09.07.07

BIG WOW TOUR UPDATE

Ok. So I admit, I haven't touched this blog since it came under new management back in April. Then again, it has only been two months and that is still better than matt's record. It also means I've got plenty to write about. I'm still very new at this internet thing. How regularly are these blogs supposed to be updated anyway? Is there a blog guide book of some kind? If there is, I know Matt hid it from me, just to make me fume. Still, I suppose the reason I haven't written anything in all this time could be because I'm inherently lazy. Did i say lazy? I meant busy. Speaking of busy, Big Wow have had a pretty busy couple of months since my last report. We have since finished our national tour (although we still have a few dates later in the year and, of course - Edinburgh) and have been well received in each of the last venues. We performed in a wonderful, historically preserved theatre in Richmond, North Yorkshire where, despite a warm reception and a great audience, we came upon a rather tricky problem. This was the first theatre we performed at that had a raked stage. I suppose that we were lucky that this was our first and only raked stage of the tour, but nonetheless it gave us a bit of difficulty with our bed set. For anyone who hasn't seen Insomnobabble yet, you may not know that our bed set is on wheels, for easy movement. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. The wheels, combined with the slope of the stage turned our innocent, functional set into a big, wooden, fake bed of rolling doom, for both the audience, and to a lesser extent, Matt, who quite frankly could do with some sense knocking into him.
Fortunately, our marvellous technician, Danny, armed with a big roll of Gaffer tape (as any techhie worth his salt has with him at all times) solved the problem by taping the wheels together. This was all well and good, but that meant that i had to heave the bed around during the show, where normally I had relied on the soft glide of the wheels. That thing weighs a ton when you've just been six people at once. But Momma Lynskey didn't raise no weakling! Actually it hurt rather a lot. I also got a splinter.
Another of our recent Tour dates took us to Cumbria - Matt's home town of Carlisle. Matt returned to a bit of a hero's welcome and was brave in the face of performing in front of a home town audience comprised of ALMOST EVERYBODY HE HAD EVER KNOWN!!! There were people there he hadn't seen since he was just a kid, including friends, family and even former teachers. It was like 'This Is Your Life', only without old duffer with the red book. It was a wonderful experience for all of Big Wow. This whole event was completely organised by Matt's Mum and Dad, as a fund raiser for Edinburgh. We are definitely putting them on the payroll from now on. They arranged everything, filled the house and fed us up with top notch food. And Matt's Nan makes an amazing fruit cake! I'd say you should try it sometime, but you can't, because it's mine. All mine!
Enough about my addiction to baked delights, i must sign off for now, since I feel another bout of lethargy coming on. Next time I post a blog, Ill tell you all about the remaining tour dates, our plans in development and Matt's stag do, where I was beaten at paintball by a crack team of heavily armed red ants. I kid you not. Until next time....

26.04.07

Return to Edinburgh!

We interrupt this poorly maintained Big Wow blog to bring you some breaking news. First of all, it's worth pointing out that we have had this web site for about three years, as well as having several tours and keeping our fingers in proverbial pies, but Matt Rutter, our fearless administrator (named and shamed!) has only put about three updates on our progress as a company in all of that time. Rest asured that Matt has now been relieved of the duty of maintaining this blog and put onto something that requires less responsibility, like tea making, confusing administrators across the country and planning a wedding.
I, Tim Lynskey, have accepted the challenge of finding useful and occasionally witty things to distract and amuse, as well as giving important updates about our projects and performances. So to start with, our most recent and exciting news is that Big Wow have been invited to return to Edinburgh to perform 'Insomnobabble' at none other than the Assembly Rooms! We had a great time last year, performing at the Underbelly where word of our success snowballed, or spread like wildfire, depending on your favourite temperature extreme. We decided that we would not go back to Edinburgh this year, so we could concentrate on other projects, but the chance of performing at the Assembly rooms for the final week of the festival was too strong to ignore.
In other news, we are in the midst of our national tour, performing at some great venues across the country. Most recently, we had a two night night run in the beautiful city of Oxford, at the Burton Taylor theatre. We have quite a few other dates and venues coming up, so if you want to catch us, please check our tour schedule, which is just a couple of mouse clicks away.
In July we begin work on our new show, which will be performed in it's entirety next January, when we have the prestigious honour of launching the Unity Theatre's Capital of Culture celebrations in Liverpool (who really could have done with beating Chelsea last night in the semi final of the Champion's league). Obviously we will have more news on this as we devise and develop our ideas, so stay tuned.
Anyway, here comes Matt with my cup of tea (and he's left the tea bag in again... time to re-evaluate his responsibilities once more) so until next time, feel free to send us any correspondence. 'Bye for now....

