Tape 179: Machynlleth Rex

Plus: A Thought On SNL Auditions

This weekend is one of the loveliest weekends of the comedy year - MachFest is back! I remember back when I started out in comedy and didn’t know how to get booked for MachFest. I hated it every time people wanged on about how good Mach was. It sounded like an exclusive club for cool people, and I thought they were all showing off. “I heard everyone who does Machynlleth is actually really stinky,” I would tell people, trying to get a good counter-rumour going. “The whole place reeks for the whole weekend,” I claimed, but it never took off. Then one year I was allowed to do it, and I found out that the reason why everyone wangs on about it is just because it’s genuinely really nice. Beautiful town, lovely people, brilliant shows, no bullshit. I always have a lovely time.

Anyway, this year I’m in the novel position of having sold out my show in advance, which I’ve never done before! (Thank you if you bought tickets!) So, rather than continuing to bang on about myself, I’m going to give you a run-down of amazing shows you should book to see if you’re going but haven’t firmed up your schedule yet. Obviously this isn’t all the amazing shows I’d like to see, but with many shows now selling out I’ve delved through the programme to find which ones still have a handful of tickets left that you should get in quick for! There’s every chance that by the time I actually send this newsletter they’ll have sold out, for which I make no apologies. Anyway, here’s some advice on how to plan your weekend:

Desiree Burch: The Golden Wrath - Y Plas Main Hall, Friday 20:30. World-class storytelling on identity, age and the apocalypse from one of the US’s finest comedic exports.

Lachlan Werner: Wondertwunk - Y Plas Vane Tempest, Friday 21:00. Ventriloquist extraordinaire Lachlan plays the strongest boy in the world, his horrible dad and his seal accomplice.

Rosalie Minnitt: Clementine 3: Part 6 - Ysgol Bro Hyddgen, The Upper Sixth, Friday 21:00. A sequel to the Regency smash hit. I did a bit of work on this one, and it may or may not see Clementine becoming a Dickensian street urchin.

Eddy Hare: This One’s On Me - The Wynnstay Hotel, The Swallow Theatre, Friday 21:00. Eddy is one of the most laid-back, deadpan comics around. He’s effortlessly funny. This show was directed by my old comrade-in-arms Ben Target, and I’ve heard such good things about it.

Siblings: Dreams In Progress - Y Plas Vane Tempest, Saturday 12:00. Maddy and Marina play scientists who are trying to infiltrate the audience’s dreams, I think? I’m not sure, I just love everything these two do.

Heidi Regan: Jekyll And Heidi - Owain Glendower Centre, Powys Room, Saturday 12:00. Heidi has one of the most endearing, sharp, weird and brilliant minds in comedy. Her shows are like a chat with a best friend that morphs into a strange dream.

Sooz Kempner: Sooz Kempner Is Ugly - Powys Room, Saturday 14:00. Comedy’s foremost authority on the 90s and 00s and Sonic the Hedgehog turns her attention to beauty standards and online trolls.

Mikey Bligh-Smith: Full Frontal Mikey Mode - Vane Tempest, Saturday 14:00. One half of the Lovely Boys finally unleashes the full power of Mikey Mode. We have never seen Mikey off the chain like this. We may never recover. Rest in peace, chain.

Brainwash Me With Poppy Hillstead Live - Owain Glendower Centre, Senedd-Dy, Saturday, 18:00. A live edition of Poppy’s brilliant podcast in which someone has to infect her with one of their most intense peccadilloes (am I using peccadilloes right there?)

Barry Ferns: My 7 Years As Lionel Richie - The Warren Room, Saturday 18:00. In which Barry tells the story of the time he legally changed his name to Lionel Richie so he wouldn’t get into trouble for a joke, which is one of the best/stupidest things anyone’s ever done for comedy.

Chris Cantrill: Easily Swayed - Owain Glendower Centre, Billiard Room, Saturday 8:00pm. I was so thrilled when this show was nominated for Best Show at the Fringe last year, Chris is such a funny person and this show about midlife friendships is, by all accounts, excellent.

Kathy Maniura: The London Cycling Man - The Wynnstay Hotel, The Old Pizzeria, Sunday 12:00. I recently found a section of Regent’s Park where London Cycling Men spawn, I think. Everybody knows the London Cycling Man, and now Kathy is delving into his psyche like never before.

