With the preparation done, I started work this morning on the second comedy I’ll be taking to the Edinburgh fringe festival this year - “Big Fat Losers”, written by but not starring me. No, for once, I’ll be taking a backseat and producing writing and directing the other two plays, as (bizarre as this may seem) I’m the only person who’s “been” to my shows, “heard” them but never “seen” my shows. So creatively this is another step up.

BFL also marks a gear-change for me as a writer. I always wrote according to my strengths but also my weaknesses, therefore some scenes (characters and plots, let’s be honest) were never as good as they could have been because I knew (or was terrified by) my limitations as an inexperienced performer. But, this time, not performing myself, I can really let the characters bloom, their emotional journey can travel from brain to page to stage without the intervention of my own creative worst enemy. Me.

I really feel liberated; the subject matter is outside my usual comfort zone but bizarrely it’s “very me”, I see myself in all four characters and as much as they are all “losers” (insert your own punchline here) I want them all to succeed.

Can’t wait for this year’s festival. This won’t be me just “putting on a show”, this is a new me, marketing myself (professionally) as a writer, producer and director. This is Michael J Buchanan-Dunne act two; I’ve laid down the character’s backstory (wannabe writer dreams of success), he’s confronted his villains, he’s aware of the climb ahead and the success and failure which awaits, but now there’s no turning back.

This will not be a story which ends on page 15. This is not a hastily scribbled outline which remains in a drawer. This is not a fairy tale. This… is the beginning of something epic. Get your popcorn ready.

More soon. Mxxx

…the new play is written. I’d like to introduce you to ‘Balloon’.

Way ahead of schedule. And it’s really good, simple and bizarrely emotional in an ironic kind of way. It’s strange how as much as I wanted to ignore it, write something different, it kept drawing me back, toying with me to finish it. And every time I’d start something new I’d always end up trying to crowbar a scene from this play into it. I love it; it makes me laugh, it makes me proud and every time I read the ending I weep.

Now I’ve got seven whole days to write another one. Or two.

This new way of writing; starting at 5am, 12hrs straight writing, no breaks, no stimulation, just coffee, hard-work and hope seems to work best for me. Writing with limited preparation and nothing else but instincts, creativity and a big bag of trust.

I’m now in the odd space where I have nothing to write, but I know the next idea is just around the corner.

Merry Christmas fellow writers. Wishing you all a very creative new year.
Mxxx

Sloppy Party Bottom in the bog, preparing himself for the magic

…and this is where it all began. One idea. One line. Two characters. Born out of a mix of creative frustration and six uptight LA lawyers. A seed was sewn. On this seat, in a basement, my secret writing room, my hideaway.

Christening? Wake? Barmitzvah? Whatever! Wonderful gig. Only my second outing with SPB and it went really well. They (from the off) understood that it was meant to be odd, and it was odd, very odd, I won’t explain it, cos it’s odd, but it went really well… and they got it. Whatever “it” is.

SPB can easily be a give or take routine, it’s so irregular and crazy and stupid that even if you hate it, massively, it’s so different, yes “different”, in inverted commas, that you can’t help but… erm… I dunno.

Really loved today, this was gonna be SPB’s last outing, but now… I think there’s more weirdness to explore. :-)

Forward and upwards.
Mxxx

I found it a really enjoyable experience, they got it, liked it, found it odd, bizarre, they laughed, cheered, joined in with the lyrics, applauded and I even heard someone say “how’s he doing that”. And best of all, I had fun.

There’s still lots of changes to make, as I haven’t really sold SPB and there’s a little lack of logic to his logic but the first big step has been taken. I’ve made a big decision though, Sloppy Party Bottom will not be my new show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival next year, he won’t be anywhere near ready enough. I need to spend a few years investing time, energy and rehearsals in getting SPB right.

But don’t worry, I’m no one to sit in my laurels, I’ve spent the last few months adapting a novel (one so perfect for my style of writing/direction you’ll wonder why I didn’t do it before) to perform and writing a monologue and duologue, so Moz will be back, just not as SPB… yet.

More soon.
Mxxx

Over a month late because, being the primo-Donna that SPB is, he wasn’t ready for his (excuse the pun) big entrance. It’s been a bitch to write and rehearse solely because I’ve never attempted anything like this before. SPB isn’t a character, he’s a vessel, a clean slate with no rules who could explore a fantasy world with the mindset of “what if…”? Imagine Mork from Ork with a brain injury.

I won’t say that I’m not a tad nervous. I have no idea how this character will play before an audience. If they understand him and like him then I’m off to a good start, if they sympathise with him then I can take them to places they’ve never been, but, and it’s a big but, if they stare at me thinking “what the f**k” then were all in for ten minutes of very odd unfunny titting about.

