Cat Sitting in the Panopticon / Trust Us, We Are Doctors! / Next Level Sketch’s busy spring
Hello everyone! Big exciting news here in James-land: I have belatedly realised wireless keyboards for tablets exist, and now I can write newsletters approximately fifteen times faster than I could before. Will this lead to a fifteen-fold increase in quality? Only time will tell.
This week I am cat-sitting (want me to sit on YOUR cat? Get in touch!) for a friend who is a developer. You can tell he is a developer as his home working set-up features no less than FIVE screens. Presumably so he can work and watch four different Star Trek spin-offs at the same time.
This isn’t a sick burn. I’d do the same if I had the appropriate number of eyes.
As with the belated Wi-Fi keyboard realisation, I increasingly feel a neo-Luddite in a slightly banal, Back To The Future 2 style techno-present. This house has five - FIVE - Alexas, which welcome you home when you’re heading out, nag you to feed the cats when really they don’t need any more food, and tell you to get out of bed (I was going to anyway, synthetic overlord!).
The curtains open automatically at exactly 9am, and a robot cleaner gets itself stuck underneath a bench at exactly 11:05. There are more cameras than I’m used to, but these are nice people and I’m pretty sure most of them are directed at the cat flap, rather than the toilet.
The cats are lovely, assuming they’re not holograms.
Away from rambling musings on surveillance capitalism, I have a couple of shows to promote to you.
Trust Us, We Are Doctors!
Trust Us, We Are Doctors! | The Bill Murray Comedy
Trust Us, We Are Doctors! on 12th April, 2023 at 6:30pm at The Bill Murray. Hosted by Angel Comedy Club London.
Heard the one about the doctors who also do stand-up comedy? The fabulous Stefania Licari has managed to get FOUR OF THEM (including HERSELF) in the same place at the same time - no mean feat - for your erudition and comic pleasure. I’m super excited for this show - it’s a brilliant line-up.
Themed nights have really taken off in London over the past couple of years, and there are so many medical professionals who also dabble in “being funny” that I’m hopeful that TUWAD will become a regular fixture. Please: come along!
This is the first show I’m involved in promoting / producing that I am not performing in. Does this mean I’ll do more of this in future? I hope so!
Next Level Sketch returns on April 26th!
After a slow start to the year NLS wise, we have a ton of shows coming up in the spring. Click below for all our Hoopla Impro dates - we’re also going to be performing in Bristol in May.
Our next show features the excellent ELF LYONS as headliner, as well as sketch comedy stylings from Beige Door and musical comedy from Su Mi. Please come along, I’ll buy you a drink.
Next Level Sketch - April! Tickets, Wed 26 Apr 2023 at 20:00 | Eventbrite
Live comedy featuring brand new sketches from Next Level Sketch and hilarious guest acts from the cream of today’s alternative comedy scene!
That’s it for this week! As hinted at in the last newsletter, I have a couple of projects that are somewhere between the brain and actually happening stage. More details when they arrive!
J x
