The News At Kate

Review from The Edinburgh Reporter

2011-08-26T10:34:00.000-07:00

Had a really nice review. You can read it here.

Such Small Portions

2011-08-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

Did an interview published here!

Scotsman blog piece!

2011-08-12T15:01:00.001-07:00

Had a piece about stereotypes of women comics published in the Scotsman today. You can read it here.

Podcast interview

2011-08-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

I was interviewed by Lee Camp (awesome act - do see his show!) on his podcast. Listen here.

Recommendation from London is Funny

2011-08-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

Review site London is Funny has included my solo show in a list of the top 20 free shows to see at the Fringe. In some illustrious company like Robin Ince and Nick Doody. Full article here.

Edinburgh 2011

2011-08-05T05:08:00.000-07:00

So I'm back. This year's show is definitely my best EVER. And I am not just saying that. Really it's cool. You should come. And I'm hosting Comedy Manifesto and Midnight Hour as usual. So here's what you need to know (and need to forward to everyone you know who live in or near or visits Edinburgh):

The News At Kate 2011. My new solo hour. Politics, stories about famous people, stories about idiots (maybe some overlap...), highbrow jokes, funny jokes, (probably no overlap...), meaningful satire (feel free to take notes). Amazing I can do it all in the hour really!

Venue: Ciao Roma, South Bridge, venue number 283, also a lovely Italian restaurant with award-winning ice cream upstairs!
Time: 8.20pm (duration 1 hour) 6th - 27th Aug, not 16th
Price: free, non-ticketed, just show up and if you enjoy the show you can make a donation afterwards. Part of the award-winning PBH Free Fringe.

Comedy Manifesto. Britain's most popular live political panel show. Fourth year at the fringe. Same format, same host and writer (me), new questions, new panelists, hopefully more 5-star reviews!

Venue: Voodoo Rooms, West Register Street, venue 68, a very swanky (but not overpriced) bar if you fancy stopping for a jar.
Time: 3.45pm (duration 1 hour) 6th - 27th Aug, not 16th
Price: free, non-ticketed, just show up and if you enjoy the show you can make a donation afterwards. Part of the award-winning PBH Free Fringe.

Midnight Hour. My lovely late-night comedy love-in. Four or five tip top acts every night. Best place to plan your next day's comedy viewing.

Venue: Canons' Gait, Canongate, venue 78, proper down to earth pub. Arrive early and catch PBH And some Comedians, the legendary show that launched the Free Fringe more than 15 years ago (from half nine).
Time: midnight (obviously), duration 1 hour (obviously again given the show title), 6th-27th Aug, not Sundays
Price: (you guessed it) free, non-ticketed, just show up and if you enjoy the show you can make a donation afterwards. Part of the award-winning PBH Free Fringe.

Plus I'll be making lots of guest appearances at all kinds of cool shows and events, if you don't see me listed, feel free to walk right in and ask for me!

Have a great Fringe! xx

92 and Out

2010-09-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

So the fringe is over and I'm finally back home. I did 92 different shows during my stay, of which only one was reviewed (but got five stars). Audiences for the most part though loved my show. And I get to recreate it at the End of the Road festival next weekend, hope to see you there or next year.

Thurs 5th Aug Talk Sport interview

Fri 6th Aug BBC Belfast interview, Leith FM show

Sat 7th Aug Comedy Manifesto, Comedy World War, PBH And Some Comedians, Midnight Hour

Sun 8th Aug Comedy Manifesto, Magic Faraway Cabaret, Hey You, Watch This!, Shaggers

Mon 9th Aug Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, LLaugh, Midnight Hour

Tues 10th Aug Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, White Horse Pick-Up Gig, Midnight Hour, Late 'n' Free

Weds 11th Aug Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, Midnight Hour

Thurs 12th Aug Comedy Manifesto, Laughing Cows, The News At Kate, PBH And Some Comedians, Midnight Hour

Fri 13th Aug Leith FM show, Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, Midnight Hour

Sat 14th Aug Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, Midnight Hour

Sun 15th Aug Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, PBH And Some Comedians, Shaggers

Mon 16th Aug Comedy Manifesto, Magic Faraway Cabaret, The News At Kate, Midnight Hour

Tues 17th Aug - day off!

Weds 18th Aug Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, LLaugh, Midnight Hour

Thurs 19th Aug Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, Political Animal

Fri 20th Aug Leith FM show, Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, BBC Five Live Stephen Nolan show, Midnight Hour

Sat 21st Aug Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, Midnight Hour

Sun 22nd Aug Hung Parliament - The Musical, Comedy Manifesto, Magic Faraway Cabaret, The News At Kate, Shaggers

Mon 23rd Aug Comedy Manifesto, Freakin Awesome Comedy Show, Magic Faraway Cabaret, Then News At Kate, White Horse Pick-Up Gig, Midnight Hour

Tues 24th Aug Funny Women, Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, BBC Five Live Tony Livesey show (three times), Midnight Hour

Weds 25th Aug Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, Midnight Hour

Thurs 26th Aug Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, The F-Show, Midnight Hour

Fri 27th Aug Leith FM show, Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, Midnight Hour

Sat 28th Aug Comedy Manifesto, Magic Faraway Cabaret, Midnight Hour

Sun 29th Aug What A Weird And Wonderful Festival, SPANK!

