Maghull Comedy Club

Now as Ralph's been know to say - 'It's not always about the music' - so when invited to the first birthday party (yes there was cake) of the Maghull Comedy Club on the outskirts of Liverpool it would have been rude to refuse. 

As you may (or not) be aware I've been honing my stand-up skills with the Stand Up To Stigma mental health project thanks to the comedy Jedi Master that is Sam Avery, who also MC's the monthly Maghull Comedy Club.


It's a surprisingly salubrious venue situated in the local Town Hall and the hall and bar upstairs was filled to near capacity creating a boisterous but never hostile atmosphere. Sam Avery warms the crowd up with his cheeky local lad stylee and quick witted banter. What's always an encouraging sign is that the majority of the crowd are regulars (and non-stop fuel for his comedy quick-fire routine).






First up Geordie lad Barry Dodds who's observational humour outweighs his youthful years. His routine on microwaving a bar of soap (don't use Imperial Leather or it'll kill your microwave) to make it larger thereby freaking out his ketomine infused flatmate is an absolute classic.

No surprise he's in demand on the comedy circuit. One to watch!





After a short interval (with aforementioned Birthday Cake) Sam takes to the stage again disarming the audience before introducing the headliner, none other than multi-award winning Time Out Comedian Of The Year and Michael McIntyre favourite, Paul Tonkinson. 

He takes observational humour of family life to a new level, and his Woolyback infused lampooning of his wife (I'm certain she's never watched a show as he's still alive) and kids is inspirational.




At just £10 for a ticket The Maghull Comedy Club is the find of 2015 for anyone in the Merseyside area. Next month's show features Markus Birdman...

"Birdman is the all-round package; witty, controversial, hip, topical, silly. A master of timing and physical comedy, he made me laugh so hard it hurt."




...and BBC Comedy Award nominee Pete Otway...

"A natural and original comic, known for mixing a razor sharp wit with an affable charm and creative writing." - 

"Devastatingly funny."

Steve Bennet, Chortle

Thursday 5 March | Maghull Town Hall 

Doors 8pm

 

Featuring Markus Birdman, BBC Comedy Nominee, Pete Otway and MC Sam Avery

 

Tickets £10

 

Click here to reserve tickets or call 0151 709 4321 to book 

Thursday 2 April | Maghull Town Hall 

Doors 8pm

 

Featuring Mick Ferry, Danny McLoughlin and MC Sam Avery

 

Tickets £10

 

Click here to reserve tickets or call 0151 709 4321 to book 

Stand Up To Stigma - Time To Change

Now it's no secret Ralph's always up for a laugh and that he has a soft spot for raising mental health awareness after the Ralph's Life CD, so it's no surprise that when he heard there was a project in St Helens using comedy to help end mental health discrimination he quickly checked it out. 

The Stand Up To Stigma project in St Helens is funded by Time To Change and they have established a Comedy Course in conjunction with The Comedy Trust alongside a number of events in the offing that are aimed at ending mental health discrimination through public interaction and the medium of laughter. 

What's the connection between Ralph and mental health? Well depression is called Black Dog and there's a big black dog in a very funny video by Time To Change called Wolfpack. That and the Ralph's Life CD to raise funds and awareness for Rethink Mental Illness of course!





Time to Change is England’s mental health anti-stigma programme run by the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness and funded by The Department of Health, Comic Relief and Big Lottery Fund.  The programme is distributing grants to local community-led projects as part of its drive to improve public attitudes and behaviour in relation to mental health.

Stand Up To Stigma, which is led by people with mental health problems, will use the grant to establish meaningful and open conversations with others in the local area. The aim is to bring people who don’t have mental health problems into social contact with those who do. 

Evidence suggests that this kind of contact is one of the most effective ways of breaking down stigma and discrimination.

The project will run a series of short stand up comedy courses that use a variety of creative techniques to help develop the skills and confidence of people living with mental health problems. 


