Category Archive for: ‘Live Performance/Events’

On the nineteenth day of Christmas,
The Bakery gave to me:
Santa having a breakdown

Earlier this month, Oxford was host to another of its top-notch No Reading Alone events. As with the first three events, organiser Ewan was kind enough to request a contribution from The Bakery. This time, though, I decided to experiment with something a little different.

I wanted to devise a monologue which was too bizarre to be a straight dramatic piece, but which was too straight to be called stand-up. Hopefully, the audience would be confused as to whether to look for gags or worry about my state of mind. Judging from the slightly disturbed faces that stared back at me, I think it was a successful experiment.

After the performance, a chap came up to me and said “I have no idea what that was, but I really enjoyed it.” This was pretty much precisely the response I was hoping for, and the best feedback I could have wanted.

Below is an audio recording of my 10 minute performance. I don’t think it works quite as well when you can’t see me, because some of the amusing/disturbing nature came from the contrast between my sincere delivery and my unkempt Santa costume. So for that reason, I would like to ask you to browse through the photos while you listen to the piece, and animate them in your mind.

I hope you enjoy this experimental oddity. It helps if you have a familiarity with Wham lyrics…

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

In case you’re wondering what produces the enthusiastic laugh which caps off the monologue, I was holding a limp Christmas cracker throughout, which I drew particular attention to whilst saying how the “answer is often right in front of you.” I then silently gestured to an audience member to pull the cracker.

The audience member pulls and wins. Leaving me to look devastated at my pathetic tiny vestige of cracker-end, while the audience laugh at my festive misfortune.

Big thanks to Ewan, also to Anna Fowler for taking the great snaps above.

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It’s that time again for No Reading Alone: the event that sees comedy, books, poetry, music, films and wet, tasty beverages combined in one great swirling mass of excellence and then packed into all the minutes that happen between 7:30pm and closing time at Isis Farmhouse, Oxford.

Among the many great acts lined up, which include Medlar Lucan, author of The Decadent Cookbook and music from the likes of Juju of Little Fish, The Bakery will be once again taking the chance to show-off one of its baked wonders, this time with Chef Alaric’s beautiful short ‘The Chair‘.

So if you are in the Oxford area and you aren’t up to much, why not go along? In fact, even if you’re not in the Oxford area, and not free because you’re actually sky diving in the Hebrides or attending a funeral in Antwerp, come along anyway. Otherwise I’ll hate you.

Or more importantly, you’ll hate yourself.

Check out the No Reading Alone website Oxwords for more information.

Any event which chooses to advertise itself with an image of a doddery old man is surely off to a good start. So we’re very happy to see the poster below advertising tonight’s ‘No Reading Alone’ event at the Isis Farmhouse pub in Oxford.

There promises to be comedians, authors, poets, music . . . it’s a delightfully eclectic miscellany of worthy creative pursuits, and exactly the kind of thing of which the Bakery whole-heartedly approves.

So we’re somewhat delighted to confirm that a small slice of the evening will be Bakery-flavoured, in that Chef Adam’s charming wee animation ‘Small Picture. Big Frame.’ will be given an airing. If you’re reading this blog in the future, and you even attended the event yourself, perhaps you might wish to see it again. In which case, please be our guest . . .

Small Picture. Big Frame. from The Bakery on Vimeo.

Our big thanks to ‘No Reading Alone’ for including The Bakery on the bill. If they’re happy to have us back, then it would be an honour to stoke up our oven and collaborate on a future event.

P.S. If you’re in Oxford: go!

In times gone by, when Coffee & Corks was still the centre of Canterbury’s cafe culture, Michael Jackson had only just ceased being the baby sitter of choice for parents strapped for cash, and Tom German hadn’t yet broken the Estonian dubstep-black-metal scene, chefs Richard, Dan and Tom decided it would be quite the pleasant evening if they were to play the local folk open-mic night.

Calling themselves ‘Baffin Island’ – a name that would encapsulate the transient nature of the ‘band’ – they concluded that this night would be a one off, a tour de force of creativity, and, perhaps most importantly, that it would not be documented in any way.

It seems, however, that when they arrived at Coffee & Corks to play this now infamous gig, fate (or at least a budding anthropologist by the name of Pip Price) had other plans…

Ladies and Gentleman, Lazy Anthropology:

Earlier this month “Coffee & Corks” held a night of comedy and spoken word with top-notch foolery and storytelling from the legendary Devilstick Peat, as well as poetry from compere Rick Bollinger, and lots more besides.

There was also stand-up comedy from me . . .

Now, I’ve run away and hid from all previous invitations to perform at the cafe, but this time I finally gave in because it was in aid of the Macmillan cancer charity. Cancer’s a pile of shit and 2 people close to me lost family members to it last year, so I decided to stop being such a bloody coward and try to make people laugh to help raise money for this cause. Thankfully it went rather well.

A very poor quality audio recording was made, and can be heard below. It was originally made just for my own reference, and the sound quality is far too poor to go on the Bakery Audio Player. But hopefully you can all ignore the constant ruffle of my coat on the microphone and still enjoy the material. I’d like to be able to refine the set and perform it again some time, so maybe there will one day be a decent recording. Until then, I hope you enjoy this wee curiosity.

WARNING: MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR TEACHERS!

Information on Baffin Island will be forthcoming. Please return at your leisure. Until then, enjoy our other preoccupations…