So that's it

Hiya.

Sorry. I've not posted in a week, Edinburgh was all a bit of a blur. I've just got back home from Edinburgh and am about to go to sleep in my own bed for the first time in a month. I feel very blue to be back from Edinburgh. As usual it's such a wonderful way to spend the month, and it flew by. It always amazes me how quickly it flies past, but that said, it also amazes me that the next Edinburgh will come round very quickly indeed. I'm already starting to think about what to do next year, I want a brand new, all new show.

So I got the train back from Edinburgh with Ben today and we started to work out and plan what we're going to do for our tour which starts in just over a month. It's great that I'm going to get the chance to do the show again and again.

I had a really good set of final shows (bar the Friday and Monday) two really good ones on the Saturday and Sunday to sell out crowds. I also had the chance to do Stephen K Amos' chat show which was rocking, and got to hang out with all my friends one last time before heading home.

I've learnt a lot from this years festival, and can't wait to do it all again. Roll on Edinburgh 2009, till then, I'll see you on tour.

Chris x

This is the title of the blog. No really. It is.

So I've not really had a chance to blog properly for quite some while, and annoyingly that still seems to be the case. I'm sat in Brookes Bar in the Pleasance Dome at the moment tapping away some words for your eyes to feast on.

My good friend and old flat mate Colin Murray (off of the Radio) came up to Edinburgh yesterday so we hung out and went to see Russell Kane and Tim Minchin, both of which were very good. Colin is doing his radio show from up here all week, so if you get a chance do have a listen. It's on Radio 1 from 10pm.

Today I did an interview on Forth FM which was great fun, Arleen who was interviewing me said I was pretty and good looking, I blushed and told her she is wrong. Nice of her to say though.

I'm hoping to get to see Potter Potter, Rhod Gilbert and Jon Richardson this week. I don't know if I will get a chance to, but one can live in hope.

I've had some great shows recently, and some celeb audience members including Richard Bacon, Barry Cryer and Stefan Golaszewski, it was uber flattering to see them in the crowd.

Right time to go and get ready for my show, I will write something proper soon, perhaps it'll be about my hunt for an iphone.

Chris x

What I've done

So recently I've brought some batteries for the remote control we use for the DVD player on stage. Saw We Need Answers (which whenever I say this makes me thinks of a load of little dancers) which was wonderful, I also had a good chuckle while watching Girl and Dean and tried to see Nina Conti, but she was sold out.

The weekend is upon us and I'm hoping to go get an iphone, but I don't seem to have anything with my home address on it to prove where I live, so I might have to wait on that. I shall also be seeing many more thing and will attempting to write a proper blog for a change, rather than these quick little updates.

Chris x

I've been been busy.

Hey,

So very sorry for the lack of blog the last few days, my parents have been in Edinburgh and as such I've been busy looking after them, taking them to see things and such. Plenty has happened so I shall now write about those things that have happened in no real order.

It was nice to have my parents here, they brought me some food and said nice things about my show.. and I've had a batch of good shows the last few days. Sunday's was a bit dull and quiet for some reason, but up till then they were good and today is my day off so it was nice to be able to see something else. I saw Stephen Grant, more about that shortly. I should let you know on the whole I'm feeling better now although my throat is a bit bad still and I now have a chesty cough which is rather frustrating.


I've seen loads of shows the last few days, I took my parents to see Tim Minchin whose show has bedded in very well, I also went to see Mark Watson who is on fire this year with one of the funniest shows of the festival. Competing with him for that title is Michael McIntyre who is just effortlessly brilliant, Jason Byrne is also delivering the goods this year. For something different I love Out Of The Blue at C, which is 12 blokes singing acapella. Simply brilliant stuff.

Today since it was my only day off I got to see one clash show, so saw Stephen Grant in the Pleasance do his show Second. I ended up sitting with my chums Neil and Christine Hamilton who were lovely as always. Stephens show was a real delight, stand up with meaning, a show with a sense of a show, always funny with some cracking set pieces, genius ideas well executed, and one of the best hours you could ask for at the Fringe. Do see him if you can.

After that I dashed off to the Gilded Balloon to be interviewed by the ever-so lovely Craig Campbell for his radio show, where I bumped into Mark Watson whose parents are coming to see my show. Craig thought I looked like Sue off of Mel and Sue. People seem to say this to me quite a lot. I gave Craig a present. It was one of these badges that I now give out in the show.



Genius!

There was a nice thing published about me and some other magic folk in The Times today, which you can check out here if you want.

Oh one more thing, last night I did Pubstock which was great fun and went for a birthday dinner from Brendan from Pappys, at which John Richardson regaled us with tales of his nan going out for fags and his love of Labyrinth, whilst I managed to spill water everywhere. Classy.

That's it for now, my sister is in town so I'm going to say hi to her.

Chris x

The Curse Of Kitson

Good day to you.

So I am currently enjoying the Daniel Kitson curse. What's that I hear you ask? Well basically, I'm cursed by Daniel Kitson. Last year I booked to see him in Edinburgh and was ill so couldn't go. Earlier this year I'd booked to see him at a theatre near me only to turn up a day late. And today, well yesterday really I'd booked tickets to see his new show but couldn't go as I'm ill. An ill little Chris I am.

Woke up yesterday after feeling slightly rubbish the night before with the mother of all cold / flu type things. I've still got it. I'm a snotty sleepy headachy mess. At one point I thought I might have to cancel last nights show, but I went on like a trooper, and actually it was one of the best show's I've done so far. Really enjoyed myself last night, and the crowd were really lovely, despite having all got soaking wet waiting in the queue. The show however keeps running over by a few minutes so I'm trying to trim some stuff and might remove a trick altogether.

Today is also my sister Nik's birthday. I've had a card in my bag for her for about 4 days now and still haven't posted it. I must do that today! A very happy birthday to her.

A few days ago I did some filming for STV's five thirty show, it seemed to go quite well, you can view it here if you wish.

Today I should have some I Love Cox badges arriving to give to people who come see my show. They were bloody expensive, but worth it I think. Who doesn't want one of those badges! It's such a wonderful pun..... perhaps.

Yesterday despite being poorlysick, I did go on The Hamiltons chat show, which was great fun as usual. Neil and Christine saw my show last year and were very supportive, so much so that they came back again this year and liked it. Their show's always worth catching for a lovely twee afternoon, and they get some great guests on. Along with me was the FT Theatre Critic who gave some good show tips, The Departure Lounge, which is a musical, that was very good indeed, so much so that I'm going to go see it my goodself. It also featured a hot blonde girl, so bonus points for them. Then there was also Girl and Dean who are two lovely ladies doing sketch comedy at the Pleasance. They were proper funny, with a fantastic sketch performance about the WI. So I will also be seeing them and I advise you to do the same. Added bonus once again Jess from Girl and Dean is also really rather hot. Horrah.

So that's what I've been doing. I'm now lying in bed blowing my nose a lot and drinking a berry smoothie in the hope the good stuff in it will pick me up in time for my show tonight. My parents have just arrived so I need to be on top form to them as they see my stuff tonight.

Ta-ra

Chris x

Hummmm....

Hummmmm indeed. That's how I'm feeling at the moment, a bit hummmmm. I'm very tired currently, so much so that the show we were going to see this afternoon has been given a miss and I've come home to write this blog and have a nap before my show.

So let's get that out the way to start with, my show. It's been going just about okay. I've had three bad shows all of which have annoyed me. Saturday and Sunday were really busy but both times we had technical problems with the big ending. Sunday's show actually was rather good other than that, I enjoyed it a lot and it had Neil and Christine Hamilton in, both of whom shouting out Cox and Sidebottom. I'm doing their show again tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it. Monday's show was very busy again, the ending work, but two other tricks played up and I felt really off my game. I was thrown at the beginning by a trick not quite working and never really got it back on track till the end of the show. I had the Times in reviewing it so I'm holding out no hope there.

Last night I also went for drinks with Ben, Emily and Amy from my promoters, Kirstin from Australia, Tim Minchin from Comedy with Music and Mark Watson from Comedy with Welsh Accents. That was very nice. I also met up with a fellow magician called Graham who said very flattering things about my show and performed a trick for me which I enjoyed a lot. We also met a few other folk, and a bunch of us ended up at Late and Live. At half 4 I eventually went to bed.