Each course will culminate in four comedy events taking place in local libraries across St Helens, where course participants will engage audience members through their stand up routines and one to one conversations which will enable them to talk about their mental health issues. The Stand Up To Stigma project will be delivered in partnership with Addaction, St Helens Mind and St Helens Council.

Stand Up To Stigma comedy events are the finale to the six week comedy course involving people with lived experience of mental health issues. The events will showcase the routines written and performed by the budding comedians and will be introduced by Liverpool stand-up, Sam Avery. There will also be a chance to chat to the participants about their own experiences after they have performed. So please do come along, have a laugh and help to ‘stand up to stigma’. Comedy events are free. 

As said, Ralph's always up for a laugh, so I've joined up too! The relevant expression is - 'bricking it'.

Update:

Having just 'broken my bones' on evening two of the six week course by doing three minutes of 'comedy' material that I'd written, I can only say that I have the utmost respect for anyone that gets up on stage and performs stand up. As Sam Avery was quoted as saying - 'it's easier to become a Jedi'. 



Update:

The six week course is long gone and I've since performed a couple of times in St Helens. The second of which was in front of over 50 people in Central Library where the project finale will be taking place on January 16th.  There's 120 tickets available for that one from this link (word on the street is there's only 20 left) and they're free!

If you want any more info call a mental health helpline & choose the relevant option - For OCD, press 1 - repeatedly...if you're co-dependent...get someone else to press 2.



I'm here all week...however here's a video of the wife killing it at the big Stand Up To Stigma Finale in St Helens Library on January 16th...

Here's just a few pictures of the Stand Up To Stigma Comedy Event in Newton Le Willows Library...it was a tremendous success with both the performers and the crowd enjoying a great afternoons entertainment and afterwards, discussions about mental health issues.

Stirling Fringe

Ralph's just back from The Edinburgh Fringe and as always it was a hoot.  Now obviously it's a well funded, well organised, long standing festival of fun and frolics, so when I heard there was going to be a new kid on the Fringe block I was all ears. The volunteer team of the inaugural Stirling Fringe bring news of this new event!

The Stirling Fringe Festival is a new festival of the arts in the heart of Scotland. Taking place for the very first time this September 12- 15, the aim of the non-profit festival is to encourage both locals and visitors to engage with all aspects of the arts - whether it's theatre, comedy, live music, art exhibitions, street performances or children's show.

Stirling Fringe Festival is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company run entirely by a small team of unpaid volunteers who have given up their time to make this festival a success and put Stirling on the Scottish and UK cultural map.

As a social enterprise they want to make the arts as accessible to as many people as possible, which means keeping ticket prices to an absolute minimum.

Unlike many similar events across the country, they have no corporate sponsorship and no major public funding behind them. They're really going out on a financial limb because they believe Stirling deserves a festival for the whole community and will make a significant contribution to the cultural landscape. 

Needless to say it's of paramount importance that local businesses and individuals help, but as with The Edinburgh Fringe, The Stirling Fringe is an event open to the world and as such we can all contribute!

They desperately need support to cover a range of costs, including venue hire, equipment hire and marketing costs. The amount they're asking for is a tiny fraction of the overall festival costs but would make a HUGE difference.

Remember, every penny they make gets ploughed straight back in to growing the festival in the future.

The four day festival will also feature children’s shows, poetry, spoken word performances, a mini beer festival and a spectacular Fringe ceilidh.

Highlights include appearances by comedians Des Clarke, Raymond Mearns, Stu Who and Father Ted star Michael Redmond. There's a live performance of Vivaldi’s Four Season, a concert by the Stirling Gaelic Choir and a special acoustic show from Pete Townshend’s little brother and fellow Who guitarist, Simon Townshend.

Rewards

Promise £5.00 +Thank You

You'll get a public thank you on Twitter and Facebook. And a warm fuzzy feeling knowing you're helping create a new festival.