The News At Kate 2010

2010-08-31T11:12:00.000-07:00

(This post stays at the top of the blog all fest - scroll down for new news!)

This year's Edinburgh Fringe shows are as follows, please come along if you're in town!

The News At Kate 2010. My one-woman solo show. Politics and comedy and feminism and a sock puppet pornographer. Really. 9th - 27th Aug (not 17th) at speakeasy@voodoorooms (venue 68) 8.25pm FREE!

The Comedy Manifesto. Hugely popular political comedy panel show hosted by me. 7th - 28th Aug (not 17th) at The Beehive on Grassmarket 3.45pm FREE!

The Midnight Hour. Late night showcase of talent from around the fest, again hosted by me. 7th - 29th Aug (not Sundays) at The Canon's Gait, Canongate 12midnight FREE!

I'll also be hosting and appearing on lots of other things so keep your eyes peeled (or if you see me - ask!).

Record Breaking Stuff

2010-08-25T10:33:00.000-07:00

Press release that has just gone out (sorry too busy to actually write about this right now, but hopefully makes sense):

Largest ever live audience for a Fringe show – more than 300,000

Comedienne Kate Smurthwaite broke an Edinburgh Fringe record in the early
hours of Wednesday morning by performing to a live audience of more than 300,000!

The 100-plus audience at The Midnight Hour show at the Canon's Gait venue were joined by hundreds of thousands of BBC Radio Five Live listeners around the country and the world as Smurthwaite performed a joke from the stage simultaneously on the microphone and on national radio via her mobile phone.

The Tony Livesey Show attracts a regular audience of three to six hundred listeners. The joke was one of many submitted via text (also breaking the record for the most popular text-in to the programme ever) and was not well particularly well received with a brief cheer and then some groaning and booing and one audience member audibly shouting "awful!".

Smurthwaite is a regular guest on Tony Livesey's late night chat show and had been on the programme earlier in the evening discussing declining standards of politeness and modern etiquette when Livesey challenged her to perform one of his listeners jokes live on air at her late night Edinburgh Fringe show. The gag - chosen by Livesey and his team from thousands of submissions was: "A dating agency for chickens has been forced to close. A spokesman said they couldn't make hens meet!"

Later in the programme an audience member - comedy promoter Paul Haslam from Urban Comedy - joined Livesey on air to provide a review of the show saying "Kate is marvellous. She's just so multi-talented. She can ad lib, she can do gags, she can improvise and of course she's fantastic eye candy". Asked about PBH's Free Fringe in general he added "Down here in Edinburgh, at the Fringe, for free I have seen guys who are every bit as good as the comedians who have their own Saturday night BBC shows."

Speaking about the incident Smurthwaite said “It was really exciting to be actually performing to such an enormous audience, knowing we were breaking a record. It’s just a shame they didn’t send me a better joke – I would rather have been performing my own material!”

Additional info: Kate Smurthwaite’s Edinburgh show is called The News At Kate 2010 and is an hour of political satire and humorous tales of political activism. It’s on daily until Friday at speakeasy@voodoorooms at 8.25pm. She also appears in political panel show The Comedy Manifesto (3.45pm to Saturday at The Beehive and late night show The Midnight Hour (midnight to Saturday at Canon's Gait). All shows are part of the award-winning PBH's Free Fringe, the organisation founded by Fringe veteran and Edinburgh Comedy award winner Peter Buckley Hill which has been bringing free shows to the festival for the last 15 years.

Kate Smurthwaite is a regular guest on many BBC talk shows including the Tony Livesey Show, the Jeremy Vine Show, the Stephen Nolan Show, Women's Hour and the Richard Bacon Show. She is also a political activist and blogger. Her main blog is www.cruellablog.blogspot.com and her festival blog is www.thenewsatkate.blogspot.com.

The Tony Livesey Show is available on BBC Listen Again for the next six days.

Dear All The Journalists At The Fringe...

2010-08-23T05:03:00.000-07:00

So I managed last night to bump in to the (as far as I know) one journalist who has been to my show. And he tells me he was just watching my show for fun and had no intention of reviewing it. Which of course he is quite within his rights to do, and he bought me a beer and offered to ask his colleague to try to find the time to review the show. Lets hope he does - otherwise I am at serious risk of doing a full Edinburgh run of the best show I've ever written and getting no reviews at all. That is seriously depressing.

