Author: noeljames1

Prostate

/ noeljames1

I have had the dreaded over 50s illness – my prostate is swollen, and it’s pissing me off, or rather it’s stopping me from pissing off. It was only confirmed less than 2 weeks ago, when the GP finally did the finger up the bum trick, he actually pulled out an old number plate! not really. He gave m some Tamislosin, sounds like the welsh word for sweets Loshin, and told me it reduces testosterone. Not sure whey he said that because it doesn’t do that. In fact i’m not sure if it’s helped me much at all. i still have to get up in the night about 3 times. So. already am i contemplating the operation to reduce it. which i guess comes with risks. But there’s side fx from the pills anyway, not good ones.

I also had to go to see the emergency GP in Morriston hospital because of my breathlessness. I thought it could be smoking catching up with me, or total lack of fitness, i mean getting out of bed would make me breathless. But the man detected a different sound at the top of my left lung, which he reckoned was an infection. and antibiotics does seem to be helping, which is a relief – maybe i’ll have a joint to celebrate.

Did a gig in Taunton, Eleri came along….it went ok except we had one of our inevitable rows towards the end of the trip, over something silly. The room was good as was breakfast – the hotel was where the comedy happened, a tricky audience.

The Duke of Corwall.

Last weekend i was down in Plymouth, doing Captain Smith – that went well, i remembered to spray my hair with white stuff, and it lent a distinguished look to my otherwise bland countenance. Around the same time i made a short promo video for upcoming Shazia Mirza gig at Craig y Nos…Jeanie filmed it, and then i took all the parts and edited them together. I took inspiration from the new Histoire Dinner Theatre production (coming up) Scrooge. I will be Jacob Marley, and i used some bits of that script in teh promo video, becasue Craig y Nos is well known to be haunted by spirits…

read

/ noeljames1

a book by Francoise Sagan. French book, translated. such an easy read, but the main character is such a snob, and that reflects the author, i guess. french books are so different in their approach, they have bizarre playing going on with emotions and thoughts. i don’t understand half of it. Have written and sent off a short story about a werwolf.

Have also sent off a complaint letter about the cruise i was on in june. I don’t believe i was treated fairly, but then the world is not fair. the comedy circuit is certainly not a fair place. It’s hard enough to get gigs without the fascists raising their heads. Can’t see a future there for me. what am i going to do ? if only i weren’t so lazy. Played Jeff in chess, he of course beat me. Twice.

More of Dewi

/ noeljames1

on friday i had a gig in swansea at Hoopers on oystermouth road, only about ten people in – similar in numbers to the gig the night before in Cardiff – but it went great. improvised a gag about a microphone that was a member of a satanic cult. (because it had a leather hood on). before i went down swansea i did an unusual event. a night of remembrance, in welsh, for dewi pws. as i’m sure i’ve mentioned Pws was a genius of a song writer, and also a talented comedian and actor. he worked solely in the welsh language, although he is also known for having appeared in the film Grand Slam.

it was a little nerve racking for me as the setting was the sombre Capel y Nant in clydach, a chapel. ,my bit was at the start, in theory all i had to do was read excerpts from dewi’s autobiog, but i threw in my personal recollections of the man, having met him once ( well twice actually but once during a work environment). I felt it important to mention the memory of having opened a welsh language text book when i was in school to find dewi’s poem Ti (which means You), which shocked me into a different perception of what welsh language poetry could be at the time, More spike milligan than TH Parry Williams. the guy was a legend. but he could be politically incorrect and didn’t care about that.

I also watched the 40 minute film dewi starred in, called Moc Hawddamor, with some scenes set in Gwrhyd Chapel. It was great to see it, and such a funny – well amusing – story. A man, a miner, who starts getting obsessed with composing welsh poetry and taking part in local eisteddfods. of course, his every day life and society IS welsh, and welsh speaking. His slightly nagging, but patient, wife gets annoyed by all this poets bullshit as she wants more work to be done around the house. in order to bring him around she devises a plan, and she herself starts composing things for the local eisteddfods, and winning ! Unlike her husband who wins chairs for long poems in strict metre (cywydd and awdl) she wins prizes for composing ‘ the best sentence’. He becomes so embarrassed at her success that he packs it in.

Great to see some of Islwyn Williams’ work transposed to the screen. A local writer who wrote in the cwmtawe dialect. He dies young. But i still recall with fondness (oh yes because i like fondues) playing wil thomas in the school production of Cap Wil Tomos. with Steffan Rhodri….

the ironic, tragic, thing about Moc Hawddamor is there is no welsh language – let alone welsh poetry – being spoken today in those same little terraced houses…The social dymanic would make for a totally different drama today.

more Titanic

/ noeljames1

Played captain smith again, after a long break, in caernarfon. Some people in the audience recognised me from a gig in Venue Cymru last year. I was rusty but it went alright. There was a mess up wit ha sound que, and so there was a long silence whilst waiting for the hymn music to begin playing. I managed to ad lib my way out of it – you see, earlier in the evening i’d found a necklace/bracelet of pearls by the bar. Have i told you this already??

went ten pin bowling with eleri….i had some form, got 2 or 3 strikes. Poor eleri, the balls are just too heavy for her, she’s on target but struggles to put momentum on the ball..

hello lee

/ noeljames1

i’m gonna call you les….

on friday i played the captain in Titanic again, after a 5 month break, it went well considering. Now i can shave my beard off. now it’s done. we was in Caernarvon, and a couple in the audience recognised me from Venue Cymru last year in llandudno. There was technical fuckup in the second scene,,,the hymn music wouldn’t play. so i ad-libbed: luckily i’d found a pearl bracelet on the floor by teh bar, and i took this opportunity to announce that to the crowd, a lady got up and came to claim it, she said ‘diolch yn fawr’. Fair play, the crowd had made an effort with their dressing up, but it’s a tricky period to get right – 1912 is not the flapper era, but that is how most ladies came, with feathers in their hair etc