This could be my ‘Modern Man’ or my ‘Hitler’s Beard’, and currently I don’t know which. That said, I almost binned MM before his first ever gig, I was that certain of failure, and strangely he turned out to be my most successful creation, where-as with HB I was so sure I was onto a winner I didn’t even question it, and it failed big-time.

There’s very few hard fast rules with comedy, it’s wildly subjective. The same material can storm one day and bomb the next. Funny has layers, levels, twists, logic, rules, colours, shades, all of those and sometimes none. if you can figure it out, then you’re either a genius or a fluke.

Tonight my rule will be, “if I have fun then they’ll have fun” and that’s half the battle.

More later.
Mxxx (& SPB)

It’s an amazingly bizarre experience trying to get inside the head of SPB, he’s so like me, yet we couldn’t be more different. It’s like learning to walk and talk again; he (unlike me) has no rules, no sense of morals or danger. Writing for him, finding his voice, his movements and thoughts are going to be a big challenge for me, but it’s sure going to be exciting.

I had fun walking around the shops today trying to find out who SPB is. That’s my way of working; I hunt out part of his costume, a prop, something that represents him, and then I find it easier to find his voice, and ultimately become him. I need to ditch every ounce of logic my brain is clinging into.

Ironically after hours of searching London’s toy stores, charity shops and curiosity shops, I found a key prop (please let it be the first, last and only) which typified SPB perfectly in a gardening store. I love it when fate steps in.

More writing tomorrow. This character is a big bold step for me, I just need open my mind, trust my instincts and pray that SPB feels like joining in.

Slaters.
Mx

The beginnings of next year’s show. Oooooh, exciting. Look at all those words. Juicy. I’m literally spackling with excitement.

…so I’ve fired away with planning my new show for next year. Yes I know the festival isn’t even finished yet. And yes I know I’m still ill and recovering from the Edinblugie. And yes my lungs do hurt from four days of chronic coughing, but I’m all fired up, I know what I need to do, and I want a bloody five star review. Or two. Hundred.

This year’s show was a real eye-opener, it was a pat on the back and a slap in the face at the same time, which is what this business is and should always be about. If you’re finding it too easy, then you’re either doing something very right, or very wrong. Either way, you need to sit up and listen, because if you don’t you’ll never succeed and never develop. No show is ever perfect, so it’s always best to push until you can’t push any further… then push it some more.

So, that said, I’ve outlined the concept to next year’s show already, using the rules laid down by myself and the audience (which were painfully drummed into me), and I’ve come up with a corker. It’s simple, neat, full of laughs and jeopardy, I’ve established myself as a character the audience can relate to and sympathise with, whilst maintaining that narrative edge. That’s all I’m going to say about it, in these early stages, you might catch bits of it here and there, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Just expect the unexpected. Unless you’re expecting the unexpected, then expect the expected. Unless you’re not reading this, but know the kind of thing I write, then don’t expect the unexpected which you unexpectedly expected. And shit.

All I’ve got to do now… is write it.

See ya’ll soon.

Mxxx

The Moz trilogy props finally united (in retirement); the cannibal’s rose, the corpse’s noose and ShMOZle the puppet. And don’t they look gorgeous.

Home. Bathrobe. Sofa. Nice

It’s been fun, obviously not for my liver, my lungs, my stomach, my sanity and my arse, but it’s certainly been a hoot. I’m just glad it’s only a month, any longer and I’d be forty stone, deaf, pale and blind.

Shmozle’s been a good experiment, it’s been a successfully modest failure. Some days we rocked, some days we rolled, some days we flopped and floundered, but never without pride. Who’d have thought I’d be bringing my third show to Edders, let alone planning a forth.

So what have I learned?
* to believe in myself, my writing, my sense of humour. I might not appeal to the masses, but I’ll appeal to niches.
* to allow the audience to enjoy the show not just appreciate it.
* that although I might write from the heart, that I’m yet to give the audience a piece of me (roll on next year).
* that I have fans, actual fans, people who like what I do. Still my gast is flabbered about that.
* that I am as much a brand as my concepts.
* that although I may bitch and grumble about my shows, that I am proud of them, myself and my writing.
* it’s bloody hard (but enjoyable) work.

Am currently sitting on the train, heading home, a dead shMOZle in my bag but a new notebook of dreams, concepts, characters and sketches in my hand, and although I feel sadness that a year’s hard work (very hard work) is now over, that a new Moz chapter is just beginning.

And with that I salute you all, or as the Modern Man would say “cock in, pants up and fuck off”.

Thank you to everyone who came to my shows; those who loved it, those who hated it, those confused by it and those who applauded it. You’ve each made me that little bit stronger, bolder and more daring, and without your honest feedback this wouldn’t be possible.

See you all in Aug 2012.

Love & kisses.
Mxxx (& shMOZle RIP)

Props destroyed and in the bin already. I would have put the Moz suit in, but it jumped out and ran away. It can currently be seen performing rather whiffy stand-up across Edinburgh