Furthermore it makes no sense. Reviewers this fringe have been vicious in calling out and criticising a lot of the boring repetitive sexism being pedalled by male acts - so why not come and see a female act who actually talks about feminism? Keith Farnam's "feminist" show has come under fire for having good intentions at heart but ultimately falling back on sexist punchlines to maintain the humour. My show doesn't do that, it doesn't need to, because it's funny about the sexists. The Scotsman has criticised burlesque at the fringe for failing to really break through conventional beauty myths and stereotyped gender roles. My show discusses all this. While being really funny. Finally the panel show The Comedy Manifesto had one review last year: five stars from Broadway Baby and one review his year: five stars from Scotsgay. Don't you think the woman who devised and wrote and hosts that might be worth reviewing herself?

People are bringing me flowers, putting £10 and £20 notes in my collection bucket and writing to the BBC to demand I be put on everything from QI to Question Time so why are journalists overlooking me? I know that begging journalists to come and see my show sets me up for bad press of the "She clearly thinks this is great because she dragged us here but..." but at this stage I do not care. Please someone come and review my show. Please please please. It runs daily 8.25pm at speakeasy@voodoorooms until (including) Friday and if that doesn't work I will gladly come round your flat and perform the whole thing in the doorway to your living room to you and the cockroaches behind your sofa...

Views and Reviews

2010-08-21T14:17:00.000-07:00

Had a great solo show today - packed audience and went really well. Still no sign of a review from the journalist who was in the other day and I'm starting to get paranoid about whether it's going to disappear into the ether. Impossible to tell with a free show whether any other journalists have been, be gutting not to get reviewed at all.

This year the edfringe website has been magically set up so that it's totally impossible for audience members to leave reviews of free shows (which is infuriating) so I skipped over to the chortle website to see if anyone had put any comments up under my name there...

Well one person wrote something nice but then I see someone has slated me at great length for a performance I did at an awards ceremony a few months back for the National Union of Journalists. This was a gig where due to a mix up I found out I was on less than an hour before I was onstage (shower, taxi, panic) so I hadn't had time to prepare anything special. I was ill but decided to attempt to be heroic and go on anyway. The crowd - all regional journalists 90% of whom hadn't won an award - saw me in the middle of the afternoon after dinner and a lot of long boring speeches and weren't allowed dessert or any kind of break before I was on. One group at the front were ignoring me and chatting among themselves throughout regardless of what I said to them. It was never going to go well. And certainly it was the worst reception I've had in several years, an incredibly tough gig which I fought and fought to win round but ultimately just couldn't save (although there was a group of lovely people in who took the time to come and tell me they liked my stuff and apologise for the others). Why is it though when I have one bad gig someone feels the need to publicly lambast me (and not bother to mention any of the extenuating circumstances of course) but when I have night after night of really rocking gigs the reaction is minimal? If you liked my show (or performance at another show you've seen recently) please head over to chortle and write something nice. About ten nice comments would chase the nasty remarks off into obscurity on page 2 of the comments and cheer me up enormously!

Lee Camp and Tobias Persson at Midnight Hour tonight and I'm actually going to go out and have a few beers afterwards for once!

Entering Review Purgatory

2010-08-20T10:24:00.001-07:00

Had a reviewer from Scotsgay in my solo show last night. I was very happy with the show so I'm optimistic. Still now stuck in limbo of checking every ten minutes for the review to appear. Of course journalists are not super-heros, they can't be expected to write reviews in ten seconds but the sooner it's published (if it's good) the sooner it can affect my audience numbers. So catch me now quick before the review comes out and the queuing starts... or not.

Things I Didn't Plan To Do On My Day Off

2010-08-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday was my annual festival day off. I had big plans to go to Leith Waterworld but ended up feeling ill and staying on the sofa all day watching TV and napping. Still better to be ill on that day than a day when I have 3-6 shows to do! Sadly my restful day ended abruptly around 1am when I discovered that my Midnight Hour show, the only one still running without me - with a guest compere - had run into trouble. An act (David Whitney) had had his set ruined by a persistent heckler. This is not all that surprising at a late night show when the audience can be pretty drunk (though often such people get chucked out if they're ruining the show for others). However the act after coming off stage decided to exact revenge by head-butting the guy. The police arrived and Whitney (quite rightly) spent the night in a cell. We won't be re-booking him.

I'm feeling better and will be back at The Midnight Hour tonight where hopefully things will be running a bit more smoothly. Just hoping the press coverage makes it clear that in three years this is the first time there's been a problem at the show and that it happened when I wasn't there.

Festival Meanderings

2010-08-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

Yet to have any reviewers in to see my solo show and I'm not in that much of a stress about it cos really I know the show's good and I'm more bothered about "real" people seeing it. The woman who runs Edinburgh feminist network saw it two days ago and recommended it to the rest of the group. She told me today she's already had two women specifically thank her for the recommendation. Another person who enjoyed it was Jes from the blog Circuitous Meanderings. She writes:

"The evening ended with the hideously underused, under-recognised and generally talented Kate Smurthwaite with her News at Kate in the Voodoo Rooms.