At some point during the evening it was thought to be a good idea for me to have eyeliner put on me, thus making it guyliner, and making me look a little like Tim. Mark Watson said I looked a bit like Bowie, Jason Byrne said it looked a little camp, Josie Long liked it and Tim thought it was very cool. I'm not so certain. I'm thinking about adding it to my show costume, but am not convinced. Look here's a photo to prove it.


Also I took a photo when I came out the shower and realised I couldn't get it off. Posterboy for the emo generation I think.



Another exciting thing happened on Monday. I went to Chocolate Soup with Amy and Emily from my promoters and had a mint chocolate soup.. yum yum.

We then headed back to the Pleasance where we found a shoe shop on the way. Amy wanted to buy some daps / plimsolls to wear. She found some. Emily had a student discount card of 10%. She used that. She ended up buying a pair of shoes for 89p. Yes 89 bloody pence. Madness. I think some children must have died making them for them to be that cheap. This is what they look like.



89p shoes.

Crazy.

Chris x

A bad boy

Look, it's 3.36am, I've not written a blog yet for today but promise I will. For now however, I've just got back from late and live and need to sleep before doing some TV stuff tomorrow. Expect to see me on it looking VERY tired.

Chris x

What a day

So Saturday was quite the day for me. A bit of a rollercoaster one to be honest.

I started off by having to get up early for an interview with Janice Forsyth at BBC Scotland. It went very well and she was lovely indeed. I also did one with the Podcast Network which was fun, but very hot due to the stupid temperature of the bar in the Dome this year.

I was nervous all day about the review in Chortle that was due out. In the end I was delighted with the result.. getting quotes like.

"Properly impressive...You'll be gobsmacked."
"Astonishing"
"His demonstrations are so remarkable you are left thinking he couldn't possibly have done them. You don't have to be able to see into the future to predict a good future for him"

This really made me chuffed. Frustratingly it was only a 3 star review, but it reads like a 4 star, and who am I to complain. If you want to read the whole thing you can here.

Then I went to do the show. Oh dear. What a show it was. We were nearly sold out, only a few empty seats, but the whole thing, I felt was just lacking something, and I didn't know what. I kept being thrown by various things and felt I wasn't on the top of my game. Also even more annoyingly for me and the audience was my ending completely fell flat on it's face with the DVD refusing to play. Fortunately we have a back up which involves a letter, which was okay, but wasn't what I wanted to do. I want so much to give my audience the best show possible and last night I couldn't so that upset my greatly. I am also now hoping so very much indeed that there were no press in last night. If there were. I'm in trouble.

After the show I felt awful so went to get drunk in the courtyard. Met two groups of delightful people who had been to see the show and all seemed to really enjoy it, even thinking that the end not working was part of the show, this gave me a little hope. Then I went home, had a stir fry, drank a little more and watched Arrested Development and played Scene It on the XBox. I lost. Rubbish.

I was just about to go to bed, when I remembered The Observer update their website at midnight, so had a quick check and fortunately went to bed with a big smile on my face as they called me a manic mind-reader and said things like....

"If you fancy a change from the usual stand-up fare, book up quickly for Chris Cox's hugely entertaining Control Freak - last year he sold out early on.

You can read the whole thing here.

So that was Saturday, now it's Sunday and I've things to do and shows to see. I really hope tonight's a good one!

Chris x

The Waiting Game

Well how are you on this Saturday? I'm a little tired personally. Also I'm a bit highly strung.

You see, I'm playing the waiting game, I've now done three shows and I've had three reviewers in... much like doing an exam there's nothing I can do now but sit and wait for their verdict. I'm terrible at this. I really care, I probably care too much what people think of my show, I want them to like it, and to like me, and I want to entertain them and give them the best show possible. A review is indeed only one persons opinion, but it really, really matters to me. I know we had Steve Bennett in from the excellent Chortle website. A website I love, a website I check daily, and he's a reviewer whose opinion really matters to me, I respect his reviews a lot, and he's never seen me, so I really hope he likes me.

It's scary these early days, as people review previews, and the show in a preview isn't at it's full state, but the reviews are needed to get people in, and therefore you have to have reviewers in to a show you might not be fully happy with just yet, however what they say, will stick, and stay with you for the rest of the run.

I was chatting to Tim Minchin about this last night, and we both think reviewers shouldn't be allowed to review a preview. Fortunately for me, my show was kinda set in stone by the preview, but I know Tim was moving stuff around right to his opening night last night. As a performer, you put your soul into a show, and therefore bare you soul for all to see on stage, the last thing you want is someone seeing a half baked show and then writing about it, as it can really effect your life. After all, performing is our life.

Tim, Rhod Gilbert and Lloyd Langford (all incredibly talent people) have all decided not to read their reviews. To just do the show and get on with it, not worrying what people have to say about it. I wish I was like this, but sadly I'm not. I wake up at about half 9 every day, and in a half awake state my stomach lurches, I feel sick and think, Oh God, are there any reviews out. Then I check. I check and I check. Reviews aren't everything, but there a good way to judge what people think of the show. The applause and smiling faces at a show should be enough, but for me, I really care and really need to know. It annoys me hugely that I'm like this. Maybe I should just try and ignore everything? Who knows.

That's a bit of a weight of my shoulders writing that. But I kinda feel good to get my thoughts out there

In a more positive note, Ben and myself along with Matt my promoter and his lovely girlfriend Joelle went to see Tim Minchin's opening night last night. We also met Matt Horne (off of Gavin and Stacey) who was seeing Tim. You'll be pleased to know I was shameless enough to plug my own show to him.

As expected Tim was depressingly brilliant. It often makes me think why do I do this when I see someone as good as him. Beautifully crafted songs, lovely stand up, and the nicest man you could meet all combine in this thought provoking, catchy, and musically astounding hour. He has an incredible poem as part of it, which exactly sums up my thoughts, and makes me wish I was doing stuff like that. Next year I think I might start to get deeper with my performance, and look at thought processes, and how we're conditioned to think the way we think.

After the show I had my first late night of the festival, having a drink and lots of bags of Crisps with Mr & Mrs Minchin, Matt, Joelle, Ben and Amy (also my promoter) that was lovely just to hang out and chit chat. One of the joys of the festival is the ability to do this, to see people, to meet new people, and to just enjoy life.

I was doing just that till I had to wake up early and hungover to do an interview for BBC Scotland, that actually went quite well despite my state.

For now I shall have a spot of lunch before going to do another interview with the Podcast Network and hopefully another good show tonight. We can but wait and see.

Chris x

Two Days In...

Morning,

It the morning after my second show, and I'm feeling okay. How are you feeling?

Actually I seem to have what I call Edinburgh head, which I had last year, basically I spend most of my time feeling a little light headed and dizzy. I've now taken to wearing my glasses most of the time in the vague hope that it might help me.. we'll see. On a plus side of that, I do look like more of a geek than usual.

So far I'm rather pleased with how both shows have gone, there's still room for improvement, and I really hope it'll only get better the more that I do, however I'm starting to enjoy myself on stage, and once again had a lovely, friendly, warm audience yesterday who really gave as good as I did. That's a terribly use of English there, I do apologise for it. Basically what I'm trying to say is that there is so much audience participation ans such in my show that, the better they are, the better it is for everyone. The few people I've met after my show who have seen it have all been really friendly and said nice things, which is very touching, and makes me feel I'm doing at least some good.

Yesterday it rained a lot which was not nice. Ben and I walked over with Tori my agent to the List party at the Spiegeltent, that one day I'm going to check the spelling of. There was a big queue to get in, so we didn't bother. Instead Ben and I came back to the flat to watch some Arrested Development.

Show wise we spent a lovely hour in the company of Ruth Bratt at the Dome yesterday, who had a really touching and funny enjoyable hour of character comedy, we also saw Steve 'We Are Klang' Hall do his show, which has a lot of potential. Mareck (or Poblar as I like to call him) was in the audience. He has a brilliant laugh.

I also went for breakfast yesterday morning with Matt my promoter. When he asked for the bill, instead of doing the wavy sign the air thing he just drew a straight line. I took this to be madness. Surely you're meant to do a flamboyant air signature? Anyway it took forever for the bill to arrive, so I'm sure he did something wrong. He paid for it though so I've been told I shouldn't moan.

Right time to get up and do something with my day, think we might go see Minchin tonight. Do you want to come along? See you there?

Chris x