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Trampery at the Gantry
On Thursday I set off for what would be the CLOSEST gig to my house for over TWO DECADES, for LO! I was booked to play at The Trampery On The Gantry which is on the other side of our bit of the Olympic Park from us. I think it took us a couple of minutes longer to get there than it used to when I'd walk from my flat in Leicester to The Pump & Tap, but it wasn't far off!

The gig had been suggested to me by the marvelous Mr G Gargan - long-time PAL, all round good-guy and joint supremo of Damnably. To be honest our main motivation for going was to have a good old NOSEY ROUND and George very kindly obliged by showing us round his Proper Record Company Office what he has there. COR! It was super-impressive - I have known George for MILLENIA, even unto the aforementioned gigs at The Pump & Tap, so it was utterly wonderful to bear witness to how far he's come. He's one of those rare people who has actually managed to make a living out of ROCK! Well done George!

The gig itself was taking place on a balcony on a corner of the Gantry (which is on the same massive block where the new V&A East Storehouse is) so we had an AMAZING view out across the park, with the Velodrome looming out of the trees like a contentedly crashed UFO. The event was run by the Trampery people so there was free BEER and also SNACKS as well, and the vibe was delightful.

The Gantry is meant to be a place for ARISTS and ARTISTIC-TYPE VENTURES, so lots of different residents had suggested acts they knew, which meant that the whole tbing was like a posher version of those old gigs I used to do at The Bull & Gate, where there was a random selection of completely different things going on. In this case there was someone singing gentle reggae songs with a backing tape, a chap doing his own songs with a guitar, someone else playing a couple of cover versions, a jazz-funk trio, and ME! It was really good fun!

The whole thing was compered by Simon Stanley Ward who did a genuinely GRATE job. When I arrived he said "As is usual, this is all running a bit late" but then he ran the whole thing amazingly, with a literal TWO MINUTE (MAX!) changeover between acts, and some optional EGG SHAKER when he felt those onstage needed it. It was lovely!

Anyway, when it came to be my turn to play I done THIS:

The Peterborough All-Saints Wide Game Team (group B)

Bad Back

The Perfect Love Song

20 Things To Do Before You're 30

It Only Works Because You're here

It was a very old-fashioned NORMAL set, which I'd decided to do a) so I didn't have to worry about doing NEW or unfamiliar things and b) because I had used my Skill And Judgement beforehand to work out what was likely to go down all right. My Skill And Judgement turned out to be CORRECT for once too, as it was a really good fun gig with LARFS and the delighted faces of people who had never seen me before and thus got involved with the stories. I liked it!

All the way through I had noticed someone scribbling what I thought were NOTES, but this turned out to be the Resident Artist of (I think) The Gantry, who presented me with the results of her sketching THUS:



Good eh? I've not been able to find the name of the artist online, so if anyone knows please tell me!

Afterwards there was some lurking around, chatting to various people, saying of Thank You For Having Me, and snaffling FREE BEER before it was time to pack up and stagger across the park and home again ready for the VERY EXCITING England match on the telly. It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon/early evening - more gigs near my house please!

posted 17/7/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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You'll Believe A Man Can Be Nice
On Tuesday night I went to see SUPERMAN with my pal Mr S Carter. Executive Summary: it was GRATE!

To be honest I was pretty sure it was going to be - I AM a bit worried about whether "Fantastic Four" is going to be any cop, but for this one I felt pretty safe. I'd seen the trailers, read loads of the source material, enjoyed all of Mr Gunn's previous superhero movies, and OF COURSE been reassured by eminent academics in ESQUIRE magazine hem hem.

One of the many ACE things about it was that pretty much the entire main trailer for it (with Krypto in the snow) was the first couple of minutes of the movie, so after that there was TONNES of new stuff I wasn't expecting as it piled on LOADS of FUN THINGS. Even to one such as I, who is USED to the fast pace of this kind of storytelling, it did feel like there was a LOT going on, but then that is kind of the point. In Olde Tyme Filmes you would have to keep stopping every ten minutes to explain someone's origin or Tragic Past, but now we're so USED to superhero movies that they can just go "This person is THAT sort of character" and we can take it from there.

GENRE EXPECTATIONS is what I'm talking about, and this movie deals with them perfectly. There are so many examples of dull superhero films where they go "AH! We will DEFY your expectations of what a superhero movie is by making it GLUM and BORING and full of GITS" that nowadays a superhero movie that embraces the DAFTNESS of the original genre and shows is superheroes who are ACTUALLY GOODIES is - as it says in the film (NOT A SPOILER) - "the real punk rock."

And crumbs but this film is SILLY and also full of LOVELY characters. Superman is SO LOVELY that when the film ended EVERYBODY carried their rubbish out with them to be collected by staff, because a) they'd asked us to at the start and b) after watching Superman be SO SUPER we would all have felt guilty if we hadn't. Also, Rachel Brosnahan is FABBO as Lois Lane - I mean, it was pretty certain to me that she was going to be, but then I have watched all of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel with her in it so it was obvious (NB if you have not watched The Marvelous Mrs Maisel I would HIGHLY recommend it).

A criticism I have read of the film is that there are too many characters in it who don't get a chance to really do anything, but as above this feels to me like a misunderstanding of how this sort of storytelling works - the fact that you get flashes of ENTIRE HISTORIES of things that have happened that don't get explained is there to make it feel like a vast and exciting WORLD of fun, some of which may get picked up in other movies OR INDEED in other transmedia ventures.

Most of all though it was a LOVELY LOVELY film where someone trying to do the right thing was shown to be ADMIRABLE rather than a MUG to be laughed at. Laughing at someone being uncynical is EASY and celebrating UNPLEASANTNESS is SAFE, but actually being brave enough to say "this is the right thing to do" and sticking with it is difficult - especially in a world where being horrible and mean seems to be the way to get on.

Er... that went a bit further than I was expecting! What I mean to say is that SUPERMAN is dead good and I for one look forward to seeing it about a HUNDRED times more! HOORAH!

posted 16/7/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Doctor Doom in Watford
On Saturday afternoon I set off for the Not Very Frozen NORTH, or at least North of That London, to friendly WATFORD for the second date in the Data and Doctor Doom tour.

I was feeling a bit nervouse about it all so had left myself a LOT of time, and thus arrived at the venue a good 90 minutes before I was due on stage. That meant I got to sit in the bar of the lovely Pump House Arts Centre with a calming BEER and listen to the other performances going on around. Behind me, in the room I'd be playing, was a stand-up comedian, while in the larger theatre space an enormous extravaganza of about 800 people sang songs from the shows. It was warm, it was dark (the box office/bar had all the lights off so they could keep doors open without distracting people on the stage) and it felt VERY VERY much like being back at the Fringe. The only thing missing was a man with a BEARD sitting next to me looking up BEER on his phone!