"What I cannot understand is why with comics of the calibre of Kate Smurthwaite and Susan Murray and Helen Keen and all the other funny women around, we are continually subjected to banal, sexist, unoriginal and frequently offensive male comics dominating TV programmes all week long. And without going into the full "I pay my licence fee too" rigmarole, it's undeniable, I and my demographic are completely failed by programme producers who play it safe with the same old faces on every panel game and sketch show."

Thanks Jes, glad you enjoyed the show!

Critical Faculties

2010-08-12T13:55:00.000-07:00

It is mean and horrible as a comic to revel in the bad reviews that others get. And if your show got one star and it said it was under-rehearsed, badly written or poorly delivered I feel for you. We've all been told these things at one time or another and I would urge you to take it as an opportunity to rehearse more, write better and work on your delivery (Maybe take the brilliant stand-up comedy course at City Academy...). And anyway just because one reviewer doesn't like it doesn't mean there aren't people out there who will love it - play to them and enjoy it.

However.

Yes however.

I often feel that there is a lot of comedy out there that is not only unfunny but actually offensive. Not clever-offensive, trying to shock in order to make important valid points or even just a bit crude and rude and childish but just dull out of date stereotyping and general awfulness. Sexism, racism, homophobia, ableism, etc. And it always annoys me when the critics don't pick up on it. So ten out of ten (five stars) to Julia Chamberlain at Chortle and Ian Mitchell at Scotsgay for these two well deserved drubbings (linked to their names). Maybe the future's brighter than we thought...?

On a side note a woman at my show today came up afterwards and thanked me not only for the show but for my protest at Sebastian Horsley's funeral (see my main blog if you don't know the full story). That was cool.

FIVE STARS!!

2010-08-11T09:57:00.000-07:00

Oh yes! My afternoon political panel show The Comedy Manifesto got it's first review of the fringe today from Scotsgay magazine: five stars! Not as surprising as all that - we got five stars last year for the same show from Broadway Baby so we know it's a great show. In case your computer is slow or index finger tired here's what it says:

COMEDY

*****

The Comedy Manifesto

The Beehive

Definitely proves that just because a show is part of PBH’s Free Fringe doesn’t mean it’s rubbish. Nor once you get a good format do you need to change it, for I saw this show last year and went back for more.

The idea is simple, Kate Smurthwaite, a brilliant comedian, hosts two teams each of two comics. Each team is led by the same people each day, Jules Constant and David Mulholland, and there are two guest comics each day. After a witty warm up by Smurthwaite the comics are asked to tell us a bit about themselves. They are then asked a series of questions about things in the news and have to come up with witty and accurate replies. They are then set a challenge, on the day I was there it was to come up with a test of Britishness. The penultimate part of the show is to come up with a new law they would like to see enacted, and finally they are given a chance to sell their main show.

Audience participation is encouraged – the audience can get points as well as the panel – and is helped by the small intimate size of the crowded room.

This really is a superb show.

The Burlesque Debate

2010-08-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

So after I put my little sign up outside the show last night (which worked great by the way), this morning I have an email from one of the burlesque performers saying, well actually I'm not going to go in to what she was saying, but essentially engaging me in debate about burlesque. Initially I replied and she responded suggesting we continue the debate in person. Well honestly I don't see the point.

I've had this debate before. Approximately one million times. In fact some of the many instances of the debate on this are in my show, others are on my main blog. Clearly I'm not going to convince this woman to cancel her show. Clearly she's not going to convince me to cancel mine. If we each hold our views strongly enough to make them our full-time job, what is the point of the debate. If someone wants to hire a venue and sell tickets I'll be happy to have the debate for the benefit of a wider audience. Even this though has already been done many times - on TV and radio, usually featuring me, a few burlesque acts, some "proper" strippers or club managers and some random fundamentalist Christian who keeps shouting "fornication!". It's cracking TV but I'm trying to do three shows a day and I don't really have the energy to recreate it in Starbucks for the benefit of one person whose opinion won't change anyway. In fact all I'd really be doing is giving her a chance to hone her debating skills. After all these years mine are pretty sharp...

Downs and Ups

2010-08-10T14:49:00.000-07:00

So I've done my first two shows now. The first one had a few teething troubles. Some feminists I half know from Edinburgh were coming along and arrived early. They headed in to catch the end of the show before mine which turned out to include burlesque complete with twirling nipple tassels! They weren't very impressed. After their show quite a lot of the audience for the burlesque stayed for my show and gave me evil stares and some mild heckling. Shortly after the show (no doubt by complete co-incidence) my posters in the bar had grown Hitler moustaches. The show was fine but didn't feel zinging like it had in preview. I felt I was rushing a bit, being less playful than I can be.

Today was much better. I put a sign up outside warning my audience that if they came in early the show before mine had some partial nudity in it and no-one came in early. Plus I did more flyering ably assisted by new member of the News At Kate team Amandine who is a young French feminist living in Edinburgh and will be on the Royal Mile now regularly handing out my flyers to interested parties. An older feminist couple (Mouse and Alison - hello) spotted me flyering with Amandine and we had a long chat, when they arrived a the show they'd brought me flowers which put me in a great mood. My friend comedienne Bianca Arlette also came along and a few friendly faces meant the show went great. Afterwards a young Polish guy told me in 5 years coming to the Fringe mine was the best free show he'd ever seen! So feeling much better now. Off to host Midnight Hour as usual tonight.

Late and Great

2010-08-08T18:10:00.000-07:00

Did one of my more unusual (but hugely enjoyable) spots of the festival today. The Magic Faraway Cabaret show, which is an excellent show (though comes with the warning: may contain burlesque just in case that's not something you're comfortable with), has a feature in which a dead celebrity rises from the grave and performs. I was reviving the memory of one of my all-time heros: Joyce Grenfell. For afficianados - I did the First Flight sketch which is one of my favourites.

My solo show opens tomorrow and between now and then as well as the afternoon Comedy Manifesto show I'm going to be personally trained at a place that looks more intensive than I was really expecting. The website is all six-packs and athletes. Hopefully I'll still be able to walk by showtime. Please come if you're in town - 8.25pm speakeasy@voodoorooms (venue 68). It's free, collection after the show, pay what you think it's worth! Arrive in good time for the best seats.

Radio Daze

2010-08-06T15:59:00.000-07:00

So I've done three radio shows since I've been in Edinburgh. Firstly I was on Talk Sport last night talking about Lily Allen's pregnancy. Now I don't quite understand how on hearing a woman who wants to be pregnant is pregnant you could be anything but delighted. But of course there was someone who'd been rounded up to argue with me. It was Stephen Green from fundamentalist Christian group Christian Voice. Of course he's disgusted that an unmarried woman is pregnant. But I had the chance to push him on a couple of other subjects - homosexuality for one and his group's desire to legalise marital rape for another. Fun times.

This morning I was on BBC Ulster talking about Gary Neville getting his £150,000 car towed after he put petrol in a diesel! We were just generally talking about "Doh!"moments. The flat I'm in up here has a bathroom light switch outside the bathroom and then a shower on-switch cord just inside the door and I'm proud to say I have yet to turn the shower on while nipping for a midnight pee! So far so good. First shows tomorrow - thought my solo doesn't open til Monday so I'm still fairly chilled.

And then this afternoon I was hosting my own show (with Ian Schofield) on LeithFM. And it was a lot of fun. I'm on air at Leith every Friday 2pm to 3pm, please tune in if you're in the area!

Other shows inspired by me...

2010-08-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

The preview edition of ThreeWeeks contains an interview with the comedian Eric, who is a good friend of mine and a regular panellist at my Comedy Manifesto in London. In it he credits me (at length) for coming up with the idea behind his new show Eric's Laws of the Land, which thinking about it, in absolute fairness, I rather did... You can read the full interview here.

End Of.

2009-09-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

Well I've been back a couple of weeks now - had the obligatory post-festival health breakdown. I think a lot of people are effectively running on empty as the festival draws to a close and once it's over there are a lot of duvet days for the taking. I wanted to do a quick wrap-up post though which will be the last one on this blog (maybe until next year/next festival but no promises) so if you want to stay up to date from here on head over to my main blog Cruella-blog.

But to recap the festival:

Best bit - young a woman in my audience (and not one who'd come to see me specially, one who had seen the show before mine and decided to hang around) who appeared to be texting during my closing section but when questioned turned out to be signing up to the Object mailing list in reaction to stuff I'd been talking about. Yeah!

Worst bit - nasty people from The Fix magazine coming on my blog to attack me for daring to point at the Emperor's New Clothes and say "How exactly is racism and sexism alternative?"

Here's the full list of shows I did:

Fri 7th Aug Leith Talk on LeithFM, Anthologies
Sat 8th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, Some Comedy (In A Cave), The News At Kate, The Stephen Nolan Show on BBC Five Live, The Midnight Hour
Sun 9th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, Laughing Horse Best of the Fest, The News At Kate, Shaggers
Mon 10th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, Anthologies, Laughing Horse Best of the Fest, The News At Kate, The Midnight Hour
Tues 11th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, Anthologies, The News At Kate, The Midnight Hour
Weds 12th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, Peter Buckley-Hill And Some Comedians, The Midnight Hour
Thurs 13th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, The News At Ten(ish), The Midnight Hour
Fri 14th Aug Leith Talk on LeithFM, The Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, The Midnight Hour
Sat 15th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, The Midnight Hour
Sun 16th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, PBH And Some Comedians, Shaggers
Mon 17th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, The Midnight Hour
Tues 18th Aug - MY DAY OFF!
Weds 19th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, Laughing Horse Best of the Fest, The News At Kate, The News At Ten(ish), The Midnight Hour
Thurs 20th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, Laughing Horse Best of the Fest, The News At Kate, PBH And Some Comedians, The Midnight Hour
Fri 21st Aug Leith Talk on LeithFM, The Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, 99 Club Prince's Street, The Midnight Hour
Sat 22nd Aug The Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, The Midnight Hour
Sun 23rd Aug The Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, Spank!
Mon 24th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, The News At Ten(ish), The Midnight Hour
Tues 25th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, The Midnight Hour
Weds 26th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, Some Comedy (In A Cave), The News At Kate, 99 Club Princes Street, The Midnight Hour
Thurs 27th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, The Midnight Hour
Fri 28th Aug Leith Talk on LeithFM, The Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, The Midnight Hour
Sat 29th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, What A Weird And Wonderful Festival, The Midnight Hour

That's 85 shows in 22 days. No wonder I needed a lie-down. Thanks very much to everyone who came and contributed and bought me a beer or put up with me talking bollocks after I'd drunk too many beers. I had a really good festival.

The Vital Edinburgh Info

2009-08-31T16:12:00.000-07:00

How to see my shows in Edinburgh:

The New At Kate is on daily 8th-28th Aug (not 18th) at 8.25pm at The Voodoo Rooms on West Register Street. That's my solo show.

I also host The Comedy Manifesto - a political panel show - at 4pm at The Beehive on Grassmarket again 8th-28th Aug and The Midnight Hour - a general late night show with different acts every night at Canon's Gait. That's every day except Sundays throughout the festival.

Better still all these shows are free. No need to book, just show up and grab a seat.

And I'll be making lots of guest appearances elsewhere too. Hope to see you on the way round.

Festival Activism

2009-08-27T11:26:00.001-07:00

So after my fury at The Fix magazine's unprogressive selection of the "top 50" shows to see at the fringe, I decided to do something positive so I wrote a one-page (A5) leaflet which on one side criticised the homogenity of the list they had published and on the other offered some recomendations for show I felt they should have included. Those shows were Bethany Black, Chris McCausland, Nathan Caton, Pippa Evans, Paul Sinha and Susan Calman. And of course I plugged my show too. Then I printed about 1,000 and set about distributing them. And brilliantly some young feminists in the area offered to help me so they are now all over town, including I hear in the hands of a number of comedy journalists. So hopefully word will get back to The Fix and next time around they'll have a little look before publishing such a list!

So Who Will Win The Straight White Able-Bodied Cissexual Male Comedian of the Year Award?

2009-08-26T06:42:00.001-07:00

And who cares? Nominations include Tim Key's charmingly named show "Slutcracker" and Pete Johansson who has onstage mimed raping an unconscious woman and then said "rape is funny". Really - go to 2.34m on this clip. If that's what you get prizes for - I don't want one.

And Another Thing

2009-08-25T07:16:00.000-07:00

Carrying on from where I left off last night.

Riot Act

2009-08-24T20:38:00.001-07:00

This story was just too important to publish on my Fringe blog - so I put it on the main one. Get in touch if you fancy a riot!!

No Sex Please

2009-08-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

By the way I'm now NOT compering Shaggers tonight. I've been asked to do a spot at Spank! - another late night crowded notorious show and so I'm going to do that as I've only done it once before and it'll expose me to a different crowd, etc.

Just for a laugh...

2009-08-23T11:44:00.000-07:00

...and not for the easily offended or religious (often heavily overlapping groups in my experience). Sometimes there is real rubbish at the Edinburgh festival and this review of a piece which I admittedly have not seen had me in stitches!

Five Star Review!

2009-08-22T06:22:00.001-07:00

For The Comedy Manifesto on Broadway Baby. Yeah!

Some Real Political News From The Fest

2009-08-22T06:22:00.000-07:00

I'm just back from the Fringe Society AGM where I was elected to the board. Yeah! The Fringe Society runs lots of aspects of the Fringe including the box office, the brochures, international advertising and lots of services for performers. I hope to use my influence where I can to make it easier for performers (new and experienced) coming to the Fringe to do so without losing small fortunes and to encourage the Fringe to give more back to local people and causes.

If you have opinions or ideas about how the Fringe can be improved or what we should be doing - please get in touch, I would love to hear from you.

Great Review From The Spectator

2009-08-22T06:00:00.001-07:00

"The hilarious and strikingly beautiful Kate Smurthwaite, a powerhouse of observational wit". Don't think you will get away with handling one of my flyers next year without this flashing at you in fluorescent lettering!

Quick Link

2009-08-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

Caroline Castiglia mentioned me in her Edinburgh blog. You can read the piece and her other stuff here.

Sex and the Stand-Up Girl

2009-08-17T09:36:00.000-07:00

Shaggers is a bit of an Edinburgh institution. Actually it's a bit of an institution at comedy festivals around the world. It's a late night show where a usually pretty drunk audience comes to hear comedians perform material exclusively about sex. The line-up is different every night and often includes some well-known names. It's always rude and outrageous and years ago when I first did a spot there I don't mind admitting I did feel a bit intimidated. But then I also thought I really wanted there to be women getting up and talking about sex, not just all guys, so I pushed on and over the years I've become a regular on their bills.

