March 28, 2006
OUT OF FOCUS GROUP NEWS
OOFG 9 & 10
Out Of Focus Group 10 takes place on Wednesday April 19th 2006 but I think it’s already sold out. Apologies if you’ve tried to get tickets without success. Of course the answer is either to do more nights or switch to a larger venue but for the time being neither is really practical.
OOFG 9 (which took place on Wednesday 15th March) was enjoyed by all despite my doing rather a bad job of my Famous Guy character, (a reminder incidentally that my Famous Guy play is on Tuesday April 4th on Radio 4 during Woman’s Hour!) Anyway, I did what I felt was a lame turn and then spent too long apologising for it later which compounded my feelings of frustration when I got home. I wasn’t that fussed though because the rest of the night was great.
As usual I was lucky enough to get hold of some top drawer acts to provide the live elements of the evening (my short videos being the other regular feature). We were re-joined by Tony Law as well as Glen Wool and Katy Brand who were all fantastic I thought. I’d hardly say if they were shite though would I? We’ve had a few things that just didn’t work before (I’ve provided a couple) but not that night. Even my botched Famous Guy went down OK, it just could have been better…(alright, I’ll shut up about it!)
The showbiz climax of the evening was provided by Simon Pegg who came along and did 20 minutes of mainly new material. His appearance at The OOFG was only the second he’d made as a stand up for 8 years (he’d unveiled his new set at the Comedy Store a few days previously) so I was very excited that he agreed to do it. He was very impressive. Incredibly charismatic and skilful with his delivery and he had funny jokes too! I don’t generally seek out straight stand ups for the evening because personally I find bad stand up more painful to watch than bad character comedy but Simon was a peach. If you get a chance to see him you should take it.
As far as coming along on April 19th goes, the best thing to do is call The Zetter (details in Live Appearances section of this site) and ask if they reckon you’ll be able to get a place standing or whatever. I’m sure I’ll be doing some more nights at some stage so if you don’t fancy standing you could always wait till the next one.