Part of my NERVES was because I was going to have half an hour between the previous show and ME to get everything set up, including the SCREEN and Projector, and in the heat it was QUITE a job to get it all done. Eventually though I had everything rigged with 10 minutes to spare, THUS:



It wasn't quite the glamorous GIGANTOSCREEN of the day before but hopefully it would do the job!

With a little bit of time to spare I ventured back out to the box office to discover that my ticket sales had rocketed from TWO the day before to a mighty SEVEN, which was a big relief! As with the previous performance I got a chance to speak to most of the people who'd come in, including four Cresswells, a v nice chap who was doing his own show later ready to go to Edinburgh for the first time (I gave him the standard wisdom i.e. "take loads of money") and two ladies, one of whom had a UAL bag upon which I REMARKED!

The show itself was SHALL WE SAY not without its deviations from the script, but now I'm actually DOING the show in front of people I'm realising that that's no bad thing at all. I HAD been trying to learn the script properly but I've found that doesn't really fit with the way I do things, so it's very quickly become a BASE from which the rest of it FLOWS, allowing me to make REMARKS as we go along, which is a lot more fun for me and, hopefully, everyone else too!



It all seemed to go pretty well anyway, and after thanking everyone PROFUSELY I then had to rush into the TAKEDOWN of the set to give the next act time to get on. Happily, The Wheels On My Van had advised me to take one of our old SUITCASES to put everything in, rather than trying to cram it all into a backpack like I had before, and this turned out to be a GRATE idea as it meant I could basically SHOVE stuff in there and then sort it out when I got home.

That done there was time for a quick chat with the aforesaid delightful Cresswells before I was off home again. That's TWO of the SIX Summer Tour gigs done already - I'll have to get some more booked or it'll all be over too quickly!

posted 15/7/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Doctor Doom in Peckham
On Friday afternoon I found myself travelling SOUTH to distant PECKHAM where I was due to perform the official WORLD PREMIERE of Data and Doctor Doom at UAL's Creative Computing Institute as part of London Data Week. It was a very very hot day to be schlepping across the tube network with a backpack full of GEAR, so I was delighted to arrive in the sophisticated environs of THE HUB, where there was no air conditioning but there WERE loads of fans all set up to keep things COOL.

After a moment of sitting down saying "OOF" I got myself set up with the MASSIVE screen in there, so that the scene was set as below:



The screen there was WAY bigger and also CLEARER than any screen I have previously used, which was slightly FRIGHTENING but also dead good when, for instance, I showed the slide of 266 comics, cartoons, books, radio plays and games in my corpus and you could actually SEE the covers properly! It also meant I could put the main title slide up and people would SEE if from all the way down the corridor and know where they were going.

I did some nervous pacing around and soon we had a hardy crew of DATA FIENDS in the room. It felt a bit weird to be sat in the same room IGNORING each other so instead we had a lovely chat about other shows people had seen, either on London Data Week or on various Fringes. When I was doing revisions for the shows I had originally put in a bit of CROWD WORK at the start, as I'd been told that was a good way to make everyone feel they were having An Unique Experience, but I ended up taking it out because that sort of CROWD WORK always feels fake to me (e.g. "where are you from/what do you do for a living?" sort of thing). It was only when I was heading home that I realised we had done CROWD WORK together anyway, although I would use the non-comedy terminology of "having a chat" instead.

Anyway, just after 3.30pm we LEAPT into the actual show itself and it was... pretty good! I made a LOT of mistakes but had cunningly made everyone aware this was likely beforehand and they were just plain LOVELY. Best of all, when we got to the end someone asked if they could ask a QUESTION and this led to an impromptu Q&A session, which was not only really good fun but also RIDICULOUSLY NERDY at times. I didn't think a show about data and superhero comics could GET much nerdier, but it definitely did!



There were a whole lot of LEARNING POINTS for me, having done the revised show in front of an audience for the first time - not least of which is CALM DOWN it is FINE - but it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience with a thoroughly delightful audience. The tour is now officially ON - next stop Watford!

posted 14/7/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Buster In Brussels
Last week I was in BRUSSELS where I had a lovely time, mostly but not entirely attending the Joint Conference of the International Bande Dessinee Society and the International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference, which in case you are not aware, is a conference about comics.

I have been to this particular conference MANY times so I know lots of other people who go, and in particular know the people who go to THE PUB, so did that. I also did a presentation about some of the stuff I'd learnt from doing The Funny Comics Fan Club. Cunningly I recorded the audio on my phone and then SPLICED that together with the slides to make the audiovisual extravaganza what you can see below:



As you will hear, I had FUN doing it! I also very much enjoyed the other panelists' papers in my session - including one about Sweet Tooth from Whizzer & Chips - and indeed a whole lot of the other presentations. There was one slight INCIDENT, where I made a REMARK at the end of a discussion panel which did not go down very well AT ALL with several people, but other than that it was a whole HEAP of good times. Most exciting of all, they announced that next year's conference will be in LEICESTER, which is not only a bit easier to get to but FULL of nice pubs, some of which have not even been knocked down yet!

posted 8/7/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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The Where, What, How And Whom Of Doctor Doom
Apologies for the QUIET round here for the last week or so, I have been away in fabulous BRUSSELS for the International Graphic Novels and Comics Conference, which was GRATE!

More on that anon, but for now I wanted to draw your attention to a new VIDEO what I have done for one of the songs in the show, The Where, What, How And Whom Of Doctor Doom - THUS:



As ever, all shares, likes, tweets, whatever-it-is-on-Bluesky etc etc would be hugely appreciated, not least because there are A FEW tickets available for all of the shows so it would be lovely to get the word out more widely. Also, obviously, if you happen to be in Camberwell, Watford, Buxton, Bedford or Camden over the next few weeks it would be RUDDY DELIGHTFUL to see you there!

posted 7/7/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Re-writes and Re-sings
A week and a bit ago I had a session with Mr D Munro where I performed Data and Doctor Doom and then he done DRAMATURGY on it i.e. told me what he thought, offered suggestions, and worked through some bits of it with me. It was UTTERLY GRATE and since then I have been hard at work doing a massive and extensive RE-WRITE of the whole thing.

Thankfully it did not need a huge lot of RESTRUCTURING, which is HARD, but rather just re-writing, which is FUN. A lot of this was to do with streamlining and TIGHTENING what I say between songs - I did have a SCRIPT but this was more a guide as to what I'd say and when, but it became clear that I needed to work on this so as to cut out some of the waffle. Obviously it is ME doing this here show and so waffle is part of the general package, but a lot of it was coming from my own NERVOUSNESS about what I was saying and where to go next. Over the past week I have very much come round to the idea that if I write it down and (mostly) LEARN it then that will make things SMOOTHER, also easier for the audience to understand, also also less TERRIFYING for me!

The other thing he drew my attention to was the possibility for MORE JOKES. "That sounds like it could be a JOKE", he remarked at various points, and since then I have gone through and identified lots of other places where, rather than e.g. glaring at the audience and saying "THIS IS AN IMPORTANT BIT!" I can do a JOKE what gets the point across much more clearly. I have thus been sitting at my laptop GIGGLING to myself as I think up GAGS, and having a lovely time doing so.

Another thing I've been toiling away at has been a couple of song re-writes, which is something I LOVE to do as it means I can pretend I am working on a BROADWAY SHOW the day after previews and the Producer has come in and said "Hibbett! The end of Act Two ain't getting them off their feet, we needs a re-write, ka-peesh?" (CHARACTER DIALOGUE). The really big deal for this has been re-doing the BIG FINALE of the whole show, which has made me VERY HAPPY INDEED as it now brings in MORE themes (including a couple of new RUNNING GAGS what Dec suggested) and builds to a MUCH bigger ending than before.

It has all been rather delightful so far, although now that I have officially reached the end of the current draft and printed it off, there are two (2) slightly LESS delightful prospects for me. The first is that I've got to actually LEARN it, and the second is that I don't get another chance to show it off to Dec or the various pals who came to the work in progress version. The next time I do it will be to ACTUAL HUMANS who I DO NOT KNOW! YIKES!!

And if you'd like that to be YOU (SLICK MARKETING SEGUE!) you can find details of all the forthcoming shows on the Data and Doctor Doom GIGS page!

posted 23/6/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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I Read The Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist
For the past several years I have taken great delight in trying to read the full Arthur C Clark Award shortlist. I first did it as a way to read some NEW Science Fiction (i.e. not just the next book by the same people as before OR something designated A Classic) and this worked out SO WELL that I have done it every year since, including THIS year.

For LO! for I think the first time ever I have managed to read ALL of them, all the way through, and also done so BEFORE the final award is announced. This is a PRETTY GOOD result for me, as in other years there has always been at least one book that I have given up on or read the description of and thought "OH DEAR NO". Every one of the books this year was worth getting to the end of, and indeed a good 50% of them were BLOODY GRATE.

I'm sure that everyone is really keen to know my mighty THORTS on them this year, especially in advance of the actual result, so let's go through them in the order what I read them:

Service Model (Adrian Tchaikovsky)
I really really like Adrian Tchaikovsky books, even though it's a bit hard to keep up as he writes SO MANY, and this was one of my favourites of his so far. Excitingly (for me) I read this one BEFORE the shortlist came up, and loved it. It's about a robot whose human master dies, so that he has to go on a JOURNEY through the end of the world and it is VERY FUNNY INDEED.

The Ministry Of Time (Kaliane Bradley)
Cor! I thought this was absolutely flipping brilliant - moving, funny, ROMANTICAL and un-put-downable. There's a government ministry with a TIME MACHINE that picks people out of the past who are about to be killed and then assigns them to a junior member of staff to be looked after, at which point HIJINKS and TWISTS and also ROMANCE happens. It was ace!

Thirteen Ways To Kill Lullabelle Rock (Maud Woolf)
This was not quite as good as it felt like it was supposed to be, although that might be because I read it straight after "The Ministry Of Time". It's about a sort-of-clone who's created to kill the other sort-of-clones of its originator, and it was all right but also Quite Short, which is a type of book I would like to encourage.

Annie Bot (Sierra Greer)
OH MY WORD I had to have a BREAK from reading this one as it was UPSETTING, but in a really good way. This wasn't hugely funny like my other two favourites but was VERY exciting and thought provoking and all round AMAZING.

Extremophile (Ian Green)
Crikey this one took a REALLY long time to get going, and was quite "Look everybody! EDGINESS!" so it's the one I came closest to giving up on. Also, there is lots of stuff about people being in BANDS in East London which felt really WRONG e.g. yes it's the future and everything is terrible, but I'm sure that bands still wouldn't bring their own microphones and stands with them to these sort of gigs. I think it was things like that that made me a bit grumpy about it, but it did get quite exciting in the end.

Private Rites (Julia Armfield) This one took even LONGER to get going, and when it finally did it felt like cheating a bit. The vast majority of the story is about some very posh sisters being a bit cold and rude to each other in a near future where it always rains. It was a little bit dreary to be honest, and mostly about dystfunctional posh people being dysfunctional and posh, so when A THING happened near the end it didn't feel particularly earned. It was very nicely written though!

BOOK REVIEWS! PEASY!

As for my PREDICTION as to what will win - it's usually one of the ones that I found a bit boring and worthy that wins, especially if it's one by somebody who would be midlly offended if someone said that it was science fiction at all. HOWEVER, this year I have a strong feeling that it will be one of the ones I actually liked, specifically "Annie Bot" as a) it is dead good and b) it Speaks To This Current Moment. I really hope it wins, it was dead good... which almost definitely means it won't!

posted 23/6/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Funny Comics Best Of
The latest episode of The Funny Comics Fan Club is out NOW and it features the VERY BEST of what we've done so far.

Some might say this makes it a REPRINT but I prefer to think of it as a SUMMER SPECIAL, featuring John and I bickering engaging in spirited discussion about some of the choicest moments in our investigations to date. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts, or indeed BELOW:



The whole thing was put together as part of a LENGTHY process of going through all the episodes so far in order to create slightly smaller BEST OF compilations for us to enter into some COMPETITIONS. Quite a lot of work went into it and John suggested it could also form the basis of a special episode to tide everyone over until season 3 (which we hope to start recording soon). It ALSO proved extremely useful for me as a way to gather THORTS for a presentation I'm giving at The International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference in Brussels in a couple of weeks, wherein I shall be guiding various international academics through our findings. I may try and RECORD that as well so we can issue it as a further BONUS EPISODE, but it does rather rely on me remembering to do so amidst all of the conference excitement/hangovers, so we'll see!

posted 18/6/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Poster Patrol
At the weekend ago I headed into town to do a ye olde ROCK ADMIN job which I haven't done for DECADES: going round shops asking them to display some FLYERS!

Back in the previous century before we had THE INTERWEB this was a crucial part of ROCK promotion, although back then I tended to focus on POSTERS rather than flyers, largely because I could get away with photocopying 10 posters for Leicester's various record shops and venues, but would be NOTICED if I tried to do thousands of flyers at work. I would trudge into the city centre, usually on a weekday lunch break, and go round all of the above humbly handing over posters, and then go round again the next day to see if anyone had actually put them up. I really really did not like doing it, so was happy to pack it all in just as soon as T Berners-Lee came along and liberated us all.

HOWEVER, the advice from ALL of the various Fringe organisations where I'm taking Data and Doctor Doom this summer was that you HAD to have posters and flyers for the venues, and so I have embarked upon a series of orders from the lovely people at Banana Print, who did a GRATE job of it. In most cases I just got the posters and flyers delivered direct to the venues, but for the Camden Fringe show at The Hen & Chickens I realised that I could get everything delivered to ME and then a) have a LOOK at it and b) take some round London's COMIC-related establishments.

