August!

It is the end of July and as the year races on, I am reminded of my schooldays when the end of the summer holidays there was the lift provided by my birthday.

That's right, my birthday on 27th August. Can we make a proper effort to once and for all get the word 'underfollowed' removed  from my social media? If you already follow me then you know that I am a great example of a Twitter user and too many people are missing out. My links are below, please do the honours.

September 11th sees my tenth anniversary in showbusiness, or to be more accurate the tenth anniversary of my big break. I am making myself available for interviews and features, although I am blacklisted for some reason by the press in my own home city. I thought this was the work of former entertainment editor Simon Wilson, who turned against me for some reason, but it has outlived him. However, I am not one to hold a grudge and I am sure that the paper does not want to look petty and unprofessional, they don't treat any other public figures in such a shoddy way. With that in mind, I look forward to the interview in the Nottingham Post celebrating my showbiz milestone.

I was planning on semi-retiring from the business after my ten years, but of course that has been kicked out of kilter by the pandemic so I do still have unfinished projects. These will be completed at a less pressured pace as there is no way of wrapping up and having all my work handed in on time. I will be returning to filmmaking so as usual I need help. The donation button is below, thanks in advance.

My autobiography was going to be my last big project, and this will be going ahead with a twist. As an early predictor of the power of podcasting and YouTube content, it is only fitting that my memoir be an audiobook available on YouTube. It will start with my radio career as that was how my break happened, the shows, the unreliable co-presenters, the music, the live sessions, the worldwide audience, and a show in America before taking a journey through my time as a critic, actor, public speaker, author, filmmaker and a short spell as a live music promoter. 

In other business, I have posters for sale:

Technically my debut as a comedy writer

A3 poster £10

Nottingham Council deleted their typo tweet but not before I screen grabbed the perfect response.

A3 poster £10

Email me at the address below with either 'Buster poster' or 'Nottingham poster' in the subject line.

My audio book Bowie Day is still available to download as a 'pay what you like' from here  

Due to not really knowing what was happening lockdown wise, I have not booked any live performances of A Christmas Carol or any Dickens related work. I will return to this in 2022 unless the covidiots have driven us back into lockdown.

I am having a big clear out prior to a life changing relocation so I am selling books, comics, records, CDs, cassettes, DVDs and VHS on eBay. I can't link to a profile but I do share my sales on social media.

Wash your hands and get the vaccine!

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Help me to make films, documentaries, podcasts comedy sketches and more (even in the current situation) by making a donation using this PayPal link. Everything created using donations will be released online totally free of charge without adverts. Be a part of something special and thanks in advance.

The word 'underfollowed' is still on my bio on social media. I am good on there but sadly not enough people get to enjoy it. If you follow me already then recommend me to your followers, if you don't then please hit these links:

Twitter
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube

Enquiries to steveEoliver@gmail.com

Almost Back to Normal

 As the lights begin to get turned back on in the new world on the other side of pandemic life, it is time to knuckle down and get back into the swing of showbiz. I have written previously about how I have not been lazy during lockdown, and I am now keen to get back to work.

This year (September 11th) sees me celebrate my tenth anniversary proper in the business. It was on that date in 2011 that saw my first edition of my radio show The Sunday Alternative and as that show was my big break that is where I officially start. I had done bits of stand-up, writing for print, stage and television and of course had presented a thankfully forgotten radio show on Sherwood Radio, but as none of it made an impact I don't count it.

Anyway, I am straying from the point. My plan, which I have never revealed before, hasn't quite gone the way I intended. Of course anyone who made any sort of plan in January 2020 was in for a disappointment. It was my intention to complete a handful of projects and then I wasn't going to totally give up but I was working towards retreating from public life to an extent. I was ready to start shooting a movie with work commencing March 2020, but that might be on permanent delay now due to needing crowded pub scenes. The last thing I want to do is use social distancing and masks in a film because it will date the film to a time that nobody wants to remember. This particular project will hopefully emerge at some point as an audio drama as I am trying to re-write it accordingly. There was also a short silent film and two documentaries and that would have been that. Exactly ten years is a good time to close the curtain, especially as I would have pretty much done what I set out to achieve. I was going to spend 2021 keeping a low profile and spending some time writing, I had planned an autobiography as a nice way to wrap things up.

If the right project comes along then I would do it, but I am looking forward to doing less. My relocation to Scotland was to coincide with this idea of slowing down, so that has been pushed back pending unfinished business in Nottingham.

On the subject of work and unfinished business...

You can help me to fund films, comedy sketches, documentaries and more by making a donation using the PayPal button at the top of this page or simply by clicking here.

I am available for voiceover work, any job considered. Please email me in the first instance to discuss, my email address is below. Also use this address for writing work offers, this mainly consists of reviews/articles, sleeve notes, press releases, biographical works and ghost writing.

