Moj Taylor

So….

I’ve decided to just use this news feed officially as my blog – easier than setting up a meaningless page that runs in parallel with this one with the only difference being the words “blog” above it. Consider this a blog / news feed. But I only write whats news with me anyway – so its perfect.

I seemed to be getting a bit annoyed at almost everything this week…rain, slipperiness, slippery rain, tube trains saying they’re coming in 1 minute only for me to time it on my phone’s stop watch and its 3.5 minutes (I hate liars).

But all in all, the week has been a good one. The Tombs is great, but zombie scaring can really get on top of you after so many consecutive days in the dark underground that you start to really sympathise with those miners last year in Chile. Seeing daylight, albeit only an hour or two, on re-surfacing is a lovely feeling and makes you envy daylight-using occupations…and having phone reception all day – I’ll never take that for granted again (although it does mean that coming out the Tombs, that thing happens at the end of a holiday when you’ve had your phone switched off then you desperately hope on switching it back on that there will be a flood of texts…only to get 2: one from your mum checking you’re not dead, and the other from O2 asking about a new text deal. I prefer the latter text normally).

The Push “Going to Uni” Schools tour has begun again this week, with talks in Dagenham and Norwich. Both sets were lovely, but the prize for best journey has to be a 5.15am wakeup to get 6.25am Liverpool St train to Norwich. I was excited for one reason alone: its the land of Alan Partridge, plus I’ve never been, so discovering the huge Partridge banner hanging at the station (as well as what must surely win the UK’s Premier Prize for Shittest Train Station Clock), I was in heaven. These talks are a great way for me to not only grow with confidence in front of surprisingly demanding crowds of 100s of 17 year olds who sit there staring at you with a look of “come on then, entertain me or I’m turning my iPhone back on – and there’s nothing you can do about it”. Its true: i’m not a teacher, so if they are misbehaving I can’t really say “Oi -stop that now or its detention for you and all your friends”. They probably just snigger. Then get up and punch me. Today I tripped over the projector lead halfway through a talk. It got an awkward laugh, especially as it was halfway through the talk, so I really should have located it by then and let me body stay away from it. I launched over to point out something on the projector screen about student finance (I’ve decided the speed and un-swiftness was due to the ridiculously strong coffee the teacher made for me on arrival which made me feel like I was floating as the talk began) and made a royal tit of myself. Still – its all part of the learning experience, so that when I fall or trip onstage soon during a stand up set, I will not be too worried, as I will have learnt how to work it into my set as a ‘funny physical mishap that was 100% totally planned’.

I have a few stand up gigs for May:

The Miller has a comedy night running on May 3rd where I have a 15 minute slot, The Oxford in Kentish Town is May 10th, again about 10-15 mins. And I just got a slot yesterday for May 23rd at ROFL & LOL’s Comedy night at The Finsbury (Manor House). Please come along and support. If you say I’m funny: I will buy you a pint. Yes, I really am that fickle and a sucker for compliments.

Also, my back aches from my sports massage course, but I won’t go into that until next week once its hopefully “gone through the 3 days of pain then it will feel like a million dollars” barrier – according to my teacher. And the student who willingly butchered my trapezius, levator scapulae, rhomboid major and minor (see – I’m learning).

Firstly, Stitches in Southampton was a great night. Four of us from London drove the long and winding (well pretty much all uniformly straight) road from north Londonium down to Southampton. I’ve never been before, it was pretty much a chaffeur job also: so any future trips I do to the town will never be as regal in travel. I don’t expect to have a driver every time. The other comedians in the car were Nick Dixon, a brilliant stand up with great timing and dry humour. Garrett Millerick and Will Ainsworth also did great acts.

I got there and was pretty nervous, but I put this down to the fact I was a little car sick mounting on top of feeling a little generally sick, amounting on top of a very questionable and overpriced burger king whopper. I was confident with my material and was told I could do up to 15 minutes as there were only 6 acts performing. I aimed for 10, knowing that I tend to rabble on, and I ended up coming off at about 14 minutes. The set itself went by in a blur. The crowd were great and allowed me time to develop my usually very long winded stories. Hopefully London crowds won’t reflect general society behaviour in the capital, where impatience is apparently a virtue.

