Tape 164: We Hit Our Target!

Thank You All!

I keep saying “Just a quick newsletter this week, because I’m so busy” then writing quite lengthy essays. It’s a bad habit. If I want to write a short one I should just do it! But I seem incapable of it. Only last week I bumped into the amazing John Kearns and Adam Riches at Soho Theatre (they’re staging surely the must-see Christmas show of the year as they perform as Ball and Boe for two weeks only, don’t miss it, I’ve been looking forward to this since John first told me about the idea four years ago).

“I enjoyed your newsletter this week, as always,” said John. “Joz has a wonderful newsletter,” he explained to Adam.

“Oh, no. Stop,” I replied, by which I of course meant, “Go on.”

“Honestly. 1000 words this week on some character called Michael Spinach. But it’s actually good,” John continued. I blushed, then made a “keep going” gesture. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, the character sounds dreadful,” he clarified. “Truly dreadful. Michael fucking Spinach. I couldn’t believe it when I read it. But the newsletter, really good, as always.”

This is all a roundabout way of saying, I’m sorry that this newsletter is always so long-winded even when I’m trying to keep it short. This week, though, it really is going to be short, because things are ramping up in advance of our shooting my sitcom pilot this weekend and every passing day feels like slowly pressing my face into an industrial sanding machine and I would dearly love to get some sleep.

“But Joz, nobody is forcing you to write these newsletters, why not just not write one some weeks?” A great point, and one I will think about in future weeks. But not this week, because, thanks in no small part to the readers of this newsletter, we just hit our target for the crowdfunder for that very sitcom that’s driving me insane! And it would be remiss of me to not say thank you to all of you who donated.

Against all my wildest expectations, we’re somehow up to 127% of our target, and all your kindness and generosity will go such a long way towards our being able to make this pilot/taster/short/thing/whatever-it-is into the best thing it can possibly be.

I’ve never done a crowdfunder in over ten years of doing comedy because I always felt like there was something a bit presumptuous or entitled about it, to assume that the sheer idea of me making some new project was something worthy of your hard-earned cash. I knew that if I ever did one I wanted it to be for something I really cared about. This was that project, and I’m so bowled over by how generous everyone has been in response. I’ve worked so hard on the script and am really proud of the balance of silliness and heart in there, and so grateful for all the notes and feedback from amazing collaborators along the way. I’m so proud of the team we have on board to make it, from incredible actors to phenomenal crew and behind-the-scenes creatives.

I promise to make it into something really worthy of your support and belief in the idea, and who knows, if it goes as well as it possibly can then maybe we’ll get to make more of it someday, whether as a film or a TV show or an online series or who knows what else? For now, I’m off to actually make the damn thing, and I hope everyone who donated knows how much I appreciate their kind support. You’re all awesome.

PS Those who donated and specifically chose one of the Reward Tiers, keep your eye on the crowdfunder page for updates about when to expect the various rewards! It probably won’t be until spring next year, because many of the rewards require the film itself to be pretty much finished, and I want to be able to send them all out at once rather than drip-feeding them throughout the year, but if you selected a reward you should receive it at some point in the first half of 2025!

A Cool New Thing In Comedy - Sam Nicoresti has just released her genre-twisting culture-war-defying comedy special Wokeflake on Youtube, and it’s a wonderful show, and a great entry into the pantheon of comedy shows adapted into a different medium in genuinely inventive ways. Enjoy!

What’s Made Me Laugh The Most - I performed at Next Level Sketch last night, a wonderful gig that combines guests with a regular line-up of sketch writers and performers. One of last night’s sketches involved a man in a top hat with a Victorian moustache saying “I have come to sing a song” in a frightening sonorous voice, and it really got me. Lorna Rose Treen leaned over and whispered “This is very you” and I was so flattered.

Book Of The Week - I’m just finishing up Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas’s This Is What It Sounds Like, the book about what goes on in your brain when you listen to music. I adore it. I might write about what it’s led me to discover at some point, but for now, other music lovers should definitely check it out.

Album Of The Week - 12 by Ryuichi Sakamoto, which he composed on his deathbed. It’s an hour of dark ambient stuff made all the more horrifying by the fact that you can hear his respirator throughout some tracks. Haunting. Beuatiful. Horrible.

Film Of The Week - Do you know what? This week I saw both Wicked and Gladiator II and, contrary to the prevailing consensus, I thought Gladiator II was perfectly good and Wicked was dreadful. Maybe I’ll change my mind about Wicked when Part II comes out, but then I don’t want to have to watch six hours of film in order to have a satisfying experience. I’m fundamentally really opposed to the trend of chopping films in half because I think it very often means that what you see in one sitting simply doesn’t function as a story, and that’s certainly the case here. It ends at the exact midpoint of the story, and that doesn’t work. I’m sure I’d have loved it if they had decided to make it into one 3-hour film instead of two, or put some effort into actually making the first half of it narratively satisfying. So I guess my film of the week if Gladiator II, which I thought was pretty good and I don’t understand why everyone’s hating on it.

That’s all for this week! As ever, let me know what you thought, and if you enjoy this newsletter enough to send it on to a friend or encourage others to subscribe, I’d really appreciate that too.

Take care of yourselves until next time, and all the best,

Joz xx

PS In case you missed it last week, Miranda and I just released our latest short thing (too long to be a sketch, too dumb to be a film, so “thing” will do), a sort of broken version of Queer Eye starring the amazing Christian Brighty and Sooz Kempner. Enjoy!