news:at:lois:tucker:dot:net

Beastly escapade

2011-07-27T12:33:00.001+01:00

I'm upping the ante with finishing the script for my new show so expect WELL exciting news on that soony soon.

In guitar based news, I'm heading out to The Betsey Trotwood for another night of Village Green Preservation Society shenanigans tomorrow. This month's theme is Bears vs Foxes. I plan to do 2 of my songs that I have previously mauled there by forgetting the words as they were too new and not in my brain properly. This is as close as I'll be getting to the actual theme... Come down! It is but 3 of your English pounds and is always a great night out :)

Fundraiser on the 17th

2011-07-08T17:28:00.003+01:00

I'm going to be Lois of the Lane-ing as part of a variety fundraiser for Whizz Kidz at The Bedford in Balham on Sunday the 17th of July. I'll be doing 3 of my 5 minute acts. There will also be, for your pleasure, a ventriloquist, acoustic guitar, a dj, a band, and some vocalists. It runs from 3pm - 8pm and tickets are £8.50 - you can buy them on the door :)

Hot guitar action!

2011-06-27T22:45:00.000+01:00

Sweaty times.

I've got 2 gigs coming up. This Thursday the 30th I'm rolling out a new song for my monthly Village Green Preservation Society jaunt at The Betsey Trotwood. No ideas what it'll be as yet. This month the theme is New York vs Yorkshire. Grand.

Next Tuesday the 5th I'm going to be 'busking' at the London premier of Hobo with a Shotgun - including a Q&A with the Director - at XOYO in Old Street. More details here.

The film originated as an award-winning ‘fake’ trailer for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse and became an internet sensation via YouTube. Starring Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner) in the title role, Hobo With A Shotgun is a full-on, no-holds-barred tour-de-force of gratuitous violence, gore and bloody mayhem inspired by exploitation movie classics of the 1970s and 80s. Should be a night out to remember!

After this I've got a charity gig lined up for Sunday the 17th of July. Details to follow...

Cropped and ready to rock!

2011-06-17T01:40:00.001+01:00

I appear to have had all my hair chopped off :D Renders my headshots slightly out of date, but it certainly feels good! Hello Summer. The pixie-esque crop will have useful photographic evidence soon-ish.

In less hair-based news - my show GLITCH made another appearance last week: I was support to 2 bands at The Lexington in Angel. Wasn't sure how it would go down in a gig setting, but it worked surprisingly well!

This Saturday I'm off out to do some Lois of the Lane air guitaring at The Stag's Head in Hoxton for the legendary night that is Gypsy Hotel. I've even bought me some rockin' wristbands for the occasion. Splendid.

A Holloway's Day's Night

2011-05-26T02:30:00.001+01:00

I've just come to the end of a long day's sound editing on my computer and my brain is pretty fried, but I am determined to push a blog out before I collapse into bed. Hmm... that sounds wrong.

The sound in question was a long overdue re-edit of my Lois of the Lane Air Guitar act which I'm going to be doing at tomorrow (today's!) monthly Village Green Preservation Society night at The Betsey Trotwood. Much happier with the act now - just got to find some time to rehearse it...

I'm back at The Betsey next Monday the 30th of May where I will be very pleased to be playing a couple of songs for John Hegley's monthly night.

The week after, on Saturday the 11th of June at 2pm, I'm going to be doing a one off performance of my show GLITCH in the Old Fire Station on Mayton Street (N7 6QT) for the Mayton Street Festival which is part of the Holloway Arts Festival. It's freeeeeeee!

Circuit went down really well the week before last and Iris Theatre have plans afoot to get it on again. Here are some pictures of me as the malfunctioning musician android:

Now, to sleep....

Royal Circuit

2011-04-28T16:04:00.001+01:00

I'm currently brushing up my Queen impression for this evening's monthly Village Green Preservation Society jaunt. I'll be doing my version of a Queen song... as the Queen. I'll also be taking requests from my steadily growing catalogue of songs as I've actually practised them!! Last month's VGPS outing resulted in an almost finished new song. Still not quite there with that one yet so I'm going to let it bubble away in my bonce for a bit...

Currently my next little outing will be at Bob Slayer's Heroes of Alternative Comedy night at the Leicester Square Theatre on the 7th of May. Not sure what I'm doing at this yet, but I'll either be Lois of the Lane-ing or doing some songs.

After this I'm going to be part of a new show called Circuit put together by Iris Theatre. Details on Facebook here and on Iris' website here.

"The dark fairy-tale world of Circuit is an experimental performance project which blends the very best of emerging physical theatre, circus and contemporary dance.

A long forgotten, cavernous building broods in the dark, the air thick with the hum of a million ghosts. The silence is suddenly broken by the sound of a heavy metal door slowly swinging open. A child peers in through the darkness. In the shadows strange creatures, half human, half machine, begin to move...

Performed for two nights only at St Paul's Church, Covent Garden, this is an evening of circus, music, theatre and dance not to be missed."

8pm Fri 13th and Sat 14th of May
St Paul's Church WC2E 9ED
www.seetickets.com
0871 230 0010
£12 advance
£15 on the door
£10 concessions

I'm playing a musician android and will be doing some kind of bizarre skit with loads of different bits of music. Looking forward to it! The space is fantastic and there's a whole bunch of really talented people getting involved. Promises to be a grand evening.

In new show news: I am no longer taking this up to the Edinburgh Fringe this year unfortunately (curses) but I have about a third of it written and aim to have it finished and on before the year is out.

Right, back to Queen rehearsing...

Love song and new show

2011-03-08T13:53:00.001Z

Afternoon.

I've been happily procrastinating in a useful way. Aside from a few mini website tweeks, I've uploaded my latest song to my singing page. It's called 'Lovesong 333' and I recorded it on Sunday with my trusty bro. I wrote it in time for February's Village Green Preservation Society. Very pleased with how it turned out :)

In big news: I'm definitely going to be doing a new show for the Edinburgh Fringe this year! More news when I have it.

Must... continue... to write... show...

A very Lane-y new year

2011-02-06T18:53:00.003Z

Happy slightly new year all!

2011 ain't been too bad for me so far. A few bits have been going on...

I made another appearance at the Village Green Preservation Society at the end of January with a Lois of the Lane based guitar/voice over happening which, despite being very last minute, seemed to work! This was a very, very basic try out of an idea I have for a new full length show this year that I want to take up to the Edinburgh Fringe in August if I can scrape together the monies. Watch this space! (I am very excited about it...)

I've finally created a Facebook page for Lois of the Lane. You can find her here:

Lois of the Lane

Promote your Page too

I've also just uploaded the versions of 'Me and Mr Bones' and 'The Last Two Zombies in the World' that I recorded for The Other Woman Podcast. You can find 'em on my singing page.

Onwards into February...

Lots of guitar stuff and a smidgen of cat

2010-12-11T14:00:00.000Z

Crimbly times approach...

What news? Well, last week I was Lois of the Lane air guitaring at Oh My Lord!, the opening of the first Japanese style cosplay cafe event in the UK (^_^)

At the beginning of November I had my first ever comparing gig at FanSHEN theatre company's 5th Birthday bash at Southwark Playhouse. I survived, and managed to do a few songs and a Lois of the Lane slot in amongst the fantastic musicians and DJ who were playing that night. Grand evening!

At the end of November I made another outing to the Village Green Preservation Society's monthly night. It looks like I may well be a regular there if I manage to keep pulling songs out of the bag! I'll be back there in January all being well. (As my blog updates on here are sometimes quite sporadic, you could join my Facebook group if you want to be kept more in the loop with such stuff... mebbee?)

Following this I made an appearance this week on The Other Woman Podcast, chatting about the kind of stuff I get up to and playing a couple of songs. You can listen to it all here:

Thank you ladies for having me!

I'll upload the tracks I recorded for it and put 'em on my singing page at some point soon. One of them includes "Me and Mr Bones" so here is a picture of said legendary animal, just because I can :)

Braiiiiiiiin...

2010-10-24T01:31:00.002+01:00

After many, many hours of website updating - my brain is now more mushy than usual. Some of it may be dripping out of my right ear. Who can say...? Now you can find: production photos from Glitch; a freshly tidied up singing page which now includes my new Zombie song that I recorded this week with my bro + 2 tracks recorded during my interview on Leith FM in August; my latest headshots and some fantastic photos taken during a shoot by Gavin Hill of Mecaniques Photography on the gallery page (see below for an example of the latter)

plus I've added some more photos to my MySpace photos page, including some great Lois of the Lane in action shots, one of these being this one:

(It appears I never leave the house without said stripy top on...)

There has been a whole host of other general tidying up/updating bits including the expulsion of a sneaky rogue apostrophe. (Ha ha! I tame you, punctuation.)

Soon I can stop looking at a computer screen and all will be well.

In other news - No Suprises went down a storm last Saturday. It was an overwhelming success and a whole heap of money was raised. Very glad to have been a part of it. Enjoyed myself muchly :)

This week, on Thursday the 28th, I'm playing at the Village Green Preservation Society's monthly night at The Betsey Trotwood again. Last month's was great! This time, the theme is Tricks and Treats so my Last 2 Zombies song is making another appearance, along with another song I'm yet to write. No idea what's going to pop out.

For now though, I must switch off. Night all. Zzzzzzzzzzz...

No alarms and...

2010-10-10T13:13:00.002+01:00

Here are some more details about the one-off performance I'm in next Saturday. I've got a really great part in a play called 'No Surprises', written by my friend Mikail Chowdhury. He wrote it whilst doing the writers course at the Royal Court and is putting it on to raise money for a charity.

Here's the spiel:

Set in the near future, the first Muslim Prime Minister of Great Britain is facing a terrorist attack and a nuclear crisis which threatens to pull the country into another lengthy and damaging conflict. As he considers a dangerous course of action that could lead to the deaths of thousands of innocent lives he is faced with a younger version of himself.

As the Prime Minister tries to reconcile his past choices and religion with the consequences of his actions, the time for a decision draws closer and he is faced with the choice of making the ultimate sacrifice.

This dark comedy explores the question of whether the greater good is always the most right course of action, and how far would you go for your beliefs.

I'm playing Tahiya, the no-nonsense advisor to the Prime Minister. She has a wonderfully dry sense of humour and I have some really great lines - sort of a cross between Margot from The Good Life, Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It and CJ from the The West Wing...

This is the info about the charity:

We are setting up an initiative to provide medical care to women, their young children and immediate families in Dhaka (currently they have no medical treatment whatsoever and suffer badly as a result) and are working in conjunction with and NGO called Tarango (http://www.tarango-bd.org/) who do some excellent work taking destitute women and giving them training, a safe place to work, salary and independence.

We need to raise £3,000 for the first year and will provide a weekly on-site medical consultation service, pay for medication and provide seminars on things such as family planning, sexual and women’s health issues.

The event runs:

2pm – 4pm
on
Saturday 16th October
at
Oxford House
Derbyshire Street
Bethnal Green
LONDON E2 6HG
020 7739 9001

with the performance starting at 2:45pm

Tickets are £15 (I think!)

The event is on Facebook here.

Rehearsals started this week and it’s going to be one step up from a rehearsed reading – we’re probably still going to be using scripts, but it will be staged. (Need to carry on getting my lines in my head today...) It's a really great show with a very good cast and I’m really looking forward to it :)

Guitar, maaan.

2010-09-30T18:50:00.001+01:00

I'm currently sat all beatnik-ed up in my room, ready to go and perform at the inaugural night of The Village Preservation Society's monthly residency at The Betsey Trotwood this evening.

Slight changes (or rather: additions) are now afoot in my cabaret offerings following my jaunt up to the Edinburgh Fringe last month. I went up to busk on the mean streets of the Royal Mile and prepared some cover versions and original bits to sing and play guitar to. I even made the very serious investment of purchasing a kazoo and bastardised harmonica holder to spice up the proceedings.

Considering I would never have dreamt of singing and playing in front of people under normal circumstances, coupled with the fact that I haven't picked up my guitar regularly for ages, it went really well! I made a few bob (I do really mean 'few'), didn't have rotten food thrown at me and massively upped my confidence levels. I had NOWHERE NEAR as big a crowd as some of the old hands, but it was muchly useful nonetheless.

I subsequently had a radio interview on Leith FM, where I played a couple of my original songs (I'll upload the catchily titled 'A Chinese Food Loving Vegetarian's Lament', based on a song you'll aaaaall know, soon...) and a couple of gigs at the legendary Bongo Club Cabaret where I had a fantastic time and realised that playing and singing in front of people and actually speaking(!) in between that, isn't actually all that bad. Lovely friendly place to discover that. Thank you Bongo and Rhymes with Purple! Who'd've thunk it? Lois of the Lane made a brief but triumphant appearance at the Bongo too. She's definitely here to stay :)

So, on the back of this, I've decided to start writing some more songs and do them on the comedy/cabaret circuit - as well as Ms of the Lane - and this evening I'm premiering a jaunty new song entitled 'The Last 2 Zombies in the World' which I knocked out on Sunday. A month or so early I suppose, but it's good to be prepared. (You never know when they might strike.) I'll get it recorded at some point soon and stick it on my singing page. Keep your eyes/ears peeled for more...

Since I've been back from the beautiful 'burgh I was a part of Jennifer Farmer's première performance of her new immersive theatre/sound play 'Conversations I Wish I Could Overhear' which was part of the Spit 'n' Scrub open studios at ASC Studios in Bow. I've also just found out that I've got a cracking part in a great piece called 'No Surprises' by Mikail Chowdhury, that's going to be part of a one off charity event on the afternoon of Saturday 16th of October. More details on this one soon. Really looking forward to getting my teeth into it!

Until then, here's a couple of picture of me busking on the Southbank, just before heading up to Edinburgh, taken by my friend Sarah:

You've gotta love a kazoo...

Tragic Cabinet Freakshow Twin Application Symposium and Waterloo East Busking!

2010-07-14T16:41:00.001+01:00

Another 4 months appears to have zipped past. They do that don't they?

Well, in April I was being all tragic in a masked version of The Bacchae for Chris Vervain which was filmed for use in schools. Helloooooooooooo Thebes!

In May I had another private Lois of the Lane gig and then subsequently found myself hanging out at Paul Zenon's cabinet of Curiosities at the Brighton Fringe:

I was generally being a helpful sailor and keeping an eye on Paul Garner's freakshow artwork:

June saw me freaking out with the Gawkagogo Freakshow again - this time at the Udderbelly on the Southbank as part of the Time Out Live Friday Night Freakshow. There was pigging and a bit of Siamese Twin action:

(Lots of black wig wearing going on over the past few months!)

Also finally put in an application to the Arts Council in June, for funding to re-develop and re-vamp Super Situation. ALL TOES ARE CROSSED. I've just been on a fund raising course too, so NOTHING WILL STOP ME...

Moving on to July, last Thursday I was part of Jennifer Farmer's 10 minute slot during the Brand writers symposium at the Southbank Centre as part of the London Literature Festival. She presented 4 small sections of piece she is developing entitled 'thefadingcity' which will ultimately be a large scale immersive theatre piece. I was doing random, absurd, interactive improvised stuff with kitchen implements, imaginary toxic ingredients and song. Love it :)

Coming up...

I'm putting on Super Situation and Glitch at the (almost) newly opened Waterloo East Theatre on Brad Street next week. Here be map. Also on the bill is 'Baby Rice Cakes' by Michele Hallak; performed by Michele and the Director of Super Situation: Jamie Rocha Allan. (We have the honour of being the first professional shows on there - whoop!) Important details below:

Thurs 22nd and Fri 23rd of July

7:30pm - Super Situation
9pm - Baby Rice Cakes followed by Glitch

£8 for one time slot, £10 for both

Box Office: 0207 928 0060

Click here for Facebook event.

It's part of the Best of Festivals season produced by Theatre6 which is warming up the theatre before it officially opens in September. Looking forward to cracking on with rehearsals next week :)

In August I'm going to be disappearing off to the Edinburgh Fringe to do a bit of busking for just over a week. As yet, I still have to dust off my guitar and come up with the songs, but, seemingly, I like a challenge!

The March-ing of Time

2010-03-08T13:16:00.005Z

Erk - another long update hiatus. As ever, stuff's been going down despite the radio silence.

First up, I had some marvellous new headshots taken at the end of October by Ceri Ashcroft. They are waiting in the electronic pile of bits to upload to my website when I manage to squeeze a long overdue website updating session in. Soon I hope! Soon... Here is one of 'em for now:

There are more on my Spotlight CV if yer interested.

The beady eyed of you will also notice on said CV that I have an agent! I'm now represented by Sharon Foster Management :)

Over a couple of Sundays in October I also got round to recording my little song with my bruv. It's called 'Really and True' and it's been uploaded to the site for a while now so you can listen to it here. (For those with a more offendable disposition than my own, there is mild 'language' from the start...) It's me on guitar, kazoo and vocal and my bro on thigh slapping, faux glockenspiel and faux accordion. Very pleased with how it's turned out. There'll be a proper link to it added during my next update session and, at some point, there'll be a video for it too. Raaaah!

In December, the Gawkagogo Freakshow descended upon The Lowry:

Much freakiness abounded and I got enjoy being part of the inaugural outing of the all new, literally all singing, all dancing Siamese Twin act, as well as the premier of the new Beatnik Piggy act and various other freaky gubbins. More Freakshow news at some point in the near future...

As for Lois of the Lane, she performed at the Comedy Cabin at the end of October and has had her a private gig so far this year at the RVT, with another private gig booked for elsewhere in May. On the Super Situation front, plans are still afoot for the next stage of the show. STILL VERY EXCITED!

Coming up, I'm going to be involved in a film production of The Bacchae in April. Amongst other things, it'll be a great chance to learn a good chunk of lines again. (So much silent performing over the past few years - which I LOVE, but speech based things do also most definitely float the boat.) Until then though, there must be a veritable cracking on with the stuff that needs to be done. Let me at 'em...

What a to-do

2009-09-30T18:09:00.000+01:00

Whilst all quiet on the blog front it's been all go in the real world...

My new show Super Situation was somehow finished in time after me spending most of the year hurtling at breakneck speed towards the ever looming deadline. We had a great couple of previews at Theatre 503 at the end of July and then off I headed to The Bongo Club for the whole of August for this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Wearing a Super Hero outfit almost every day for a month really ain't that bad and a great time was had by all. You can find reviews, photos and the rather wonderful Extraordinary Watch blog here.

I managed to get a great team on board to help me with the show (you knows it) and the plan now is to develop the show further and get ourselves a nice tour booked. Yum. Lots of work to be done.

Lois of the Lane also made a number of cabaret outings up at the Fringe this year including Sweet Venue's open mic night, the Generation Crunch night at Bedlam Theatre, the MOOnlight Sessions at the Cow Cafe in the Underbelly and last, but certainly not least - the Bongo Club Cabaret. Then, upon our return, she nipped straight off to do a gig in the teeny tiny Comedy Tent at the Offset Festival, where she ate lots of food and drank some oh-so-delicious free beer.

In Gawkagogo news, preparations are well underway for the next, re-vamped outing of the Gawkagogo Freakshow which will be rearing its beautifully ugly head on the 3rd of December at The Lowry in Manchester. I've got one half of a great new character to get my teeth into and some new Piggy antics to attack. Can't wait.

Some photos of three of the characters from the Freakshow, including me as the Pig Faced Girl, are up on Alexandra Jasper's website - taken for her collaborative 'Burlesque Grotesque' book project.

Finally, after picking up my geetar on Sunday for the first time in ages, I wrote a silly little song which there'll be a link to once I've got round to recording it. For now though, the to-do list must be tamed and the backlog of my life must be vanquished. Have at you!

My Super Situation

2009-06-03T15:01:00.002+01:00

The Edinburgh preparations continue...

The show is now written, as of Tuesday last week, and it's now onto casting the voices, putting together the soundtrack, finding more money, organising props, costume and rehearsals, putting together the flyer and press information and EVERYTHING ELSE! Lots to do, but I'm very excited.

Unfortunately I've been mysteriously let down by the Producer I thought I had on board, so valuable time has been wasted on that front, but hopefully I'll have someone else in the driving seat very, very soon (please).

Blurb deadlines have already past, so here's what's going in the Bongo Club brochure:

Enter the world of Extraordinary Girl, ordinary Jo turned Super Hero.

KA-BLAM!

Following exposure to a mysterious chemical at the hands of evil genius Megalomaniac Man, Extraordinary is one of the members of the Government-funded Unstoppable 5, always ready to come to the rescue (not leaving a great deal of time for much else...).

Lois Tucker's silent comedy creation Lois of the Lane returns to Edinburgh in this new visual comedy, following the transfer of her last show 'Glitch' to the British Library. Performed to a juicy soundtrack featuring great music and larger than life voice-overs.

THWACK!

along with this image:

I'm playing (almost) every day during the Festival in August at 3:30pm. Here are the dates:

5th-6th: £4
7th-16th, 18th-22nd, 24th-30th: £6.50, (£5 conc)

(Is that the sound of you writing those in your diary? Good, good.)

Much more news on all this soon. Now, back to work...

WANTED! - Producer/Partner in Crime

2009-04-15T02:49:00.000+01:00

It's full steam ahead over here at Tucker HQ. Preparations for my next show 'Super Situation' are well underway and I'm now looking for a Producer to help me sort all the stuff out that needs to be sorted out aside from writing the show - which I really ought to be getting on with - aaaarrgggh!

I've just posted an ad to www.artsjobs.org.uk which should be up in the next day or so all being well. Here it is in all its glory:

-----------------------------------------------------
Job - Producer/Partner in Crime
London, profit share, part-time, starting ASAP!
Contact - lois@loistucker.net

I'm a London based Actress who's been writing her own work for several years. I now want to step this up a gear and am well aware I can't do this all by myself...

I'm currently writing a one-woman visual comedy show to be performed at the Bongo Club during this year's Edinburgh Fringe. I'm looking for someone to help me with:

• securing more funding/sponsorship
• liaising with the people I've got lined up to help me with Press, Marketing, Directing, Design etc.
• putting together a venue pack for organising tour dates
• researching possible venues
• publicity during the Fringe
• flyering and promotion

The show will be great fun to work on and I will provide free accommodation in a very central location for the entire Festival.

You'll need:

• a good sense of humour
• good people skills
• a willingness to get stuck in
• experience of working at the Fringe
• a drive to make this work

I need someone who can be as excited about this project as I am and help me take it as far as it can go. I also need you on board asap so that I can get on with writing the show!

Ultimately I'm looking for someone to work with me long term so the role would suit someone interested in getting involved in/developing a small scale Theatre Company. Otherwise it’s simply a great opportunity to gain more experience.

More details about me and my stuff can be found here: www.loistucker.net

If you think working with me on this project would be of interest to you - please email me, detailing your previous experience and why this ridiculous venture is for you, and we can arrange to meet up over some kind of beverage and edible thing.
---------------------------------------------------

Hopefully the right person will pop up very soon and the next phase of world domination shall begin.

Apart from lots of show preparation gubbins, I managed to sneak in a little Lois of the Lane gig at the end of March at Bar Kick. I really am totally snowed under with stuff at the moment so that might be the last one for a while. (I am of course a sucker for punishment and this is probably all lies.)

Onwards!

All guns blazin

2009-03-20T19:26:00.003Z

Ooh, the joys of Spring :)

First up - I had a grand time performing Glitch at the British Library during January and February. Thanks to all who came down and made it so enjoyable! There are more performances of the show in the pipeline which I'll keep you up to date with when I have more information. At some point I'll get round to uploading the great photos that were taken during the month.

Following on from this marvellous run, I'm now putting together a new one woman show for this year's Edinburgh Fringe. Expect a 50 minute extravaganza, in the same style as Glitch - no spoken words from me, an accompanying soundtrack with words, music and sound effects, ridiculousness etc. I've got some great people on board already to help me with the project and I'm very excited to see what's going to pop out of my brain. I've already secured a fantastic venue so there'll be more on this very soon. Just got to find me some money from somewhere...

Lois of the Lane will be featuring in this new show, and in between me scrabbling around trying to get it all ready in time, she'll hopefully still be venturing out every so often to do the odd gig here and there. I took her over to Bob Slayer's comedy night at Dirty Dick's a few weeks ago, which went really well, despite an initial technical panic. Eep.

So, all go quite frankly - which is the way I like it!

GLITCH conquers snow :)

2009-02-03T15:29:00.001Z

Ignore the post below, Glitch for this evening is now GO GO GO!!

I'm on at 5:30pm and 7pm.

Details here.

Rah!

Snow conquers GLITCH :(

2009-02-03T13:37:00.001Z

Unfortunately, due to the exciting snow situation (woo hoo!) the bit of the British Library I'm performing in will be closing at 5pm tonight, meaning that both of my shows this evening have been cancelled.

(I was all ready to battle in with my husky and snow shoes and everything.)

I will however be back on Saturday to carry on fighting the good fight...

Proper post with more news and stuff SOON!

Earth calling Lois - do you copy?

2008-11-14T00:17:00.001Z

Despite what the radio silence of late may suggest, I can assure you that I did indeed make it back from the Edinburgh Fringe in one piece at the end of August - never you fear. I had a very good, useful trip up there with me and my alter ego, meeting a whole host of lovely talented people and doing some storming gigs, performing for the Bongo Club Cabaret, Sideshow, Bob Slayer's 'You Bastard' and Carnival des Phenomenes. Thanks to all who made it such a marvellous 2 mini trips.

Now, back at grindstone central, things are bubbling away nicely. I've had a good few of gigs as Ms of the Lane - 3 back in September: Electric Mouse Comedy's one off re-creation of Bob Slayer's Edinburgh show at The Paradise; my second private gig and thirdly the Red Velvet Curtain Cult's 'Lust and Luxuria' night at Whitechapel Art Gallery where I premiered a new stoopid act, plus a gig in October at Resistance Gallery's 'Anti Frieze' party. I'm back at the latter this weekend to perform as part of Lucha Britannia's Winter Weekender:

Aside from cabaret bits, my little one woman black comedy GLITCH is to be making an exciting re-appearance early next year. I'll be performing it at the British Library's Taking Liberties exhibition, Tuesdays and Saturdays from mid January to mid February:

Tuesdays 20, 27 Jan and 3, 10 Feb
at 17:30 and 19:00

Saturdays 24, 31 Jan and 7, 14 Feb
at 13:00, 14:30 and 16:00

Here's the latest version of the blurb:

A 30-minute black comedy performance set in an imaginary near future. A lone traveller finds herself trapped during an automated security check. Rather than succumb to the totalitarian surveillance, she attempts to outwit the machine and make a bid for freedom.

There really is some great stuff going on as part of this exhibition so I'm over the moon to be involved in it!

Now onto the grand plan mentioned in the last post... Well, not much in the way of juicy tidbits for you just yet, but to whet your whistle, I'm in the very early stages of developing a Feature Film. It's going to be a slightly surreal character comedy involving many of the bright and talented sparks that I know. Very excited. Updates will be posted here.

Can't wait to get properly stuck in...

Fringe at the Fringe

2008-08-20T23:33:00.004+01:00

Just a quickie.

Not long back from a brief jaunt to the Edinburgh Fringe where I ate pies, drank drink, shot the breeze and did some cabaret. Back up there again tomorrow to do the final weekend fling. Details of most of my gigs can be found on my MySpace Page.

Returning to The Smoke on Monday to regroup and put some more wheels in motion for my big, new, grand plan...

Devilish New Photos

2008-07-24T05:11:00.001+01:00

Well hello there. I've just about recovered from the Latitude Festival (eee it were grand) in time to mention my appearance as Ms Lois of the Lane this Friday the 25th of July in 'And the Devil May Drag You Under'

Details:

"A Twisted Vaudevillian Romp" TIME OUT - Critic's Choice

FINAL LONDON PREVIEW - FRIDAY 25TH JULY

FEATURING THE LOST SOULS OF:

Des O'Connor as "THE DEVIL"
Pustra/Vile-een's Vaudeville as "CLAMMY DO AND THE CORN DOGS"
Lizzie Wort as "MISS MEPHISTO"
Scottee as "SCOTTEE"
Honey Lulu as "THE MERRY WIDOW"
Lois Tucker as "LOIS OF THE LANE"
plus
Archibald Floss

Volupte Lounge
7-9 Norwich Street
London
EC4A 1EJ
Nearest Tube: Chancery Lane (Central Line)

Doors: 6:15pm
Showtime: 7pm-8:30pm
Standing Room £5
Concessions available
2 for 1 Cocktails 5pm-8pm
info@volupte-lounge.com

And The Devil May Drag You Under is a darkly hilarious slice of razor-sharp, lightning quick comedy and song wrapped up in a thrillingly wicked story told by a dysfunctional family of colourful characters. Damnation Never Looked This Good!

www.myspace.com/thedevilmaydragyouunder
www.youtube.com/andthedevilmaydrag

Get yourselves down there for one hell of a time. (Sorry - couldn't resist.)

I've just had some more fantastic Lois of the Lane photographs taken by Emre Soykan. Most of my faves are now uploaded to my MySpace and I'll be getting on to putting them up here asap...

For now, here's a taster:

Alive and Amplified

2008-06-14T04:30:00.001+01:00

Been beavering away over here on a new Lois of the Lane act which I'll be performing at The Red Velvet Curtain Cult's '(Truth &) Lies' evening at The Bethnal Green Working Man's Club next Thursday the 19th of June. The night's a mask and dress up affair (dress code: Vagabonds, Butterflies, Carnival Freaks, Alter Egos, Dopplegangers, Victorian swooning ladies, Eccentric Gents, Vintage Belles, N'er do wells, Spies, Dead Poets, Faux Queens, Fake Kings, the Devil himself...) which promises: "productions and destructions, illusions and delusions and the conception of deception with performances, art, happenings, devilish delectables, oddities and conundrums galore.". More details here, and here's the flyer:

After this skewed affair, I'm going to be singing Second Soprano in a piece entitled 'Steta Speaks: The Opera', a 6-10min piece for 9 voices - concept and text by Rachel Greaves, score by Gregory Emfietzis - at the Byam Shaw Fine Art Degree Show on Monday the 23rd of June between 6 and 8pm and then Wednesday the 25th of June between 3 and 4pm.

Then (unless anything crops up beforehand) it'll be off to the Latitude Festival with me as The Pig-Faced Girl in the Gawkagogo Freakshow. The Freakshow tent's coming with us, to be pitched in what will become 'Pandora's Playground', and we'll also be headlining the Cabaret Stage on the Friday. Lots of happy squealing from me :)

The Edinburgh Fringe will be waving its cheeky little hand at all and sundry after this. I'm hopping up there a couple of times on the 9hr Coach of Joy to peddle Lois of the Lane to the masses. Hopefully, they won't know what's hit 'em. More on this when I have it...

Headshots and Hayfever

2008-05-12T19:03:00.005+01:00

Yes it's that time again.

Making it for the Spotlight deadline, almost by the skin of my teeth, I've had some glorious new headshots taken by Kirill Kozlov. I've uploaded my favourites to the gallery page. Sarah Costley has taken some more great pictures of me too and they have also made their way to the gallery. I took this opportunity to do a bit of code spring cleaning so the whole page should work more smoothly. Along with this there are some more photos in the Production Shots section. (So many pictures of me...)

On Wednesday of this week, May the 14th, we have the last Gawkagogo Freakshow in this round of shows, in which I'll be Pig-Faced Girl-ing and clowning around. Here's the latest flyer:

It's at Vibe Live, above the Vibe Bar on Brick Lane. It'll be a superbly wrong evening's entertainment. (Go on. You know you want to.)

Almost lastly - there's a podcast on Youtube about the Wooden Swordsman test I was involved in in March. Here it is:

More information about the project can be found here.

Definitely lastly, and by no means least-ly - I'm going to be starting work on a new show imminently. I have no idea what it'll be, but I'm rather excited nonetheless. Throw some money at me!! Updates when I have 'em.

Freaks and Swordsman

2008-03-29T14:18:00.001Z

Two more dates are lined up for the extended version of the Gawkagogo Freakshow.

Here's the flyer:

Last month's show was a freakish success!

Aside from pigging, I've had an afternoon puppeteering a Wooden Swordsman during rehearsals for a pilot scene of The Dark Side of the Earth, a fantastic fantasy film. This is the puppeteering team, and indeed the Swordsman himself, in action:

More soon, undoubtedly.

I laugh in the face of tonsillitis. Ha!

2008-02-26T20:36:00.002Z

So, the latest round of Glitch performances went down a storm. Thank you to all of you who made it along and to all who helped out. Another sell-out!! I had a great time and managed to get a few photographs taken - a couple of which you can see below. I look ever so serious...

When I've got all of the pictures on my computer I'll upload 'em properly. Hopefully there'll be more dates for Glitch, so watch this space. Want to start developing a new project too...

I've got two Lois of the Lane gigs this week. The first at Velvet's 9th Cabaret and Burlesque meetup at Madame Jojo's on Thursday the 28th and the second at The Red Velvet Curtain Club's Lunacy evening at The Whitechapel Art Gallery on Friday the 29th. Both should be very different and very entertaining evenings!

Then there's another happening for the Gawkagogo Freakshow at The Vibe Lounge above the Vibe Bar on Brick Lane on March the 12th. Here's the back of the flyer:

So if you missed the Barden's show, now's yer chance to see a revamped re-run!

Off to the kitchen now to go douse myself in some more honey and hot water. I shall be triumphant.

Another year, another dose of Glitch

2008-01-09T23:20:00.002Z

Happy New Year!

Yup, my one woman dystopian black comedy Glitch is back and this time will feature me as my silent comedy alter ego Lois of the Lane.

It's playing at the Etcetera Theatre in Camden for 5 nights. Get yer bottoms down there!

There might even be some more free badges:

(Not that I'm trying to bribe you or anything.)

A little potted history of Glitch can be found on my Projects page and here's the blurb:

Welcome to Room 8933 and the new 'Stay Safe!' Character Vetting Process!

'Stay Safe!' marks the dawn of a new era of security at Passport Control. A few minutes and a short digital questionnaire later: you're free to continue your onward journey.

Quick, simple efficient and painless: 'Stay Safe!' - for you, for us, for everyone.

What could possibly go wrong...?

December was a very Crimbly affair for meself (the usual rushing about the shops, sweating profusely and much merrymaking) but I did manage to appear as the Fairy Godmother in Total Rock's Christmas Panto 'Cinderella Boberella' for me mate Talita.

'Twas rhymetastic!

2008 holds good stuff in store methinks...

Bring it all on.

Oh yes indeed.

Ooh, it's got a bit nippy ain't it?

2007-10-21T16:32:00.000+01:00

Brrr...

Again, lots of stuff since the last post. The Gawkagogo Freakshow tent went down a storm in the Pleasance Courtyard at this year's Edinburgh Fringe and subsequently we've done a one off, massively extended version of the show, with special guests, at the infamous Barden's Boudoir...

...which also went down mightily well!

There will inevitably be more Freakshow news soon...

November beckons, and with it comes a series of private screenings of 'Small Talk', the multi-award winning short film I starred in last year. It's being screened alongside 2 other short films - 'The Trousseau' and 'Crossed Lines' which feature friends as the lead in each. Here are the dates, times and places:

Tuesday November 13th – Riverside Studios, Hammersmith
1:30pm / 2:30pm / 3:30pm – THE TROUSSEAU
1:45pm / 2:45pm / 3:45pm – SMALL TALK
2:00pm / 3:00pm / 4:00pm – CROSSED LINES

Wednesday November 14th - Curzon, Soho
6:00pm - THE TROUSSEAU
6:15pm - SMALL TALK
6:30pm - CROSSED LINES

Thursday November 15th – The Pleasance Theatre, Islington
1:30pm / 2:30pm – THE TROUSSEAU
1:45pm / 2:45pm – SMALL TALK
2:00pm / 3:00pm – CROSSED LINES

and here are the blurbs:

------------------------------------------------------------
THE TROUSSEAU - 17min - Starring Maria Thomas
When the young British Ama learns of her mother’s death she decides to return to her birthplace in Ghana. The women of her clan question her suitability in taking her grandmother’s place in the funeral preparations, but Ama breaks with tradition and proves them wrong, finding a means to express her sorrow.