All that NFT business has passed me by so rather than try and find out what it is all about, I have turned one of my favourite tweets into an A3 poster. I like it because it pokes fun at Nottingham Council. They deleted their tweet when they spotted the typo and that messed up my quote tweet. Thankfully I archive my best ones so this survived. Email me (address below) with 'JPS Council' in the subject line.

A5 poster £10

Thanks to the help of the brilliant Twitter account @SlurpSloo, a missing piece of my archive has been returned to me. In my early teens I was first getting interested in writing, comedy and the combined joy of writing comedy. I went through a productive phase of sending my various efforts to print publications, radio and television to very little response (although don't get me started on the BBC2 series The Glam Metal Detectives using my childish material). All the money I spent on paper, stamps and envelopes in this pursuit was moderately rewarded eventually in the form of a two pound postal order thanks to the much missed comic Buster. To buy a copy of this then email me at the address below with 'Buster' in the subject line.

A3 poster £10

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Help me to make films, documentaries, podcasts comedy sketches and more (even in the current situation) by making a donation using this PayPal link. Everything created using donations will be released online totally free of charge without adverts. Be a part of something special and thanks in advance.

The word 'underfollowed' is still on my bio on social media. I am good on there but sadly not enough people get to enjoy it. If you follow me already then recommend me to your followers, if you don't then please hit these links:

Twitter
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube

Enquiries to steveEoliver@gmail.com

The Club is Closed

On Saturday I got halfway through recording an episode of Vinyl Comedy Club and was hit with the sudden realisation that I couldn't be arsed. As much as I enjoyed blowing the dust of the comedy records in my collection, I wasn't entirely happy with the format. I started this because I was in need of a lockdown project but the closer I came to filming it on Saturday the more I kept finding other things to do in order to put this off. 

I will possibly return to this idea at some point in the future with a more documentary feel to it but simply listening to it with a few comments and bits of information is not challenging enough for me. Throughout my career I have given up before the wheels fall off as I have always dreaded the idea of sticking to something just for the sake of it. 

My head is not right at the moment and I have hit a creative brick wall lately. I know I have left it a long time to complain about it but lockdown cabin fever has engulfed me. At the moment I am working on another music video and doing voiceover bits and pieces but other projects are gathering dust while a global pandemic plays havoc. A movie script I had finished was ready for filming to commence in March 2020, and then March 2020 happened so I am now re-writing it as an audio drama because it requires crowded pub scenes and I don't see that being possible for a few years yet. The last thing I want is a film with people social distancing and wearing masks because this will date the project to a period of time that people surely want to forget. Somehow I managed to write a spoof children's' book recently although I am supposed to be writing something else.

Anyway, in a nutshell, Vinyl Comedy Club is no more. For now at least.

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Help me to make films, documentaries, podcasts comedy sketches and more (even in the current situation) by making a donation using this PayPal link. Everything created using donations will be released online totally free of charge without adverts. Be a part of something special and thanks in advance.

The word 'underfollowed' is still on my bio on social media. I am good on there but sadly not enough people get to enjoy it. If you follow me already then recommend me to your followers, if you don't then please hit these links:

Twitter
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube

End of an era

At the end of the month the clocks go forward heralding the start of British Summer Time which will sadly be a little different this year. Throughout my career I have always taken the massive risk of ending something simply because I am no longer enjoying it and with this in mind I have made this decision to no longer embark on my twice a year Twitter marathon when the clocks change. I am sorry to leave this comedy trope behind as it brings a lot of enjoyment to people but part of being an entertainer is to always leave them wanting more.

For such a seemingly trivial endeavour, this actually occupies far more than a simple hourly post. Apart from the publicity during the build up, the actual effort of posting hourly is restricting on my movements. This requires an alarm to be set every hour as well as not being able to commit to anything time consuming that will potentially divert my attention. Having said that, I did manage to host my own stage for the 2018 Hockley Hustle on clock change Sunday but it did require a lot of attention. Good job I didn't drink that year.

Sunday is taken up with preparing and filming my series Vinyl Comedy Club so coordination would be difficult to maintain. I would like to apologise for not making more of this, I did consider doing a final one to bow out on.

Like David Bowie and Jim Henson, two of my creative heroes, I prefer to look forward rather then back. Although in September I will be celebrating ten years in showbusiness so there will be plenty of time for us all to look back together.

In the meantime, this is not goodbye to public life. Alongside my weekly series, I have also recently joined the Nottingham history podcast We Share These Streets as narrator. As I write this newsletter I am directing another music video and making plans for life on the other side of lockdown, (I even have my vaccine booked). Once safe to do so I will continue making episodes of The Random Sessions and finish work on two short films that I was in the middle of before we all had to stay at home. 

I will be back!

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Help me to make films, documentaries, podcasts comedy sketches and more (even in the current situation) by making a donation using this PayPal link. Everything created using donations will be released online totally free of charge without adverts. Be a part of something special and thanks in advance.

The word 'underfollowed' is still on my bio on social media. I am good on there but sadly not enough people get to enjoy it. If you follow me already then recommend me to your followers, if you don't then please hit these links:

Twitter
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube