Sherwood Returns

James Sherwood has a new show, which will doubtless be fabulous. Here's the blurb.

I'm taking a show to Edinburgh again this August. It's called 'Songs of Music'.

The show previews from mid-June before arriving in Edinburgh in August. Here are the dates (all shows starting 8.30pm):

June 15 - The Exhibit, Balham Station Road

June 18 - Betsey Trotwood, Farringdon

June 22 - Liberties, Camden High Street

July 3 - Etcetera Theatre, Camden

July 6 - Albany, Great Portland Street

July 7 - Derby

July 10 - North Wall, Oxford

July 13 - Albany, Great Portland Street

July 16 - Liberties, Camden High Street

July 19 - Red Hedgehog, Highgate

July 23 - Buxton Fringe

July 24 - Henley Fringe

July 25 - Queen's Head, Piccadilly Circus

Then the show runs at the Edinburgh Fringe at Holyrood Too @ FAITH on Cowgate from 1-24 August (but not 11th or 18th). Hope you can come and see at it some point.

All the best.

James

www.sherwoodcomedy.com

I'm Back

After an unconscionably long time away, I fear it may test your patience, Dear Reader, if I write about the pleasures of writing. It’s both self-referential and a bit of a cheek in light of the length of time that has elapsed since I last posted.

Nonetheless, the last few months have made me realise more than ever how much I enjoy crafting prose. I fear I’m largely uninspired and industrial, but somehow that doesn’t diminish how much I enjoy it. It’s soothing, revealing, and hopefully engaging for others.

Not all writing is the same. For my stand-up, I just type up ideas, and the words are fashioned in my head or on stage. My friend Glynn and I are writing a film together, and so far that has involved jotting ideas down on cards and Glynn spreading them expertly around our living room floor. When I write an article I sit down and create the whole thing from scratch. Speeches are as often as not produced in bullet point form – the paragraphs being not quite grammatical and yet (hopefully) perfectly clear of meaning.

The trick in politics is to use as few words as possible. That doesn’t mean one should dumb down or be afraid of attempting to achieve elegance. Rather the elegance comes in conveying complex ideas straightforwardly. Individual words don’t have to be short though – I once had a lengthy argument with a woman who said it was pretentious of me to talk about ‘an elephantine memory’ instead of saying ‘the memory of an elephant’. I was right, of course!

I’m no artist, but I do think I feel some of the artist’s pleasure when I take a blank piece of paper (actually it’s ALWAYS a blank screen – I physically struggle to handwrite a postcard these days) and create something from nothing.

Now I’m looking for further opportunities to do this writing thang (‘thing’, Ed) for a living. It’s great.