Pre Edinburgh Rehearsals

And lo, dear blog reader, it did come to pass that on the eighteenth day of August, the Sainted Mr Joey sayeth onto his unwilling cohorts (particularly Keith Telly Topping who wanted to get home and watch the cricket), 'verily, let us go therefore onto BBC Newcastle - in a room well away from anybody broadcasting anything - and, there, let us caterwaul our way through a full (not dress) rehearsal of the Edinburgh shenanigans. For, is it not written that thou shalt not get a half-way decent four-line review in the Daily Record if thouest art not prepared?'

And, so they did. And it was ... well, I'm not going to say 'good' necessarily, but you know ... At least Alf remembered the 'do you expect me to talk?' 'No, I expect you to dice!' line this time around.

We're not sure you're quite ready for the Oscar yet, Alfie.

Mark looks bored whilst waiting for his bit.

Introducing The Legendary Marxist Brothers.
Oi, Groucho, there's a member of the proletariat in my soup.
Don't say that too loudly, sir, or he may be oppressed by the crushing forces of capitalism.

She is The Great Carmeeeeena, with a look that can simply hypnotize.

Get ready to boo and hiss, ladies and gentlemen, it's Boris the Bad Russian!

Music, maestro please!

'Oh, Mr Daniels. You've gotta help me with my fall.'

Remember, if you're up for The Fringe, Monopolise! is on for one night only - 22 August upstairs at the Pleasance Courtyard.

The Housewife's Choice

There's a rather appealing interview with the legend that is Alfie Joey his very self at North East Life

Michael Hamilton asks the questions.

Newcastle - The First Review

The authors are indebted to Ed Waugh for the following:

Alfie Joey: Monopolise!
Live Theatre, Newcastle

Alfie Joey's daytime job is co-hosting BBC Newcastle's breakfast show. Before he took up that position a few years ago he was Derrick in all seven series of BBC3 cult sitcom Ideal (with Johnny Vegas) and had built up an illustrious record on the national and international stand-up comedy scene; I last saw him sharing the bill at the Customs House with Sarah Millican.

It's obvious from this funny one-man show that Mr Joey has never lost his desire to entertain a live audience. With a nod to Mel Brooks, Monopolise! is a comedy musical about murder, mystery and mayhem.

Over the years, many 'pre-Edinburgh Fringe' shows have left me wondering why people of no discernable ability waste their time, energy and money aiming for that particular Holy Grail. This is different.

The central figure, a guy called Lucky Schwartz, narrates in the manner of Raymond Chandler’s Victor Marlowe. A murder has been committed in Atlanta, USA, and the trail leads to London where a murder takes place in Mayfair during the world Monopoly®™ championships. The tale eventually winds up in Newcastle.

Joey sings a dozen or so songs and plays around twenty characters, impersonating Fred Astaire, Bruce Forsythe (a hotelier!), Groucho Marx and Michael Parkinson en route.

It's silly and good fun. A few first night glitches were seized on by Alfie to wring out more laughter. Despite referencing murder, this is suitable for family viewing and well worth a visit when the show comes to the Customs House on Friday 2 September.'

Thanks Ed.

In other news, Alf and Keith just spent another lengthy writing session doing some trimming for Edinburgh (although, Mark will be happy to know that 'Oh, Mr Daniels' is back in for next time).

Remember, if you're up for The Fringe, Monopolise! is on for one night only - 22 August upstairs at the Pleasance Courtyard.

Edinburgh Fringe Pre-Publicity

With his one-man comedy musical, star of BBC3 sitcom Ideal Alfie Joey is aiming to appeal to as broad an audience as possible. Even if his show – which is only on for one night – is about murder…

Sum up your show in three words for us:
'Murderous family fun!'

More details here.

Coming up on Friday of this very week we have the second - and last - pre-Edinburgh performance, at Newcastle's Live Theatre.

Tickets are available, final (desperate) rehearsals will be taking place tomorrow and splendid time is guaranteed for all. Unless you don't like singing, dancing, comedy ... or murder. In which case, we can assure you the lighting, costume design and props are brilliant.

See you all there.

Edinburgh

Leading British comedy website Chortle has details of the Edinburgh show on 22 August. For which tickets are now available via the website. In further news, in late May Alfie, Keith and Mark filmed a couple of short sequences with Sharuna Sagar from BBC's Look North for a two-part piece which will be shown around the time of the Edinburgh performance. The filmed segments including Alfie and Mark rehearsing the song 'Moonlight and Chocolates' at the Live Theatre and Alfie and Keith working on the script in - inevitably - the pub (Byker's The Cluny). Over a plate of chips. Amusingly, on the day that we'd planned to film the latter, there was that massive fire at the former Shepherd's scrapyard which is, literally, a hundred yards from The Cluny. So, that was postponed until the following week. By which time the fire was, just about, out.  

What's It All About, Alfie?

Let the man himself explain, here - roughly 5:20 into the video. 'It's a family show even though it's about murder!'

Liverpool: Day Do Doh, Don't Dey Doh?

The debut live performance of Monopolise! took place on Saturday 30 April at the Unity Theatre in Liverpool as Alfie and Mark played to a near-full house. The hour-long show actually overran a bit causing Alf to note on Facebook 'there's a great show inside the one I did!' Local BBC radio celeb Simon Hoban was persuaded to join the fun on-stage and read a news bulletin.

Alfie adds that the characters of Boris and Victor went down particularly well and that a line yer actual Keith Telly Topping wrote - concerning 'the corpse in the copse' - got one of the biggest laughs of the night. Which was nice. It'll all make sense once you see the show, don't worry.

Meanwhile Alfie's been doing some publicity for the show including a preview event held at the Live Theatre in Newcastle this week, the venue which will host the show's next public performance on 15 July. Alf's done a podcast for Radio Teesdale, which you can check out here in which Monopolise! is discussed in some detail. On Thursday afternoon he's performing a few extracts from the show for the WI in Houghton. He's also been interviewed by the Chronicle and we'll have more details on that when it's published. We're also hoping to announce at least one more forthcoming date very soon.

Remember you can follow Alf on Twitter here.