MONSTERED!
The Free Fringe Festival is over. Here I summarise and post mortem the run of Monsters: A History of Villainy.
iN THE BEGINNING…
Like I mentioned in my previous-to-this-one blog I did some (to blow my own trumpet) sterling research and marketing. As well as raising $853 through IndieGoGo, I also raised a further £400 through cheque donations. I also got free stuff to use during the show:
- 21 x Monsters T-Shirts – Giving away 1 per day as a prize
- 40 x Camelflouge toilet rolls – From Monster Merchandise
- 40 x Snack size Sugar Puffs
- 50 x Sugar Puff cereal bars
- £50 worth of café vouchers from Mum’s Comfort Food Café
I also arranged, briefed and ‘produced’ (as it’d be called in the TV world) 40 guests for the chat show segment of the show. Particular favourites were Craig Campbell, Joel Dommett, Dave Fulton and James Acaster.
THE FORMAT?
Well, the format changed A LOT during the run. We started as just me and Gabriella Burnel doing mini-lectures and songs either side of the chatshow bits. But from the 2nd performance we decided two of us is not enough and enlisted actor and new stand-up Ben Woolrych as a regular to portray Adolf Hitler in a ever-changing sketch with Darth Vader (me).
At the start of the run, the show very much centred around the Brian Blessed sketches (where Darth Vader talks to God) but I eventually axed these as they slowed down the pace. Towards the end of the run, the show centred around the confessional aspect. Guests and audience talking about the concept of evil. This seemed a much stronger theme, but unfortunately it was one I only realized with several shows to go.
I now see why doing 15-20 previews before Edinburgh is essential.
Out of the 20 shows we did, I’d say 5 were very good, 9 were OK and 6 were bad. In fact, the last one I did was probably the best. In the latest format, it goes like this.
Pre show – Gabby plays some lovely songs on the piano whilst I hand out survey forms which ask the audience to describe 1) things they think are evil. 2) Evilest things they’ve ever done. 3) A famous person who they personally believe is evil.
Intro – Brian Blessed opens the show
Introduction to Evil – I describe how 90% of the audience are scientifically capable of evil according to the Milgram experiment
Quotes – Me and Gab read out famous quotes about evil (hers are silly catchphrases from film and TV)
Evil Faces – Based on actual scientific findings, Gabby gives a lecture on how peoples faces convey personality traits of evil. She then demonstrates this on the audience.
Evil Facts – Accompanied by music, I read out 7 bizarre but true facts about evil people that no one knows (probably)
What the Kids Say – To Gabby’s instrumental, I collect up survey forms written by the audience. I read out a few of the funniest ones and select one of the authors to come to the stage. We chat about their answers. As punishment/reward, they play a game whereby they must guess what villains children are describing. We play an audio track through 4 rounds, to win a prize.
Gabby’s Song – Gabriella plays a song. Either about Nick Clegg or Simon Cowell about how they’re evil.
Special Guest – a Special guest comedian comes on a discusses things they think are evil and confess to evil things they’ve done. Finally, against a 60 second clock, they pitch an unusual villain as ‘Most Evil Person Ever’ to the audience. The audience then decide where it sits on a league table via a clapometer.
Statistics – Using picture boards, I give a short lecture on inadequate villains in Childrens TV. I then move onto to graphs and pie charts about evil.
Special Guest 2 (OPTIONAL) – If we have a second guest, they come and discuss evil things and confessions, before doing the pitch.
Play Your Deaths Right – Akin to the gameshow, we use the Higher or Lower device with evil dictators and their death tolls. I select a player from the surveys collected earlier. We chat about the audience members answers briefly before playing the game. The audience helps too and it makes for an energetic and enjoyable finale.
Goodbye and Blessed VO – After leaving the stage we play an audio VO of Brian Blessed as God thanking the audience.
Here is how the league table stands, with guests on the left and who they pitched on the right:
LEAGUE TABLE
| GUEST | VILLAIN |
| Leo Kearse | Leo Kearse’s Sex Drive |
| Kate Smurthwaite | Nicholas Parsons |
| Thom Tuck | |
| Al Cowie | |
| Chris Dangerfield | Bon Walker (Drug Addict) |
| Dave Fulton | Edinburgh Festival |
| Tom Deacon | |
| Ian Smith | |
| Craig Campbell | |
| Ben Woolrych | George Lucas |
| Martin Semple | Moths |
| Alex Chapman | Scooby Doo |
| Barnaby Slater | Mark Zuckerberg |
| Robin Cairns | Meercats |
| James Acaster | |
| Joel Dommett | |
| Suzi Ruffell | |
| Catie Wilkins | |
| Lindsay Sharman | |
| Eddy Fisher | Michael Bay |
| Romesh Ranganathan | Mr.Garratt (School Teacher) |
| Matt Richardson | ??? |
| Katherine Ryan | ??? |
CONCLUSIONS?
It was a terrific run. Audience numbers were good, despite the fact we rarely ever flyered at all! Miraculous really.
It felt good to totally organize the show. Of course, Gabriella is amazing and Ben’s help was brilliant, but for me personally, it was good to have almost total responsibility for every aspect of the project. Yes, it was frustrating and stressful at times. Next time I would certainly need more help to alleviate pressure – I’m sure I spent too much time on the business side rather than the writing side.
Despite the harsh 2 star review we had – written about the VERY FIRST PERFORMANCE OF THE RUN which was probably the worst as you’d expect – I think it’s a decent show now. It’s clever, a strong concept and just about marries silliness and informative value.
What’s more, alongside doing Monsters, I was able to perform at lots of venues doing regular stand-up and even compeering (for the first time!). All of this went exceptionally well and I now feel far more confident as a stand-up.
Though I really regret that the show was so rushed in putting together – because of various drop-outs to the run up to Edinburgh – I’m really proud of Monsters. It’s a good standard Free Fringe show. And at the very least, it’s given me an incredible urge to come back next year with something so amazing, it’ll make you shit your arse off.