06.02.07

Bad Jazz

Hey guys. Thanks to all in Liverpool who came out to see 'Insoomnobbable' return to the Unity. Great support as usual. The tour has also started well with both Felsted and Inverness looking after us really well. Big thanks to Frank and Lisa who went above and beyond the call of duty at our B and B in Inverness.

Also watch out for Bob's latest play, Bad Jazz, which is being produced by ATC theatre and Theatre Royal Plymouth, directed by Gordon Anderson. (www.atctheatre.co.uk) It's as funny as Big Wow, but ten times ruder and more twisted. It's also going to be published by Josef Weinburger.

Big Wow.

02.01.07

Thanks for a great 2006.

Well that was 2006, a very enjoyable year. Just want to start off by thanking everyone who has supported us over the last year. It was a very busy and hectic time especially the madness that was Ediburgh. Thanks to all who flyered and a big shout out to Jules who pushed our show to just about everyone and was an absolute legend (I've managed to lose your e-mail so if you read this do get in contact, it would be great to hear from you). Also thanks to Tim Brown who gave us support above and beyond the call of duty, and all the staff and folks at the underbely, especially Penny and Ricey.

Edinburgh was a fantastic time for us and went as well as we could have possibly hoped. We were nominated for the Stage Best Ensemble Award and were a Wild Card Entry for the Total Theatre awards. We also won the SPANK award for Best Comedy Play, and picking up the award turned out to be one of the best nights out i've ever had!!!!

Since Edinburgh we have done a couple of dates at the Battersea Arts Centre and at Wolverhampton. We also did a ten minute section of the show at the Shepherds Bush Empire for a BBC Children In Need show. It went really well and Al Murray was brilliantly hilarious as well as being a really sound bloke. Big thanks to Julia for putting us on the bill.

We are now looking forward to 2007 with a tour of 'Insomnobabble' starting in January through until June. The tour dates will be in our tour diary tomorrow, so if you enjoyed the show in Edinburgh and we are on in your area feel free to spread the word.

Once again thanks for your support and we'll hopefully see you in 2007!

All the best.

Big Wow.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

20.03.05

What's new in the Big Wow camp?

Last year we completed our first national tour playing in several venues across the country with 'Extra Happy Happy'. The tour finished with a great gig at the Theatre in the Mill in Bradford where we were made to feel very welcome by a great audience (Cheers guys!). It was great for us to take our stuff outside of Liverpool for the first time and get the response that we were hoping for.

This January we returned to the unity to perform a reworked version of 'Swanky Geezer Nonsense' which we thoroughly enjoyed and was very well received. We are now very happy with the show and are currently booking a tour starting in September 2005.

As for our next show we are going to create it for the Unity's 25 anniversary year around January 2006. However you will be able to see our first draft of it sometime in July as part of the Unity's scratch season. The scratch project allows companies to create and experiment with material without the pressure of having to complete a fully formed piece of theatre. For those of you who don't already know, the scratch project is where 'Extra Happy Happy' started its life two years ago and gave us the chance to make our first full length piece. It will be great to try out some new material and get some feedback as to what people think.

Finally thanks to all who have supported us both in Liverpool and beyond, we couldn't have done it without you. Keep on spreading the word (it'll make our lives a lot easier!).