A Guest Blogger in our midst.

At last, Martin gets to have his say.  He's funny, and he's here all week - so, enjoy!

It's Snow Joke!! Actually, it's Martin.

The Joy and Pain of Writing. Having let Steve take the heavy lifting of Blog writing, I’ve finally caved to his pressure to come up with some content regarding my part in the puppet project.
For a long time, I’d felt a little on the outside of the project. I have made a few monster-style puppets of questionable quality, but it soon became apparent that my skills were not in the model making department. Steve had spent long nights over many months making fantastic foam likenesses of the band, and I’d fulfilled the role of bloke who makes tea and say ‘wow they look good’ a lot. It was fair to say I hadn’t exactly been pulling my weight.

Creative 'weight pulling'. Hard with no keyboard delete key!

When the question came of what to do with the puppets, I saw a chance to get more involved. I had done a very limited amount of writing, but always subscribed to the idea that everyone has a novel inside them (not a pleasant thought; books can have very sharp corners). Blessed with boundless optimism and a head full of bad puns, creativity started to slowly flow. It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention, it could also be added that convenience is, at the very least, the great uncle of laziness. With this tortured metaphor still hanging in the air, I decided to analyse what we already had at our disposal for inspiration.

Wally the Brick, on holiday.

What a brief search of the house turned up, was a poorly made puppet of a hare and a foam prop brick – so these elements became the centre piece for the first bits of writing.


What wasn’t at first obvious to me, was that sooner or later I was going to have to show these draft scripts to someone else. Much like your own singing; what sounds like perfection in your own home may well turn out to be a bit flat when aired in public, it was scary stuff. Luckily Steve got the gist of the jokes in the first drafts and helped me hone them into a more cohesive story. As time went on, it became clear that his stuff was strong on story, but lighter on laughs, whereas my material tended to aimlessly spin round in endless jokes without ever getting to a point. By passing scripts between ourselves, the right balance was maintained.

Hoagie, one of Martins creations.

The first three scripts came together quite well, up to the point where I was prepared to let the rest of the band read, and then commit them to tape. Luckily, my fears of people being upset about how many lines they had, or anyone being unhappy that their character was a bit dim, never materialised – just as well the band are all good sports!

The Chris 'Not Offended' face.

Happy as I was to see the first three recorded, I’m now determined to make the next scripts of a higher quality. Some of the jokes didn’t work as well as they should have and I feel that another re-write wouldn’t have gone amiss – It’s a learning curve and I’m thrilled to have been given the opportunity to be part of it.

Steve & Martin Gilmour :) Go Team Booze.