Tag: monty python

Bizarre Book Club 10: Surrealist Games, Gross Sex and Fried Furries

Published on by Madeleine SwannLeave a comment

Today’s book picture is brought to you by my book The Filing Cabinet of Doom (I’m so sorry, I couldn’t help it. They made me).

That's right...look into my eyes
That’s right…look into my eyes

1. The Book of Surrealist Games by Various. These activities thought up by the surrealist artists and writers of the 20th century were surprisingly fun. There’s quite a few to choose from and some of them were a bit complicated for our tiny, moss covered brains. One we did settle on had me checking the internet for the meaning of ‘verbs, nouns, adjectives’ etc, sorry English teacher. I shall return my GCSE. However much joy was had and we plan on spending another evening playing again soon.

2. Strange Sex by Various. This is honestly one of the grossest books I’ve ever read, except perhaps the Marquis De Sade or The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty (which I haven’t read, it just sounds gross).

There seemed to me three levels of grim: gross grossness (definitely not my cup of tea), imaginative grossness (sometimes my cup of tea) and less gross more weird (definitely my cup of tea, especially one involving a furries, erm, party). However this is obviously the desired effect and if this appeals to you, by all means purchase it and be prepared!

One of the funnier outcomes of the surrealist games
One of the funnier outcomes of the surrealist games

3. How to Eat Fried Furries by Nicole Cushing. I liked this joyously silly and occasionally wrong ‘Flying Circus,’ which apparently is a “loosely connected series of bizarro skits.” It’s a collection of short stories all linking together in the vein of Monty Python, perhaps if they were allowed to go as dark as they really wanted to. How can you not love that?

If the idea of Holiday icons as Mafia Dons, pseudo Amish or deformed super ferrets tickles your chin, put your face in her pages.

That’s it! No really, I have to go make tea now and do some real work. Bye!

Monty Python – Almost the truth

Published on by Madeleine Swann2 Comments

I’ve been watching a series on Sky Arts called Monty Python, almost the truth. Its really good and I recommend it for any other obsessives out there. I don’t think anything else has made me so jolly as Monty Python has. If I feel unwell or a bit down I’ll watch that or Not Only but Also (even though there’s hardly any of it bloody left).

Although there are newer comedy series I love such as Spaced, anything Chris Morris does, the Office, the Ricky Gervais show, The League of Gentlemen, the first six series of Red Dwarf, Blackadder, South Park and the first couple of series of The Mighty Boosh, none of them quite seem to reduce me to the wibbly state of joy Monty Python does.

Therefore I shall include below some sketches of theirs I love. I couldn’t really say favourite because that would be impossible:

Stewart Lee

Published on by Madeleine Swann2 Comments

I have my writing heroes including Neil Gaiman, Helen Dunmore and Sarah Waters. However the side of me that writes and performs for Braintree Ways is fascinated by comedy and those who enact it including Andy Kaufman, Eddie Izzard, the South Park pair, Peter Cook and Monty Python.

One person I saw at Edinburgh who intrigues me at the moment is Stewart Lee. I used to watch Lee and Herring as a child but his current stand up on programmes such as The Comedy Vehicle is fascinating (and funny).

In the first clip he breaks the fourth wall by mentioning a grandad and then declaring him not to be real, along with explaining the nuts and bolts of stand up to the audience and in a fake interview. This made me feel firstly as if I was watching something almost Brechtian and, secondly, intellectually pretentious enough to use Brechtian as a description.

The second clip is one of his repetative tangents which reminds me of my student poetry era. I’d go to various venues around Bath where the smoke would turn your eyes red and various people took turns in reading out their scribblings to live music. Stewart Lee’s rantings make me think of 50s/60s era beat and performance poets. See for yourself.