My first feature film as a director is finally moving forward!

It’s called Court of Fools and is a dark comedy-drama about jesters below stairs at a medieval court – imagine backstage at the Comedy Store in the 1500s. The script’s in place, we’ve got Stephen Murphy (Line of Duty/Vera/The Favorite) attached as DoP and Ollie Tiong (Postcards from London/Norfolk/Adult Life Skills) as Production Designer, and the brilliant producer Kate Turner, (who’s just finished shooting her first feature, Summer in the Shade) is now part of the team too! There are also a number of financiers keen to get involved and we’re currently assembling a cast of comedians and actors, so watch this space for updates. There should be more news soon.

Shed of the Dead, the film I recently starred in alongside BAFTA winner Lauren Socha (Misfits/Catastrophie), Ewan McIntosh (The Office) and horror icons Kane Hodder (Friday 13th / Hatchet), Bill Moseley (House of 1000 corpses / The Devil’s Rejects) and Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes / One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest) is finally GETTING FINISHED!

There have been a few behind the scenes issues slowing things down, but they’ve all been sorted, so the film should be done by the end of the year.

Keep your eyes out for it on a cinema screen early next year.  As you can see from the photo, there may be some blood.

Not another post. I know I should slow down with my updates, but when it comes to self-promotion I’m simply insatiable.

So what have I been up to since last we spoke? Well, I pretty much took a year off stand-up to focus on getting my directing career going. Pretty successful – did the EIFF talent lab, directed my first ad, and now I have 4 feature scripts ready to go, so I’m aiming to shoot something this year. Watch this space – I’ll no doubt let you know 6 months after it’s been released.

In the meantime, I’m back on stage again, so you can come and see me live if you’ve got nothing better to do, which you clearly haven’t because it’ll be excellent. The dates are on the live section tab now.

God, I just realized I didn’t even post here when The Boy with a Camera for a Face went up on Vimeo and got staff picked. What is wrong with me? I should probably put up a link to that too. Here it is: https://vimeo.com/151493973

Well, that’s it for another few weeks/months/years. You should really follow me on twitter – I’m better at that – there’s usually a bi-monthly tweet.

Happy 4 months later!

A quick post to let you know I’m going to be playing the lead in a new comedy horror film called Shed of the Dead. The poster’s above (my name’s not on it, but it’s an old one alright?). There’s a nice preview on it from a while ago in Starburst magazine about some of the horror icons that are going to be in it as well – here’s a link. They’re pitching it as Shaun of the Dead turned up to 11, which given the script sounds pretty accurate. We’re shooting Sept/October, so hopefully it’ll be released sometime next year. I think it’s going to be really funny.

In other news, I’ve just finished the screenplay for a new feature film, so hopefully that should be moving forward quite soon. It’s a drama – everything’s getting a bit serious in my old age. I’ll give you more news as I have it.

Alternatively, if you don’t care about any of these things and just want to see my face being used in some form of advertising, you can check out the new campaign I did for Pilgrim’s Choice here.

If you’re wondering why there are no stand-up dates on the site at the moment, it’s because I’ve been busy rehearsing for/previewing a new play that I’m in. You should come and see it.

The play’s called Stand and is at the Battersea Arts Centre for three weeks from Monday 20th April to Saturday the 9th of May at 7.30pm. There are a few days without shows, so probably best to get more details from the BAC website: https://www.bac.org.uk/content/35466/see_whats_on/whats_on/shows/stand

We’re also doing dates at Bristol Mayfest the following week and there are dates in Ipswich, Edinburgh and Glasgow at the start of June – check out http://chrisgoodeandcompany.co.uk/shows/stand/ for details.

The play is the work of the excellent writer/director Chris Goode (although it’s a verbatim piece so structurer/director might be better). It’s about political activism and, apart from my contributions, is excellent.

There should be a lot of press on it in the next few weeks. If I get my finger out, I’ll try to blow the dust off my oft neglected twitter feed and put up some links.

It also looks like I’m going to be playing the lead in a new feature film soon too – more info over the next few weeks when the contracts are done and dusted. In related news, the first feature I starred in The Devil went down to Islington should be seeing the light of day later this year so fingers crossed I’ll be appearing on a cinema screen by the end of the year.

If all goes to plan there will also be a few short films I’m directing done by the end of the year too. All will probably not go to plan.

spencer

I wrote this article for Chortle. Ironically, it won their correspondent’s prize – it’s about why everything’s going wrong for comedy criticism. Let me know if you like it, and maybe I’ll write some more stuff like this!

http://www.chortle.co.uk/correspondents/2014/09/29/21022/comedy_criticism%3A_where_did_it_all_go_wrong

Back to doing the second draft of my screenplay!

Following the Channel 4 screening last week, you have 19 days left to watch my film on 4od.  You’d be a fool not to – it’s excellent.  Here’s a link:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-shooting-gallery/4od#3731878

Meanwhile, I’m up at the Edinburgh festival doing my new stand-up show.  It’s the best one I’ve ever done.  You should come.

After an absence of 8 years, I’m returning to the Edinburgh festival with a brand new stand up show.  It’s not a “best of”, so unless you’ve watched me over the last 4 months you won’t have seen any of it before.  Exciting huh?

It’s different to my old stuff.  Over the last 6 months or so, I’ve been undergoing a bit of a reinvention.   I’m really proud of all my old stand-up – the album, the specials and the 1000s of shows I’ve done, but I feel it has sort of run its course.  My aim was always to be as fake as possible on stage to highlight the contrivance of the act of stand-up (What? And I didn’t break the mainstream with that!!!?!).  I was trying to walk a fine line between being funny and being a guy who thought he was funny, which I think is pretty funny.   Of course, with the harsh realites of the stand-up circuit edges get knocked off, and maybe its not so clear to the world what you’re trying to do and people make comments like – he’s good and everything, but it’s like he thinks he’s really funny.  Which maybe should have put me off doing it.   But it was pretty funny.

Anyway – I’ve started again – and now I’m onstage just as me.  Interestingly,  I’ve found this “me” bears a pretty striking resemblance to the persona I was previously adopting – same voice, face, many similar mannerisms.  But the nice thing is I can let go now and not worry about an “aesthetic” and just go all out to make people laugh.   Anyway – why don’t you come along and see if you still like it?   I’m really proud of the new show.  I think it’s meaningful and funny and occasionally a little bit emotional.   Hope you can make it.   Don’t worry – I do still make stupid faces.   And now I do them with a beard.

You’re probably wondering if my short film I made two years ago ever happened.  It did, and you can see it on Channel 4 next Monday July 21st at 12 midnight.

Apologies for not being up to date with news – I’ve been busy trying to make stuff and absolutely didn’t lose the password to this website or anything as ridiculous as that.   The film has been going really well and won quite a few awards – the Melies D’argent at its premiere at Razor Reel in Bruges, Best Short at Misfits Film Festival, and the Oscar qualifying Best of Fest at St Louis International Film Festival.  We’ve also been selected for festivals around the world including short shorts in Japan, which is pretty cool.  If you want to get a taste of the film – here’s a link to a work-in-progress trailer.  It’s got me doing the voice over – the proper one has Steven Berkoff – but this will hopefully wet your appetite for Monday:

http://vimeo.com/55555216

The good news is I’ve also got a production company for my feature Shut Eye, which we’re hoping to shoot next summer.   That’s what I’ve been doing for a year and a half I guess – I wrote that – finished making this.  Oh, and I’ve written a  new stand-up show.  More of that to follow .

There: 21 months done in a single post.  Why do people bother doing these regularly?

Just to let you know my new short film, The Boy With A Camera For a Face, now has shooting dates!  It’s a 10 minute comedy about a boy that is born with a camera for a head, and shows his full life story from awkward child to reality TV star.  It’s based on a poem I’ve done on stage a few times, so you may know even more!   We’ve got a great team on board – Chris Moon is DP (here’s his vimeo channel) and Ollie Tiong (from The Devil Went Down to Islington/Tower Block) is the Art Director.  It’s shooting 3^rd-7^th November, and we’re currently getting the rest of our crew together, so if you are or know a film professional who would like to get involved send your cv to cameraboy@spencerbrown.net and we’ll make sure someone has a look at it.  If you just want to watch it, hopefully there should be a trailer/news on screenings later in the year.