2023-09-21 20:26
(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
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John Fleming's Blog - So It Goes | John Fleming’s Blog: Human Interest, Humour, Humor, Comedy Blog Featuring Eccentricity, Performance, Movies And Occasionally A Few Tears Blog
blog.thejohnfleming.com
John Fleming’s blog: human interest, humour, humor, comedy blog featuring eccentricity, performance, movies and occasionally a few tears
2023-09-20 08:09
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
2023-09-13 09:15
(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
2023-09-11 09:24
(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
2023-09-08 06:19
(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&hell…Read More
2023-09-07 08:18
(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&hell…Read More
2023-09-05 07:45
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
2023-08-30 09:16
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
2023-08-29 13:14
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
2023-08-24 17:10
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
2023-08-22 10:14
(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
2023-08-21 21:16
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
2023-08-21 13:47
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
2023-08-14 08:23
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
2023-08-13 11:28
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
2023-08-09 22:42
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
2023-08-06 10:49
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
2023-08-04 06:29
Becky Fury at Soho Theatre last week…
Last week, Becky Fury organised a celebratory ‘living wake’ – a ‘woke wake’ – for her ‘mentor&rsq&hell…Read More
2023-08-02 08:02
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
2023-07-25 10:58
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&hell…Read More
2023-07-06 11:13
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
2023-07-04 13:19
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
2023-06-20 09:09
(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
2023-06-19 16:30
(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
2023-06-04 11:45
(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
2023-06-03 09:56
(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
2023-05-27 21:55
(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
2023-05-26 16:17
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
2023-04-20 21:44
I bought some salmon fillets today…
On the pack was a single, but important, warning:
“Allergy Advice: Contains Fish”… Read More
2023-03-31 14:22
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
2023-03-30 15:41
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
2023-03-25 15:18
(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
2023-03-18 13:47
(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
2023-03-17 20:27
(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
2023-03-11 10:58
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
2023-03-04 12:01
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
2023-02-28 22:09
(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
2023-02-27 19:26
(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
2023-02-26 14:44
(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
2023-02-25 11:52
(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
2023-02-24 16:23
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
2023-02-23 09:22
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
2023-02-13 10:16
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
2023-02-07 12:55
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
2023-02-06 15:11
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
2023-01-27 08:51
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
2023-01-04 19:41
From Channel 46 News today: Read More
2023-01-03 22:26
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
2022-12-25 19:37
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
2022-12-15 13:32
A week ago, I posted a blog was about mad inventor and Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards designer John Ward’s interest in guns.
(John Ward would like it pointed out he is not actuall… Read More
2022-12-14 11:56
I get sent PR releases.
What can I say?
Yesterday, I received this one, which I print without comment. I have no words and I am not entirely sure if the final word is a typo or not… Read More
2022-12-08 16:57
John Ward interviewed by a Russian TV reporter (don’t ask)
Mad inventor and Malcolm Hardee Comedy Award designer John Ward used to be a member of a local shooting club. It was local … Read More
2022-11-28 10:43
I received this recent anecdote from John Ward, designer of the Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards.
It was a much normal day as such – weather atrocious outside – so I made myself b… Read More
2022-11-21 15:35
As a teenager, one of the reasons I was interested in writing was George Orwell.
I think I read Nineteen Eighty-Four when I was around 12 years old and later I read his essays and b… Read More
2022-11-18 08:31
I first met Katsura Sunshine back in 2017. He lives in Japan, the US and Canada and currently performs an ongoing monthly rakugo (Japanese storytelling) show at the Leicest… Read More
2022-11-03 20:05
John Ward in a photograph where it is probably best if you supply your own caption…
I first worked with mad inventor John Ward – designer of the Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards &n&hell…Read More
2022-10-30 09:21
Last month, I was interviewed by Dr Maria Kempinska, founder of the Jongleurs comedy club circuit, who was awarded an MBE for her contribution to British comedy. She is now a psychotherapist… Read More
2022-10-26 08:22
Yesterday, mad inventor John Ward, who designed and makes the Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards for the annual Edinburgh Fringe, sent me this email:
The other week in my Ward’s World colum… Read More
2022-10-25 10:00
John Ryan (left) and Darren Hasler-Stott
Yesterday’s blog was a chat about the new children’s book Tag Tinsel – A Mission Most Fowl by a non-existent author, Ryan Has… Read More
2022-10-24 07:59
“Mankind has gone. There is now a fierce Duck Army that is determined to take over the world…”
That’s the pitch for a new children’s book Tag Tinsel &nd&hell…Read More
2022-10-14 07:03
In the last couple of blogs, I’ve chatted to Colin Copperfield about what happened backstage on Jesus Christ Superstar and about his East End upbringing – His sizzlin… Read More
2022-10-13 08:21
In yesterday’s blog, actor, dancer, singer and songwriter Colin Copperfield talked about his time performing in London’s West End in Jesus Christ Superstar.