So that is what I did, and it went SURPRISINGLY well, with flyers happily handed over at The Cartoon Museum, Gosh and Forbidden Planet. It was all much like a DREAM really, a feeling enhanced by popping into Fopp to buy the new Half Man Half Biscuit CD and having a YOUNG PERSON behind the counter eloquently discussing its merits. Young people? Listening to Half Man Half Biscuit? That can't be real, can it?

The day finished even MORE surreally when, after dropping the remaining flyers AND a load of posters off at the venue, I got a Mildmay/Overground train DIRECT to Stratford with no stops. It was AMAZING - it was running really late so they changed it to a non-stopping service, with the next one 2 minutes behind doing the stopping instead. This was a bit annoying for people who DIDN'T want to go direct to Stratford but for the rest of us it was AAMAZING - so amazing in fact that when we arrived approx 20 seconds later Actual Londoners expressed DELIGHT - OUT LOUD - at the speediness of it all! I don't think I've heard Actual Londoners expressing collective delight in public since The Olympics - what a day!

posted 17/6/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Outside Eye
A few weeks ago I did what I thought would be my EARLIEST EVER gig, getting up early to do a show at UAL at 10.20am o'clock in the morning. However, on Friday last I got up similarly early and went to do an even EARLIER gig (or sort of gig) at 10.00am o'clock in the morning!.

It was a "sort of gig" because I was doing it for one (1) person, and that person was Mr Declan Munro for one of his Outside Eye sessions. The idea of this is that he watches you do a runthrough of your show (or similiar) and then basically gives THORTS. I had tried a couple of times to do this as part of a PROJECT what the Arts Council utterly refused to countenance, but this time I was able to wrangle it via some CA$H wot I had secured via work for TRAINING PURPOSES for ME, and thus I was booked in for a session to go through Data and Doctor Doom.

To be perfectly honest my main DREAM for all of this was that Dec would say "Oh this is marvellous, well done, here are 3 extra jokes that can be put in otherwise TOP MARKS". After all, I'd already done the Work In Progress show and REViSED everything accordingly, so I was mostly hoping for REASSURANCE and the afore-stated Extra Gags.

I got a WHOLE LOT MORE than that!

I originally knew Dec from many moons ago when Steve and I did Total Hero Team at the Edinburgh Fringe, with him looming large in my personal memory of that time as the person who INSISTED we Do The Show Right Here on the day that our venue was temporarily shut down. I bumped into him many times over the years, notably at the launch for Mr R Manuel's Fesshole book, where I discovered he was a DRAMATURG (i.e. someone who helps with THORTS on performances) and resolved there and then to SOMEHOW do something with him like this.

ANYWAY, what that means is that we did some catching up first of all, during which I told him of my hopes for a) reassurance b) more gags, and then I launched into doing the SHOW. It was a bit nerve-wracking at first because we were doing it in a small office where other people were coming and going, so I had to keep reminding myself not to sing at FULL BELLOW, and also because even one such as I who is used to SHALL WE SAY small, intimate venues with small, intimate audiences gets a little thrown by doing the whole thing AT one person.

Still, it all went OK, we had a little break, and then came back for about an hour of AMAZING THORTS. COR! It was incredible - I DID get the reassurance I craved, but then Dec talked me through a HUGE range of ideas, thoughts, CONCEPTS, suggestions, analysis and ALL THAT taking in many many things which had never even occurred to me but, now that he was saying them, seemed utterly obvious. One of the big ones was when he asked me what I wanted out of the show as a whole, and I told him of my hopes that, for instance, when the "Avengers: Doomsday" movie comes out it would be ME who media outlets would contact to talk about it. "You should actually say that in the show", he said, and OF COURSE I should! OF COURSE!

There were lots and lots of other thoughts like this which I shall not go into here for fear of SPOILERS, but goodness me he was full of GRATE IDEAS. Also, wonderfully, he talked me through THEORY and CONCEPTS of performance and stand-up that I had never really thought of. One really really BASIC one was to pause and focus on one person before delivering a punchline, so that there was no distraction and the audience knew it WAS the punchline. COR! I mean, that sounds straightforward when put like that but I have been TREADING THE BOARDS these many decades without even considering IT.

It was, not to put too fine a point on it, AMAZING, and if this was a TrustPilot Review there would be five stars and even MORE super superlatives than what there are here now. It was also really EMOTIONAL - there is a whole lot of ME in this show and so having someone so BRAINY give it respect, attention and IDEAS was surprisingly moving. I thus staggered away and towards home EXHAUSTED but also DELIGHTED by the whole experience.
Now all I have to do is Actually Re-Write It! YIKES!

posted 16/6/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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London Data Week
Let joy ring out around the nation, for LO! the final date on the Data and Doctor Doom SUMMER TOUR can now been announced!

I am VERY PLEASED to say that I'll be performing the official WORLD PREMIERE of the show on Friday 11 July at The Hub in Peckham, in conjunction with UAL's Creative Computing Institute as part of London Data Week! The show is FREE to get in but has a strictly limited number of tickets, so if you fancy coming you'll need to a) register in advance and b) be free at 3.30pm, as that's when it's on.



The whole experience of booking this one has been a DELIGHT, not least because I've been working on it with the very cool cats at the Creative Computing Institute. The CCI is part of University of the Arts London, where I WORK, so I have had the extremely unusual experience of not only doing ROCK stuff during work time (which OBVS I have never otherwise done) and that being ALL FINE and part of my job. It also means I've had several MEETINGS with the people who work there, which is ALWAYS lots of fun as they are ARTS people but also MASSIVE NERDS i.e. MY SORT OF PEOPLE!

That, barring any unforseen emergency bookings, brings the SUMMER TOUR booking to completion, sitting alongside the shows in Watford, Buxton, Bedford and Camden. There should also be some more gigs later in the year, but there'll be more on that ANON. In the meantime I'm REALLY looking forward to being Officially ON TOUR again, and it would be even more fun if you, dear reader, came along!

posted 11/6/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Administration and Secrets
I realise that the recent absence of fresh and exciting new blogs might lead one to think that there has been no fresh and exciting ACTIVITY recently, but nothing could be further from the truth - it's just that a lot of said activity has been either SECRET or ADMIN-BASED.

There have been not one but TWO secret things occurring lately, one of which is SECRET PROJECT to do with music that I am very very VERY excited about but am unable to speak of as yet. I think it's OK to say that last week I spent a whole DAY specifically on it, and that this was the SECOND day of work, but otherwise I had really best go no further than that. The other one is to do with COMICS but I have signed an actual bit of paper to say I won't talk about that yet either, so won't. I wish I could though, they are both GRATE!

What I very much CAN speak of, however, is the ROCK ADMIN what is currently gushing through my THORT TUBES, all of which is to do with the imminent commencement of the Data and Doctor Doom TOUR. I'm currently in the pre-publicity phase, which means I've been sending out a lot of EMAILS, getting together some more thoughts for VIDEOS, pondering maybe releasing a SINGLE of one of the songs, answering various questionnaires, and most recently sorting out some POSTERS.

Posters! Crumbs, I had forgotten about the need to do these, and so was taken slightly unaware when various Fringe organisers started asking for them. I had designed some a month or so ago but when I looked upon those again I realised that they were a bit cluttered and also gave no idea about what the show actually WAS, so have been TOILING away trying to make them a bit more informative and ZINGY. Part of this involved writing a STRAPLINE, but after discussion with The Images In My Logo we couldn't decided exactly what it should BE - rather wonderfully the aforementioned Ballots In My Box suggested putting it up for public discussion on THE SOCIALS so that is exactly what I did, and we got the final version as "a musical extravaganza of slides, statistics and super-villainy". It was like OLDEN TYMES when The Socials were actually USEFUL - I also got a GRATE recommendation for a printer in a similar way, and have now begun the process of ORDERING them. You can see all the ones done so far over on the gigs page, but here's the one for CAMDEN as an example:



Keen observers may notice that, technically speaking, this is MORE cluttered than possibly any other poster EVER, and includes some new images that have previously not been associated with the show. The new images come from the REVISED version what I have been working on since the work-in-progress show a few weeks ago, including a picture of ME at my PhD graduation which I suddenly realised would be PERFECT as a Publicity Picture for the tour - not only was it taken by a Professional Photographer, not only does it clearly demonstrate that I am INDEED a Doctor Of Doctor Doom, but it ALSO clearly shows that I look FABULOUS in purple!

Also, the cluttering is DELIBERATE as all of the guidance I got from various places said "the best way to do a poster is to have one single distinctive image" and it made me think of the row upon row of posters showing A Comedian Looking Whimsical that you see EVERYWHERE during Edinburgh Fringe. As ever, the fact that everyone else was doing their posters one way made me want to do it in the totally opposite way. I am PRETTY SURE this will lead all neutral observers to think "Why, this fellow is clearly some kind of maverick who doesn't play by the rules, I must buy multiple tickets for his show IMMEDIATELY."

Anyway, it all feels very EXCITING, as if this krazy idea of a show about Doctor Doom is actually going to HAPPEN. If you'd like to come and see it in Watford, Buxton, Bedford or Camden there are links for tickets available (and indeed TICKETS very much available) with some more shows to be announced hopefully fairly soon. Do come if you can, I think it is going to be Quite Good!

posted 2/6/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Sweet Bedford
I've been doing a lot of Promotional Activity for Data and Doctor Doom this week, including tonnes of emails out to relevant organisations and a whole SLEW of trailers. In amongst all this, however, yesterday I booked a whole other SHOW out of the blue!

For LO! I am now ALSO performing at The Bedford Festivalk Fringe at Quarry Theatre on Friday 25 July! I am really chuffed about this, as I'd tried to apply several months ago but hadn't been able to get a venue - I was trying for sensibly sized places for me, which the Quarry Theatre technically is NOT, but I have been assured that it can be set out to be an 80 capacity venue rather than its usual 250, so hopefully that'll be all right. Obviously if it is a RIP ROARING SALES JUGGERNAUT they can go back to the normal layout, but for now I am envisioning CABARET STYLE seating, the traditional method for having smaller audiences in larger spaces!

The only downside to the whole thing is that I've already DONE the main tour video with the current list of shows in, but I know there is at least one other show to be added to the list which hasn't been announced yet, and hopefully plenty more to come in future, so I can always add it there. My great aim is to do AT LEAST ten performances for this, if only to make it worth all the practicing and GEAR-purchasing!

Tickets for all dates are available via the Data and Doctor Doom site - do come along if you can, it is going to be Quite Good, honest!

posted 23/5/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Wikipedia Page Rescue
Last week I got a message from Mr R Kirkham to tell me that my Wikipedia page was under threat of DELETION!!

This threw me into panic because I REALLY REALLY REALLY like the fact that I have a Wikipedia page, as it is both COOL and also VERY COOL because I didn't even set it up myself! If I WAS updating it myself I would have done things like put a DISCOGRAPHY in there somewhere, but doing so would feel like cheating and also destroy the entire aforesaid VERY COOLNESS of the thing, so have diligently avoided doing so.

However, the problem with me not updating it was that nobody ELSE has updated it for ages either, and so it was looking a bit out of date and flimsy. THUS I could understand why it had been picked out for possible deletion by Mighty Wikipedia Editors, although I did BRIDLE somewhat at the suggestion that "His most popular songs & videos never cracked 100,000 views on YouTube". You young whippersnapper, some of us had viral hits BEFORE YOUTUBE EXISTED!

After some soul searching and continued RESISTANCE to temptation I put out an emergency call on THE SOCIALS asking for anybody who knew how to do Wikipedia, and could be arsed, to have a look at it and do some updates please. To my delight people DID and I am DELIGHTED to say that not only has the whole Deletion Discussion been RESOLVED but it has ended up with a rather more EXCITING page all together. All right, I could have lived without the bit that says repeated listens "dull the humour", but I guess that just shows that it's PROPER! PHEW - thanks everyone!!

posted 21/5/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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I Saw Lazarus Clamp Play Down The 100 Club
On Monday evening I set off into London's fashionable LONDON area of London to go and see a ROCK SHOW! Get me!

The venue was The Prestigious 100 Club, with Lazarus Clamp playing (on a bill supporting Say Sue Me) and thus featuring our very own Tom 'The Tiger' McClure. I ZOOMED into town on the Elizabeth Line and arrived before the doors had opened, to find a QUEUE outside, so I popped round the corner for a bit of tea. I returned 20 minutes later expecting it to have gone down but found that it was now slightly longer but now MOVING - the door to the actual 100 Club is inside a shared office space and then down some stairs (GLAMOUR) so they had wisely got a Queueing Patiently Outside scheme going on.

Once inside I found the CLAMP CREW (as the cool kids are almost definitely calling them) and also Mr G Gargan, promoter and all-round good guy. Helloes were said and then very quickly it was time for them to go on and be GRATE. I was later told that this was their third gig in eight years, but there was no DUST to be detected as they ROCKED through a set that included much CATCHINESS, various ANGULARITY, and a totally brilliant bit where they stopped played and the whole band sang off microphone for a bit. That was especially ace!

Here is some photographic evidence of said ACE-ness:



Amazingly I took that photo WITHOUT a fancy camera - no, really!

Afterwards there was some lurking around and saying Well Done EVerybody, and the also some unexpected bumping into people I hadn't seen for ages. Cor, it was like going to a GIG used to be in olden times, it was lovely! I also saw the other support Hazy Sour Cherry who were BRILLO, although they did stir some wistful nostalgia for INDIETRACKS as they were the sort of band who would/should have been on in the tram shed on Saturday at 8pm, completely WINNING the whole audience.

I couldn't stick around for Say Sue Me, sadly, but to be honest for me the headliners had already been The Clamp (as the older kids are definitely calling them). It was lovely to SEE them all again, here in their 30th year of existing (even longer than The Validators!), and I went home with joy in my heart at the knowledge that GIGS are still GRATE!

posted 20/5/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Esquire Magazine
A couple of months ago I reported on a lovely chat about Superman that I'd had with a journalist from A Well Known Magazine, and am now in a position to reveal that the magazine was ESQUIRE and that the resulting article has not only come out but also features quite a lot of ME in it!

I'd made a note of when this quarter's issue was due out (it comes out every three months I think) so popped down to WH Smiths to buy a copy and was DELIGHTED to find that not only did it have a whacking great PULL QUOTE from me in it, but that the article itself was Actually Really Good. As well as being a proper comics fan The journalist, Mr J Davis, had done COMICS RESEARCH for it, and quoted a whole heap of people like G Morrisson and D Wolk of whom I entirely approve. He'd also interviewed several other people like me and I was RELIEVED to discover that I am definitely not the only one who thought that KRYPTO was the key character in the early trailers.

It was, in fact, DEAD GOOD - the only thing missing was that they didn't get me in for a FASHION SHOOT as well, but I'm sure they're saving that for the next issue!

posted 16/5/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Let The Trailers COMMENCE!
Today I am RUDDY DELIGHTED to unleash upon an unsuspecting world the first of over SEVERAL trailers for Data and Doctor Doom, THUS:



It may surprise you to discover that this was not, as it may appear, recorded over many weeks in an expensive professional studio but in fact done in a corner of the flat in the space of about an hour yesterday. Hard to believe but true! It was actually dead good fun to do, as I had been THINKING about it for ages like a ZEN PAINTER (almost exactly like that) so I was poised and ready to DO it super speedily. Excitingly it used a lot of GEAR - two laptops, a four-track, a video camera and stand, a projector and a CAPE - all of which got put away VERY NEATLY once I had done.

This is the main TOUR video, but I've also done SPECIFIC ones for each of the dates, which I'll be rolling out on The Socials over the next few days. After that the promotional ONSLAUGHT will hopefully continue with videos for a couple of the actual songs, but I need to find time to get around to doing those once I've finished the current batch of REVISIONS. There's LOADS still to do to make it all happen, but getting this out into the world today does feel like a big step. Hope you like it!

posted 15/5/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Posters Launched
Preparations for Data And Doctor Doom continue APACE with lots of work RETOOLING the script following the excellent feedback from last week's work in progress show, and also the development of some POSTERS, what I am delighted to share with you here and now!



You can click each one to see it in its FULL GLORY, for verily they are pretty GLORIOUS. They are also fairly PACKED - it's been quite a while since I last had to do an actual GIG POSTER, as opposed to a Web Event Image, and I'd forgotten how much STUFF you have to cram into them. Also the main picture is quite busy, but to be honest I rather like that - the advice is always to do "a single striking image" but for Fringe Shows that always seems to end up being a close-up of a comedian looking self-consciously GOOFY, so hopefully that means my MULTITUDE OF SCREENS pic will stand out. Hopefully!

There's loads more to DO for all this, and all being well loads more GIGS to announce too, but getting these posters out there feels like a right proper first step!

posted 14/5/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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A First Class Film Experience
After all of the excitement of the week of ROCKING the Doctor Doom show I decided to take it a bit easier on Friday, and at the end of the working day took myself off to THE PICTURES to watch "Thunderbolts". Normally I would go and see the latest Marvel film with my old, and indeed oldEST, pal Mr S Carter, but between the two of us we couldn't find a suitable time to GO for this one due to WORK etc, so I ended up on my own.

In fact I ended up almost COMPLETELY on my own, as only two other people were in my SCREEN, which made my experience even MORE luxurious than it would otherwise have been i.e. VERY For LO! we have got a new Everyman Cinema near me and I have been KEEN to have a go because it looks DEAD POSH. Spoilers: it really was!

When I arrived I asked at the bar how it all WORKED, because as far as I could see it was more like a fancy BAR than an actual cinema. The very nice person behind the bar suggested I go into the screen and take a MENU with me, and then five minutes later they'd come in and take my order. FANCY! Once inside I discovered a load of SOFAS with masses of legroom - when I go to the pictures on my own I usually book the front row for a) stretching out space and b) easy access to the LOO without bothering anyone, but here I could have sat anywhere. INDEED when the member of staff came to take my order they suggested that I could move anywhere I wanted to, not least because the aircon was a bit breezy down the front row. "Or I could bring you a blanket if you like?" they said. FLIPPING HECK!

A little while later they came back with BEER and - get this - some FREE POPCORN "as it's your first time here". A bit after that my VEGAN PIZZA arrived too, and goodness me it was delicious. Also, though the ticket for the film itself was quite a bit more than for the local VUE, the food and drink was pretty much the same price, and significantly nicer too!

Then just before the film started another Young Person came out to do an announcement about turning off phones etc - apparently Fancy Cinemas do this with Actual Live Humans now. "I usually ask people not to chat," they said, "but that probably isn't going to be a problem as there's no-one to talk to," then added "By the way, there are two end credit sequences and they're worth staying for."

I tell you what, I felt like a PAMPERED OLIGARCH by now, and could quite happily have just stayed there for a couple of hours being brought food and drink by Nice Young People, but then the film started and it was FAB. There were lots of Properly Actually Moving bits, plenty of DEAD GOOD SUPERHERO STUFF, and it seemed to have a POINT too, which was all thoroughly enjoyable. Also, the second and final end credit sequence was definitely worth waiting for.

My only complaint was that the LOO was a bit far away, but that may not worry other people who do not REQUIRE it at least once in every film they ever go to see. It was a blooming lovely experience, and I can't wait to find an excuse to go again!

posted 13/5/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Doom In Progress
Thursday evening saw me stomping across London town laden with GEAR, heading to the King & Queen for the THIRD performace of Data and Doctor Doom this week. However, unlike on Monday or Tuesday this time I was going to do THE LOT!

For LO! this was the first WORK IN PROGRESS version of the whole show i.e. the main thing what I have been doing all of these REHEARSALS for. The actual proper TOUR that people can buy tickets for doesn't start until July, but I thought around now would be a good time to try the whole thing out in front of an audience so that I'd have plenty of time for any CHANGES required. Me and Steve have done similar tryouts in the past for previous shows and it WORKS, but it is always a bit TERRIFYING to have to stand in front of a bunch of people with an hour's worth of material that almost definitely isn't quite ready yet!

