I decided that I wanted to write a newsletter about directing three comedy shows for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, and what I learned from it, and what I’d like to do going forwards with that kind of work, but I wasn’t really sure how to approach it and every time I sat down to try […]

Well I’ve completed another Edinburgh Fringe, this time from the enviable position of only needing to be there for ten days. So I thought I’d better do some sort of comprehensive debrief from it before we all drown in the deluge of even more comprehensive Fringe debriefs at the end of the month from people who […]

This was written in haste in a cafe on Monday afternoon before the Fringe kicks off. A snatched moment of productivity in the calm before the storm. But I do hope it might be useful for a few people bringing a show to the Fringe – their first, their third, their twelfth – who at […]

Long-time readers of this newsletter might remember the story about the time I dropped my phone in a chemical toilet twice within one minute. That story remains an in-demand hit at social occasions to this day, I think because it makes me come across as so colossally stupid. So I’m thrilled to announce that I return […]

Tomorrow I’m flying to Berlin to spend five days in that fine city of lakes and abandoned airstrips to perform two shows for the Berlin Fringe. So what with today being a busy prep day, I thought I’d make writing this newsletter easy for myself by just making it a list of 101 shows you should […]

As I write this, I am enjoying the feeling of having just completed the first draft of my first ever feature film screenplay. I’ve never done that before – it’s always been one of those “I wonder what that would feel like?” question marks in my career, and I’m very proud of having done it. […]

I’ve had a few people recently ask “So what’s the deal with this Hugh Jackman show? Is it for this year’s Fringe? When are you doing it in London?” and variations on that kind of gubbins. And to answer the last of those questions first, very excitingly, I’ve just booked in a couple of work-in-progress dates […]

Last week a friend of mine told me about a thought exercise she’d been doing with her partner where they both had to go backwards through their lives and narrate a memory that came to mind for each age, going as far back as possible. I forget what the point of the exercise was, but […]

I’m gonna do everything I can to not let this week’s newsletter turn into a rant, because it could definitely go that way. I’d like it to just explore some ideas rather than moan about them, but let’s see how I get on. Apologies in advance if I don’t quite stick the landing. Over the […]

So I tried to film a video where I spoke sincerely to the camera about the creative process and offered a tip which I hoped might be useful to people currently making shows for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. I fuuuuuuucking hated it. It felt soooooo bad. No shade to people who genuinely share earnest and […]

Like Punxsutawney Phil sticking his meddling snout out into the cold air to tell us all it’s still cold, as of this week the programme for the Edinburgh Fringe brochure is now online and on sale (does this make sense as an analogy? Like, a fun annual tradition that heralds mixed feelings from people who […]

You may remember that I have an Odeon MyLimitless+ membership, which entitles the bearer to watch any film at the Odeon for free. You may also remember my previously writing about the fact that this has fostered a healthy attitude of taking risks on films I might otherwise have missed, and of not minding so much when […]

I can’t believe it’s gone so quickly, but remarkably, the tour of You Wait. Time Passes. – a tour which my pride forbids me from referring to as “a UK tour” because there was a date in Amsterdam, but which my humility forbids me from referring to as “a UK and European tour” because surely you need to […]

In an outrageous turn of events, Joz Norris Is Hugh Jackman Is The Phantom Of The Opera just won Best Show at the Leicester Comedy Festival, despite it being a show I have only ever performed twice which remains, in my opinion, in an extremely embryonic state. I half-suspect that the reason it won is because its […]

Forgive the inconsistencies of my communication here lately. I have been, as they say, “on tour.” Having never toured a show beyond its Edinburgh Fringe and subsequent Soho Theatre run before, I had no idea what being on tour entailed, really. So far I would say that its primary function is to make you feel […]