David Elms Describes A Room - Machynlleth Rugby Club, Sunday 12:00. I’ve only seen a short extract of this show in which David Elms improvises an entire room and its occupant based on the audience’s suggestions, but he’s a world-class improviser and this is a wonderful format.

John-Luke Roberts: What I Talk About When I Run About, Talking - Ysgol Bro Hyddgen, Gym, Sunday 14:00. You don’t really need the content to be any good when the title is that brilliant, but I’ve heard some of the songs and poems that are going into this new show and they’re just as good, so you’re in for a treat.

Molly McGuinness: Slob - The Warren Room, Sunday 14:00. I’ve never seen Molly before, but so many people who I respect and trust utterly rave about her that I’m very excited to see her debut this year.

Jessica Fostekew: Fettle - Ysgol Bro Hyddgen, Main Hall, Sunday 16:00. A brand new show from one of the very best stand-ups in the biz. Don’t know what this one’s about, but Jess’s own name is a seal of quality in itself.

Rob Auton: The Eyes Open And Shut Show - The Mach Arena, Sunday 16:30. No such trouble with this show. If you can say one thing about Rob, it’s that he makes it really easy to know what his shows are about. If you can say two it’s that he’s a genius and there is nobody else in comedy who does what he does.

Sean Morley: Backchannel - The Old Pizzeria, Sunday 18:00. I’m so excited about this. Sean’s previous shows have consistently ranked among my very favourites at whatever festival I saw them at. This one is incorporating a lot of the elements of “audience-sourcing” that he’s trialled in his genre-bending Twitch streams. Can’t wait.

Yuriko Kotani: Let’s Talk About Ish Seriously Ish - The Sixth Form, Sunday 18:00. Yuriko is an amazing stand-up, and I’m so excited to see that her routine about the word “ish” might be becoming the central pillar of an entire show, because it’s one of my favourite routines ever.

Lucy Pearman: Lunartic - The Billiard Room, Sunday 18:00. In which Lucy pretends to be the Moon for an hour. I think the Moon might be the most multi-faceted and complex of Lucy’s characters so far. There’s a nobility to him. A sadness, even.

Ed Aczel: Running On Empty - Vane Tempest, Sunday 18:00. The funniest man on the planet returns to talk about whatever he wants to talk about this time. I’ve just seen that this show promises to be “edgy and gritty,” and I’m so excited by the prospect of Ed going in that direction.

Bec Hill: Guess Who’s Bec, Bec Again? Bec Hill’s Bec (Tell A Friend) - The Swallow Theatre, Sunday 18:00. I think this is Bec’s first new show since pre-Covid. Bec’s shows have always been so inventive and delightful, and the prospect of a brand new one after such a long wait is beyond exciting.

Crowley Time: The DiPoni Contingency - Senedd-Dy, Sunday 18:00. Another live podcast edition, this time of Tom’s sketch and character extravaganza, which is one of the best scripted comedy podcasts out there at the moment.

Kiell Smith-Bynoe And Friends: Kool Story Bro - The Mach Arena, Sunday 18:30. Kiell and his team of improv all-stars have been smashing it on tour, and now they’re coming to Mach! These guys are the best in the biz and I’m excited to finally see them work their magic.

Late Night With Terry Wogan - The Gym, Sunday 20:00. Ben Alborough’s Terry Wogan interviews an all-star panel including Elton John (John-Luke Roberts), Quentin Tarantino (Luke McQueen) and Kim Woodburn (Alison Spittle). What could go wrong?

Joe Kent-Walters: Frankie Monroe In Progress - Machynlleth Bowling Club, Sunday 20:00. And finally, a brand new WIP from the other half of the Lovely Boys, the hero of 2024 and comedy’s scariest bastard, Frankie Monroe, who has presumably escaped from Hell, or just lives there now.

Get your tickets! Get them quick! Anyway, on a completely separate note, one other thing:

A Thought On SNL Auditions

You may or may not know that SNL is coming to the UK, and that every comedian in the country has been asked to send in audition tapes for it. You may be a comedian reading this working on your audition tape. If you are, I’d like to share a thought here, because several people have come to me for advice on their tapes in the last few days (God knows why). All of them have come fairly stressed and panicking about it, and all seem to have gone away feeling much calmer, so perhaps there’s something about my attitude to it all that is a valuable public service I should pass on.

My attitude is - it doesn’t matter.

I’ve heard people saying “This is it. This is THE big opportunity we’ve been waiting for, and if I blow it then it’s all been for nothing.” I’ve heard people saying “I’ve heard they want to see five characters and three impressions, and the whole tape needs to be 5 minutes, so the characters have got to be forty seconds long and the impressions need to be” etc etc etc.

My thought is - nah. Just show them you.

Just show them what you do, in a way that you feel confident and happy with. Maybe you know what they want. Maybe you don’t. Why risk it? Why not just show them what you think you’re best at, whatever you would be enjoying doing anyway, whatever that is, rather than trying to contort yourself into the thing you think they want?

Realistically, there are hundreds of people going up for this. They’re going to cast, what - eight of them? Ten? Why would I bother tying my self-esteem and any conception of “success” or “failure” to something with such bad odds? Why would I be one of the ten?

Answer - I would be one of the ten if I was exactly the right person for the job. If I was exactly what they were looking for.

The smartest way of giving myself the best chance of being exactly what they’re looking for isn’t to second guess what they’re looking for or to confect or engineer something I think I should do, it’s just to show them me. And the kind of ideas I’d be working on anyway, even if this opportunity didn’t exist. And maybe they’ll go “Hey, this guy is just what we wanted!” Or maybe they’ll go “Nah, he’s not right.” It doesn’t matter.

Life’s too short to allow opportunities to stress us out. Opportunities are good things, so when they come along we should allow ourselves to engage with them in a way that feels positive and exciting, and show them our best self, and then never think about it again. Just know that we gave it our best shot.

Perhaps I’m being incredibly naive, and you can all look forward to not seeing me on SNL next year. I don’t really mind. I have enjoyed watching the people I’ve spoken to about it calm down as I explain all this, though, and start to engage with the idea of putting together an audition tape in a way that feels more light and fun and less high-stakes and anxious. I hope the same advice might be useful for you if you’re also working on your audition this week!

A Cool New Thing In Comedy - I’m going to plug a couple of things of mine, if that’s ok. Firstly, mine and Miranda’s short film Dog House has been selected for LOCO Film Festival and is playing at my favourite cinema in London, the Ritzy, on Sunday the 11th of May! It’s on at 10am, which is nobody’s favourite time to go to the cinema, so if anyone wants to book a ticket and come see it, I’d really appreciate it. Secondly, I’m doing a split bill WIP at Aces & Eights in Tufnell Park with the amazing Johnny White Really-Really on the 12th of May, and we’d love a nice cosy little audience to work out our shows in front of! Come on down if you’re free!

What’s Made Me Laugh The Most - I saw a great short called “SOS But Don’t Worry If Not” by Florence Poppy Deary at Mr. Tibbs last week, and it’s built around a single joke which is so funny and so brilliantly done.

Book Of The Week - I’m reading My Name Escapes Me: The Diary Of A Retiring Actor by Alec Guinness, which does what it says on the tin. He has a real thing for Wallace & Gromit, which I find really endears him to me.

Album Of The Week - Excitable Boy by Warren Zevon. “Werewolves Of London” is obviously the standout on this that everyone knows, but I thought I’d delve into his wider ouvre, and he’s a great writer of witty, silly, punchy little rock songs in the Randy Newman mould. I like the guy.

Film Of The Week - Pink Floyd At Pompeii: MCMLXII. This is a re-release/remaster of Floyd’s ridiculous 1972 concert movie in which they performed in the empty ruins of a Roman amphitheatre. It’s great, and features some really interesting interview snippets with the band as well. At one point Roger Waters says something like “Ultimately, the only thing that matters about a piece of art is how it makes you feel” and I really like that.

That’s all for this week! As ever, let me know what you think and if you enjoy the newsletter enough to send it to a friend or encourage others to subscribe, I’d hugely appreciate it! Take care of yourselves until next time,

Joz xx

PS If you value the Therapy Tapes and enjoy what they do, and want to support my work and enable me to keep writing and creating, you can make a one-off donation to my Ko-Fi account, and it’s very gratefully appreciated.

PPS This week I found a little monkey who it was my pleasure to dance with: