Cult UK performance artist/comedy icon The Iceman aka ‘real’ artist AIM aka Anthony Irvine had an art exhibition for a whole month in Dorset last year. It turned out to be popu… Read More

Gencraft AI’s 2024 idea of the 1960s … Yesterday, I was talking to a long-time acquaintance – female – about how times have changed in our lifetimes. It star… Read More

People often say that Twitter/X is a viper’s nest of nastiness and this year’s upcoming Edinburgh Fringe – always with its finger on the pulse – inevitably has a play… Read More

Ariane Sherine is an author, journalist and songwriter/performer…Ariane Sherine writes: Last year, I got the chance to pitch a biography of anyone who was no longer living. I chose t… Read More

Dave Hughes concludes his story (which started HERE) of his friendship with future Canadian cultural icon Don Cullen who owned and ran the Le Strip ‘burlesque’ club in Toronto in… Read More

Dave Hughes continues his story (which started HERE) of his association with future Canadian cultural icon Don Cullen and the Le Strip ‘burlesque’ club in Toronto in the 1980s an… Read More

Back in March, in a follow-up to a piece I posted ten years before (in 2014) I posted a new 4-part blog which started out about a Toronto strip club called Le Strip and then veered into tota… Read More

The future AIM of The Iceman… Performance art act The Iceman aka Anthony Irvine has cropped up in this blog over the years, including his pure art incarnation as AIM. Last year, I bl… Read More

Lady Godiva Rides Again was a 1951 British movie about a beauty contest winner who tries to get a career in the movie business. It was directed and co-scripted by the highly-rated Frank La… Read More

Traditional versus 21st century (images via Gencraft AI) Read More

I asked Gencraft AI to show me the epitome of British life and it came up with this: I then asked it to show me epitome of London life… Finally, I asked it for an image of (po… Read More

Alexander Frackleton at Heathrow Terminal 3 last Friday On Friday, I had a chat with Alexander Frackleton, while he was transiting Heathrow Airport, London, on his way from Prague to Glasgo… Read More

Jason Cook on his phone in Borehamwood Jason Cook has turned up occasionally in this blog. The last time was in December 2021 when my opening sentence was “You need grit and de… Read More

David Hughes in the 1980s… This all started, three blogs ago, as a piece about David Hughes, who worked as a doorman/cashier/DJ at the Le Strip club in Toronto from 1982 to 1994.&nbs… Read More

This all started three days ago with a blog about a Canadian striptease club called Le Strip. Life seemed so simple then. Yesterday’s follow-up blog was titled: THE NOT-SO SIMPLE… Read More

Yesterday’s blog involved reaction to a Comment on an October 2014 blog I posted about a Toronto striptease club called Le Strip. Le Strip during its heyday in the 1980s…… Read More

GenCraft AI’s idea of what this specific blog might be about… One of the fascinating things about this blog, which I started in May 2010, is that people sometimes pick up on po… Read More

Late Night With The Devil poster I don’t normally post reviews on here, but I saw a preview of Late Night With The Devil earlier this week. It opens in UK and US cinemas today and i… Read More

I tried inputting “Summer is icumin in” (and “Sumer is icumin in”) on an AI picture generator and got the reply:  “This prompt doesn’t abide b… Read More

Last week, I blogged here about the fact that the Reuters news agency was investigating  – for a second time – whether ‘President Obonjo’ (aka comedian Benj… Read More

As my blog yesterday mentioned performer/artist The Iceman, I thought I would ask Gencraft AI to create an image of “a man made of ice attempting to melt himself with a flame-thrower&r… Read More

Robert Wringham is what Americans would call a hyphenate. He does all sorts of things. Basically he is a writer of humorous books; plus he has written two histories of alternative comedy;… Read More

Today, Ariane X – aka Ariane Sherine, writer of multiple books, newspaper & magazine columns and music – has released a pop album entitled Better. Why for her daughter? Why… Read More

With all the misinformation swirling around, it is good to know that the Reuters news agency takes its journalistic responsibilities seriously when supplying worldwide news and media sources… Read More

Njambi’s latest  book/first novel… Well, that is it in a nutshell… Comedian Njambi McGrath wrote an autobiography in 2020. (There’s a blog about it HERE.) N… Read More

I was at a book launch in London tonight. A comedian’s first novel. A new beginning, perhaps. So inevitably – because real life is badly plotted – about five minutes… Read More

I meant to write a blog earlier. I meant to write a blog now. Well, to transcribe a recorded chat to become a blog. But I got distracted by ice cream. And desserts. And chocol… Read More

I know nothing about medicine. I know nothing about medical matters, but… Back in the mists of 1991, I got hit by a large – a very large – articulated truck. I wa… Read More

(Photograph by NASA via Unsplash) I gave PERPLEXITY AI and CHAT GPT the same instruction: “Write a blog about AI in the style of So It Goes, John Fleming’s Blog.”… Read More

  (Photograph by @felipepelaquim via Unsplash) As regular readers of this blog will know, I have an interest in Artificial Intelligence and its ability to mine facts and opinions&hell… Read More

Anthony Irvine aka The Iceman recently had a book Melt It! published about him – crafted by multi-tasker Robert Wringham. I posted a blog about it. Now the book has inspired a forth… Read More

Bernie Clifton rides Oswald the Ostrich Yesterday’s blog was the first part of a chat with legendary English entertainer Bernie Clifton. It concludes here… JOHN: You were sayi… Read More

Legendary comedy entertainer and British national treasure Bernie Clifton has just published his showbiz autobiography Crackerjack to Vegas. He has ridden his puppet costume creation Osw… Read More

Yesterday’s blog was about traditional Christmas paraphernalia and I said I thought hanging wreaths to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ was a rather bizarre custom. My eterna… Read More

It is Christmas Day today. In the morning. I was trying to figure out if there’s anything Christian about Christmas traditions – wreaths, trees, Santa Claus, cards &ndas… Read More

(Image by Christian Dorn via Pixabay) OfCom – the body which regulates broadcasting in the UK – has released an Ipsos Mori study it commissioned on Public Attitudes Towards Offe… Read More

(Image by Jeremy Bishop via Unsplash) I am knocking on a bit. I have managed to get old. Not intentionally. I never wanted to live beyond the age of 18. Genuinely. And… Read More

As regular readers of this blog will know, I am interested in the creative potential of AI. Yesterday, Google posted online a test of their ‘Gemini’ – an AI “capable… Read More

Tony Allen with the cast of the film Plan B, including Becky Fury and Tony Green… Following on from the last blog – a tribute to the late performer Tony Allen by his friend Bec… Read More

Here, award-wining stand-up Becky Fury pays tribute to her long-time friend Tony Allen, who died yesterday morning, in London… (Photos from Becky’s collection) Becky Fury with… Read More

This not so much a real review; more a superficial and admittedly simplistic personal reaction. A bit of a chat. A couple of days ago, I saw Ridley Scott’s new movie Napoleon with a… Read More

I’ve just been sent a PR release plugging a touter of sports tickets and I know my readers are keen on swearing (even my devoted reader in Guatemala). So, although I only rarely pass… Read More

Earlier this month, my chum writer Ariane Sherine wrote a piece in the Metro newspaper which contained what she said was a “daft chat-up line”. Her 12-year-old daughter to… Read More

Irvine Welsh‘s Trainspotting was published exactly 30 years ago. It was longlisted for the 1993 Booker Prize, but was apparently rejected for the shortlist after “offending the… Read More

Julie was the female lead in Ferry Cross The Mersey in 1965… Yesterday’s blog was a chat with actress/producer/manager Julie Samuel who has just published her autobiography W… Read More

Julie starred in the movie Ferry Cross The Mersey with Gerry and The Pacemakers. (Photograph by George Elam/ANL/Shutterstock -1355671a) Julie Samuel has been around a bit, done most everyth… Read More

One day last week, I got what I think was a complaint. Normally, when I get up in the morning, one of the first things I do is feed the birds in my back garden. But, on that day, I was a b… Read More

Following on from a blog I posted last week headed “Reports of My Death were Exaggerated” in which AI was saying untrue things about me, intermingled with true facts… &he… Read More

(Image by Gerd Altmann via Pixabay) I get quite a lot of PR mailouts of factual information sent to me and I almost never ever use them because they are basically just plugging some company… Read More

Both ChatGPT and Claude AI recently reckoned that I was dead. I thought I might check this again. So I asked Claude AI just now: “Is blogger John Fleming dead?” I… Read More

Do you watch the chin or the eyes? (Photo by Baylee Gramling via Unsplash) Yesterday, I was attacked in the street by a 12-year-old. Writer Ariane Sherine’s highly-intelligent… Read More

(Image by Steve Johnson via UnSplash) Artificial Intelligence is on the up. Just today, Press Gazette reports that Martin Lewis’ MoneySavingExpert.com – which they claim is the… Read More

Last year, comic/photographer Steve Best published Comedians, an extraordinarily classy collection of his photos of, you guessed it, comedians. Now he is about to publish a sequ… Read More

(Photograph by Tony Rojas via Unsplash) SO IT GOES is not a ‘knocking blog’. If I write about and chat to stand-up comedians or any other creatives then, by-and-large, the vari… Read More

(Photograph by Glenn Carstens-Peters via UnSplash) In my last couple of blogs, I asked AI to explain Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity and Quantum Physics. In both cases, I thin… Read More

(Image by Gerd Altmann via Pixabay) After I posted yesterday’s blog, in which I asked Artificial Intelligence to explain Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, my reader &lsqu… Read More

(Image of Albert Einstein by Brent Dalling, via UnSplash) Occasionally, of late, I have asked AI to write me stuff. In this case, I asked ChatGPT to “explain in 200 words Einstein&rs… Read More

Sculpture in Chonqing art gallery, 1985 Extracts from my diary… Wednesday 22 May – Chonqing/Wanxian As we floated down the Yangste, a bloated body passed us quickly by… Read More

Far be it from me to say my blog is widely read – it could, after all, be merely coincidence – but, a few brief hours after I posted yesterday’s blog on comedy charact… Read More

Presidents Trump and Obonjo in happier times… Benjamin/Obonjo as himself this morning Malcolm Hardee Award winning British comedian Benjamin Bankole Bello has been performing as f… Read More

Leo Kitay sure knows how to flyer… When I went up to the Edinburgh Fringe for one night and two days last weekend, the crowds seemed to have returned post-Covid, though the flyering… Read More

(Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay) The ten ‘best’ jokes at the Edinburgh Fringe (according to the Dave TV channel) were announced today. So I asked Claude.AI – a rival… Read More

Crowds are back, but what about the comedy? Last Friday afternoon I flew up from London to the Edinburgh Fringe and last Saturday evening I flew back. It was the cheapest way except for a N… Read More

Computer-generated image: an even older me Today, a chum of mine asked ChatGPT about John Fleming… John Fleming (1947-2019) was a British blogger, comedy promoter, and talent scout… Read More

Last week, I blogged about the death of multi-talented British eccentric Bob Flag. In the summer of 1981, he was performing on stage off-West End in London as part of The Mad Show… Read More

Later today, the esteemed online publication Fringe Review (currently reporting on and reviewing shows at the Edinburgh Fringe) is hosting a Zoom meeting titled Using AI to Write a Convinc… Read More

In the summer of 1981, Malcolm Hardee and The Greatest Show on Legs were appearing in London slightly off-West End (at the Bloomsbury Theatre) in The Mad Show – a collection of kinda… Read More

Christopher Nolan As of yesterday, I have given up on Christopher Nolan movies. Seriously. Yesterday I sat through his movie Oppenheimer – exactly three messy hours of my life… Read More

Becky Fury at Soho Theatre last week… Last week, Becky Fury organised a celebratory ‘living wake’ – a ‘woke wake’ – for her ‘mentor&rsq… Read More

This year’s Edinburgh Fringe, in effect, starts today and so does Juliette Burton’s new show there.  I chatted with her before she went up to Scotland. JOHN: What di… Read More

Three weeks ago, I wrote a blog about famed performance act The Iceman (aka AIM aka Anthony Irvine) and his then-upcoming art show PEG IT! at Guggleton Farm Arts – ‘The Gugg&rsqu… Read More

Britain’s NHS was 75 years old yesterday. That is even older than I am. And dementia has now arrived… …for the NHS. I am only slightly behind, I fear… In… Read More

AIM, the artist formerly known as The Iceman What is The Iceman? Who is he? Comedian Stewart Lee describes him as “a blank canvas. You project your own ideas onto him: fun, sin… Read More

(Photograph by optimusreign via Twitter) Yesterday, Anna Smith, this blog’s occasional Vancouver correspondent, sent me a newspaper article about a psychopathic deer stalking local pe… Read More

