It’s Not The End Of The World: Edinburgh 2011

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Come and see my Edinburgh Show, “It’s Not the End of the World.”

You can get tickets here.

Also see my gig list for London Previews and other Edinburgh gigs.

Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Newcomer nominee 2010, writer of 2010’s Dave’s 10th Funniest Joke of the Fringe Award and former co-host of this year’s Sony Gold Award winning Frank Skinner’s Absolute Radio Show GARETH RICHARDS brings his brand new stand-up show It’s Not the End of the World to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Following a number of predictions that the world is going to end in 2012 GARETH is prepared to stick his neck out and predict that it won’t. He can’t see the world ending any time soon, in which case how do we cope with the disappointment that the world is going to continue to exist?
What with all the wars, natural catastrophes, and whatnot, the world can seem like a terrible place to live. Everyone seems to have their hearts set on some sort of cataclysmic event that will end all of humanity, but that’s probably because we’re a bit worn out and could do with a break. Being alive is tiring nowadays, so total annihilation can seem attractive.
GARETH will be checking the audience for suicide bombers, and telling the story of the day in his life when the world came closest to ending. He will also be performing some songs on the Omnichord, an instrument he rescued from the 1980s, including “The Song Where The Jokes Go To Die”, a protest song about David Cameron and Nick Clegg (as long as the coalition holds together) and a song about what he’d do if he was one of the last two people on earth.

Join GARETH for a show about how we shouldn’t pin all our hopes on the end of the world.

Russell Howard’s Good News

I am going to be doing the stand-up on the extended episode of Russell Howard’s Good News on Saturday 7th May 2011 at 9pm on BBC3. I recorded it on Tuesday and it was alot of fun. I think it’ll be really good.

I have also just added a Facebook page for me which you can join by clicking on the facebook Logo over on the right. Yes that one there.
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“Dave the Fridge” Music Video Out Now!

Here’s the music video for “Dave the Fridge”! Hope you like it, I’m really pleased with it.

It was directed and edited by the brilliant Christopher Poole, who has done an amazing job, and it was produced by the lovely Jon Petrie.
“Dave” was played by Geoffrey Parsons, who did an excellent job slapping around “girl” Anna Geldart.
Thank you all for making it happen! And thank you in advance for watching it, unless you read this after you watched it in which case thank you, but not in advance.

These Songs Could Be Used in Adverts EP Out Now to Download

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My debut EP These Songs could be used in adverts is out now to download from itunes or amazon and probably from where ever you normally download stuff from.

It’s definitely one of the things I’ve done which I’m most pleased with. I really hope you enjoy it!

I was produced by the brilliant Peter Cochrane, so thanks Peter and everyone else who helped make it happen.

Below is the press release (I wrote it, and it’s only a press release in that it’s in the style of a press release and not because it has actually been released to any press):

GARETH RICHARDS
“THESE SONGS COULD BE USED IN ADVERTS” EP
Released: 19th July 2010
www.garethrichards.net

Comedian Gareth Richards presents his debut EP, These Songs Could Be Used in Adverts, a collection of five hilarious, outrageous, powerful and genre-defying comedy songs.

Gareth says, “My aim was to blur the boundaries between comedy and music. I wanted to make funny songs which were also good tunes at the same time.”

The title track, This Song Could Be Used in Adverts is a surreal and Gorillaz-influenced satire on consumer culture, a culture, which as the album title suggests, Gareth is keen to become involved in.

Other highlights include Dave the Fridge, a moving exploration of friendship between a man and another man who reminds the first man of a fridge, and Third World Girl a stadium anthem about how love can cross boundaries of race and political correctness.

Gareth found an interesting range of influences coming through on this EP. “My two guiding lights are blur and Bob Dylan, but there’s some The Smiths in there, a bit of REM, and even some Lily Allen.”

The EP includes songs which will feature in Gareth’s debut solo comedy show Stand Up Between Songs which he’s taking to the Edinburgh Festival in August 2010.

Gareth Richards is a co-host on the Silver Sony award-winning Frank Skinner’s Absolute Radio Show, which can be heard from 8-10 every Saturday morning. Also this year Gareth was nominated for Chortle’s prestigious Best Newcomer award.

GARETH RICHARDS: Stand Up Between Songs will be on at the Pleasance Cellar, 4th – 30th August at 18:00.

First televised performance of Dave the Fridge

The Video section of this website is up and running, and to celebrate, here is a link to the first televised performance of Dave the Fridge.

This link is from the local news coverage of a charity event I did in 2009. Students on the Bournemouth University events management course put on an event at Bournemouth Pier Theatre for Comic Relief, compered by the brilliant local act Reeves Peterson, and headlined by me.

The event tottered on the brink of disaster. There was a rally car race taking place in Bournemouth on the same day as the event. Bizarrely the route went along the beach and around Bournemouth Town Centre. The racetrack went across the end of the pier, so people were unable to get to the event. There was a shuttle bus provided which took people on a long diversion around the track. The confusion meant attendance was very low.

Reeves the MC decided to go against his normal practice and drank quite a lot of beer throughout the event, meaning that the subject matter of his material got increasingly shocking. This was very funny and Reeves was the reason the night did not completely fail.

There were two very good new acts on first, who went very well, and then a sketch group who I had never heard of before, who were scheduled to be do minutes. In the end they did 20ish.

By the time I came on the tiny audience were as tired as I was having tavelled all the way back home from Norwich to do the gig. I did 15 minutes of material including having to deal with two students who were talking quite loudly all the way through.

I was to finish with a song. It was Olly’s job (the Justin Bieber-esque event organiser who you will see in the clip) to bring on my a stool and the Omnichord. As he did so the wires got tangled and the Omnichord was pulled form the stool and smashed onto the floor. When I picked it up and tried it, the Omnichord no longer worked. That was the end of my act.

When I came off the girl who was stage managing the event, said I had gone over time.

Later that evening I managed to open up the Omnichord and solder and glue the broken pieces back together so that it worked.

The events in the clip happened earlier that afternoon. As I said, I was very tired. So tired that I could not say the word “electronic”.

Gareth playing Dave on the News

Welcome

Welcome to my brand new website.  It should hopefully be much easier to keep up to date and as I get better at using Wordpress it will get better and better. There’s going to be songs! There’s going to be videos! It’ll be ever so good.

Please come back and have a look!

Thanks

Gareth x

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