Spring 2023 News
[This is the text I sent out to members of my mailing list - it's a thing to join! To add yourself today, email me at benmoorinfo@gmail.com with the word “SUBSCRIBE” in the subject line and I promise all your dreams of free postage on a book will come true. (Your dreams are awesome.)]
Hello!It's always a surprise when spring does its thing as, although it claims to be a single season, we often forget that it seems to consist of numerous mini-seasons.There's the hopeful days of new flowers, then rapidly a reminder of winter; the wind and sun weekends; another bit of warmth; three wet days in a row; somehow a touch of autumn (what's that doing there?); a March hurricane; ah blossom, no it's actually snow; clear and crisp and buddy tree mornings; the spring of that cold you thought you'd shaken off; grey spring, green spring, blue spring and finally a guess at summer.Every year we think we know what to expect, but every year it catches us; maybe that's why we say 'spring a surprise'?Anyways, I thought I'd surprise you, dear Mailing List member, with a mini-bulletin of what I, Ben Moor, have been up to recently and what's to come....I pop up as a minor Vicar in the BBC's new version of Great Expectations beginning on Sunday 26th March.I appear in daft sketches and explanatory interludes in the fun and inspiring, Rapid Motion Through Space: An Incomplete History of Speed from the Cosmic Shambles Network.I am working on a new audio project with Colin Anderson, the producer of Undone, and I should have more to share about this by the time of the next mailout.Also, a new solo show is beginning to form, marginally and at languor, and, as usual, here's another tiny excerpt:For the party he’d bought an insane amount of cheese, but not way too much, simply crumbs. This meant he felt sorry for himself, which he excused by thinking at least someone was feeling something for him. The following day he’d bought a scratchcard and won a year’s supply of cardboard, with which his only thought was to make more scratchcards. But he retained his good looks; he was still someone worth looking over a shoulder at.
More to follow as it occurs.UPCOMING SHOWSSunday 26th March 2023BOOKTALKBOOKTALKBOOKA weekend of literature, comedy and performance in Carmarthenshire, the home of Dylan Thomas. So many brilliant people on the bill, and it will be a great place for Joanna Neary and me (in our guises as authors Jenny Nibbingley and Burton Mastrick) to perform our parody of a literary festival event.Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th April 2023 - 19.30WHO HERE'S LOST?109 St Paul’s Road, London N1 2NAMy performance in February of the show I took to the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe was TOTALLY SOLD OUT, so we've added two more dates at the lovely Hen & Chickens pub theatre on Highbury Corner.It's a funny, sweet, sad, dreamlike piece about two oddballs on a roadtrip.Sunday 30th April 2023 - 12.00pmBOOKTALKBOOKTALKBOOKDescribed by Stewart Lee as "Brilliant... a Russian Doll of a show that kaleidoscopes psychedelically into itself and then evaporates.”Joanna Neary and I play authors, waiting for our moderator at a talk, but going off on a surreal and daft exploration of authorship and awkwardness.This weekend is always a wonderful celebration of comedy and creativity.Tuesday 23rd May 2023 - 19.30BOOKTALKBOOKTALKBOOK109 St Paul’s Road, London N1 2NAAnother chance to see the literary event that turns into an absurdist comedy about washing up, AI and card tricks. We SOLD OUT at last year's Edinburgh Fringe, so please book early!Friday 2nd - Sunday 4th June 2023PRONOUN TROUBLE (AND MAYBE WHO HERE'S LOST?)LOCALLY SOURCED COMEDY WEEKENDEXETERThe magnificent Will Adamsdale is organising a day or two of fun and weirdness in Exeter. Little is clear at this point, but look out for my "lecture" about cartoons, friendship and good words, and lots more.TICKETS ON SALE SOONFriday 23rd June 2023WHO HERE'S LOST?TURINI'm teaching a couple of classes about solo show creation and collaboration, and also performing Who Here's Lost? (in English, with Italian surtitles).Saturday 8th July 2023WORK IN PROGRESS AND SOME OLD THINGS TOOI'll be reading a few old bits, and some of the things that haven't quite resolved themselves into the full new stage show, at the lovely Idler Festival in Fenton House, Hampstead, on what is always the hottest weekend of the year.There is always a brilliant bill of speakers and performers (this year features Adam Buxton and Irvine Welsh) and there's always time to idle and enjoy the easiness of life.Friday 28th & Saturday 29th July 2023WHO HERE'S LOST & BOOKTALKBOOKTALKBOOKEASTBOURNEAs part of the Eastbourne Fringe Festival there's another literary event parody, and on the following evening I'll perform my solo show at the Lamb Inn.TICKETS ON SALE SOONIf you have a venue you'd like me to bring a show to, please send me an electronic mail and I can send on details. I'd love to keep these shows on the road.RECOMMENDATIONSOf course the winter is a time for reading, and since my November mailout I've been plenty bookish.Here are some of the tomes I've recently read and entirely endorse:The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWittThe Sorcerer of Pyongyang by Marcel TherouxTomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle ZevinBiography of X by Catherine LaceyMr Breakfast by Jonathan CarrollWhat Happens at Night by Peter CameronThis mailout is being sent during the annual Tournament of Books - I highly recommend this, and I spoke about it when I popped up on the Backlisted podcast last year.Visually I loved the Helen Saunders show at The Courtauld Gallery.Moviewise, I've been delighted by a great run of Irene Dunne, Jean Arthur and Carole Lombard screwball comedies from the 1930s and '40s - The Awful Truth is absolutely amazing (and after you've seen it, do look up the Wikipedia entry about its production). Also great and more current have been Decision To Leave (directed by Chan-wook Park) and Flux Gourmet (Peter Strickland).Teeveely, I've been loving Taskmaster Australia (watchable on the EweToobs), Fleishman Is In Trouble, The White Lotus and all the versions of The Traitors.Lively, I saw and loved Stewart Lee's Basic Lee and "Weird Al" Yankovic's show at the Palladium.And Scene and Heard, the extraordinary mentoring charity that uses playwriting as a self-esteem boosting experience for the children of Somers Town, has shows this week and later in the summer.I hope all is well with you and that whatever surprises this spring still has for us, we get through them with a smile.Thank you for reading my nonsense and have just the best day today.love and peace!benMOOR!LINKTREE: linktr.ee/benmoor[Down by Law: If you would prefer not to receive further messages from me, BEN MOOR, simply reply to this email with the subject line changed to UNSUBSCRIBE.]