Art.
Doing a bit of writing at the Tate café on the Albert Dock in Liverpool. I played Baby Blue this weekend gone, five minutes walk from here and had a tough time on both nights. I went round the gallery for a look, and found a cracking piece called “United Kingdom”. It’s a map (I like maps) of England and Scotland with the two geographies swapped round so everything's in a different place and it looks odd but somehow logical. The name of the artist, Layla Curtis, rang a bell in my head. Can't be that many Layla's, and it turns out that it's a lass who I went to university with in Sunderland back in the day, sometime in the early nineties.
A quick google found her website, I fired off an email and got a response, we had a quick email chat and I got a bit nostalgic. It was her, she was living in London and was still in touch with a few guys I knew from the Art course, who are now working as working as proper artists, Wow. I sometimes forget how much I love and art making pictures. Actually no. I still do a bit of illustration and I love it. I'd like to have another go at becoming an artist, but the think I'm too commercially aware/corrupted to do proper art.
I think studying art at university is possibly where my attitude towards comedy has derived from. I presented stuff to the world on a wall and let it be judged. Some liked what I did, some didn’t and that’s fine. That’s a really broad metaphor. What’s the difference between an artist and an entertainer? I reckon one says ‘this is what I do’ and presents their view of the world in an reasonably uncompromising way, whereas the other adapts to the audience and in the moment. I know I’ve been guilty of the former, I think it come from a fear not wanting to be a comic who has stands on stage and prioritises what the audience want to hear over what they want to say. That’s not proper comedy to me. That's is probably why and don’t have a shiny face.
Check out my old uni mates websites and see their artwork:
and then there's me,
http://www.johncooperunlimited.co.uk
God bless you Charlie Holmes, wherever you are.
A splash image from the Graphic novel I did as part of my final year at Sunderland University.
A drunk chicken. Ink and brush. I'd like to think my linework is still this precise for a peice done on A4, but it's probably not.
I have been hard at work on my new show, and it's coming to Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival this month. Loads of new stuff about travelling round the world and getting into scrapes and trying to become a 'man of the world'. I'm will be at the Exchange Bar on 22nd February.
I have just done an interview with Demon FM radio station in Leicester, which you can listen too soon.
Here is the information written by one of those publicity blokeys:
"After a critically successful Edinburgh run in 2011 with Danny Pensive's Map of Britain, Danny has spent 2012 travelling the around the world learning really important stuff like why Australia has a different coco pops monkey and in America, Cowboys are really just farmers with big hats who ride horses instead of tractors. He's eaten Kebabs in Cairo, a Kangaroo burger in Brisbane and pizza in Chicago Town, been to a SPAM museum and created a security alert at the White House capitol building by leaving his bag unattended.
Through Egypt, Australia and across the length of the USA - even when everyone speaks the same language, there are still cultural barriers to be broken with sheer force of personality. In 2013 Danny brings his true globe- trotting travelogue to the festival. You can take the lad out of Sunderland...but he won't take his coat off to go surfing."
Date: 22 February
Venue: The Exchange Bar
INFO TEL: 0116 2513434
Entry: £5 - Ticket No: 0116 242 3595
Link to Tickets
Door open: 8.15.pm
Start time: 8.30.pm
End time: 9.30.pm
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