Rachel’s Third Installment

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Lee

For those of you that already follow Rachel on twitter, you may know her recent big news. For those that don’t, well… she’s preggers, again. She also has stockholm syndrome.

I realise that this is not the sort of news we normally bang on about here but do not worry, we are not about to announce a sponsorship deal with Pampers or Mumsnet. Although…

The reason for this news is that Rachel will be taking a bit of a back seat with 4amcab for a while. She’s still on board, but very much covered in puke and poo and adding to the dark rings around her eyes with even more early morning feeds.

Rest assured that Series 3 will steam on as planned. I may even blackmail Rachel into a bit of light script editing… headlocks are okay for pregnant women, right?

Thank You

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Lee

Well, I’ve been blow away.

When I opened the submission window on the 1st of February I was expecting only a handful of people to send in their ideas. Boy, was I wrong!

I’ve literally just finished logging everything that’s been sent in and even with my basic maths I can count almost 200 sketches. Thank you so much to everyone who has spent countless hours writing stuff for consideration, it is very much appreciated. I’ve only managed to read about a tenth of what I’ve been sent so far but already I can see a few sketches that could work. The inclusion of themes for series 3 really seems to have helped writers to focus their ideas and hopefully it will also make the episodes a bit more joined up… well maybe.

I aim to have read through everything over the next few weeks and so I’ll commit to letting everyone know if they’ve been successful by Tuesday 1st April. This should put series 3 on track for the first episode being released in May, but I’m not going to put that in bold just yet.

For series 3, I plan to record more than I need and cut sketches that don’t work out in the recording which is a common policy on shows like the BBC’s Newsjack and The Show What You Wrote. The idea with this is to be left with the strongest material whilst giving everything that I like a good chance. Hopefully this also will encourage those that get recorded but not used that they are on the right path for the show.

So thanks once again for sending in your work, it’s good to know that people like 4amcab enough to spend their time submitting sketches.

Series 3 Submission Window – OPEN!

Posted on February 1, 2014 by Lee

The window for submitting your work for consideration for 4amcab Series 3 is now officially… open!

This time round we’re looking for lot’s of really short sketches so we can get as much into each episode as possible. The other key difference is that we’re asking for sketches on a theme. Each episode will have it’s own theme into which all the sketches will relate. We will retain the central storyline concept too, so there’s opportunity to write a longer sitcom style story for each theme.

Those themes are as follows:

Class,
Love,
Work,
Creativity,
The End
and The Future

The deadline for entries is Sunday 2nd March 2014 at midnight.

Send your sketches into us at the usual email address: ideas@4amcab.com

More details can be found on the Write for 4amcab page of this website.

Good luck and get writing!

Series 3 – update

Posted on January 16, 2014 by Lee

Happy New Year to you all. Has the hangover passed? Good. Well, hopefully this is a timely update as maybe you won’t have given up on all your resolutions yet, particularly if they involve writing sketches.

We are beginning to think about Series three of 4amcab. At this early stage I don’t have any details to share other than it will be the same format as before: six episodes (and a secret Christmas Special, shhh!), made up of a story and sketches. There will be a submisison window for anyone wishing to send us their work which will open in February. This time we will be asking for sketches on a theme for each episode. Follow us on twitter to get the updates as and when they are released.

In other news, we are working on two other comedy projects which will come under the 4amcab banner but which will be more of a departure from what we’ve done before. Again, no real details at the moment but Rachel will be spearheading one and Lee will be doing the other one.

Finally, I’m thrilled to say that all of our actors will be joining us for Series three, with the exception of Chris Luck. Chris has been with us since the very first episode but he is very busy running a pub full time, so he’s not able to be a regular performer. One of my favourite sketches to record and to listen back to is the Dentist sketch from Series 1 episode 1, where Chris plays an oil drilling orthodontist, check it out here. Thanks go out to Chris for being a great member of the team, hopefully we can entice him out of the pub in the future.

Almost done

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Lee

On Saturday 30th November, the 4amcab team assembled for the last time this year and recorded the final episode of the current series. It’s been so much fun to work with all our brilliantly talented actors, that I just wanted to acknowledge them all in white and black, for giving up their time to do our silly little show.Chris B, Anna, Will, Helen, Chris L, Jo and Dan have been fantastic and always up for trying out our crazy sketches, even when they are just that little bit too rude (sorry Anna & Will in particular!).

Once the final episode is released into the wilderness and we’ve had time to recover from all the festivites we will begin working on the next stage of 4amcab’s existence (whatever that is?) and Rachel and I certainly hope that all our actors will join us again for the ride. I’m fairly confident that they will, as they get to go to the pub afterwards!

