Thursday, 10 June 2010

Sex and the City 2

Sex and the City’s crass fairytale: a barman writes

JULIAN HALL — 10TH JUNE 2010
sex_and_the_city_2_11

An appalling film shouldn't erase the delights of Carrie and co.'s TV outings

“Customers—don’t serve them til you see the whites of their eyes, lads.”

These words of wisdom came from a colleague at a bookshop where I used to work part-time, and they rang in my head last week as I faced an army of women, all heels, elbows and attitude, stomping their way to the cinema bar where I work (also part-time) to lubricate their excitement at the prospect of Sex and the City 2. In the whites of these girls’ eyes were cosmopolitan-fuelled sugar plum princesses, dancing in expensive shoes, dreaming of romantic love and material comfort.

Did I resent them, for taking the bar’s promotional slogan seriously and getting “Carried away” by ordering fourteen cocktails in one go? For getting huffy and clicking their heels twice if they didn’t get served in the order of their perceived importance within the group rather than the order of their appearance at the bar? Probably. But did I blame them for being spellbound by fairytale imagery? No.

For the rest of this article please visit: http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2010/06/sex-and-the-citys-crass-fairytale-a-barman-writes/#more-82614
Posted by Julian Hall at 14:34 0 comments

Wednesday, 9 June 2010

Lembit Opik Tries Stand Up

Lembit Opik takes the stage

JULIAN HALL — 3RD JUNE 2010
He lost his seat... so he has to stand up

He lost his seat... so he has to stand up

Perhaps Lembit Opik turning from politics to comedy was not such a surprise. After all, this is the man who played cheeky boy to a Cheeky Girl and had a penchant for backing doomed leadership campaigns within his own party, with the effect of Norman Wisdom’s incompetent Norman Pitkin character coming out as your running mate. With such comedy heritage, what could possibly go wrong?

This was entirely the approach of the former MP who lost one of the Liberal Democrats’ safest seats in last month’s election and so missed out on the consequent coalition jamboree. “It’s like Dr Pepper” he told those assembled at his press conference yesterday morning before the evening gig at the Backstage Comedy Club, adding the requisite tagline, “What’s the worst that could happen?”

For the rest of the article please visit: http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2010/06/lembit-opik-takes-the-stage/
Posted by Julian Hall at 14:39 0 comments

Wednesday, 20 May 2009

Joss Whedon


And they call it Buffy love

On the tenth anniversary of Buffy The Vampire Slayer hitting British screens Julian Hall talks to its creator Joss Whedon about the show’s Englishness and its resonance from beyond the grave

[Photo - Getty Images]

This year sees the tenth anniversary of Joss Whedon’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer first staking its claim to cult status on British TV.

Meanwhile, this week sees Whedon’s latest export, Dollhouse, starring Buffy alumni Eliza Dushku, debuting to UK viewers on the SciFi channel. Back in the US the future of Dollhouse beyond the first season is still uncertain, a predicament that has historical echoes for Buffy, a show that, despite becoming a classic of the small screen, had precarious beginnings.

For the whole piece visit: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/joss-whedon--and-they-call-it-buffy-love-1687099.html
Posted by Julian Hall at 11:29

Thirty Years of the Comedy Store


Stand-up and be counted: Thirty years of the Comedy Store


When the Comedy Store threw open its doors, it rewrote the joke book. Julian Hall celebrates 30 years of mirth – and 10 comedians recall their first, nerve-wracking, appearances there

Once dubbed "Comedy's Unofficial National Theatre", The Comedy Store is 30 years old this month. Quality control has been the enduring grace of the Store that set about separating what Don Ward, the co-founder and owner, described as "a lot of chaff from very little wheat" when it first opened in Soho on 19 May 1979.
Posted by Julian Hall at 11:22

Tunnel 228

Independent Minds
A 'tunnel of love' but 228's the number of the bored

Posted by Julian Hall
Friday, 22 May 2009 at 06:26 pm

Is Punchdrunk’s Tunnel 228 a great example of the Emperor’s new clothes, or in this case, new bunker?

The latest venture from the much vaunted theatre group has set the chattering classes teeth to overdrive and the residual pile of enamel chippings seems to have obscured the fact that the ‘show’ is, well, a bit dull frankly. I’ve read a number of reviews across a range of esteemed publications and noted that that the sell-out Tunnel 228 has proved to be the tunnel of love as far as the critics are concerned.

