in North Korea (and having now just checked the press release I see that that is, in fact the topic of one of his previous books. whoops.) I can safely say I walked away from this with a wealth of knowledge about Burma’s people, lifestyle, culture and customs, a country that I had barely heard about before I started reading. Job well done on all counts