Jazz Vocalist
(As written for Huffington Post UK)
In 1981, the Chariots Of Fire screenwriter Colin Welland held aloft his Best Original Screenplay Oscar and famously declared: “The British are coming!”
As we all know, he was sadly mistaken.
But call it belief, call it over-excitement, call it both dumb and blind optimism: I am rather sharing Mr Welland’s view right now after the year 2011 has been. Not for Brits in movies, that is – but for women in comedy.
January 9, 2012
As surely as the modern Christmas pop canon contains Driving Home For Christmas, Stop The Cavalry and a drunk couple arguing in a bar – or as it’s also known: Fairytale of New York – so too is there a canon of pop songs, albeit a far smaller one, celebrating the arrival of a new year.
There’s Happy New Year by ABBA. There’s 1999 by Prince – which, amazingly, has lasted beyond its initial ‘Best Before 2000′ date, but which is also only acceptable to sing along to if the year in question scans correctly (for this reason, please ensure that you plump for “Two thousand and twelve!” and not “Twenty twelve!”, when singing along to it this new year’s eve. Otherwise, chaos – or at least mild embarrassment – will ensue).
And there’s The Perfect Year, the 1993 hit by Dina Carroll.
I’m not ashamed to say that I rather like this pop ballad. Indeed, I’m so unashamed that I’ve decided to devote this blog post to it.
December 29, 2011
What a difference a year makes, as the old jazz standard goes.
In November 2010, I decided to try and make a go of it as a comedy writer. I wrote my first parody song (one about the American midterm elections, to the tune of ‘Stuck In The Middle With You’ – some things just write themselves) and submitted it to Newsrevue – and much to my delight and excitement, they used it in the show.
But it wouldn’t have really mattered too much to me if they hadn’t – because I knew that what was important was merely the step of going for it, to use modern parlance. And there has followed a year of going for it – writing every day (around gigs and my freelance day job), learning how to craft jokes, learning how to write sketches, picking comedy writers’ brains, trying to improve, submitting and submitting and submitting and not being disheartened when it didn’t always lead to my work being used and being used and being used, going to the London Comedy Writers’ Festival, saying ‘yes’ to every opportunity that came my way even if it was a bit scary, changing my Twitter bio to read ‘comedy writer’, and – most importantly – quieting the small, self-doubting voice inside me whenever it popped up to say I couldn’t do this, or wasn’t entitled to it.
November 8, 2011