(Image by Maximalfocus via UnSplash) Artificial Intelligence has no morals, no thoughts of its own, no beliefs of its own. So I asked ChatGPT to write a 200-word political manifesto for ea… Read More

 (Image by Geralt, via Pixabay) Looking at the answers, I would say Russia currently has a severe problem – but that, of course, is obvious without asking ChatGPT… AI has… Read More

(image by Yogendra Singh via UnSplash) Cricket is basically a non-contact sport in which a school-gang-sized number of men stand around well-distanced from each other dressed in white doing… Read More

(Image by Andre de Santis, via UnSplash) I asked ChatGPT to write a Shakespearean sonnet about a stand-up comedian. This was the result: In laughter’s realm, where jesters weave their… Read More

The BBC ignored the slight visual differences between John Ward (left) and Tina Turner… (Photograph of Tina Turner by Philip Spittle via Wikipedia) Singer Tina Turner died this week… Read More

I bought some salmon fillets today… On the pack was a single, but important, warning: “Allergy Advice: Contains Fish”… Read More

In my last blog, a man with no settled name talked about his life in music, comedy and surrealism. One of his names was/is Wavis O’Shave and he became/remains a cult figure from his… Read More

So I have been talking to a man whose real name I do not know. He performed as Wavis O’Shave on the 1980s Channel 4 TV music series The Tube, often in bizarre comedy sketch… Read More

(Photos by Rock Staar and Harrison Fitts via UnSplash) Today I was asked by two single girls whether they should go on holiday next week to Spain or to Jamaica. The price is about the sam… Read More

(Image by Element5 Digital via Pexels) So, initially, I asked ChatGPT AI to write me a 250 word political manifesto on the benefits of cannibalism. Why not? It came up with this answer: I… Read More

(Image by Sandro Gonzalez via UnSplash) A chum of mine is an Old Age Pensioner.  Or a Senior Citizen, if you are American or Woke. Every year in April, UK pensions rise and you… Read More

A friend of mine lives in the South of England. I got this message from her earlier in the week… Three-hour power cut here yesterday – no internet, no mobile phone, no t… Read More

My opinion of the Britain’s National Health Service, from experience, is that, like all large bureaucracies, it is an utter, incompetent mess. But my opinion of doctors and nurses… Read More

(Picture by Possessed Photography via UnSplash) Following up my previous blog, in which ChatGPT decided that I had died twice – in 2019 and then again in 2020 – I decided to see… Read More

(Drawing of John Fleming (1995-2022) by Janet Bettesworth) As my eternally un-named friend today took an interest in the much-publicised AI chatbot ChatGPT, I asked it a question: It was… Read More

(Photo by Freddy Kearney via UnSplash) I was once peripherally involved in someone else’s non-fiction book – to repeat… This was a factual, non-fiction book. The w… Read More

(Photo from The Prisoner episode 4: Free For All) About a month ago, Malcolm Hardee Comedy Award designer John Ward got in touch with me about cult TV series The Prisoner. He thought h… Read More

The truth is flexible.  For example, if you perform one show of the same name every month for a couple of years in London’s West End (which can be said to cover quite a lar… Read More

The Iceman with ice in a cup and rubber duck in hand at London’s South Bank Arts Centre… Occasionally, The Iceman turns up in my blog. As my avid reader in Guatemala will kno… Read More

James Harris at Soho Theatre with his novel Comedian James Harris has written a novel titled Midlands. So I talked to him... JOHN: How long have you been doing stand-up? JAME… Read More

Apparently this blog has been chosen or voted – who knows? – on 31st January this year, as the 6th best UK Satire Blog on the planet “ranked by traffic, social media… Read More

This report appeared in the Daily Telegraph, London, on 1st February 2023: So I asked Anna Smith, this blog’s occasional Canadian correspondent, based in Vancouver, about the effect… Read More

Malcolm Hardee Comedy Award designer John Ward has got in touch with me about the cult TV series The Prisoner, which starred Patrick McGoohan… John Ward wrote: Patric… Read More

From Channel 46 News today: Read More

News reaches me in London from far-off Europe that, if you are ever hungry in Brussels, there are multiple options… The official Brussels travel website has one suggestion… an… Read More

My eternally-un-named friend has a secret addiction In the run-up to Christmas, my eternally un-named friend has been endlessly watching ‘Christmas movies’. Not the big-budget… Read More