BREVIEW: Clerks & Shooting Clerks (with Q&A) @ The Mockingbird Cinema & Kitchen 19.01.18

Clerks & Shooting Clerks (with Q&A) @ The Mockingbird Cinema & Kitchen 19.01.18

Words by Emily Doyle

On arrival, the foyer of the Mockingbird Cinema & Kitchen is full. The waiting audience is abuzz with discussion of “the original”. As usual, the informal atmosphere at this indie gem leaves newcomers unsure of the etiquette: “Do we just go in?”

At 7:15pm sharp, a member of the cinema staff opens the door and welcomes us in. Shooting Clerks writer and director Christopher Downie is joined by producer Ryan James in front of the screen. The pair explain their last minute decision to reverse the running order, showing the original Clerks (1994) followed by Shooting Clerks (2016), and that they’ve never actually watched the two films back-to-back before. They ask if anyone has never seen Clerks. A smattering of hands are raised. The rest of the auditorium turn to give them encouraging looks – everyone knows that they’re in for a treat.

Clerks opens with the now iconic View Askew vanity card, and the audience settles into their seats contentedly. There’s joy to be had in enjoying this cult hit in a cinema surrounded by laughing fans, rather than half-watching it on a laptop at a winding down house party. The short scenes and quick dialogue mean that there’s always something new to enjoy; Smith packs so many witticisms into 92 grainy monochrome minutes that Clerks stands up well to multiple watches. Iconic lines (“What kind of convenience store do you run here?”) raise a hearty laugh from new viewers and certified Kevin Smith geeks alike.

On the surface, you’d be forgiven for thinking Clerks relies on smutty laughs and a DIY aesthetic, but its true charm runs much deeper. Even without much knowledge of the back story, everything about the film feels authentic. The cast have the chemistry you’d expect from real life friends, and the dialogue could only have been written by someone who really does work in a convenience store. An unacquainted viewer is left with some questions though: Why black and white? Is this as low budget as it looks? And who is this Silent Bob character?

The team behind Shooting Clerks have the answers. There is a short break to grab a beer and a bag of fresh popcorn from the bar, then Downie and James introduce their film, encouraging the audience to look out for the twenty cameos (with more still to be added in later cuts of the film).

UK screenings of Shooting Clerks have been long awaited – it only premiered last week at The Prince Charles Cinema in London. Rather than the obvious documentary style, the film follows a biopic format. It’s not often you see a biopic where everyone portrayed is still alive to pass comment, but Downie is lucky enough to have Kevin Smith’s support.Clerks & Shooting Clerks (with Q&A) @ The Mockingbird Cinema & Kitchen 19.01.18 The film tells the story behind Clerks, a tale which is now the stuff of indie cinema legend.

We see a young Kevin Smith skipping school to go to the cinema with his father (played by Scott Schiaffo, the Chewlies gum representative in the original Clerks). An older, more familiar Smith is excellently played by Mark Frost. We see him working in the real convenience store where Clerks was filmed by night. We see the fabled credit cards used to raise the $27,000 budget for a film that would go on to gross $3 million at the box office. We even see the birth of Jay and Silent Bob.

Shooting Clerks is a film with a lot of heart. After showing them working day and night, Downie concludes with scenes of the Clerks crew celebrating the sale of the distribution rights to the dubiously named Harry Weizmann of Mirimax Films. Shooting Clerks is a film about making a film with your friends – with whatever means you can get your hands on.

“Are you guys okay with a drunk Q&A?” James asks, storming to the front of the auditorium, wine glass in hand. He’s joined once again by Downie, and by Chris Bain (Jason Mewes) and Tom Sullivan (Jeff Anderson) from the cast. The group offer up a quick back-story, explaining that most of the film was shot in Scotland with a just a few scenes in the US. They address the Harry Weismann character, with Downie saying he was relieved that they didn’t include a portrayal on the actual producer in question in light of recent accusations. James tells the audience that the film is about 85% accurate, and that, “the truth is the truth – this is a very entertaining way of telling the truth.”

