WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAYS

Greetings, everyone – hope you’ve managed to keep your heads above water over the last couple of months, both figuratively and literally. Bloody rain, eh? We nearly built an ark...

Anyway, quite a few of 404 Funny’s contributors have been very busy in their individual corners of the world, and we thought we’d take this opportunity to inform you of the very latest goings-on and forward you in the direction to some events we think will be of interest.

First, news of two new shows coming to 404 Funny this spring.

 

(illustration by Joseph Champniss)

John Dredge returns with the first of a new six-part series on May 16th. This one’s entitled The John Dredge Nothing to Do with Anything Show, and features appearances from special guests Greg Haiste (of Haiste & Lawrence, who were shortlisted for a 15-second appearance at this year’s Secret Policeman’s Ball), Anna Emerson (of sketch trio The Boom Jennies, who’ll be appearing on Radio 4’s Sketchorama in June and at the Edinburgh Fringe in August), Miles Eady (formerly of Blue Pepper), and Richard Cray (of no fixed opinion).

As with John's previous non-festive special, The Nothing to Do with Xmas Show, the new series was made for the London radio station Resonance 104.4FM (which is, incidentally, celebrating its 10th anniversary today, so congratulations to everyone involved) with an edited version being made available for download on 404 Funny following transmission. If you’re in London and live / work within a three-mile radius of London Bridge, you should be able to hear the show loud and clear at 4pm every Tuesday from May 15th to June 26th. If not, you can stream the show online at http://resonancefm.com/listen.

Otherwise, you’ll just have to hold your hedgehogs and wait for the podcast the following day. As always, there’s a choice of subscription and notification options for 404 Funny on the right-hand side of this very page. We recommend subscribing at iTunes (although we do wonder why sometimes). Needless to say, other podcatchers and aggregators are available...

We also have plans to syndicate Psycomedy, the new podcast from American ex-pat, Huffington Post scribe, and 2010 Welsh Unsigned Stand-up Award winner Taylor Glenn (pictured above).

Taylor is a former psychotherapist who realized she had better follow her dreams before she started practicing material on patients instead of therapy. In her podcast, she interviews fellow stand-ups about life on and off stage in the lead up to her own debut Edinburgh Fringe show, entitled Taylor Glenn’s Reverse Psycomedy (Gilded Balloon Turret Room, 11:30pm).

On the couch for the first two consultations are Matt Price and Ben Van Der Velde, with more scheduled to follow during June and July. Bookmark this page for further updates as to availability of episodes and future guests.

(picture credit: Lisa Miyako)

Elsewhere, we were overjoyed to hear that Will Franken (above) is also making his Edinburgh debut this year with a live version of Things We Did Before Reality, courtesy of Fringe Management and Paul Provenza (Just the Tonic at The Caves, 10:35pm). We'll no doubt cover the show in greater detail in the weeks leading up to Edinburgh.

We’ve also been having a good chuckle at Jake Yapp’s recent series of television reviews for The Poke, the people who brought you such gems as Mad Men Mr Men and the Daily Mail Tube Map.

In seven succinct episodes, Jake vented his spleen on Take Me Out, loosened his sphincter on those ads that asked whether you had “blood in your poo”, and helped the medicine go down by returning for another spoonful of Lord Sugar and his Apprentices. He also introduced us to Timmy Crumble, who we think is going to be very big indeed. Christmas number one? Quite possibly.

Here’s the first of Jake's pokes at the crystal set, in which he shoots both barrels at Ben Fogle:

Click through for the other six dissections, and much more.

Jake might even come back and do some more podcasts for us at some stage (yes, I know we say that every year, but if we keep saying he might...well, he just might). Until then, you might want to hear him do some proper broadcasting at BBC Radio Leeds or just visit his swanky new website.

Meanwhile, if you’re in Brighton this coming Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday (May 6th-8th), you might want to pop along to see Maggie Gordon-Walker (hopefully sans chair) in Sophia Kingshill’s one-woman play Cheer Up, It Might Never Happen at the Nightingale Theatre, 29-30 Surrey Street, from 7pm.

Tickets priced £8.50 (£6.50 cons.) are available from the Brighton Fringe website, in person at the box office, on the door, or by telephone on 01273-917272. Booking fees may apply.

And finally, after two unexplained and, dare I say it, quite unwelcome delays, E4 will finally start airing the debut TV series from Cardinal Burns (pictured above in suggestive gents' outfitter's catalogue mode) at 10.30pm next Tuesday, May 8th.

Seb (Cardinal) and Dustin (Demri-Burns) were once two-thirds of the Perrier-award-in-all-but-name-if.comeddie-nominated Fat Tongue, who, way back in time (or 2005/06, if we’re being pedantic), graced the stage once a month at Sketch Club, the famed live comedy night in Crouch End co-curated and produced by Comedy 365’s Sowerby & Luff and 404 Funny’s Richard Cray.

We hope you’ll take it as read that the series comes highly recommended, but if you’re still in need of some persuading, here’s a preview:

By the way, that is Seb in the leather jacket, not Sting moonlighting from his lute ensemble. Just thought we should point that out. Ahem.

As you were.