Nominated for ‘Best Actress’ and ‘Best Short Film’ at the BFM 8th International Film Festival 2006.

Screened as part of Africa in the Picture season at the Amsterdam Film Festival 2007.
------------------------------------------------------------
SMALL TALK - 13min - Starring me
A short Black Comedy. Madeline is an introverted telephone operator who amuses herself by making prank calls to unsuspecting Londoners passing by the phone box outside her flat. One day she's caught off guard when someone she calls decides to make small talk back...

1st Prize for the ‘Best Digital Film’ at the 13th International Short Film Festival in Drama (Greece) 2007.

‘Best Non-Italian Short Film’ at Kaleidoshorts 2007, organised by the Italian Embassy.

‘Best Student Drama’ at the Southern Royal Television Society Awards 2006/2007.

Digital Video Practice Award for ‘Best Student Short’ at the End of the Pier Film Festival 2007.
------------------------------------------------------------
CROSSED LINES - 14min - starring Keith Eyles
Do actions really equal consequences or is life just a lottery and can something as random as a number actually change everything? In just a few hours Jonathan Shepherd’s life is about to change drastically in this dark tale about infidelity, hypocrisy, mixed communication, bad timing and how far someone will go to protect what they have...

Premier screening of this new film, written, directed and produced by Keith Eyles.
------------------------------------------------------------

You can find my finely crafted e-flyer for the screenings here. If you're interested in attending one of them, please let me know. Tickets are limited.

Before November we have ourselves Halloween. This year I'm going to be working with Gawkagogo on their Voodoo Witchdoctor Automaton installation. We'll be at Torture Garden's Halloween Ball on the 27th and Opal Nera's Halloween Ball at T Bar on the 31st. Come get your diagnosis!

Lastly, but certainly not least, I've had several Lois of the Lane gigs and have another coming up at 'You Little Minx' at Tiger Tiger in Croydon on the 2nd of November. I've had some wonderful promotional pictures taken of her which I'll be uploading soon, along with lots of other information, so watch this space.

Off now to go and dig out me thermals...

Lois of the Lane, Pig in the Mud, Firey Clowning and More!

2007-08-08T15:39:00.000+01:00

Good grief, a whole heap of a lot of stuff has happened since I last posted on here. Wearisome wi-fi woe has been holding me back on the update front, but now I am victorious (haha wireless router - I have tamed you! Feel my power!) and ready to spill all sorts of beans and the like.

So, first up - Lois of the Lane, my cabaret creation. She's a smiley silent comedy girl with a penchant for a bit of ridiculousness. The blurb so far:

Lois of the Lane - Nerd of few words. Snazzy dresser. Sharp mover. Lover of fine music and fine unexpectedness. Eater of cheese. Wearer of eyebrow. Purveyor of the most delicious bitesized chunks of silent comedy this side of Vaudeville. You have been warned!

Each of my acts, otherwise known as 'Random Acts of Ridiculousness' are around 4-5 minutes long and comprise of much stupidity :) I currently have 3, (very nearly 4) ready and raring to go, entitled 'Opus One', 'The Box of 1,000 Dances' and 'Showdown'.

My first gig at the opening night of Red Dress' Supper Club: 'You Little Minx' on the 29th of June was a storming success. This is me, mid 'Box of 1,000 Dances', photographed by Moira Lovell:

My next gigs will be at The Vaudeville Cabaret Club during the last 10 days of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. When I have exact dates, I'll post 'em.

I'm getting some 'Lois of the Lane' promotional photos done, then there'll be a whole re-vamp of my website to accommodate my new alter ego. Lots and lots to do...

Next - The Gawkagogo Freakshow!

We had a fantastic time at the Glastonbury and Latitude festivals. A constant stream of people, endless queues to get in and a bit of coverage on Channel 4 in the form of Carling's Festival Postcards. (You can watch our bit in the show here.)

Now it's off to the Pleasance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with us and the micro carny tent. Information and stuff here. We're on from the 18th - 27th of August, playing every 15 minutes from 7pm - 9pm and we are one of the 20 must-see acts at the Edinburgh Fringe. You definitely must see us then.

While we're up there, Paul's got another exhibition going at the Hula Juice Bar, Grassmarket. Details here.

Lastly, Gawkagogo joined the Fire Tusk Pain Proof Circus at their spectacular gig at The Roundhouse on the 27th of July, as part of the 'Circus Front' season. I had much fun clowing around as Hooters :) Here be gallery:

(Actually, this is lastly - pictures from Glastonbury and Latitude:)

(Image above: courtesy of Sonny Malhotra - Reportage Photography.)

Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuud!!

First gig and Moosic

2007-06-06T02:14:00.000+01:00

So, yes! I've got my very first solo Cabaret gig booked :D You'll find me and my new act at Tiger Tiger in Croydon on the 29th of June. The night's called 'You Little Minx' and the details are here. It should be a fantastic evening, so dust off your glad rags one and all! Details of my actual act are yet to be revealed, but they'll be posted on here before the big day, if I manage to organise meself. Rest assured that it'll be stoopid and much fun.

On an entirely different note (cheap link Lois, cheap link) I've been doing a bit of singing for a band called 'I Eat Fog'. You can find me doing just that for them - singing, not eating fog - here. (You need to scroll down and click on the 'I Eat Fog' album - there are 2 tracks.)

On the Gawkagogo Freakshow front, all is shaping up verrrry nicely. I've barely lifted a finger on it yet. I think my small part of the hard work is just about to start kicking in...

Freaks! Awards! Beards! Spies!

2007-05-09T13:25:00.000+01:00

This summer is looking to be a rather enjoyable one with me disappearing off to 3 festivals: Glastonbury, Latitude and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of the Gawkagogo Freakshow:

"A new fast-paced, edgily funny modern rockabilly pop-culture twist on a classic freakshow - but compacted in time and space! Using the classic grind show format, Gawkagogo Freakshow consists of a rapid-fire, action-packed 15-minute freakish variety bill. The show features quick-change cartoon-style costumes, weird puppetry, stage illusion and audience interaction, to produce an experience unlike anything the audience has ever seen before. Introduced and run by the trio of Gawkagogo hosts, the Freakshow features a varying bill including some of the acclaimed Gawkagogo roster of characters, like: Elephant Man Elvis ("Comedy Genius" LONDON EVENING STANDARD), Dali Parton, Norma Guntz and her Tom Jones Tumour, Dennis Hopperfield The House Fly Liberarnie, Mentalo: Master Of Mentalism, The Invisible Man Magician."

'ave it!!

Gawkagogo's 'C*nt Bingo' was nominated for "Most Original Act" in the this year's Ministry of Burlesque Awards following our appearance at Candy Box in February. I thoroughly enjoyed meself, dancin like a loon, at the awards ceremony at The Pigalle Club on Sunday. (No one was harmed during said dancing. Well, as far as I know.)

With all of this cabaret stuff I seem to have got myself into, it's about time I sorted out my own act, which is what I'm doing right now. More on this soon...

I also want to get some music stuff on here, so I should be sorting that out and uploading it when it's ready to go.

Old news that I didn't get round to posting in time:

I was one of the voices in the afternoon play 'Delayed Departures' last week on Radio 4, written by Matthew Solon, Produced/Directed by John Dryden and starring Matthew Solon, Samantha Bond and Robert Gwylim. Bizarre to be doing Airport Announcements after Glitch! Here's me (whilst we were recording in a hotel room) with some of the equipment, looking like a Russian Spy:

Bondtastic!

Ooh, here's another photo of me (it's all me, me, me...) as the Demon Barber Bearded Lady in Gawkagogo's Damnation Alley at The Texas Chainsaw Travelling Horror Picture Show's 1st Birthday Massacre in March:

Photo courtesy of Stef Lindeque.
It was rather freezing in my doorway, but it was well worth it.

Right, back to shaking my brain around a bit to see what comes out...

SHOWREEL!! (Amongst other things)

2007-03-03T16:17:00.001Z

First up - my showreel is finally finished! Huge thanks to my flatmate Jamie for having all the necessary cables and bits and bobs to set me on the right track. The many long hours I spent sat alone in front of my computer have paid off and I'm very pleased with the final version. So, come one, come all - witness the glory! (I'm a bit over excited. Can you tell?)

Secondly, 'Small Talk' has won some kind of award. When I find out exactly what it was it'll be put straight on my CV! It was screened again on the 15th of February at the NFT as part of Eat Our Shorts.