When asked about their favourite Kevin Smith film, it’s a surprise to see that the crew almost unanimously agree on Clerks II. Maybe another biopic is in the works, then? 

For more on Shooting Clerks, visit www.shootingclerks.com

For more from The Mockingbird Cinema & Kitchen, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.mockingbirdcinema.com

BPREVIEW: Katherine Ryan – Glitter Room @ Symphony Hall 02.02.18

Katherine Ryan – Glitter Room @ Symphony Hall 02.02.18

Words by Ed King

On Friday 2nd February, Katherine Ryan brings her Glitter Room Tour to Birmingham’s Symphony Hall – with Joe Lycett as the stand up support act. 

Katherine Ryan’s Glitter Room is scheduled for 8pm at the Symphony Hall, with tickets priced at £24.50 (+bf) as presented by Live Nation UK. For direct show information, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

Queen of the acerbic broad smile, Katherine Ryan has been poking the ribs of our populous since settling in Britain about a decade ago – winning the Nivea sponsored Funny Women Award in 2008.

Katherine Ryan – Glitter Room @ Symphony Hall 02.02.18Born, raised and educated in Ontario, Ryan initially moved to the UK to help the restaurant chain Hooters set up in Nottingham – sticking around in Albion longer than expected, picking up some solid bookings as a comedian and setting into the tight lipped day to day of England. Now a self described “typical British mum – a young, uneducated immigrant”, Ryan has become a familiar face in Britain as a TV presenter, regular guest on TV panel shows, and part of the festival stand up circuit.

With a self deprecating, child (adulation) bashing, velvet glove punch approach to her material, Katherine Ryan is not likely to appear at a Pontins family cabaret anytime soon (I once saw both mother and daughter on stage for a skit… not your standard red coat fodder). Likewise, I can’t imagine there’s too much sleep being lost in the Ryan household when Waitrose run out of Chai Latte mix.

But for those anti-millennials who enjoy a sticking a good two fingers up at the tacit/absurd sides of society, you might find yourself in the right room with Katherine Ryan.

Although her latest tour, Glitter Room (named after her daughter’s bedroom) sees Ryan shift from the ‘waspish put-down to a more positive celebration of her life’ – with a little room left for Trump bashing and jabs at Baby Machine Julie. Personally, I’m fingers crossed for another attack of the Beyoncés. But a boy can dream.

Katherine Ryan – on Conan, February 2017

Katherine Ryan brings her Glitter Room Tour to Birmingham’s Symphony Hall on Friday 2nd February, with Joe Lycett as the support stand up act. For direct show information, including venue details and online ticket sales, visit www.thsh.co.uk/event/katherine-ryan 

For more on Katherine Ryan, visit www.katherineryan.co.uk

For more on Joe Lycett, visit www.joelycettcomedy.co.uk

For more from Live Nation UK, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.livenation.co.uk

For more from both the Symphony and Town Halls, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.thsh.co.uk

BPREVIEW: Fern Brady – Suffer, Fools! @ The Glee Club (B’ham) 29.01.18

Fern Brady – Suffer, Fools! @ The Glee Club (B’ham) 29.01.18

Words by Helen Knott

Comedian Fern Brady brings her third solo show – Suffer, Fools! – to Birmingham’s Glee Club on 29th  January. Tickets are £12 in advance, with doors open at 8pm for an 8.30pm start. For direct gig info, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

*The Fern Brady Suffer, Fools! show on 29th January has been rescheduled from its original date of 26th January. For more information on refunds or issues relating to the rescheduling, please contact The Glee Club box office on 0871 472 0400*

Fern Brady is quickly building momentum as one of the UK’s most promising up-and-coming comedians.