The final episode of Series 2 will be released on Wednesday 18th December, just in time to get you in the Christmas Spirit.

Hello Stranger!

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Lee

Hi there, how are you? It feels like ages since we last saw you, haven’t you grown?!

So, the 4amcab podcast has been on a bit of a post series break but the good news is that we’ve been grinding out one last script ready to round off Series 2. The Christmas Special is written, it gets recorded on Saturday and it will be ready to download on Wednesday 18th December. Hurrah!

It’ll be the final episode of the series but not the last you’ll hear from us. Rachel and I have had our first “What the flip do we do next?” meeting and once the Christmas Hangover has properly kicked in we’ll be detoxing and banging our heads against a wall repeatedly until something new comes out. It may be Series 3, it may be a panel gameshow for snails, at this moment we have no idea. Like I said, though, we’re not done yet.

In the meantime, sit back, set the alarm clock for 4am on 18th December and relax while we work hard in the background to bring you the conclusion of 4amcab 2.

It’s really good to see you again. We’ve really missed you.

Reviewed – Metro Newspaper

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Lee

This morning I got a notification on Facebook from my friend Alex to say that she thought she’d seen us mentioned in the Metro Newspaper. And, by flip, she’s right. After trawling the web for the mention (and after getting lost playing Tetris for about 40 minutes) I’ve found the e-edition and the following bloody wonderful write up, on page 36:

Not only does Rahul Verma really seem to like our little show but he also compares us favourably to not only the multi talented Jarvis Cocker but also one of our comedy heroes, Chris Morris. Well, it doesn’t get better than that, does it? Oh, did I mention that we share a page with Mitchell & Webb too?

Thanks to Alex for letting me know.

Apologies to Chris Morris for having his beautiful face next to our write up.

Good Podcasts

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Lee

We really ought to have mentioned this news a little while back but Rachel and I are really terrible at blowing trumpets, most of all our own. In fact, we don’t even have any trumpets. I once tried to teach myself how to play the saxophone but it never really worked out.

Where was I… oh yeah, trumpets.

We really like our show and we do it ‘cos we get a lot out of it and we love to make it, so it’s really great to get feedback that other people like it too.

Scott Lamond has a website which is aiming to chronicle all the best podcasts out there and he kindly has placed us on his list of Comedy shows. Head over to http://goodpodcasts.com/category/comedy/ and you can see what he says about us.

If you’re a fan too and you want to tell the world, then the best way to do that is to click on either of the two iTunes links from the home page and write a glowing (or not) review of the show.

Right, we’re off to buy some trumpets.

4amcab Edinburgh Fringe Tour 2013 – Day 2

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Lee

Irritating little alarm clock crickets interrupted my deep slumber at 9am. I groaned and went back to sleep. One hour and 50 minutes later, I woke up in a panic. Bridget Christie! The show I refused to believe had been scheduled at 11.10am was starting in 20 minutes half way across town. I leapt out of bed, and began a madcap rush across Edinburgh to reach the Stand in time for the show. It was well worth the rush. Bridget’s show is fantastically good, impassioned and articulate stand up – as funny as it is enraging.

Fired up by this brilliant performance I then saw John-Luke Roberts’ Sock Puppet, Nick Helm: One Man Mega-Myth, Stephen K. Amos’s talk show, Ronny Chieng, Henning Wehn’s Christmas do and Lili La Scala’s Another F*cking Variety Show which ripped the roof off the Pleasance Dome on its last night at the Fringe leaving me frankly shattered and exhausted at the end of the second and final day of the 4amcab 2013 Edinburgh Tour.

So much brilliant, brilliant stuff. I am now starting work on a 56 slide presentation for Lee tomorrow morning.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

4amcab Edinburgh Fringe tour 2013 – Day 1

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Lee

This is venue number 33, the Pleasance courtyard. I could quite happily just put a tent up in the middle of the square and spend August popping in and out to shows all day, every day.

But then my eyes would eventually start bleeding, and that would be bad for all concerned.

So today I saw some amazing stuff. Max and Ivan were amazing, totally cohesive sketch comedy full of great characters and subtle observational dialogue.

Doc Brown was angry, eloquent and trying to find his way through the phase of his life where he’s left rap behind and is moving onto adult things. Sorry, grown up things.

Then the late night cabaret featured the brilliantly surreal Tony Law and Benny Boot. Both utterly joyous.

Lots of stuff to think about for the podcast, Lee will be getting an earful when I get back to London.