Your Blogging With Dr P... search result is below this annoucement.
In April 2008 Blogging With Dr P... moved to Blog Bypass.

If you're using the Blog Studio Search Facility to find a link to a previous blog, then I've been very generous, and NOT included an automatic re-direct which would take you there.

So, what this means is you have to use this link: Blog Bypass to find more Blogging With Dr P....

Thank you to Blog Studio for all the help over years! :)

(Feb 2010 Update): Haloscan is no more. Therefore the comments on this blog are no more. Sad, but true. I'm not paying $12 a year for the occasional comment with Echo. Apologies to all those who have commented. I have saved them and may well stick them somewhere else at some point.

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Sunday, August 22, 2004 David Cross: US Comedian: UK Review

My wife and I went along to see David Cross at the Soho Theatre, London, last night, (Saturday 21/08/04).

I made great attempts NOT to find out anything about him. I was going solely on the advice of Jack Black, (School Of Rock), who was quoted on the flyer as saying:

"If you miss an opportunity to see him perform....you're a total a-hole. David Cross dominates my world"

And with that kind of recommendation, you couldn't possibly resist the cheapo ticket at ?15, right? So off we went.

"A truth teller in the noble tradition of Bill Hicks, Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce"

So said the quote from the The Onion". This guy most be hot stuff, right?

Wrong.

We got there early. We sat in the front row, directly in front of Mr Cross. However, there were times during the evening when I was reaching for the remote control, and wanting to go and make a cup of tea. David Cross was not that funny.

Starting with a review of porn availibility in London, and then carried on into TV adverts on British TV, the audio tape at the National Gallery, gay men's voices, gay marriages, and some more stuff I can't recall it all came out in a very mediocre style. At this point he was only worth paying a fiver to see.

If that was the warming up, or tame part of the act, we then got onto more "controversial" subjects. With a gag about wanting to go to see the "Passion Of Christ" and sneakily dressing up as a Rabbi and laughing at the screen when Christ was being crucified, he then went into a whole monologue about Christ as a carpenter, the Christ "Teenage Years" and generally Christ stuff. This was clearly a subject he was comfortable, (coming from the Jewish background that he does), and whether accidentally or not, this was the best flowing part of his act.

The show was just short of 1.5hrs. By the time he'd nailed Christ, (as it were), we were about half way through. He'd clearly got the attention of the audience by now, and so he went onto more controversial issues such as paedophilia in the American Catholic church, a couple of comic observations on 9:11, handicapped children on American airlines, and finally a thing about a one year old news item about a Georgia cemetary where the owner was dumping the bodies in the lake instead of cremating them.

By themselves you'd look at the list of subjects above and think: "Yeah - good comedy material", right? Well, yes. But it depends how you treated them. David Cross had a style which I would have catogorised as "unsure". He tended to start a controversial subject, but then did nothing with it. (At the end of his 'gay marriage' stuff he said "But I'm definitley against mixed race gay marriages - OH NO!" And we were left hanging there as we waited for him to explain what he meant by that comic outburst - but he never did).

He had a style which you just wanted to shake roughly by the shoulders and shout:" Wake up that man there!" His treatment of controversial subjects was bordering on the "amateurish" sometimes, and you left with the impression like:"God, I could have done better than that myself!" It's not that I thought he wasn't very good - he was just generally okay.

He ended his act with a couple of impressions, including a crack-cocaine baby, (as he said "I didn't say it was going to be funny, I just said it was going to be accurate" - but it was sick & funny), and a thalidomide drummer - complete with drumming sounds on a backing tape. If you wanted to leave an audience on a "high" with the best part of your act, then David Cross will be remembered for being the sick impressionist guy. If he wanted people to remember him for being a "truth teller in the noble tradition of Bill Hicks etc" - he's really got to sharpen his act up.

At the end of the night he was still worth only a fiver to see.

p.s. (A day later....)I posted the above review on a Bulletin Board called Blow Up The Moon which appears to be about comedy. They didn't like what I had to say, and in true internet BB fashion - they let me know :) For all the gory details please go here, and you can be guaranteed that I won't have got the last word in! :)

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Saturday, August 14, 2004 American Pie 4

Remember this and this from August last year? Well, I just thought I'd promote the idea just one more time - and stick a link here - American Pie 4 Petition - for you to sign the petition. Yes, we do NEED another AP movie don't we. Don't ya just miss what Stifler's up to? ;)

If you'd like to talk some more on this subject, then go here - where folks are a talking about it now :)

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Thursday, August 05, 2004 The Plotlands

Last Sunday morning, as there was nothing in the fridge for breakfast, we decided to eat out. Having been thoroughly ripped-off by a Little Chef we went for a short drive in in the country to walk off some of the stodge, and this is what we found.......The Plotlands...

The Plotlands were created at the turn of the last century by Londoners looking for a haven in the countryside. Situated near Basildon, Essex, and being, (I think), the highest point in Essex, (being a very flat county), the views from the top can be right down past Canary Wharf and further.



The land was originally agricultural land, but because of it`s very clay substance, and the fact it is one the side of small hills, the agricultural use declined. However, by the late 1950`s/60`s the buildings were mainly bought by "compulsory purchase order" so that the land could be redeveloped, some say for agricultural use again, or some said for the new town of Basildon close by.

In any event the land came into the hands of one individual who bequeathed it in his will to the Wildlife Trust.

What remains today is superb..........a criss-cross of trees, bushes, wild grass and undergrowth where once the cottages were, and is now occupied by some of the most rarest and plentiful flora & fauna in the county, and south of England.



It`s like walking in some kind of Mediterranean, or sub tropical jungle - with green grass paths where once the small early 20th century roads were. Butterflies, moths and spiders are everywhere. The Wildlife Trust even do specialist "Moth, Spider & Bat Tours".

Towards the top of the hill is a preserved 1930`s cottage. And yes - this is a photo of genuine early 20th century "flying plaster ducks" :)....



If you want to know a bit more about the Wildlife Trust Centre, (and The Plotlands), then go here: Wildlife Trust Essex

It`s a worth a visit - and take a camera! :)

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