Freshen Up!

It's busy and quite exciting as the year kicks off in earnest. We've a big Stand Up gig in the theatre on Friday, which we're co-producing with The Comedy School and featuring some brilliant acts Andi Osho (see pic), Alex Maple, Ahir Shah and Red Dwarf creator Rob Grant. It's a brand new adventure for the department and I hope it'll be a forerunner for developing some courses and encouraging some students to try out this circuits. For now the ambition is just to sell out for the gig!

On Tuesday we met the first year in the theatre. It all seemed to go very well until Trevor tried to remember Al's mantra on punctuality that he suggested all of us have tattooed on our hearts, and got into a bit of a mess.

'To be early is to be late...to be good is fired... ummm. How does it go Al?'

Unfortunately Al was lost in a bit a of an induction talk daydream and as summer had got in between him and the last time he used it he also struggled...

'No. it's to be late is on time... no to be on time is good, but not as good as being early... no that's not it...'

There was then the unedifying spectacle of eight drama lecturers all chipping in to try and save this potentially inspirational start to term, as the confidence visibly drained from the poor students cheeks.

'Early is good...no it's more than that'

'Later... don't be on time!... no that can't be it!'

'No I've got it... be earlier than good!' etc. etc.

Eventually we managed to move on, but it was a genuinely excruciating moment.

Back in the comfort and security of the Drama corridor we were all quick to remember and quite smug in telling each other. So for the record the mantra is

To be early is on time.

To be on time is late.

To be late is FIRED!

Thankfully at no point is incompetent mentioned.

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