The Comedy Returns!

And it's right here, in this email.

Sep 12, 2025

Today’s track is When You’ve Got A Little Springtime In Your Heart, by Al Bowly.

The Comedy Returns!

(This section written March 2025)

I have recently taken a three-month break from standup. This was not by choice, my own health had cancelled me. My full-time government job, plus the looming deadline for WHO KILLED THE HUMANS, among some real life stressors, had meant I had no time to travel an hour into town, do four minutes of jokes, and then travel back for another hour.

It’s also expensive. Many of my passions are.

So I performed my first standup of 2025 in the middle of March.

It was Smiley, Chorlton, and it went down very well.

Pictured above: Phillip telling jokes about stress, before giving an audience member delirious advice on human trafficking.

(This section written August 2025)

Evidently the burnout is still fading away, as I am whittling through countless (400) drafts for post ideas. But I’ve got more pictures.

Again, Smiley Chorlton. During this gig I riffed off a previous comedian’s material about being transgender, twisting a laminated photo into a commentary about Starmernet, the new British internet which makes pornography hard to find unless you are technologically adept, as many children seem to be. Great job, government.

What a tremendous, horrendous backfire this has been.

Funny, though.

Pictured: Green trousers which fascinated people at the back of the bar. I know this because they told me. They also told me they couldn’t hear, but the trousers kept them intrigued. So I guess I don’t need to write jokes now.

OnlyPants coming soon.

In between these two appearances at Smiley, I also had my own 90-minute WORK IN PROGRESS gig which we put together in just under nine days.

This show went brilliantly. We have the full thing recorded in 4K (thanks to my comedy friend Zuza Ritt) and you can expect to see that uploaded somewhere eventually.

If you’re wondering why I again delayed going to the Edinburgh Fringe, the simple answer is that I realised my money was better spent elsewhere. What is the use of a painter taking a blank canvas to a show, when they could instead invest in paint?

The art in these posts was drawn mid-gig by Akinyemi_oludele, on instagram.

Grab life by the tentacles

A few years ago I pitched the idea of a dark new comedy night to a few friends in the industry. Each and every one of them warned me against it. Some months later, someone else with a bigger podcast and more connections, made the night. Annoyingly, they even used the venue I wanted.

I was angry at the nice people whose nervousness was projected onto me. I found their clinging to safe ideas bothersome, cumbersome, and loathsome all at once. I wanted not to be weighed down., but I know they only wanted me to be safe from the nastiness that free speech comedy can sometimes attract.

However, safety in the Arts does not lead to progress.

And free speech isn’t just for people writing mean tweets.

I had a legitimate reason for making the night.

And I will one day make it.

In a sensible, clever venue.

But for now, I focus instead on another idea.

Carter’s Cosmic Comedy Cave.

Until then, solo standup.