At the end of this month, on the 23rd, I'm going to be part of Gawkagogo's 'Damnation Alley' at The Texas Chainsaw Travelling Horror Picture Show's 1st Birthday do at Electrowerkz. I think there may well be some kind of facial hair involved :D

Last week I was part of the 365 event at The Pleasance. I found myself part of 'Constant 2' and 'Ask The Experts'.

Before I go, here are some pictures taken at the Candy Box Burlesque Valentine's Spectacular, courtesy of Cherry Bomb Rock Photography:

More pictures here.

(Did I mention that I've finished my showreel...?)

Loadsa stuff

2007-01-23T02:34:00.000Z

Glitch proved to be a sellout success at the Etcetera on the 11th and 12th. Thanks to all who came! I had some fantastic feedback and I'm planning on putting the show on again in London asap. More on that soon hopefully...

Prior to my Glitch performances, in the midst of the preparations, I found myself prancing around on Gawkagogo's stage at Torture Garden's New Year's Eve bash. We started dancing at 9pm and went right through to 6am. (Well, I was more 'shuffling' for a number of hours.)

During the evening I inhabited the bodies of a Pig Faced Child:

Bearded Lady:

and Hooters the Clown:

(You can really tell how tired we all were by this point!)

On another Hooters note - me and her (us) are heading up to Brum next month in Gawkagogo's extra large suitcase for the Candy Box Burlesque Valentine Spectacular at the Glee Club on the 11th. There's going to be a live band to accompany shenanigans and everything. Looking forward to it!

After that I'm going to be involved in the 356 plays event at The Pleasance in Norf London. Not entirely sure how yet, but all shall be made clear...

Ooh, and Paul Garner's Monster Art Exhibition is still going on at Tusk Tattoo in town. The opening night was great fun! Photos n stuff here.

Glitch in London! + Monsters!

2006-12-14T14:17:00.000Z

*Stop Press!* My Edinburgh Festival creation 'Glitch' is going to be doing the business in London on the 11th and 12th of January 2007.

I'm on at 9:30pm at the Etcetera Theatre in Camden.

The ticket price of £6.50 includes a £1.50 membership fee (valid for a year) so you can go see the shows on before me at 7:30pm then just pay a £5er to enjoy the Glitch experience.

2 shows for £11.50/£12.50. Barginous!

All the booking details are here, should you wish to book :)

Off tonight to be Hooters the Clown at the Press Launch of Paul Garner's Monster Art Exhibition. Here's the spiel:

---------------------------------------------------

HERE BE MONSTERS!!!

We dare you to pay a visit to
PAUL GARNER's MONSTER ART EXHIBITION
December 15th - February 15th
TUSK TATTOO, 1 Stukeley Street (off Drury Lane), Covent Garden, London WC2

Paul Garner's art peers behind the curtain of a sinister sideshow underworld where cartoon geeks, zombie kids and unspeakable things from the slab mingle menacingly with the ones that the Scooby Doo gang let get away. Spawned by a lifelong obsession with all things dark, Paul's canvases conjure up the cast of a demonic Disneyland in which only Pugsley and Wednesday Addams' dreams could come true; there are portraits of classic Universal horror film icons, grotesques who seem to have leapt from the pages of Famous Monsters magazine, sketchbook renderings of random monsters from Paul's id... and more!
Paul Garner's work has been used on poster, t-shirt and CD cover art, tattoo design, as well as appearing in movie & music magazines, as film concept art, giant murals and toy design. Now this twisted gallery of oddities has found it's natural home on the carnival midway walls of London's Tusk Tattoo. The exhibition also features photographs of Gawkagogo, Paul and partner Sarah Nield's groundbreaking half-cartoon, half-freakshow theatre & cabaret troupe, previously described by the press as "Toys 'r' Us meets Jerry Springer" and "Spitting Image meets Blue Velvet".

ORIGINAL ARTWORK AND PRINTS FOR SALE!!!

Open 11:30 to 7:00 Monday to Saturday and 12:30 to 6:00 on Sundays.

PAUL GARNER ART
Original artwork / Tattoo Design / Custom Monsters / T-Shirt Design / Limited Edition Prints
---------------------------------------

Must go and polish me nose...

As the end of another year approaches...

2006-11-09T16:16:00.000Z

So, I did 'Glitch', all those months ago, and it went rather well! There's a nice quote on my Projects page (which has had a bit of an update, along with the Links page...). When I manage to pull my finger out it shall be put on down in the Big Smoke. More on this as and when.

Since then there has been another screening of 'Small Talk' at Crypt on the Green and I found myself lost in Gawkagogo's Halloween maze/Haunted Fun House at Torture Garden's Halloween Ball and Opal Nera's Halloween bash. It was a long old haul but great to scare the hell out of people!

More news soon, all being well...

Not long now...

2006-08-16T21:25:00.000+01:00

I've been up in Edinburgh for nearly a week. Only a few days left until my first performance/preview. Lots still to be done, but I'm quietly confident and rather excited!

I've managed to get a bit of last minute direction from Richard Hurst and he's been spreading the good word.

Done a fair amount of badge distribution too - to keep the show in people's heads. I think they're rather attractive and am rather chuffed with them!

On another note: 'Small Talk' is being screened at the Portbello Film Festival this Saturday. Click here for more info.

Right. Back to the Festivities... :)

Bootiful poster and flyer!

2006-07-22T13:31:00.000+01:00

The result of a few computer-bound, hot and sticky days:

Poster

Back of Flyer

Hours well spent methinks :D

Thanks Jae!

It's really happening then I guess...

2006-07-14T14:05:00.000+01:00

You can now find 'Glitch' on the Fringe website as well as the Pleasance's:

www.edfringe.com

I'm still busy writing... eep!

Heeeelp!

2006-07-06T02:38:00.000+01:00

Tickets for Glitch are now on sale at the Pleasance:

tel 0131 556 6550
www.pleasance.co.uk

should you fancy a cheeky little bit of pre-booking!

Preparations for the show are bubbling away nicely. Still lots to do...

I have an image for the show now, kindly designed by Jae who'll also be designing the rest of my print and a logo for me. Keep your eyes open for this beauty amongst the myriad of posters and flyers:

Don't think you can miss it!

On another note, there's another screening of 'Small Talk' at the Ritzy in Brixton this Friday at 10am. Just turn up if you fancy a looksee :)

In computer we trust

2006-06-20T20:34:00.002+01:00

It seems that I am putting together a last minute how-many-days-are-left?! one woman show for this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

I totally missed all the brochure deadlines and I'm not on sale online yet, but for your well kept diaries: the show's called 'Glitch' and you can find me at the Pleasance Dome from the 20th - 28th of August at 5:30pm.

It's an anarchic, half-hour visual comedy in the spirit of 2003's 'Deeper Underground' that lightly skims the mirth inducing subject of National Security.

More details to follow...

Aside from Glitching I've been doing a little bit of filming for a sketch show pilot and I now have a copy of 'Small Talk' on DVD. Looking into getting it online...

I haven't got out of my pyjamas today and I haven't eaten heartily in the slightest. I'm taking this as a healthy sign of a project underway. (I have cunningly forgotten my mid afternoon nap...) Onwards and Glitchwards I go!

Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where that Lois is...?

2006-05-26T14:56:00.000+01:00

No news is good news - or something like that...

I've been rather slack with the updates on here, but things have been happening nonetheless.

Just finished a shoot for a music video with Jasmin Jodry at the helm. It's a dark and moody green screen delight with me as a victim of a Vampire of time in a souless metropolis. Looking forward to seeing it in all its eerie glory.

I've also been a Post Production office's Tea Lady love interest in a project for students of West Herts College in Watford, and bagged the main part in a great little short by graduating students of UCCA down in Farnham (formally SIAD) called 'Small Talk', which has an Amelie / Lost In Translation feel about it according to people who've seen it so far. There's going to be a screening of 'Small Talk' at the Curzon in Soho next month, and I think some more screenings following this one are in the pipeline.

When I have copies of all of these projects I'll post a link to them/upload to the site.

Showreel here we come...?!

I've also had a re-jig of my News page, along with the rest of the website. As always - let me know if something isn't working properly as I'm doing all this on my lovely, getting on a bit now, Mac.

Should hopefully have some more exciting news in the next few days fingers crossed...

Last Call!

2005-11-10T13:13:00.000Z

And there's more!

2005-11-05T15:12:00.000Z

VEGA$M's Four Star Time Out review can be found here

Ooh, and we were No 1 Critics' Choice in the Evening Standard earlier on this week...

VEGA$M - Time Out 'Critic's Choice'!

2005-11-02T15:34:00.000Z

Press stuff

2005-10-29T15:30:00.000+01:00

Ok - first review of VEGA$M's London run can be found here at: thisislondon.com. There was a glorious large colour picture to go with it in yesterday's Evening Standard which isn't alongside the online copy, so I've stuck another one on today's post :)

Also, in The Times today is an article on Brand X's masterminds: Sarah Nield and Paul Garner, that'll give you kind of an idea of where they're coming from! Find that here.

Aaand - I did end up being part of the Naked News interview! The story was mainly all about Brand X so I kept in character and said nothing :P It's not my brainchild - I'm just here for the ride!! When I know the broadcast date of the interview I'll let you know...