If an appearance on Stewart Lee’s Comedy Central show The Alternative Comedy Experience was an early badge of quality, this has been backed up with approving reviews and high profile appearances on Russell Howard’s Stand Up Central and Channel Four’s 8 Out of 10 Cats. Brady starts 2018 embarking on a long UK tour, followed by a string of dates at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, before another series of dates back in the UK.

Brady reportedly first tried stand-up comedy after the magazine she wrote for during the Edinburgh Fringe suggested she write an article where she faked it as a comedian. What the magazine didn’t know was that Brady secretly wanted to try stand-up comedy anyway, so took the gig much more seriously than was strictly needed. She hasn’t looked back, eventually making the final of the Fringe’s prestigious award for stand-up newcomers, So You Think You’re Funny, in 2011.

Just don’t label her a ‘Scottish’ comedian. Brady is uncomfortable being a talking head on issues of Scottish independence and is reportedly unimpressed with the English’s preoccupation with her nationality. But perhaps (after watching several YouTube snippets) some of the problem with the later lies in the fact that Brady‘s fairly broad accent (to my English ears, anyway) bolsters her no-nonsense delivery. And God bless this green and pleasant land, but an English accent just doesn’t have the same clout.

But of course, there’s much more to Fern Bady than being Scottish. Her autobiographical material (she claims to be terrible at making things up, so everything she talks about on stage is true) is self-assured, knowing and easy to relate to. This is a great chance to see a comedian on the up, in a relatively intimate venue. I’d get in quick, before she’s packing out arenas.

Fern Brady on Seann Walsh’s Late Night Comedy Spectacular

Fern Brady brings her Suffer, Fools! tour to The Glee Club (B’ham) on Monday 29th January – rescheduled from 26th January. For direct gig info, including venue details and online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk/performer/fern-brady-tour

For more on Fern Brady, visit www.fernbrady.co.uk

For more from The Glee Club venues, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk

BREVIEW: Andy Zaltzman @ The Glee Club (B’ham) 19.01.17

Andy Zaltzman @ The Glee Club (B’ham) 19.01.17

Words by Helen Knott

Andy Zaltzman is perhaps best known for his political podcast The Bugle, which he originally presented with Brummie comedian John Oliver, before Oliver (as Zaltzman jokes, “the notorious Birmingham traitor”) moved to America to present the satirical talkshow Last Week Tonight on HBO.

Indeed tonight’s show, Satirist for Hire, has the air of an off-the-cuff, topical podcast. There’s no co-presenter, so instead Zaltzman bounces off the audience with the show based on our suggestions of topics that we would like to be satirised. It’s a clever way of creating a relaxed, friendly atmosphere, with the crowd in the packed and stuffy Glee Club studio space – comfortable enough to join Zaltzman in the spotlight, as they make suggestions and talk about their interests.

This does mean that Zaltzman isn’t always the one with the funniest lines, however. The biggest laugh of the night comes when Zaltzman, tongue in cheek of course, asks the audience if there is any way at all that America is better than Britain. Someone shouts out, “America has John Oliver”. Ouch. But Zaltzman is a humble and generous enough performer to not let this faze him – hecklers are gently chided, rather than brutally put down.

It’s also almost inevitable that, when the premise is that the jokes are based on issues suggested by the audience, the resulting show is going to be patchy and disjointed. No matter how good a comedian is, there are always going to be some subjects that they just don’t know enough about. Tonight is a real mixed bag, with suggestions including Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, “standards of driving in Birmingham”, The Ashes, “graduation and despair” (Zaltzman quips, “my favourite Mike Leigh film”) and “the oeuvre of 80s hair metal band Kiss”.

Some of these subjects work better than others. Zaltzman‘s section on Brexit, where he examines some of the reasons people voted the way that they did (“let’s not forget that there were fuckwits on both sides of this”) is really funny. Less successful are attempts to tell jokes about Kiss and Star Wars – two things Zaltzman admits to having little interest in. Jokes about sport, including cricket, football and even snooker, are strong, though sometimes a little niche. After a gag about French nuclear testing gets a lukewarm response, Zaltzman jokes, “this gig’s got everything”.

