Hello. Sorry I've not been about.

I will be back on the blog train very soon. In the meantime, have a look at what Pappy's got up to for the Twitter Comedy gig tonight.

It's all here.

Hello, this is Matthew, I'm going to be on TV

I'm going to be on the BBC 2 show Winging It tomorrow at 12.45pm (a perfect hangover treat). More details of the show are here. But the BBC website describes it thusly:

Comedy series which features quick-witted comedians who are thrust into unfamiliar scenarios and forced to improvise their way out of them.

Sporting a fake identity and with no time to prepare, the comedians will be pushed to the limit as they desperately try to adapt to their challenge. Each challenge begins with the performer receiving a dossier they won't be allowed to open until minutes before their assignment begins.

This fearless cast of the best new comedy talent, will be guided through their assignment by the Wing Commander who will communicate with them via an earpiece. Their mission will contain several 'hit points' - pre-planned obstacles, which increase in difficulty as the challenge progresses.The Wing Commmander will be pushing the comedians and will secretly trigger each new part of the 'hit'.

In the first show, performer Jonny Sweet pretends to be a careers advisor and, without any preparation, delivers some dubious tips to a group of jobseekers. Meanwhile, Matthew Crosby takes on the role of leading environmentalist Julian Glacier and, with no time to prepare, delivers a made up-on-the-spot lecture to a group of budding planet savers. Will they be able to convince the public they are experts in a field they know nothing about? Or will their audience realise they are Winging It?

If you miss it you can see it on iPlayer (for 7 days after it's on) right here!

The MCRP will return very soon.

PFC on Tour 29: Colchester Minute

Read all about our exploits in Colchester here at Pappy's Fun Club's new blog.

MCRP waves goodbye to PFCTB

Pappy's Fun Club will soon be moving its blog to a more permanent home. Matthew Crosby's Readable Podcast has certainly enjoyed hosting the Pappy's Fun Club Tour blog but, frankly, its outstayed its welcome and we need our sofa back. Besides, Pappy's Fun Club's Tour Blog has an annoying habit of taking off its clothes when we have guests.

So goodbye PFC's TB (I know that's not a great acronym) and godspeed!

Easter Sunday treat!

You can listen to Matthew on the Gulbenkian Theatre podcast here. Unfortunately, as only Matthew was available for the podcast, he attempted to 'do' the voices of the rest of the Fun Club. Although this was the podcast host's idea, Matthew still agreed, despite being a far from expert impresionist. Anyway, enjoy the mildly upsetting results.

Good Friday treat!

To celebrate the bank holiday weekend here are a few (only just written but backdated to make them look like we'd written them on the nights of the gigs in question) blog entries about some tour dates we have done in the last few weeks. Hope you enjoy them!

Aldershot

Bath

Newbury

Bournemouth

Reading

New Milton

Also, don't forget to check out our newly revamped website. We'll try and keep posting new content throughout the tour.

Also, congratulations to our pals at Answer Me This podcast. They were nominated for a Sony award this week!

Notes from the Archive: Time Out Article June 2008

Seeing as we've revamped our website a bit, we thought we'd collect some stuff we'd written and post it. For starters, here's an article we wrote for London listings guide Time Out in June 2008. Fans/nerds might be interested to note that this is the first outing of the "pre-gig ritual" joke.

But before that, it's worth having a look at this picture that Sally (who made the fantastic square headed versions of us) has created. We'll leave you to decide whether she is a heroic genius of art and design or a sex pervert.

See? Anyway here is the article...

A day in the life of Pappy's Fun Club

Hey everybody we’re Pappy’s Fun Club. We’re a sketch team made up of Ben, Brendan, Matthew and Tom. You may have heard us on Radio 4 (doing a show that we called ‘Pappy’s Fun Club’) or on Radio One’s Switch. Maybe you saw us on Comedy Shuffle on BBC3? Perhaps you have seen us live? Most likely you haven’t seen or heard of us before, which is why Time Out have asked us to write this little introduction to ourselves.

Our rich and mysterious benefactor, Pappy, has put us up in a lovely ex-council flat in London’s most exclusive and up and coming area: Streatham. Every day is an adventure for Pappy’s Fun Club so we thought we’d talk you through exactly how we fill our waking hours.