However, it’s one thing to disagree with their opinion (people have disagreed with mine as a comedy reviewer, though they have strangely disappeared since), it’s quite another to disagree with the classification of the show as a whole.
To read the rest of this blog go to: http://julianhall.livejournal.com/15100.html
Posted by Julian Hall at 10:42

Clarke Peters from The Wire


He’s a shadowy figure lurking in the background in the corporate law drama Damages, initially a slow-burner in The Wire and a man alone with his thoughts playing Nelson Mandela in the forthcoming Channel 4 drama Endgame.
In person Clarke Peters is almost an open book. It’s him, not his PR, who greets me after I ring the doorbell of his London home in Queens Park where he lives with his wife Penny and his son Max who has appeared as the young Michael Jackson in the West End production Thriller (he has another, older, son Joe Jacobs, from a previous relationship, who is also an actor). Peters leads me through to his garden where we sit for over an hour in bright sunlight to pick over a career that took him from his native New Jersey to London’s theatreland and has found a new lease of life because of US TV show The Wire.
Posted by Julian Hall at 10:14

Chris Rock


Before my interview with Chris Rock, his PR tells me that "he does a good interview". As it turns out, the time allotted is enough for me to understand the disparity between the comedian on-stage and off. Performing, Rock growls and hollers through material that is sharp, charged and challenging. In conversation, he's measured, unassuming and, sometimes, vague.
"I was hanging out during Live Earth and I went to the Comedy Store, that small club, and got on stage and it was so good. People were going crazy and the jokes were working so I thought, 'OK, let me come back'." That's how Rock, rather modestly, explains his world tour, which will finally end the long wait for British fans for a proper sight of the 42-year-old comic.
Photo - Getty Images
Posted by Julian Hall at 03:54

Tuesday, 19 May 2009

Max Beesley & Danny Brocklehurst


How we met: Danny Brocklehurst & Max Beesley
'I have a difficult relationship with actors. It doesn't always do to be friends with them'
Interview by Julian Hall
Sunday, 10 June 2007

Danny Brocklehurst, 35 won a Bafta for his screenwriting contributions to 'Shameless'. Among other credits are 'Sorted', 'Clocking Off' and a new series, 'Talk to Me'. He is married and lives in south Manchester.

DB: I first met Max at the Royal Television Society Awards, last year, when he was up for Bodies and I was up for Shameless. There was a bit of banter going on between both camps, being from rival stations, and when Bodies won they were jubilant. Since they were having so much more fun, I joined their table, got talking to Max and then ended up spending the whole night with him, as you do at these things. We began to see each other around more and more as we had friends in common including Iain B MacDonald, who directed Bodies and Sorted. The turning point was when we met to discuss Talk to Me. The meetings about the shows would turn into long sessions and the friendship went from there.
Posted by Julian Hall at 15:00

Jerry Sadowitz


Jerry Sadowitz : Talking through his hat

Jerry Sadowitz wants to be billed as 'the most offensive comedian in the world'. But offstage, he's the very model of decorum, as Julian Hall discovers

Tuesday, 11 May 2004

It's a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Edinburgh and it seems that most of the city has gathered on the Meadows to sun themselves. Even Jerry Sadowitz is happy. Well not exactly. By his own admission, he will never be happy. Let's just say that his disposition when we meet outside the Queen's Hall, where he will perform later that evening, is favourable. Despite nearly 20 years of relative fame - a level he remains resolutely bitter about - the 42-year-old comic and magician is enjoying his current tour of Scotland. "It's keeping me moving and keeping me busy, which is healthy for me." Since childhood Sadowitz has suffered from ulcerative colitis. This unpleasant complaint goes a little way to explaining his other afflictions; being a "fucked-up individual" and being "extremely bitter". "I'm also away from London which is good for me; I have no life there except for helping out at the magic shop [International Magic in Clerkenwell]." He mumbles something about being away from bad influences, but doesn't expand.
Posted by Julian Hall at 14:55

Dylan Moran


Stand-up Dylan Moran takes on the world
What do you do when you hate celebrity, advertising, technology and interviews? Start telling it like it is, says the Black Books star on the eve of his tour
By Julian Hall
Tuesday, 23 September 2008

Picture: David Sandison

Approach with caution, is the advice of those who have encountered Dylan Moran. Not because he is the same misanthropic shambles as Bernard Black, the character he played in the popular sitcom Black Books – "I'd be in jail or in hospital if I was, that much should be obvious," he jokes – but because he has made his feelings on interviews quite clear. In the DVD extras of his stand-up show Monster, he recreates taking inane interview questions in a bored manner; in a past interview, he observed that: "There is nothing left to say, of course, but they keep asking. It's necessary, but it makes you feel like one of those guys standing outside a dodgy restaurant saying: 'Come in, come in.'"
Posted by Julian Hall at 14:44

Matt Lucas


Showstopper!, Leicester Square Theatre, London
Little Briton with a large talent

Matt Lucas is partly responsible for some of the most visceral and grotesque humour in British comedy. So it was both intriguing and refreshing to see him in an altogether more ponderous, and sometimes bashful mood, for his guest role in this improvised musical.

Sporting a dark velveteen suit with what looked like a 1960s-style red Arsenal shirt underneath, Lucas (a known Gunners fan) was vaguely in line with the black and red costumes of the cast. Though he was all dressed up and ready for action, the Little Britain star was principally employed as sidekick to writer/director Dylan Emery, whose charisma and passing resemblance to Rowan Atkinson are both noteworthy.
Photo - Getty Images
Posted by Julian Hall at 13:13

Ricky Gervais


First Night: Ricky Gervais, Madison Square Garden, New York
Near-the-knuckle Gervais pushes US boundaries
By Julian Hall
Outside New York's Madison Square Garden Theatre, ticket touts were having difficulties pronouncing Ricky Gervais's name. "Want tickets for Ricky Gerva?" they inquired, hesitantly. Inside, however, most people knew exactly who they had come to see and they hailed Ricky Gervais's live debut in the US accordingly.
The gig was given added impact by the presence of David Bowie in his role as curator of New York's High Line Festival, of which this performance was a part. Rather than merely introduce Gervais, Bowie supplied a comic turn by reprising the song he sang in Extras, the show that enhanced Gervais' US-appeal when it aired on HBO.

The response of the audience, (an audience that included Billy Connolly as well as a number of American comics), was justified as the 45-year-old comedian breezed through a show that was cannily put together using the best bits of his previous three stand-up outings: Animals, Extras and Fame. From the latter he took a number of blunt observations about fat people; for example that "obesity is not a disease" and that the problem for fat people is that "everything tastes good except salad", before noting: "You've got some proper fat people over here!"
Posted by Julian Hall at 13:09

Rob Brydon


Rob Brydon, Hexagon, Reading

Reviewed by Julian Hall

When Rob Brydon's support act, Hal Cruttenden, announces himself, there's the customary puzzlement from the section of the audience that didn't realise there was a warm-up. When Brydon announces himself, after the interval, there seemed to be a smaller group that hadn't realised that this was the Welshman unmasked, and not appearing as Keith Barret from Marion and Geoff, nor even doing more than a brief refrain of Uncle Bryn from Gavin and Stacey. No, this was Rob Brydon of hit and hope. Anyone disappointed by this realisation would have it reinforced by the end of the show and join me in my personal disappointment at what was a rather hotchpotch effort from a comic of great poise and skill.
Photo - Getty Images
Posted by Julian Hall at 12:59

Beating SAD


How I beat the winter blues

When the clocks go back, it spells gloom for Julian Hall and thousands like him. But now he's beaten seasonal affective disorder. Here's how...

I am one of those people for whom Nik Kershaw's "I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" is a heartfelt anthem. I once heard a joke linking that song to Freud's work on the Oedipus complex, but the sentiment is no laughing matter for a sufferer of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), the medical condition whereby low light levels depress the mood.
Photo - Carlos Jasso
Posted by Julian Hall at 12:08

In The Loop


In The Loop, the eagerly anticipated big screen extension of political TV comedy The Thick Of It, will open in cinemas on April 17th. Already seen at Sundance, I caught another opportunity for a sneak preview before the general release at a screening last night in London. In The Loop is basically The Thick of It after a reshuffle; Tom Hollander coming in to play the ministerial role, in for the troubled Chris Langham, Chris Addison’s policy wonk renamed from Olly to Toby, plus additional casting; new faces including ministerial communications director Gina McKee and a Steve Coogan cameo as a disgruntled constituent of the minister’s. Crucially Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker remains constant. In The Loop’s main departure is to go transatlantic, the high-profile casting effect of this being James Gandolfini’s generally unSoprano-like Pentagon man, General Miller. The plot has the US and UK governments pushing towards a war in the Middle East (sound familiar?) and, after a series of off-guard comments, Hollander, playing International Development Minister, Simon Foster, finds himself used as a pawn in the liberal versus neocon tussle over the validation for military action going on in Washington. My viewing of the film was sandwiched between reading Alastair Campbell’s article on it in The Guardian and watching his review of it with Mark Kermode on BBC2’s The Culture Show. I thought Campbell was a wee bit uncharitable to the film overall but, while, I would generally prefer not review his review of the film (and have Campbell set the agenda? God forbid) he has given me some useful guidelines to manipulate and some views that I share the spirit of, if not the letter.
To read the rest of this piece please go to: http://julianhall.livejournal.com/13555.html
Posted by Julian Hall at 10:43