The Showlounge that's not so much off the Strip as on the Slide...

2005-10-27T15:01:00.000+01:00

Well, opening and second night went down a storm!!

The VEGA$M showlounge is well and truly open for business so drop in if you can make it. It's a whole different show to our Edinburgh escapade so if you saw it up there, come see us again! All those hours, weeks, months (and a whole year in the case of Brand X!) have really paid off.

Come dressed Vegas style and have a free drink on the house :D

Press night tonight and an interview with Naked News. Don't think I'll be part of the interview which is fine by me as I wouldn't have a clue where to look!!

Back in business

2005-09-27T19:13:00.000+01:00

Radio silence - bad...

You can now see me in my half a second, painful, bookish glory in Filament Pictures' 'Figure of Speech', filmed for the Cobra Vision competition, here (click on 'September' on that page if you can't see it straight away...) Blink and you may miss me, but the whole thing's worth a look.

If you think it's the bees knees, then vote for it as your favourite of the month here (I'm guessing there's not much time left on that one...)

Aaand - the London run of VEGA$M draws ever closer. Expect a full on revamp!

Reviews

2005-08-20T15:44:00.000+01:00

I've done a bit of a mini internet trawl and come across a few online reviews for VEGA$M...

Read The Stage review here ("What looks like the Scissor Sisters’ demeted acid cousins present a kitsch Vegas show dripping with camp and loaded with more laughs than a fruit machine full of dogs in hats...")

the Chortle review here ("Gawkagogo, one of the most distinctive – if not the most distinctive – comedy groups in the country, produce a typically over-the-top and twisted mouthpiece for their imaginative and artistic creations...")

and what the punters are saying (good and bad!) here

As well as doing the show and various cabaret gigs ( Robin Ince's Book Club, The Odditorium at Spank! and The Vaudeville Cabaret at The Bongo Club) we seem to have ended up performing in one of Arthur Smith's famous Edinburgh walks. This year it's Swan Lake. Very silly and - yesterday - rather rainy, but definitely an experience for all involved - performers, punters and passers-by alike!

More soon...?

Week 2?!

2005-08-13T16:41:00.000+01:00

Last night we had a standing ovation after the show so I thought that was well worth a mention on here :)

Only one review so far by a guy from The Metro who found it wasn't his cup of tea, but this hasn't stopped the good vibe being passed around by people who really have enjoyed it...

(If you're in Edinburgh, you can find me wandering around the Pleasance Courtyard of an evening looking something like this)

Entering my August reality

2005-07-27T12:09:00.000+01:00

I've been VEGA$M-ing left right and centre for the past couple of weeks. Props and costumes are still being made (and will probably be being made right up until we need to go on stage for our first preview - there are so many!) but the show is shaping up very well indeed. There has been lots of giggling! Yesterday I had possibly the biggest headrush of my life whilst painting some set. Hehe - I'm still covered in paint today! Back off to rehearsals/making stuff this afternoon/evening. Think it's our last run through tonight before we set off on Friday. Once we're up and running in Edinburgh I plan to post reviews, or at least links to reviews, on here, if I can nab a computer every so often. Our first performance is a week today...

Take your pic

2005-07-13T00:23:00.000+01:00

Well, it's taken me more hours than I care to think about (I really should learn how to do all the whizzy things that my software almost certainly does or track down some freebie software that does at least one specific thing that I need...) but I have fiiiiinally uploaded my favourite photos from the photoshoot I had with Scott Hallman a couple of months back. There are some corkers! Take a gander at my gallery page if you fancy a nose through them.

The story continues...

2005-07-11T18:48:00.000+01:00

Just read the script for issue 2 of Wet Shards

Wowzer

Bring out the cheese and wine...

2005-07-06T21:32:00.000+01:00

...I've finished pencilling the first issue of Wet Shards!!

I need to run all the images past John and Vittoria of FoolishPeople next week, so there may be a few adjustments to be made before I start the inking, but right now I'm feeling in a bit of a celebratory mood :)

Rehearsals for VEGA$M are coming on apace. More on that soon...

Where am I...?

2005-06-18T11:44:00.000+01:00

Phew! I've just come round after being hit on the head repeatedly with a red Encyclopedia on Tuesday morning...

It was all in aid of the Cobra Vision short film competition being run by Cobra Beer. Won't go into more detail now so's not to spoil the filmakers' chances but when I have a copy of the 5 second short I'm in, directed by Richard Merritt and Martin Christien, I'll upload it for your sniggering pleasure :)

I will, however, just say for the record, that it was all done with mirrors.

hehe...

Covered in rubber shavings

2005-06-08T18:25:00.000+01:00

It's still all go with issue one of Wet Shards...

Currently I'm about a third of the way through the final pencilled
version, so that's 7 pages out of 22 sitting around waiting to be inked
when it's time to be inking. This picture is a section of one of the
panels I've done so far. Not giving anything away ;)

On the VEGA$M front: my costume is almost finished and its a corker I can tell you! The pace will be picking up in the rest of this area very soon (from my end of things anyway - Brand X are already preparing things for the show at a rate of knots...)

Is it really June already?!

Sheesh

One of those fancy right angled ruler things would be nice...

2005-05-25T01:43:00.000+01:00

There has been a whole lot of Maths going on in the world of Wet Shards. Lots of bits of paper covered with scribbled numbers (the majority being after a decimal point) and fractions, dappled with beads of sweat. Thankfully all that mindbending stuff is seemingly out of the way and full on drawing drawing drawing has been occuring - again, a bit mind bending for my underpracticed brain cells but hugely enjoyable once they've warmed up! I've got myself a strict weekly schedule so pencilled pages shall be appearing at regular intervals. I may scan one or two of them to post somewhere on the site at some point...

Missing, presumed dead, for the month of August

2005-05-17T17:58:00.000+01:00

Great news of the day: looks like I'm set to hit the Edinburgh Festival in a few months time with Brand X's new show 'VEGA$M'!!

From past experience with Brand X I know for a fact that it's going to be one helluva Summer in every way you can think of!

I'll post updates as I get them, but for now - check out what you're in store for here...

Keep on keeping on

2005-05-08T13:51:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I had a photo shoot courtesy of Scott Hallman of Funk Vision (the company I'm doing the Short Horror Film with.) Lots of good piccies! I've got several hundred of them to sift through, so it will be a while until I've managed to find time to choose the best selection, but when I've done that they shall be straight up on my Gallery page! Will let you know when that's done...

Wet Shards update: Most of the pictures have now been found. Only a handful left to get. Fingers crossed I shall be drawing away fevershly next week... Woo hoo!

As for today - Emma will be round in about 10 minutes so we can do some more work on our Sitcom Treatment. Teabags are at the ready! :)

Great use of the garden

2005-05-04T00:47:00.000+01:00

Yesterday me and Emma sat in the Bank Holiday sun and did some more prep work for our sitcom. We are now the proud owners of six back-of-a-dvd/television-guide type blurbs - one for each of our planned episodes. It took some work to whittle our complicated plots down to this size whilst still retaining their quirkyness, but we got there in the end with the aid of a couple of cups of tea, some nice biscuits and a smattering of birdsong. Now to rejig the treatment a bit and write a few short taster sections of dialogue...

On the Wet Shards front, Vittoria from FP has been trawling through Google image search as well, finding some great pictures, so the list of stuff to find gets ever smaller and the inking of issue one gets ever closer. My deadline is the end of this month. That really doesn't feel very far away in the slightest...

Chop chop

2005-04-28T03:13:00.000+01:00

It may have been a bit quiet on this here news page of late, but it has been nonstop in Lois land I can assure you:

worksleepworksleepdosomethingfunworksleepeeeeeeeat... you get the picture!

Well the last few days have finally provided me with some time to Wet Shards photo hunt. The glorious Google has been coming up trumps and I've managed to source a fair few pictures. Still a lot more to find though...

To give me a break from all my Googling, I decided to finally put together the 'Lois Tucker' definition that I'd been meaning to do for a long while. You probably saw it on the way in? If not, you can find it here.

Bood Hungry and more...

2005-04-15T09:39:00.000+01:00

Tonight is re-shoot night for 'Blood Hungry', a Horror short written and produced by Funk Vision (new website coming soon. I'll post the link when it's done.) in which I'm the protagonist. The main bulk of it was shot last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but due to them inevitable technical hitches there is to be more of me being chased by meat cleaver wielding demons tonight. Yeah!! I should have a copy of it fairly soon and if the guys let me upload it then it'll be somewhere on this site for a bit.

Just got some new photos printed from my current contact sheet, so there's a couple of new headshots up on my gallery page if you wish to have a gander...

Last, but definitely not least, Vittoria of FoolishPeople has come across a site that enables you to 'South Park' yourself:

These are Tor's spot on interpretations of me, John and her glorious self. Team FP all South Parked up. Hehe :)

You can find a link to the site in question here at Vittoria's lair on the web.