Zaltzman himself admits that the show is “a bit up and down, not sure I’ve been on the top of my game”. If a comedian is delivering basically the same scripted set for every show, having an off-night isn’t going to have such a big impact as it does in a freer format, like this one. Having said that, not even the pre-prepared sections of the evening completely hit home. Zaltzman ends the set with a twenty-minute section about Trump; the idea is that if he can turn Trump into a cricket fan he will naturally become a better person, as all cricket fans are good people. It’s certainly a novel way of addressing Trump comedically, but it’s much too long and the final punchline just isn’t funny enough.

In essence, this sketch sums up the whole gig. It’s a fun evening, but the show would have benefit from a tighter structure and some sharper gags. Zaltzman’s likeable comedy persona isn’t quite enough to hold things together, resulting in a gig that has its moments, but never reaches the heights of the very best satirical comedy.

Andy Zaltzman – Satirist for Hire

For more on Andy Zaltzmanvisit www.andyzaltzman.co.uk

For more from The Glee Club venues, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk

BPREVIEW: Clerks & Shooting Clerks (with Q&A) @ The Mockingbird Cinema & Kitchen 19.01.18

Words by Emily Doyle

The Mockingbird are launching into the New Year with a whole evening dedicated to cult nineties comedy, Clerks.

On Friday 19th January, the Custard Factory based ‘cinema and kitchen’ will be screening the Kevin Smith debut, alongside Shooting Clerks – the feature length comedy/biographical drama about the making of the original. Doors open at 7pm, with tickets priced at £10 for entry to both films. For direct screening info, alongside links to online tickets sales, click here.

For the unacquainted, this black & white indie flick was made on $28,000 and shot by night in the convenience and video stores its director, Kevin Smith, once worked at by day. Clerks ended up grossing over $3 million.

Upon its release in 1994, Clerks was loved by audiences and critics for its deadpan performances and sharp dialogue. Peter Travers wrote in Rolling Stone that, ‘Smith nails the obsessive verbal wrangling of smart, stalled twentysomethings who can’t figure out how to get their ideas into motion.’ It ended up spawning two sequels, spin off TV shows, cartoons and comics.

Smith’s feature length debut also went on to win a slue of industry awards, including the ‘Award of the Youth’ and ‘Mercedes-Benz Award’ at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, and being joint awarded the ‘Filmmakers Trophy’ at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival – along with Boaz Yakin’s thriller, Fresh.

The evening will start at 7:15pm with a screening of Shooting Clerks, a biopic shot in Dundee, Fife, New Jersey and Florida by the Scottish based production house, Auld Reekie Media. Director Christopher Downie tells the story behind Clerks, and how Kevin Smith went from indie crusader to cinematic icon. Embodying the underdog spirit of its muse, the documentary went from being only 9% funded on its original IndieGoGo fundraiser to winning the Orlando Film Festival Indie Spirit Award.

While Shooting Clerks had a US release in 2016 (including a special screening in Kevin Smith’s hometown of Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey) it’s only now getting a UK release.

After the screening, Downie will be joined by members of the Shooting Clerks cast. Following autograph signing and photo ops, a showing of the original Clerks (1994) will kick off at 10pm.

Clerks – official trailer

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Shooting Clerks – official trailer 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=111&v=_AV1aSmVjG4

On Friday 19th January, The Mockingbird Cinema & Kitchen will be screening a double bill of Clerks and Shooting Clerks, alongside a Q&A with crew and cast members from Shooting Clerks.

For direct screening info, alongside links to online tickets sales, visit www.mockingbirdcinema.com/event/clerks-and-shooting-clerks-double-bill-with-directorcast-qa/ 

For more on Shooting Clerks, visit www.shootingclerks.com

For more from The Mockingbird Cinema & Kitchen, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.mockingbirdcinema.com