May London gigs are as follows:

Thursday 3rd May – The Miller, London Bridge

Thursday 10th May  - The Oxford, Kentish Town

So, after much pondering over what to do with all my embarrassing stories and odd views on life that I have been jotting down on paper for years, I have decided the best way to get them out and share them is to get in front of a mic and offer them out to a sitting audience. Lets see how it goes. To be fair i’ve had a solid preparation period, being currently right in the middle of a tour around the country to colleges and sixth forms to speak to halls of 100-200 for an hour about going to university and what to expect. I give them facts and figures, but in all honesty, and as I was informed, the best thing is to make them laugh for 60 minutes, so if I can cope with a couple of hundred 17 year olds at 9am, I’m praying that 10 minutes slots to a couple of people in London venues at 9pm should be too scary….I’m praying….

I have three small slots coming up, they are:

Monday 26th March – Electric Mouse Big Ben (from 7pm)

Wednesday 11th April – Stitches at The Shooting Star, Southampton (from 8.30pm)

Thursday 10th May – The Oxford, Kentish Town (from 7pm)

Good Night is a film written and directed by Muriel d’Ansembourg and produced by Eva Sigurdardottir. It tells the story of two 14 year old girls who decide to dress up and sneak out for a night exploring Brick Lane. The two lead performances are very strong, (Anna Hogarth and Rosie Day) and the cinematography (Arturo Vasquez) was brilliant. I performed a small scene with my friend from Drama Centre called Paul Davidson. Unfortunately our scene has been mainly cut from the final edit due to time constraints, but I should have the full scene available soon and included in my 2012 show reel which I aim to have completed for April.

Here’s the link to the film’s website: http://goodnightshortfilm.com

Here is a teaser to the film:

I will soon be collaborating with Dan Freeman on a sketch show. After realising we have an equal passion for what we consider a slightly alternate style of comedy, we have been in discussions for some weeks and have started to collect together our own individual material which we are now integrating into rehearsals to form together our collective ideas into around 5 sketches to begin with. We aim to do at least 2 teaser shows before the end of February, and then to really get the performance ball rolling come March/April.

The show will be called That White And Yellow Guy…venue and performance dates, as well as art work, to follow soon….

Underwear’s principal photography was a success. We shot on RED Epic and it was a brilliant experience. The rushes looked great and everything went well. The crew were very professional, efficient in their fields and the grading and score are nearing completion. We should have a little ADR to do next week. See the latest artwork below.

As regards the feature film development, click on this link to director Ivan Madeira’s Hentucky Production’s website to see the latest news:    http://www.hentucky.co.uk/film/underwear

In January I will be shooting Underwear, which is the third in a series of short films in the Identity trilogy. All three parts have been written, produced, edited and shot by Ivan Madeira, who has recently formed Hentucky Productions. Ivan’s production company aims to oversee this final part in the Identity Trilogy, after which he will aim to shoot the feature film ‘Can’t Get Past’, which is based on the three shorts. To see Ivan’s first two shorts, as well as plans for ‘Underwear’ and ‘Can’t Get Past’, visit his website: http://www.hentucky.co.uk/

I have just started filming a feature called Calais. It is about a young British man who wakes up on a bench in Calais and has no idea how he got there. He vaguely remembers the night before and thinks it could have been a momentous practical joke by his best friend. However, on feeling ill at a cafe, he vomits up an uncut diamond and realises not all is how it appears. He soon discovers that he is not the only one who knows about the diamond. Two men begin to hunt and chase him down for different reasons. The budget has been very tight, and we are getting up in the very early hours (the director Germai Tecklu and myself) in London, driving to Dover and then getting the 8:10am ferry over to Calais. We are filming on HD, and tried to use radio mics, but realised due to the extreme limitations and fast turnaround of principal photography, we are focusing all our energy on capturing the footage with correct framing, lighting and story, with the sound to be added in ADR back in London next month.

We have completed three days in Calais, and a few more days in London (with a lot of alleyways in our fine capital doubling for Calais back streets). We had a policeman walk past and look curious whilst we were filming in an alleyway right opposite Liverpool Street station. We then realised that we were directly behind a large police station. We thought we were in trouble when he walked over and said “what are you filming?”. And after telling him, he then said “sorry if I accidentally got in your shot and ruined it before”. Don’t ever judge British police on first appearances!