Hi Everyone,
A few things! If you want to skip ahead here’s what’s coming up below.
Thing #1 (A proper hello and a brief call to arms about social media)
Thing #2 (Series 2 of Kitson’s email)
Thing #3 (In which I briefly boast about finishing my book and then give myself a reality check)
Thing #4 (a general update about my comedy career, the Edinburgh festival, the show I’m doing now and a pretentious analogy about the technicalities of ‘debut shows’)
Thing #5 (a desperate plug for two shows before Christmas and a hint at where I’ll be doing it next year)
Thing #1
Hope you’re all doing well and hello to anyone who has signed up recently. I know it’s been a long time since the last email and I’ve got lots to catch you up on! I think there genuinely is a few people who keep up with what I’m doing exclusively through here which is lovely, if odd. If you want more regular (but lower quality) updates please follow me on Instagram - mostly pictures of gigs reposted with hastily brainstormed captions.
I don’t do online content at the moment like my more successful peers due to a combination of a sensitive day job and a bad (pretentious) attitude towards the whole thing - so hoping to build numbers the old fashioned way (fruitlessly, not commercially exploitable). Thanks for following if you do but, to be honest, massive respect if you don’t. I’ll try and do slightly more (but not so much they become annoying) updates on here. Speaking of!
Thing #2
I’ve started writing a second series of my short stories. I have the ideas. I just need to get them on paper - and funny/good (no promises). Sorry for the long delay between Series 1 and 2 but I’ve been busy doing some other things (more on this later). My plan is to hopefully get Series 2 out over the Christmas/New Year Period and potentially a series 3 around Easter (definitely no promises on this). Fingers crossed, this could even be a long term schedule. Two series/twelve stories a year? One a month? But in batches? I really like writing them and hopefully that isn’t too sporadic an output for people to cancel their paid subscriptions (now is your reminder to do that btw if you hated Series 1 but for some reason committed to yearly membership that will renew in a few months time). Long term aim would to put a collection together in a book - which you’d get a free copy of if you subscribed, as well as a copy of my first book. Speaking of!
Thing #3
I finished my book! I did a big wanky Instagram post about this but I did it. It exists and I really like it. As do the people who’ve read it so far - who may well be lying to me but have so far been very convincing. It’s a comedy thriller as is resolutely what I set out to write - which was a book I’d like to read. I’m currently in the process exploring publishing it traditionally but am… let’s say… expecting this not to happen for various reasons and am starting to make plans to just release it in the New Year. Below is the title and a brief blurb.
The Ripple Effect
by Alex Kitson
Owen is Bristol’s newest (and worst) ice cream man. Business is horrific, he’s looking worse for wear, his partner has put them on a ‘break’ and his desire for an easy life seems further away than ever. Until he develops the time-travelling powers that turn his world upside down. Unwittingly, he has become the latest member of the Dimensions; a superhero group who each have the ability to control one of the 4 dimensions of space and time. A fact that Owen would rather ignore. But one of the team has gone rogue - and Owen must perfect his new abilities in time to combat an international terrorist plot. In a race against the clock and a villain who always seems to be five steps ahead. Can he save his relationship… and the world?
(I think it’s better than it sounds)
I’ve spent the last 3 1/3 years working on i (and have had the idea two years before that!) so I really hope you guys like it. That has taken up most of my last 6 months. Well that and standup. Speaking of!
Thing #4
Comedy has been going well. I had a great time at Edinburgh doing my 45 minute WIP (work-in progress) show “Fired Up! ready to Go!” and had some really fun audiences, sold out some of the shows and generally learnt a lot. I also feel like getting cocky and moving to London last year wasn’t the mistake I suspected it was, I’m starting to do some better gigs and feel like its heading (vaguely) in the right direction. My main focus now is on my show next year — which will be my debut Edinburgh hour which is very exciting. I’ve done shows in Edinburgh before but this is, confusingly, going to be my ‘debut hour’ so is therefore a relatively important thing if you’re me. Think of previous shows as EP’s and this show as the album. It’s tentatively called “Must I Paint You a Picture?” and again, I’m really optimistic about how it’s going. It’s this big mad story which I didn’t do in Edinburgh but, confusingly, if you saw me this year do “Fired Up! Ready to Go!” in Bristol, Nottingham, Exeter, The Bill Murray, Southampton, the Brighton Fringe or “Storytime” at the Coach and Horses is that story I did there. I’ve been doing lots of work on it with my friend/director Flora and I think its gonna be good. In fact so good I think you should all come and see it. Speaking of!
Thing #5 (a desperate plug for two shows before Christmas and a hint at where I’ll be doing it next year)
The most pressing thing and the main reason for this email is that I have two previews booked before Christmas in Bristol (at the Room Above) and London (at 2Northdown) and I’d really love you to come to them. I know the geographical spread of this newsletter and the recipients are clustered in those two cities so hopefully they’ll be appealing to you. The London one especially I’m desperate to shift tickets to as I’m inviting lots of important (industry) people and it would be great to look like I can pull a crowd. Also, bizarrely, people I went to primary school are coming as a quasi-reunion which is simultaneously very sweet but also a potential fever dream of an audience so if you wanted to help me out with that I’d be incredibly grateful. If you’re not anywhere near Bristol or London or can’t make those dates I have confirmed previews in Swindon, Newquay, Bodmin, Reading (and am in the process of confirming dates for more before Edinburgh 2024). These are the shows I want people to come to! I’m trying to get better at posting my dates for regular gigs on social media and, staggeringly, people have come to gigs based on that but to be honest these are the main ones I’d like people to come to.
That’s everything. Appreciate all your support, stay tuned for Series 2 of the short stories and subscribe if you haven’t already!
Kitson