Well last Sunday I in fact became the first (and so far only) woman ever to headline Shaggers. And then last night I also became the first woman ever to MC Shaggers. Amazing that at my school careers day no-one ever suggested that sleeping around and amassing colourful bawdy tales of disastrous drunken trysts would wind up being a career move. But here I am. And I'm back again MCing the show next Sunday too so do come along if it sounds like your thing.

Edinburgh Lingo

2009-08-17T09:34:00.000-07:00

I had a piece published on Edinburgh Is Funny (which is what London Is Funny is called in August), and you can read it here.

An Hour Off

2009-08-15T15:21:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a busy festival so far. Thought I'd do a quick tally-off of shows I've performed in (radio shows are in italics)...

Fri 7th Aug Leith Talk on LeithFM, Anthologies

Sat 8th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, Some Comedy (In A Cave), The News At Kate, The Stephen Nolan Show on BBC Five Live, The Midnight Hour

Sun 9th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, Laughing Horse Compilation Show (Espionage), The News At Kate, Shaggers

Mon 10th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, Anthologies, Laughing Horse Compilation Show at The Hive, The News At Kate, The Midnight Hour

Tues 11th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, Anthologies, The News At Kate, The Midnight Hour

Weds 12th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, Peter Buckley-Hill And Some Comedians, The Midnight Hour

Thurs 13th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, Gill Smith's Show at The Newsroom, The Midnight Hour

Fri 14th Aug Leith Talk on LeithFM, The Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate, The Midnight Hour

Say 15th Aug The Comedy Manifesto, The News At Kate (and on my way to The Midnight Hour).

That's 35 shows in just over a week. No wonder I'm shattered. So I was quietly relieved today when I was supposed to do a one-off extra version of my show out in Leith for the benefit of local people, to try to bring the festival to a wider audience. Well it turned out that the the people of Leith couldn't give a toss about such things. At the time I was due to start my audience was two people - Doug and Barbara - a couple from Boston (Massachusetts, not Lincolnshire). So I decided rather than running to two people that I would taxi them into town to see the later run of my show and they offered in return to take me for dinner before my show started. We went to the best restaurant in town - Creelers - and I had a huge tray of langoustines in garlic butter. Mmmm. Just the recharge I needed - thanks very much!

And as for the Leith-ites, more fool you, my evening show was packed and we all had a great time...

That picture in full...

2009-08-12T10:31:00.001-07:00

That would be eighty - yes eighty - female comics. And if you have very good eyesight you may be able to spot me - I am in black and hanging round the central pillar on the left. To the right of me (the other side of the pillar, with her hand pointing over her head) is Hannah George - who was on at the last Abortion Rights fundraiser we had and was recently the first person in the UK to graduate with a degree in stand-up comedy. To the left in a white top and blond hair, my good friend Rachel Anderson who is actually pointing at me to help you spot me!

First Review

2009-08-12T09:49:00.001-07:00

ThreeWeeks were apparently in at some point (I don't know when) and the review they've written is really fantastic, positively raving. It annoyed me a little though because they've done that thing of giving away punchlines - one less important but one that is built up to at great length and it quite central to the "story" of the show. Please don't do that reviewers, it's really annoying. Anyway so if you want to come to the show please don't go to the review site - I have reproduced the review in full here but asterisked out the two "spoilers".

The News at Kate, PBH's Free Fringe/ Kate Smurthwaite
Comedy that cuts through the crap. The News at Kate is a topical show that presents news events, politics and a few celebrity stories, inviting us to see beyond the propaganda and laugh at what is left. Highlighting the ludicrous truths about our democracy, charming and opinionated Kate Smurthwaite ******************************************. Other targets include the BNP, Jeremy Clarkson, and the Christian Party, who, Kate reveals, *******************. Smurthwaite's political conscience and her light-hearted approach make the show really enjoyable, and an effective platform for transmitting her manifesto of progression and common sense. (three stars).

But Really Though - Are Women Funny?

2009-08-12T05:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I joined a 79 other female comics for one big photoshoot to hopefully put paid once and for all to the whole "Why don't women do comedy?" and "Why aren't women funny?" line of uninvestigative lazy journalism. It was a lot of fun.

First Interview of the Year

2009-08-11T11:17:00.001-07:00

I had a chat with Carrie at Broadway World. You can have a look here.

A Fairytale of Edinburgh

2009-08-10T10:12:00.000-07:00

Last night I was sat waiting to start my show when something wonderful happened... There were only nine audience members in with about one minute to show time and I was preparing myself for the possibility that it might be an intimate one. As usual before the show I was chatting to the people who were already there. My stage has a carpet on in which appears to be black with silvery flecks but actually the flecks are glitter which has been dropped by the burlesque show that uses the venue the rest of the year. We were discussing this and I was rubbing the carpet to show that when you did so the glitter jumped off the carpet and rearranged itself. As I did this I joked to the audience that I hoped there was a coach party on their way but that otherwise we would be starting in half a minute.