200 rewards, 200 remaining

See more at: http://www.bloomvc.com/project/Stirling-Fringe-Festival#sthash.PcbGz4TS.dpuf

Founder and director of The Stirling 
Fringe Festival CIC, Barry McDonald, said...

 “We hope to put Stirling as much on Scotland’s cultural and artistic map as it is on the historical map.

"Stirling’s creative community is growing and we hope to showcase to the rest of the country what a rich seam of artistic talent we have, as well as attracting some of the most talented performers from across the UK and beyond."

"Plans for the 2014 festival are already being made and we hope to grow on the success of this year’s festival."


So if you're a lover of the arts, like a good laugh or enjoy great music, why not spare the price of a pint (or more) and help support the first year of this great new venture!

Cadence Cafe.....small venue - big heart

Over the last few years there has been an increase in the number of 'Community Cafes' which are aimed at retrieving that feel of social interaction within a local neighbourhood.  Ralph will be taking a look at a some of them over the next few weeks and first up will be the recently opened Cadence Cafe in Tyldesley, Manchester.

I discovered them after reviewing Everyday Goldfish whose first EP launch is being hosted there.  Their primary goal is to offer the people of Tyldesley a safe place to meet and gain information on training and benefits.  They've worked closely with local Councillors and the 'Nowt 2 Do' project to establish a drop-in and advice centre, where people can meet and get advice on benefits and training to establish a foundation to getting back to the workplace.

They have though achieved so much more than that, as it is quickly establishing itself as a small music venue and will be participating in the Cadence Festivals held twice yearly in Tyldesley and helping local people to give people the chance to engage in the spoken word, writing and music.  

They've teamed up with Fancy Pants Media, a social enterprise project in Salford to give young people the chance to gain experience in photography, art and social media and one of the sponsors of the Cadence Festival, Longevity Records will be giving talks on working in the music industry and offering placements to people wishing to gain experience within a record label.

They currently have their very own 'Artist in Residence', Luke who is producing some lovely portraits 'live' in the cafe and it's just another instance of their commitment to promoting the arts in the community. Why not drop in for a cuppa and have Luke capture you for posterity!

Long term plans are in place to convert the upper part of the building into a learning academy for music, film, dance and the spoken word and interacting with other Social Enterprise projects with a view to running workshops to help people gain qualifications in the arts.  They are also hoping to include a computer suite to assist in adult learning.

Oh and did I mention it is actually a cafe!  So why not drop in for a coffee (especially nice on a chilly Autumn day with Gingerbread syrup) and a natter, see what they're up to and if you can help!  



Not only that if any community groups, mother & toddler, brownies/cubs/scouts, pensioners, slimming etc would like to use the cafe for meetings please get in touch with the ever friendly Ian!

Upcoming events are.....

Everyday Goldfish EP Launch Friday 26 October 2012  22.00

DJ Workshop & Music industry talks Tuesday 30 October 2012  11:00 If your interested in a career in the Music or TV industry why not come along and have a listen and a chat with people who already work in it. If your in a band, musician, dancer, budding DJ, actor or just interested in what goes on behind the scenes come along to this free event . It takes place over two days each day starting at 11.00am and finishing around 4pm. There will be talks from... Danny Simm who has promoted gigs in Wigan's biggest clubs and is still only 15. Will Travis an actor who has appeared and TV/Film and stage productions including taken lead roles in Between The Sheets, Monsiguer Renard, Casualty, Holby City, Shameless and The Bill (to name but a few) and most recently he completed filming for CBBC on The 4 O’clock Club and also the BAFTA award winning This Is England 88, reprising his role as Mr Squires. Paul Holmes Indie rocks DJ who now has a show on Salford Radio, having interviewed stars such as Ian Brown of Stone Roses fame.                               Thom & Rob from the excellent Manchester band  The Lottery Winners Kenny Mills  DJ, compare and comedian. Zutek DJ's  Warehouse Project