Pic courtesy of Marcus Keeley who somehow digitally infiltrated the Batcave to render this cgi Lorcan, God help us all.
It's a while since I've frequented the auld blog, painful memories (all available in the archive forever and ever, or until there is no electricity like in a Snake Plissken in an Escape From L.A. stylee.) I've been busy alternating between overseeing a bootleg alcohol operation in 1920s Atlantic City and killing skuttering aliens in a nanosuit, either that or overdosing on Boardwalk Empire and Crysis 2. Recently, however a few nonbleak things happened that I feel compelled to document.
The first was finding all of Preacher graphic novels in a Monaghan charity shop for 1.50 euro a pop, which meant that after a bit of in-my-favor maths from the lady behind the counter and a wink, I got all nine volumes for 12 euro: Ladies in charity shops regularly think I am mentally challenged for buying 'funny books' from the children's section at the age of 35 and give me discounts out of pity, but I think we all know who the real winner is. Ironically they were in the religion section beside George W. Bush's 'Decision Points', (presumably the 'decision point' for Bush was seeing the advance and accepting one last chance to get a huge amount of money for selling bullshit to shitmunchers)
There they are now, all the lads together.
Rereading it all in one go was an amazing experience, especially liked the cameo from Bill Hicks, put it up on Lorcranium here and here and it reminded me of a more innocent time when references to strap on dildos and sexual perversions evoked illicit thrills rather than mundane jaded tuts of recognition. It would have made a great HBO (home bosum ogling) series.
The second great thing was fulfilling a comedy ambition of playing The Empire Comedy Club. I did an open spot with Sean Hegarty supporting and Simon Evans headlining, all MCed by Jake O'Kane. Comedic brother in arms Marcus Keeley kindly recorded and uploaded it, he says it's good, but all I can hear is some Monaghan mook going "eh" all the time while his gut strains behind a Primark cardigan that looks well the first time you wear it but is gets more embarrassing each time you wash it. Check out the rest of his great videos here. Think it went well though, got asked back in September.
Last but by no means least, and I would say this was an unfulfilled comedy ambition as I didn't even think it was possible, but I supported Kevin Eldon at his first (sold out!) show in Belfast organised by the Black Box and Big Laughs Belfast. He has one of the most impressive comedy cvs of any actor in the contemporary British comedy world. I did a wee youtube tribute to Eldon over on the Tumblr, and Peter "Hotrod" McCaughan's review of the night can be found here.
I don't need to offer my tuppenny bits worth on how good Eldon's show 'Titting About' is, the Paul Hamilton opening section expertly gets the audience in the mood for the sort of actorly character sections that will prevail and the quickfire nature of the show generally leaves little room for an audience to either stop laughing or get bored or agitated. I love the George Martin/Hitler section, the roots of which can be seen here:
Upon meeting him, I had to suppress the fanboy urges to divulge favorite Eldon moments or reveal that whenever I apply for a job I am far too old for I always think of the office assistant/ear severing sketch in Big Train. I also resisted the urge to ask who ended up keeping the Kevin Eldon/Chairman Mao painting from the Big Train Virginia Plain sketch, it must be in someone's living room:
Anyway, in the tradition of the Internet, pics or it didn't happen
(p.s. I'm pretty sure the ice age happened and there are no pics of that)
In the manner of a comedy blog, as mentioned by the mysterious Comedy Guru...here are some gigs/my fleeting roster of self worth:
It's go at Lorcy central or 'Lorcom' as I refer to it, in my head. Last night was on Hotrod McCaughan's Hot Rod of Comedy, a regular segment on BBC Introducing in Northern Ireland with Rory McConnell.
Which you can listen to here, it's about one hour and 25 minutes in.
Telephone interviews are always a bit weird because you don't know if you are going on too long or not enough, I end up pulling Tim and Eric style faces to myself after each sentence....
I also always immediately think feck I should of said this that or the other. Will be doing some new character madness at the Voicebox Comedy on Friday, at the awesome Safehouse Gallery which I can't wait for, Marcus Keeley's Voicebox nights have been growing steadily in popularity month after month, this one I think is the biggest line up yet, with about 20 acts with 5 minutes each, and us regulars will be doing character bits/sketches and videos in between, I made and overelaborate photoshop thing for it
and I'm doing a best of powerpoint things: "Sex and Superheroes and The Story of Poor Auld Jesus: The Highlights" at The Sunday Strip Club at the Pavilion on Sunday 9th May
Sunday 9th Sowerby and Luff's all Stars, The White Horse, Canon Gate 9.45pm Monday 10th Verity Welch's Twisted Sister 11pm Tuesday 11th Sowerby and Luff's all Stars, The White Horse, Canon Gate 9.45pm
Wednesday 12th Verity Welch's Twisted Sister 11pm
Thursday 13th Sowerby and Luff's all Stars, The White Horse, Canon Gate 9.45pm
Fresh Faces at the Fringe with Elsie Harris and Danny Worthington, will be popping and doing a bit during the first week.
"*Well mostly what they taught me via porn, psychoanalysis and comics..."
Was a (mostly) new powerpoint comedy lecture, (well I couldn't resist reshowing the Spider-man web good stuff) I did at the Safehouse Gallery for Marcus Keeley's Alternative 4th of July festivities. Mention of the night in his post here.
So superstar poet and comedian Marcus Keeley and I took a rock and roll road trip to Norwich to perform at the Soap Box Arts Festival at the Norwich Arts Centre. He to perform numerous poems and smear venietta into his face and me to present my Sex and Superhero Version 2.0: Now with added embarrassing pictures.
We stayed for a bit in the Fawlty Towers-esque Landsdowne Hotel. As I had the laptop and media drive with me, first things first was to check the night-time film suitability of the television. I managed this via an Alan Partridge-style 'mirror trick' of putting the television on it's side which made in squawk and turn everything a frightening grey.
On Friday we went Tim Clare's book launch for his book 'We Can't All Be Astronauts', which can be bought here. Tim also had a bit in the Independent about getting published.
This isn't Tim Clare, it other Norwich literary luminary Nathan Hamilton. We all went to the Birdcage and Havana, well I went to Havanas others had more sense.
I write stuff about superheroes, do stand up, draw cartoons and teach. I'm more often at my tumblr Lorcranium, on Twitter and corun the Tim and Eric Tumblr
"McGrane’s self effacing set is esoteric, occasionally filthy and always funny."-Peter "Hotrod McCaughan", culturenorthernireland.org
“McGrane’s set goes into the kind of detail about cult comics and movies that would have even Jonathan Ross’s head spinning.” - Andrew Johnson, AU Magazine
"Straight faced comedy with a good sense of comic timing"*** Three Weeks
"Free comedy is a mixed bag, and free student comedy is an even bigger risk - but in this case it's one worth taking. East Anglian comics Tom Moran, Jonathan Brittain, Johnny Kearns and Lorcan McGrane filled an enjoyable if variable hour at the Standing Order. "***Three Weeks
"Lorcan McGrane charmed the audience with sensitively told observational comedy, regarding mainly pornography and onanism"Ant Cule, Laugh Out Loud Review, Concrete, Dec 4th, 2007.
Followers
Taking over the ethergut one demented page at a time
Internet blogs are depressing and sad. There is only one person whose blogging I will accept and tolerate, and that is my friend and co-worker Lorcan McGrane, because he is Irish and studies superheroes, so he's allowed to be a bit quirky. Also, I think he may have a gun.-Tom Moran, Standup Comedian.