It is ESPECIALLY terrifying when it is a room of PALS from various aspects of your life, and that is exactly what this was, with chums from ROCK, COMICS and also WORK all gathered in the same room. It was lovely to see everyone, but annoyingly I didn't get as much chance as I'd hope to mingle around talking to people beforehand as the show has a lot of GEAR to be set up, including a whole projection screen which I had to wrangle into place behind the BAR upstairs, with the AMAZING help of The Ingledows. Getting it all set up, and then later put away, took AGES - as Steve said later, I will need to get a ROUTINE sorted out for when it goes on the road!

Once this was done people started to filter upstairs, and at not long after 7.30pm I stood up before the gathered THRONG to do a bit of admin, before promising to go off for 10 seconds and then come back to start the show. The plan was to nip out of the room, put my CAPE on, and then SWOOP back, but somehow a previously unnoticed strip of VELCRO got involved and it took a full minute for me to come back and get started, whereupon I done THIS:

Data and Doctor Doom (intro)

Batman But Done Better

Transmedia

My Unified Catalogue Of Transmedia Character Components

That's Not Empirical

The Marvel Age

Is That Empirical?

Random Stratified Sampling

Asking

That Is Empirical

The Where, What, How And Whom Of Doctor Doom

Fuzzy Trace Theory

Many Hearts

Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars

Data And Doctor Doom Closing Medley

Data and Doctor Doom (finale)

That is a WHOLE LOT of songs, and in between them is a WHOLE LOT of talking. I had planned to record it all on my four-track for a) scrutiny b) timing but forgot, but I THINK it took an hour from start to finish, which is just about right at this point. The finalised TOURING version needs to be a bit shorter but hopefully that will come through minimising FAFF and ERRORS. There was QUITE A LOT of that sort of thing, but again I don't think it mattered - it WOULD matter if I was doing it to an audience of comic fans who I don't know, as will hopefully be the case later in the year, but one of the many nice things about performing to a room full of PALS is that they are obliged to be Quite Forgiving!

All in all I think it went OK - there were bits that seemed to go on too long, and I'm not sure the balance of songs and talking is right all the way through, but handily I DID remember to hand out FEEDBACK sheets to everyone so I could see what the AUDIENCE thought. This was a GRATE idea, although it did lead to the rather weird sensation of finishing the show and then seeing pretty much the whole room immediately put their heads down to start WRITING UP!

After that there was the aforementioned Putting Away, which I must admit I got a bit fed up with as it meant I had less time to waft around and CHAT to people, so after a bit I decided to PAUSE the packing and go and do CHAT instead for a bit. Also I had been on the alcohol-free beer up until that point so wanted to give myself time to NECK a couple of Actual Pints!

It was a LOVELY, if somewhat NERVE-WRACKING evening, topping of a lovely but VERY nerve-wracking week. The next stage will be to go through everyone's feedback, have a bit of an old think about it all, and then work out what needs to change and start rehearsing THAT. I think I'll have a couple of days off before leaping back in though, this week has been a LOT of Doctor Doom!

posted 12/5/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Doctor Doom In The Doctoral School
Day TWO of the Bits Of Data And Doctor Doom TOUR started EXTREMELY early, with me arriving at UAL's Doctoral School at approximately 9.45am in the morning. As I always say, I did NOT come to work at an ART SCHOOL to get up early in the morning, and though technically this is within my normal start-time it felt a LOT earlier because of the mighty task I was about to perform.

For LO! I was first on for the second day of UAL Comicon, so found myself in the weird and unnatural position of setting up my GEAR before I would usually have had my first cup of coffee, ready to perfrom at - YIKES - 10.20am in the morning. The timeslot was terrifying but the venue itself was much easier to deal with than yesterday, as it was in a standard ROOM used for lectures. It was still quite big though so we needed to gather up the attendees before beginning, which involved me basically BELLOWING at everyone to come over to the other side of the room!

Once everybody was sat down I returned to the LECTERN and delivered THIS:

Data and Doctor Doom (intro)

Transmedia

The Marvel Age

Asking

Fuzzy Trace Theory

Many Hearts

Data and Doctor Doom (finale)

As with yesterday it went FINE, with quite a lot of mistakes and MILD PANICS but otherwise OK. As I'd come into the building I'd noted a sign saying that there was going to be a fire alarm test at 10.30am i.e. at EXACLTY halfway through my bit so I pre-empted it by telling people that if it all got TOO exciting an alarm would go off... at exactly half past ten. I thought this was a GRATE JOKE but then when the alarm went some people thought it might be real. Still, it did give me an opportunity to put my CLOAK on, as I had forgot so to do at the start. PHEW. Here is evidence of my encloakment, kindly taken by Dr P Mendonca:



There were also a few bits where I suddenly realised that some slides made NO SENSE because I hadn't done previous songs linked to them, but I POWERED ON and hoped that everybody would be so STUNNED by the multimedia assault on their senses they wouldn't have time to notice. I'm not sure whether that's a sustainable policy moving forward, but hopefully I can work on that once I've done the whole show all together. It's all been a bit KRAZY doing two days of two different sets of songs, both taken from a much larger set of songs that are meant to go together, but hopefully it's been good practice for doing the main SHOW. We shall see!

posted 7/5/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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The Cape Is Out There
On Tuesday morning I returned to the office carrying not just my laptop but also my guitar, a projector, projector screen, foot pedal and CAPE. For LO! This week I am doing a whole lot of Data and Doctor Doom!

The first instance of this was taking place just after lunchtime as part of "CSM Comicon", an event organised by Tessa Amorosi, PhD student and COLLEAGUE at UAL, which is basically two whole days of talks and workshops to do with COMICS. I was due to do my BIT in "the street", which is a massive hallway/corridor down the middle of Central St Martins, where apparently a "pop up area" had been created. Luckily Dr Ian Horton was doing a talk in the morning so I popped down to see him and CASE THE JOINT. It was a mildly cordoned off area with a huge MIRROR and TV screen for laptops to be plugged in, which was all fine except that there was no roof, so it was sometimes a bit difficult to hear. I NOTED this for later and then returned to my Actual Job for an hour.

It all felt a bit strange - I used to take my guitar into work all the time ten years or so ago when I worked at Birkbeck and was doing MILLIONS of gigs, but I think I've only ever done it two or three times since working at UAL. Also, I was basically going to be doing a GIG in the middle of the working day, with various pals from Comics and also Work watching!

Come the hour I went back downstairs, got everything sorted out, and did THIS:

Data and Doctor Doom (intro)

Batman But Done Better

My Unified Catalogue Of Transmedia Character Components

The Where, What, How And Whom Of Doctor Doom

Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars

Data and Doctor Doom (finale)

(NB please note that I have NOT put the lyrics up for any of these songs yet, because SPOILERS!)

It went, I think, pretty good. Here is a picture of me waving to Professor R Sabin to demonstrate this fact:



Beforehand I had been naturally TERRIFED of the whole thing - not only was I doing a bunch of entirely new songs that had never been heard by anyone before, I was also doing talking between then that was almost but not quite entirely different from the talking that I'd been practicing for the past month, with similar but also different slides in a totally different order to usual, all while singing, operating a foot pedal, keeping an eye on the audience, and trying to sing loud enough to be heard in what is basically a CATHEDRAL-sized open area.