The Wire



[If you've not seen all of The Wire yet, the following contains perilous scenes of spoilers] When Buffy left the building I wondered if I would enjoy a TV show as much again. When a friend told me that there was this cop show that was really good, I was sceptical. A cop show? The only thing I can remember enjoying on TV that was remotely near a cop show was The Avengers. And with a martial arts leap in a leather cat suit we're more or less back to Buffy. But, trusting my friend’s advice and her track record for recommending "good TV" (to be intonated like "good Police") The Wire entered into my life where it will stay forever as one of my beloved "things" into which I will take into my Pyramid mausoleum. Three episodes in to the first series I thought to myself "yeah, I can see how this is good but I don't see myself getting addicted". How wrong I was. I couldn't know that casual viewing could only lead to harder obsession. I could have talked to "Frank" but by then it was too late. The pace at which I gorged myself on episodes upped so much that I have consumed the five series at three times the recommended metabolic televisual rate since late last autumn, so much so that I am on re-views now and have already seen series one again. Any suggestions for my next TV fix are welcome.

To read the rest if this article go to: http://julianhall.livejournal.com/10800.html

Posted by Julian Hall at 10:36

Arthur Smith (book review)


My Name Is Daphne Fairfax,
By Arthur Smith

The grumpy old man of comedy surveys his career

Reviewed by Julian Hall

Arthur Smith once helped me to promote a book I wrote by taking a BBC reporter for a wander around his self-proclaimed fiefdom of Balham. That he did more for my book than its publishers might theoretically make reviewing his biography onerous. Yet I've not always fallen for the wiles of this charming man and in between time have been lukewarm, at best, about his recent live shows. There is, however, nothing lukewarm about Smith's autobiography; it radiates a glow of whimsy and invention.

Of course, as his comedy bête noire Jimmy Carr knows, Smith is not all warmth. He is a "grumpy old man", after all, or at least he is "if you pay me". Now best known for that very role on television, Smith graduated from student revues in Edinburgh to be one of the originators of the "new comedy" and one of the most willing to swallow its PC regimen. He was one of the most sought-after comperes before TV burnt him, then came back hot enough to pen some successful plays – notably An Evening With Gary Lineker, which had both critics and, thanks to its revised ending of England vs West Germany in the 1990 World Cup, Stuart Pearce, jumping for joy.
Posted by Julian Hall at 02:01

Monday, 18 May 2009

Peep Show - Saviours of Channel 4


The saviours of Channel 4

'Peep Show' proves that a television series doesn't have to be a ratings blockbuster
The sixth series of the comedy hit Peep Show is about to go into production. And with it comes the news that Channel 4 has just commissioned a seventh. There is a clear reason for this. The offbeat cult comedy is, artistically at least, the saviour of Channel 4. And the channel's most senior executives know it.
By the admission of Channel 4's head of entertainment and comedy, Andrew Newman, the show is not exactly a cash cow. "In terms of being a ratings blockbuster it's not particularly successful, with 1.5 million viewers or so. It certainly doesn't make money for Channel 4," he said. "However, we're not a private company, at least not at the moment, and we think it is a great thing to have a show that for the majority of those who watch is one of their favourites. The depth of feeling for it is immense and it is great that the British broadcasting system allows for a show adored by 1.5 million people as well as shows that get three million, four million, five million viewers but for which the viewers don't have the same level of feeling." In other words, flagship shows don't need millions of viewers for them to make waves in the public consciousness.
Posted by Julian Hall at 12:13

A tale of two cities, five boroughs and some large apples


Anyone who has not yet visited New York already knows two things; that it is a "Big Apple" and that it was so good they named it twice. After my last visit to New York I think that I may have found the common theme to both these observations - Brooklyn, the vast, varied and comparatively greener borough of the city. While Manhattan is the core of the apple, Brooklyn, once a city in its own right, is the greener coating on the outside and offers a tangible reason for New York being titled more than once.
To read the whole piece go to: http://julianhall.livejournal.com/10119.html
Posted by Julian Hall at 11:56 0 comments

Sandra Bernhard



She describes herself as something "between an entertainer and part of the populace"; a fellow commentator has called her "the insider's outsider". Sandra Bernhard's dichotomy is plain for me to see as soon as I arrive at our meeting point, a restaurant on Greenwich Avenue, in her New York neighbourhood. The grand dame of spoken-word cabaret and the matriarch of the bitchy remark ("the theatre amateurs have once again interrupted a great artiste," is her rebuke to latecomers on Everything Bad and Beautiful, the recording of show she is bringing to the UK) is sat eating soup.
She's there early as I am. For my part I want to be ready for a woman who hasn't mellowed with time – she's now 52 with a career spanning more than 30 years. From her point of view, she's early in order to polish off the interview, like her soup, with aplomb, pushing to the side anything surplus to requirements.
Posted by Julian Hall at 08:56
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