7 AM
Brendan: I like to be the first one awake at Pappy Towers so that I can begin inputting the data into my ‘hours slept’ spreadsheet. Unfortunately this morning I was trumped by Ben who was already awake as I left my room. He normally doesn’t get up until well into the afternoon. How did he do it?

Ben: I didn’t go to bed last night, I was up all night cow tipping. Or at least I would have been had I been able to find any cows in South London. In the end I decided to go fly tipping which was far less fun, although I did get rid of that old washing machine.

Tom: For breakfast this morning I made and ate a bread and butter pudding. I used my grandma’s recipe: 4 pints of milk and three loaves of bread.

Matthew: Woke up last and was dismayed to find that someone had used all the bread and milk. I’ve no idea how that happened; I’d just bought 4 pints of milk and three loaves of bread. Stranger still, I went to take my clothes out of the washing machine and it had gone.

10 AM
Tom: Each day begins with us completing our chores. To help speed things up we get to choose music to play whilst we’re doing them. It was my turn to pick today!

Matthew: Tom’s choice of the Chariots of Fire theme tune slowed down ‘chore time’ to a near halt. It’s very difficult to buff brass in slow motion.

Brendan: Took the bins out and emptied the dishwasher on ‘Chores 2’ my new game for the Nintendo DS. Finished the level just as the boys were wrapping up the housework.

Ben: The toaster was so dirty I decided to take it into the bath with me for a clean.

MIDDAY

Matthew: Shortly after we resuscitated Ben, Pappy rings. He calls us everyday at midday with the location of the evening’s gig. This is fine if the gig is local but more problematic if it’s in, say, Melbourne and we only have seven hours to get there.

Ben: I do hope we get to meet Pappy one day. I always think of him living in his ivory castle on a Himalayan slope possessing magical creatures and a gold bag.

Brendan: Pappy lives in a care home in Putney. I would tell the boys but I’m sworn to secrecy and it’d shatter Ben’s dreams of a gold bag.

3 PM

Brendan: Bit of spare time so I decided to log on and check out how my cyber-self is getting on in Second Life. Alarmed to find my avatar is spending too much time on the computer in his virtual world. Must spend more time online to ensure he has a more rounded existence.

7 PM

Brendan: Journey to the gig was great. Ben did all the driving.

Ben: Great journey. Brendan even let me sit in the special seat with the wheel. Slept all the way there.

Tom: Sat next to Matthew on the trip. Entertained him for the whole journey with my brilliantly silly songs. He was laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe!

Matthew: Had to sit next to Tom again. He insisted on singing his version of Thriller for the entire journey, replacing the word thriller with rhyming words. Vanilla, Chinchilla, George Forman Griller, Manilla (envelope), Sienna Miller, GrooveJet by Spiller. I wanted to murder him. He didn’t even stop to help me during my asthma attack.

9:30 PM
Brendan: Our pre-gig ritual never changes. We gather in a circle and chant in unison, “At least we’re not gigging in Nottingham.”

Tom: Our pre-gig ritual only changes if we’re playing in Nottingham, when we gather in a circle and chant, “We’re all going to die.”

Matthew: The lights go up and it’s time for Pappy’s Fun Club to begin another exciting show. All we need now is for Ben to kick off our opening song.

Ben: It’s only once Pappy’s are onstage that I remember: I’ve forgotten the first line of the song. And the guitar. And to go onstage.

MIDNIGHT

Matthew: Another great day for Pappy’s Fun Club. As we drift off to sleep I look over and smile at Tom and Ben snuggled up to an already sleeping Brendan. Goodnight Pappy’s.

Brendan: Wake up to find the other three have got into my bed again. Sleep on the floor.

PFC on Tour 28: New Milton what I do, all I think about is you, even when I'm with my boo, you know I'm crazy over you

New Milton's Forest Arts centre has possibly the biggest stage we've ever played. Not necessarily the widest but the deepest, meaning that every entrance required a jog of about 20ft. Being wildly unfit, this meant that each sketch began with panting.

Tom went out on his own discipline tonight and ventured into the audience during the Blue Whale sketch, appealing to the audience to make human connections with one another. Although all he could manage to glean from the audience member he spoke to was what he'd had for breakfast.
Perhaps the whale was inspired by the Forest Art Centre's logo- a giant fish.