He start… Read More
2022-10-12 09:03
“Oozing energy… sheer delightful naughtiness”
It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Zing! is a wildly entertaining autobiography by Colin Copperfield.&nb&hell…Read More
2022-10-03 13:02
Lewis Hamilton, studless, in 2016 (Photograph: Mario via Wikipedia)
I get sundry PR releases sent to me.
I normally don’t use them, but this one I copy and paste below in its entire… Read More
2022-09-29 09:59
Jeanette (right) with Scotsman critic Kate Copstick after a Grouchy Club show at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2014
I got a shock phone call this morning to tell me of the death of the always liv… Read More
2022-09-24 11:44
The Edinburgh Fringe is held every August. It ended almost a month ago.
After every Edinburgh Fringe, there is a blame game played about how the experience was awful and the Fringe is det… Read More
2022-09-22 11:35
Malcolm Hardee Comedy Award designer John Ward has occasionally been described in this blog as “mad inventor John Ward”.
There is a reason for this.
I have recently ha… Read More
2022-09-21 08:31
The last blog posted here was a story written by multi-talented Lily, the 11-year-old daughter of writer-performer hyphenate Ariane Sherine.
Now here are four artworks by Lily…… Read More
2022-09-15 11:48
Back in December 2020, there was a review posted in this blog of a new movie based on the traditional pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk. It was written by Lily, the then 9-year-old daugh… Read More
2022-09-13 02:01
“The main thing I remember was…”
Timeless and ageless entertainer Earl Okin posted this memory on his Facebook page. Reprinted here with permission:
I suppose that… Read More
2022-09-02 08:27
I was hospitalised for a week in May 2020 and – again for a week – in July 2021. On both occasions, my calcium level had suddenly sky-rocketed to a dangerous level which result… Read More
2022-08-29 13:45
I have mentioned the Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards in the last couple of blogs. The actual trophies were designed and made by mad inventor John Ward who is particularly keen (via an email thi… Read More
2022-08-28 08:36
Highly unlikely to ever want to rest in peace…
Yesterday’s blog was about the travails of this year’s Malcolm Hardee Awards Show at the Edinburgh Fringe. The show was can… Read More
2022-08-27 14:23
ITV’s Tiswas – Good clean family fun
I was a researcher on the final series of anarchic Saturday morning ITV children’s show Tiswas. It had been going for years at the poi… Read More
2022-08-22 07:42
Recently, for the third year, I sat through (most of) the annual London Film School graduates’ short film screenings.
This year, I saw the best film I have seen in those three years … Read More
2022-08-20 14:50
45 minutes ago, someone asked me if all my blog readers were in the UK, which is an interesting question and the answer is No.
This is often called a “comedy blog” but not by me… Read More
2022-08-18 16:03
WARNING! THERE ARE MULTIPLE USES OF THE ‘F’ WORD AND THE ‘C’ WORD IN THIS PIECE… PROCEED AT YOUR PERIL IF YOU ARE OF A NERVOUS OR EASILY-OFFENDED DISPOSITION&h&hell…Read More
2022-08-17 11:56
Jerry Sadowitz’s Edinburgh Fringe show and his upcoming, now fast-selling-out UK tour…
As the Jerry Sadowitz row at the Edinburgh Fringe is still rumbling on (see my previ… Read More
2022-08-16 09:32
Benjamin Bankole Bello, who performs comedy as President Obonjo, is rather concerned by the Pleasance venue’s banning of comedian Jerry Sadowitz’s show at the Edinburgh Fringe&he&hell…Read More
2022-08-15 13:30
As an addendum to the blog I posted earlier today about the Jerry Sadowiz/Pleasance venue contretemps at the Edinburgh Fringe…
My eagle-eyed, eternally-un-named friend has spotted a… Read More
2022-08-15 10:04
(WARNING: THIS BLOG CONTAINS AT LEAST ONE OFFENSIVE WORD; DON’T READ FURTHER IF IT IS GOING TO SCARE YOU)
Jerry Sadowitz’s 1987 album Gobshite
The aftershock of The Pleas… Read More
2022-08-14 10:17
Andrew Castle on LBC
I was interviewed by Andrew Castle on his LBC radio show this morning.