Then in walked four people. Then another two, then six, then three more clearly all part of one group. I told the original nine that clearly the coach party had arrived and we laughed. But they kept coming. I had to get get up and start finding extra chairs. In the end this group of fifty American students - some of whom had seen me the night before at my midnight show and had decided to bring their friends - took up so much room that I had to ask the original nine to move along and make room.

As I turned to do so I realised something amazing had happened. The original nine had seen me rubbing the glittery carpet and wishing for a coach party to arrive. They had then seen a coach party arrive and now firmly believed this was a magic wish-granting carpet. They were actually rubbing it themselves and wishing for thing they wanted themselves.

So come to my show and rub the magic carpet and make your own wish - maybe it'll come true!

Day One, Show One

2009-08-08T14:24:00.000-07:00

Well before I got to my own solo show of course I had the comedy manifesto to run. We weren't rammed but we were pretty full, most seats taken (last year we ended up turning 30 away some days, but we were fuller today than we were on day one last year so hopefully set for a good run in that sense). I remembered from last year having real trouble getting the panelists to shut up and keep the show down to an hour. So I went in hard on them and didn't allow too much messing about and of course we ended up under-running. Not that that it's a problem to fill an extra fifteen minutes when you've got five comedians onstage but must remember tomorrow to be nicer to them and let them run about more, etc.

Then I ran over and did a little guest spot at "Comedy In A Cave" -(4.45pm, Rowan Caves 1, free) with guest acts run by the very funny Gareth Morinan. That was a lot of fun though quite weird largely because (a) it's a real cave - complete with dripping ceiling and muddy floor which annoyingly got all over my jeans from the mic cord and (b) the front row was fully comprised of young children (some maybe as young as 10...). Eventually I put the mic in the stand to keep it away from me and told the children if the venue became a nuclear bunker (it did look like one) that we would eat them first to stay alive. Then I got on with my actually quite clean set deliberately using lots of bad language because whatever grown-ups might say kids know it IS cool to swear.

Finally my show. This initially freaked me out a bit. We have had the debate about whether burlesque and stripping are the same thing, we could argue it all day. And I had been warned (admittedly long after I had accepted the space and filled in my brochure entry) that the venue usually hosts burlesque. I had however been reassured that it was all very tasteful and definitely didn't have a reputation as a seedy place. Certainly the interior is beautifully decorated and appears all new. What no-one had thought to mention was that outside there was a massive poster of a naked female silhouette waving some feathers and two huge and unfriendly bouncers making it seem like the sort of place Spearmint Rhino would decline to run as "not classy enough". Sure enough as soon as I started flyering outside I was asked how much I took off. Argh. So I went elsewhere. So I now have a venue I can't actually flyer outside... Head-wall-head-wall-head-wall-...

My efforts are further hindered by the fact that the colour contrast on my flyers is way too strong - too much red in the mix so it makes me look like I have a terrible red all-over facial rash of some sort which could well be a symptom of swine flu. Or plague.

In spite of this somehow about 20-25 brave and lovely souls somehow heard about the show and managed to fight their way past the bouncers to get in and watch the show. And the show itself I was really happy with, just got to find a way of getting audience in without feathers. And indeed getting in the kind of audience who don't really want feathers.

Off shortly to do the midnight show and I have heard a rumour David has convinced Alan Francis and Luke Toulson to do spots for us. If so it'll definitely be a great night.

One Day To Go

2009-08-07T16:04:00.000-07:00

So the show(s) open tomorrow. Still nowhere near having read and picked apart the complete works of Jeremy Clarkson and also not got a CD copy of the bizarre 80s track I want to play at the end but otherwise just super-excited to finally be starting.

A lot of shows started today so I felt a bit left out. Well I would have done but I got to do a BBC Wales interview at 8.20 this morning about all the topical comedy at the festival. True there is a lot this year but about half of it is from me so not so much a question of why has the comedy circuit shfted this way as why are you doing this. Then I had a nap until 2pm when I went over to co-host the afternoon show on LeithFM. Among the guests my good old friend Jake Yapp and his yukelele and a cool new band I'd not heard before called Mayhew. All available to see for free if you know where to go or how to use Google.

Then finally I did a spot at Andrew J Lederers storytelling show Anthologies which was really fun. I told the story of how I wrote the end of my show, which is actually also the end of my show. The only downside was that I didn't have any flyers (still not printed) so all the kind people who asked me for one afterwards will have to rely on memory to find my show.

Welcome

2009-07-25T08:28:00.001-07:00

This is a little extra blog I've set up to provide info about my Edinburgh 2009 show The News At Kate.

There are two previews left now - on Wednesday I shall be doing some highlights from the show at Duke's Headliners at the Duke's Head in Putney, then on Saturday 1st Aug I will be doing a full preview at Soho Comedy Club. Info here: www.sohocomedy.com.

And then we open in Edinburgh on 8th Aug at The Voodoo Rooms.