NE16 and John Dowie Books
You don’t become a poet by learning to type
Hello Everyone,
Robert Wringham here. Writer-Comedian, Escapologist, Bibliophile. You know the one.
I don’t send many emails like this. The last one was in February. It’s just a little round-up of my recent movements, some of the new stuff I’ve been making, plus a handful of links and cultural recommendations. What’s not to love? It’s better than X.
Hear ye, hear ye. It’s May 2024 somehow and this is the news.
New Escapologist
New Escapologist is my special baby and Issue 16 is almost ready to print. I’ll be announcing it on the main New Escapologist list soon but why not join the advance guard and order a copy today? Thanks if you do. It’s a really nice edition and will look mint on the coffee table. That’s mint. Not mints. It will not look like mints.
Comedy History Stuff
Work continues on the film I’m making with Mark Cartwright and Anthony Irvine. We’re turning my book about the Iceman into a documentary and it’s been tremendous creative fun so far. I met Jo Brand! There’s some merch left over from our fundraising campaign, so if you’d like to help us finish the film here’s where to buy a book, t-shirt or postcard.
I’ve finished editing Before I Go, a fab new memoir by “the archaeopteryx of alternative comedy,” (those are Alan Moore’s words, not mine) John Dowie.
You might remember me mentioning Dowie’s other excellent memoir The Freewheeling John Dowie in a previous email. I’d enjoyed it greatly and was irritated that it was no longer in print. Well, I pulled some strings and levers and it’s now available again as an e-book at least. Hooray! Sales of this e-book will help to finance the publication of the Before I Go. This is the sort of machination required to publish a book these days. Please help out if you can and bag yourself the nicely-bound story of a crazy life in and out of showbiz. And trust me, Freewheeling and Before I Go are both brilliant books and you won’t regret it.
Teaser
The month of June will be devoted to something completely new. Ooooh, yes.
Reading and Cultural Devourment
I’m 300 pages into a thousand-page biography of the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa by Richard Zenith. It’s exceptionally good so it’s hard to begrudge the absurd length. Pessoa is a tremendously interesting biographical subject and the world deserves to hear about him: Zenith is your man for that.
I recently enjoyed How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell. I review it properly in New Escapologist 16 and I really do recommend it for anyone critical of (a) work, and (b) social media, and (c) gentrification. It’s not the slight self-help book suggested by the title: it’s extremely good, very critical, a bit like one of those Verso Books but more casually readable. Personal anecdote and arty reflection help the medicine go down.
Last weekend, I was at Tectonics, a weekend festival of experimental music. It’s always one of my cultural highlights. I was impressed this year by the demented stylings of Koichi Makigami. It’s not too late to enjoy Tectonics because it’s all on BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show for free. Here’s Part 1 and here’s Part 2.
For “TV” this month, I’ve been watching Werner Herzog’s filmmaking Master Class, chunk by 15-minute chunk. It’s more about spending time with Herzog than learning any practical skills. But as the Bavarian himself says, you don’t become a poet by learning to type.
Some films I enjoyed recently are The Delinquents (2023) and Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days (2023). I review both in Issue 16 of New Escapologist since they’re about, in different ways, escapes from work. I saw these films at the GFT. Support your local art cinemas!
Joke
What is the blood type of a pessimist?
What I Look Like
Here’s my picture of the “month” so you can continue to monitor my ongoing decay, this time taken by Chris Soden at the Comedy Store in London:
Here’s your filthy capitalist call to action shopping list:
Before I Go pre-order
New Escapologist Issue 16 pre-order
Iceman film merch, shipped promptly
The Freewheeling John Dowie instant download
I hope things are hot and muggy where you are (they are? great, here too!) and thank you again for your attention and support.
Your friend and neighbour,
Robert Wringham x
www.wringham.co.uk