It followed the Pleasance venue at the Edinburgh Fringe cancelling Jerry Sadowitz’s… Read More
2022-08-13 07:56
“If you like fat blokes sweating, futuristic, nihilistic storylines, confusion… and a LOT…”
I blogged about the commendably eccentric Consignia comedy group at the… Read More
2022-08-09 07:59
Eager eaters await the opening of an ‘all-you-can-eat’ Korean BBQ restaurant in New Malden…
I am interested in North Korea and in the content of dreams.
Last night, I went… Read More
2022-08-08 09:45
My advice to people going to the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time to see shows:
Don’t assume that, because a show is tucked away at 0930 or midday or 1600 that it is any less goo… Read More
2022-08-07 09:57
A couple of days ago, I was asked to appear on GBNews’ today to give my opinion on the future of comedy.
And, sure enough, last night I appeared briefly on the Mark Dolan… Read More
2022-08-02 19:09
Admirably anarchic comedy group Consignia are performing their show The Flatterers at the Edinburgh Fringe starting this Saturday (6th-14th August).
It is a free show – you ca… Read More
2022-08-01 13:08
On Thursday this week, Dan Kelly starts the Edinburgh Fringe ‘run’ of his show How I Came Third in the North Korean Marathon. So obviously I was interested and went to see… Read More
2022-07-30 07:17
I was in a train yesterday when I heard an adult male voice across the aisle and slightly behind me say:
“…and it’s got one to twelve on it because it&rsquo&hellip…Read More
2022-07-24 22:30
The last time Mark Borkowski – legendary UK PR guru and master of the publicity stunt – appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe as a performer was 15 years ago with his Sons of Barnum s… Read More
2022-07-17 09:40
(Photo via pxhere.com)
Some stories which I do not mention in this blog are often even more interesting than what appears, but not quite long enough to blog about. And some are just plain u… Read More
2022-07-08 11:22
In my last two blogs, American publicist Dan Harary talked about his life, his PR company, his flirting with the famous and about sex, his rock drummer background and three of hi… Read More
2022-07-07 10:08
In yesterday’s blog, I chatted to US publicity guru Dan Harary, who is publishing four books between now and next Spring.
Last month saw the publication of Flirting With Fame: : A Ho… Read More
2022-07-06 12:34
Dan Harary talked to me from Los Angeles at the weekend…
Dan Harary calls himself “an author, entertainment industry publicist, drummer and former stand-up comic”. He sta… Read More
2022-06-27 07:33
“…I just don’t care any more. I just don’t…”
If you are offended by four-letter words, read no further. This is your final warning.
New York based P… Read More
2022-06-22 17:06
Earlier today, I heard some radio station playing the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper and its opening lines “It was twenty years ago today…”
I used to half-heartedly ke… Read More
2022-06-20 09:16
(Image by Hans-Peter Gauster, via UnSplash)
A large number of these blogs over the years have been interviews or, more precisely, transcriptions of chats with other people. I record everyth… Read More
2022-06-16 07:26
James Joyce in Zurich, 1916
Today, 16th June, is Bloomsday – the day on which James Joyce‘s Ulyssses (1922) is set.
Joyce’s earlier novel A Portrait of the Artist… Read More
2022-06-09 09:25
The Lion of Fleet Street is a novel about a British tabloid newspaper reporter – one of the ‘big beasts’ of Fleet Street – the centre of the newspaper business… Read More
2022-06-06 10:04
The currently immature cover for my Apple MacBook…
I have a creative chum with a good sense of humour.
Last week, her 11-year-old daughter told her reprovingly – t… Read More
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John Fleming's blog - SO IT GOES | John Fleming’s blog: human interest, humour, humor, comedy blog featuring eccentricity, performance, movies and occasionally a few tears
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