Once I got going though it went really well - there were a LOT of mistakes, but the wonderful thing was that this didn't seem to matter at ALL, and I also got to muck around and say extra stuff as I went along. The singing loud enough was tricky, and it was hard to concentrate while in a massive hall full of CSM students coming and going while Talking COnfidently, but to my ENORMOUS relief it turned out that the songs WORKED and, indeed, had LARFS in them in most of the places I thought LARFS should go. Phew!

Once I was done I packed up and chatted to a few people, then headed back to my desk. This was the WEIRDEST thing of all. I've occasionally PLAYED gigs entirely soberly, but I have almost never then REMAINED in that state afterwards, and I've certainly never finished a gig and then gone pretty much straight into a meeting about Strategic Data Requirements. Now I understand WHY this is not usually done, because it felt VERY STRANGE INDEED. I had several GALLONS of ADRENALINE coursing through my body with nowhere to go, and so I had to keep NOT getting up and running round/shouting/making stupid remarks and instead concentrate very hard indeed on being a proper grown-up. To be honest, I do not intend to make a habit of this!

Having said that I WAS booked to do something very similar the following day, with another performance at a different part of UAL with a whole OTHER batch of songs, but this time at 10.20am in the morning. How did THAT go? Stayed tuned to find out!

posted 6/5/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Practice Makes Peeved
Yesterday I had the day off work so that I could do another proper DRESS REHEARSAL for Data and Doctor Doom. I'm doing a try-out of the show next week in front of some PEOPLE - it's not on the gigs page because it's not the sort of thing I'd want people to come to hoping for a GOOD TIME, but that doesn't mean I don't need to actually PRACTICE it in advance!

Like last time I'd booked myself into create + destroy studios in London's Fashionable East London district of London, which was once again WEIRD because it's meant to be a practice room but isn't like one in any way. For starters, there's nobody there - it's all done by keypad entry, so there's no man in a heavy metal t-shirt to show you in, let alone a selection of strings, rizlas or chocolate bars on a shelf in the office. Also, the room itself is empty apart from a few fold-up chairs and a big MIRROR. I assumed this means it is usually used by DANCERS - there were a couple of young people in before me who were WHOOPING it up in that direction anyway.

On my first visit I had found a lot of the experience DISMAYING, as I'd got myself in a right old TIZZ about setting up the gear, but this time I was well prepared and got THE LOT all working in just 16 minutes. Yes, I did time myself, because I'm going to be doing this at Fringe Festivals where you tend to only have 15-20 minutes "get in" time, so I was v pleased to find that I could do that pretty easily from scratch, in a Calm and also Relaxed way.

Going through the show was a LOT better this time too, as I'd done loads of work on refining the slides and learning what went where and how. It still took about an hour and five minutes to do, what with there being quite a lot of me getting things wrong and having to try again, but I kept telling myself this is FINE. I've got a few days to practice for the try-out, and the actual People-Paying-To-Get-In gigs are MONTHS away yet, so a few mistakes is FINE.

The weird thing though is that once I'd finished I felt completely worn out and FED UP. As I packed up I thought "Crumbs, how am I going to manage to do this every day in Edinburgh?" and then "OH THANK GOODNESS I won't be doing that!" but it was still ODD to be so washed out and GLUM after doing a show that is Actually Working.

Eventually I realised that this must be what it's like to do a full show with NO ADRENELINE. When me and Steve did the shows before they were obviously in front of people and EXCITING, but when we did rehearsals it was also quite exciting because there were two of us there and we was BOUNCING off each other, and also the THRILL-RIDE of having to DO something if the other person went awry. Here there was just ME, struggling through it, and only me to blame for the cock-ups!

Even when I practice SINGING it's not quite like that as I can relax and just enjoy the songs, whereas with the show I'm constantly thinking about what talking bit comes next, or where the slides have to change. It was really quite peculiar, until I realised that ACTUALLY it's not like doing any kind of a gig or a show at ALL, but more like when I do an academic presentation. THAT has slides and talking and having to say the right bit at the right time, and practicing for THOSE sort of things is also really boring and en-glumming. The delightful thing though is that DOING the eventual presentation is almost always GRATE FUN and EXCITING as you have to deal with the audience and their questions and sudden THORTS what you have in the middle of it all.

Hopefully the actual shows will be like THAT, but with extra SINGING too. It's not long to go until I find out I guess!

posted 2/5/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Meanwhile, Behind The Scenes
This morning I sent out the latest edition of the newsletter, which is PACKED with news about the forthcoming Data and Doctor Doom TOUR as well as some BARGAINS* (*may not techincally be bargains) and various DOWNLOADS.

It all looks very busy, and it reminded me that despite much ACTION I haven't done a BLOG for a couple of weeks - the reason for this lack of bloggage is that a lot of the things I've been doing, ROCK-wise, have been either THE SAME from day to day or Not Quite Ready For Unveiling Just Yet.

The thing that has been THE SAME has been preparation for the aforesaid TOUR. It doesn't properly start until July but I've got a couple of things on next week that I need to have some sort of VERSION of it ready for. One of these is a Work In Progress show what I'm doing with a few people - this is NOT listed on the gigs page because it's more of a TRY OUT than an actual gig, but I'm going to do my best to make it as ALL RIGHT as possible. I've even taken the day off tomorrow to do another DRESS REHEARSAL, such is my commitment to QUALITY.

I'm also doing a couple of BITS on Tuesday and Wednesday next week for a comics festival taking place at my WORK. Yes, I am employed by an institution that has COMICS FESTIVALS - I can only imagine how DELIGHTED the me of 22 years ago would have been to realise that was possible! These ARE on the gigs page, but technically speaking they're only really accessible to staff and students at UAL. If you're one of those please come!

These BITS are going to be 20 minutes sort-of-presentations about PARTS of my RESEARCH, but I'm thinking of them as mini-GIGs that just happen to use some of the Doctor Doom shows i.e. me making REMARKS, occasionally pausing to do a song. It's going to be quite useful to try this sort of thing out as I'm hoping to be able to do something similar for Science Explaining-type shows later in the year.

Meanwhile the Not Quite Ready For Unveiling Just Yet stuff mostly consists of loads more SHOWS what I'm in the process of booking with various FESTIVALS. I'm quite pleased with how this is going, as I've got various Comics, Data, AND Fringe festivals in various stages of acceptance, and I should be doing a lot more shows over the next year or so. If nothing else this is REASSURING to me as I've put SO much work into MAKING the show it would be a shame to only do it two or three times! I'm also thinking of then PIVOTING it (classy business language there, thanks!) into a PODCAST around this time next year, ready for when the 'Avengers: Doomsday' movie comes out, but I need to keep telling myself to worry about the LIVE gigs for now and do that later!

posted 30/4/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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