Scary dates in my diary

2005-04-04T23:14:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I ventured forth to Hertfordshire for a meeting with John and Vittoria of FoolishPeople. After perusing my first sketches, having a good catch up and imbibing a good dose of caffeine, we got down to the ominous task of setting John and I some Wet Shards deadlines. The aim is to have 2 issues published by the end of the year with another 2 finished and ready to go. There will be 6 issues in all, and once we've got going, they will be published once a month. My deadline for inking the first issue only gets closer and closer... John and Tor will be helping track down the images I need for issue one, in between all their other goings on!

On another creative note, it looks like I'm going to be involved in a shoot for a Horror short later on this week. More details to come :)

Ooh, and I've finally downloaded the Firefox internet browser. It comes highly recommended so far...

Phase 2 nearly complete

2005-03-30T00:51:00.000+01:00

The necessary courage was indeed built up today and I am now up to page 19. (These eyes will be found on page 17. Well, a pair very similar...) Only 3 more pages to go. Reckon I can knock those up tomorrow afternoon. Phew! The next phase is then to track down some photographs of existing things I need to portray - a particular type of bus, a certain coffee shop etc etc... When that's all done I can finally use my lovely lovely new pens to ink my first set of Wet Shards images onto the rather attractive graphics paper I have purchased.

Mmmmm graphics paper...

Holiday? What holiday?

2005-03-28T19:20:00.000+01:00

To give me a break from necessary chocolate eating, I have been doing some more sketching today. I've now finished up to page 15 of issue one, so only 7 more pages to go. Woo hoo! Got some really difficult images to get my head round in the next few sessions. Hoping I can build up the courage to have a go at tackling them tomorrow before I go to work in the evening. I've possibly got a meeting with the FoolishPeople massive very soon, so it would be nice to have the sketches all finished for them to glance over.

Right, back to my grazing...

DAY OFF!!

2005-03-22T22:21:00.000Z

A whole day off with no reason to leave the house which meant - Wet Shards aplenty! Now just over half way through the rough sketches for issue one. It's quite taxing working out how to layout the action in a panel, well for my inexperienced-in-comic-book-illustrating brain anyway, but I'm really enjoying the challenge. Just... want... more... time... :/

Links-a-go-go

2005-03-18T02:58:00.000Z

Got it into my head yesterday that I must update my links page

so I have :)

Feel free to peruse them at your leisure...

The sweet smell of... tobacco

2005-03-14T18:31:00.000Z

Made a trek out to Farnham today to be a body for some students at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design. Nice to keep my hand in with the acting in front of the camera side of things. I also managed to learn how to roll a cigarette, which is something I have never attempted before (ah, my non-smoking innocence...). I ended up having to do it several times in the scene so I think I may be a pro now. Well as long as there isn't too close up a shot of it then I may get away with claiming that!! Thankfully I didn't have to smoke my handiwork - they weren't looking for added comedy moments as far as I could tell...

Hoping to get back onto the Wet Shards case on Wednesday if all things go to plan...

Leeetle bit more

2005-03-08T01:52:00.000Z

No Saturday or Sunday drawing, but a little bit yesterday. (Wish it wasn't yesterday already. More sleep please...) Now a 3rd of the rough sketches for issue one have been completed. Won't get another chance to draw for days due to 'work' work and general busy-ness. Slowly but surely though, and the pictures can only get more clear in my head...

Fraction of the way there

2005-03-02T23:39:00.000Z

Kept on rolling with the Wet Shards momentum yesterday and got a fifth of the way through roughly sketching out issue one. I feel like a fifth is a quantity that I can feel relatively happy with. It sounds good. Relatively good. Wanted to keep going, but 3 days of full on box office work are happening instead. Looks like Saturday for the next bash, fingers crossed, or maybe a bit of cheery Mother's Day drawing...

Lovely lovely new pens :)

2005-02-28T23:28:00.000Z

I would love to be able to post a picture of me posing with the lovely lovely new pens that I bought today, but, alas, I do not own a digital camera or even a camera phone and I couldn't justify having some passport photos done, so instead we have the layout of one of the pages from Issue 1 of Wet Shards.

I was a good girl this afternoon, and made a long overdue trip to the artshop to purchase my drawing materials. (I really have no excuse now.) When I returned home I decided that I should draw out all the page layouts in order to see more clearly what I'm dealing with. This could be deemed as procrastinating, but in fact it's proved very helpful, making the whole thing a bit more tangible in an odd way. Besides, the new pens really are very very lovely, so it will be hard to procrastinate with them looking at me in the sweet way that they seem to do. (I may have a problem, but not one that I'm worried about yet...)

Quality Time

2005-02-27T21:52:00.000Z

Today was mainly devoted to getting on with the sit-com treatment. I have neglected it of late, but a good few hours on it has ensured a good deal of progress. All I can do for now has been done, and I have sent it off to be taken apart by some more knowledgable friends of mine. There will have to be a fair few changes I'm sure, but I'm certain that we're on the right track. Emma is chipping away at it all too so the mountain is looking more and more like a welcoming hill. Crunch time is getting closer...

Playing away

2005-02-24T01:07:00.000Z

Not long back from a day trip to Ipswich. Travelled up there to record the violin and vocals I had come up with for Jason Ware's 'Pink Cake' soundtrack. After a fair sized helping of tube and train delay, the day went very well, and I had a lot of fun being musical in his producer's bathroom for a few hours. (Acoustics you see!) I came away with a rough mix of the songs so far, and it's all sounding great, despite being far from finished. When they're fully mixed and produced I will upload some of them for your listening pleasure. Now to bed for a much needed kip...

Site specific

2005-02-20T22:59:00.000Z

The banner for John's site went down very well :) and a 'Mark 2' was requested, so a bit of updating was undertaken this evening and the latest version was duly sent off through cyberspace for inspection...

Darren's site is up and running and looking rather swish! Take a peek here...

Heads up

2005-02-16T01:27:00.000Z

They've now been viewed by the writer, so they may be viewed by you if you so desire. Click here to see my first minimalistic 'Wet Shards' character sketches in full...

Gah!

2005-02-15T15:20:00.000Z

Been doing some useful work this afternoon on the Treatment for the sitcom that's being developed by Emma Hamilton and myself. I really wish I didn't have to stop to eat and to get ready for work tonight - the treatment is long overdue, and I was in on a roll...

Mini tick

2005-02-14T23:54:00.000Z

Months ago John Harrigan asked me to design a banner for his website. I put a few ideas down on paper one day back in December, and knew what direction I wanted to go in from there, but I haven't really done anything with those ideas since.

However: little bit of time yesterday, little bit of time today, and I've come up with something that I think fits the remit quite well. Will wait and see what the verdict is on banner version 1.0...

Finished, but not ready...

2005-02-13T20:19:00.000Z

Well, I've finally finished the preliminary drawings for 3 of the characters from 'Wet Shards' but I can't post them just yet. (John wants to see them first!) So, Tuesday/Wednesday for the first glimpse...

This is all new territory for me and I'm happy to say that I've been pleasantly suprised with my progress thus far. Here's to more progress!

Streamlined

2005-02-13T14:01:00.000Z

Darren Mallard very kindly took time out of his busy schedule this week to wear his official webdesigner hat for me. I threw a few queries his way, he imparted some cheeky bits of code, and now LoisTucker.Net is a decidedly better place. Thank you Darren! He's currently working on his own site, so when it's up and running I'll let you know.

I must now go and rustle up the first 'Wet Shards' drawings designed for public consumption. I've been doodling away for weeks, but I've got to decide upon something solid and then get on with the first issue. Today is the day. When they're done, I shall post them somewhere on the site. Hopefully this shall happen early this evening...

BRING IT ON...

2005-02-06T23:06:00.000Z

The script of the first issue of 'Wet Shards' was emailed to me this afternoon, and I've just read it.

Wow

Written by John Harrigan, I am to illustrate, and what a challenge I have been presented with! Very very excited.

Lots of drawing to be getting on with tomorrow.

Ooh - I'm all fired up!!

Let them eat cake

2005-02-06T21:47:00.000Z

Just got back from an afternoon in North London spent stretching my musical muscle.

Jason Ware has asked me to provide some vocals, violin and guitar on the soundtrack he's currently putting together for his upcoming film "Pink Cake" and today was the designated day to show him what I'd come up with so far. It seems both of us are pleased, so that's a good start! Should be heading into the studio in the next couple of weeks to get my contributions down.

I don't give myself much of a chance to indulge myself musically on a regular basis, so I'm really glad of this opportunity. When anything's available to listen to I'll let you know. It's sounding very good so far. Jason's a great songwriter, and he's got some very talented people on board to record the soundtrack with him. (I feel privileged!) The movie looks set to be a corker too. Keep your eyes and ears peeled...

Welcome welcome welcome!

2005-02-05T02:13:00.000Z

So here it finally is, after me wittering on about it for so long.

This blog page will be used for me to post updates on my creative work situation. That's the plan at the moment anyway...

If you do notice any glitches, or things that you can't see/don't work/look a bit squiffy on the site, then I would appreciate it if you would let me know. This is my first venture in web design, so despite me trawling through the whole thing with a fine tooth comb, it's highly likely I may have overlooked something.

Thank you!