The suchandrika's Podcast

This episode is all about how to put together a live solo one-hour show and other comedy things as comedian, director and teacher Alex Farrow joins me on the podcast. 

Teaching is a performance and lot of former teachers find their way into comedy. Alex had to figure out how both teaching and comedy work over Zoom during lockdown, as he continued to work in both capacities.

Between writing and performing his newest Fringe hour, 'Philosophy Pig' and organising the Mind Oxford Gala through his main comedy home, Jericho Comedy in Oxford, Alex has amassed loads of great advice on how to get started in comedy, and how to write that all-important first show.

Plus, he knows why creatures like birds and bats can spread the flu and Covid, but don't get sick themselves. And he also knows that laughter helps us learn. You'll be a much more learned creature yourself, after listening to this episode... 

Alex's links

Twitter - @Alex_Farrow  Insta - @alexfarrowcomedy alexfarrow.com jerichocomedy.com   - Alex has a new one-hour show, 'Philosophy Pig': find the details on his social media - You can book him to do a Bat Chat near you, which is an hilarious talk about bats in an outdoor space. - Alex can direct your show or coach your first comedy set; contact him via his website or social media

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Here's where to find Suchandrika's fringe show 'I Miss Amy Winehouse':

Brighton: https://www.brightonfringe.org/whats-on/i-miss-amy-winehouse-wip-153490/

Camden: https://camden.ssboxoffice.com/events/i-miss-amy-winehouse-wip/ 

On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised their work.

Newsletter: https://buttondown.email/suchandrika/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freelancepod/

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YouTube: https://goo.gl/chfccD 

Freelance Pod is back with some comedy-focussed episodes! I've made a little entry into the comedy industry during lockdown, and the pod is following me into this wild new world... 

Please note the new url for the newsletter, Writing by Moonlight, which is now on Buttondown: https://buttondown.email/suchandrika/

If you were already a newsletter subscriber, you'll have moved over to the new newsletter with me - if you're not and love reading it, why not subscribe now? 

Now, onto this episode... 

PR, comedian, comedy promoter and podcaster Vix Leyton is the guest on this episode. 

She's got brilliant advice from her own experience of working on two careers, PR by day and comedy by night. 

Listen out for the time that Vix refused to be turned down for a job, it's inspirational! Take a tip from her and ask for that pay rise! Make the request that scares you, because "no never kills anybody."

Vix hosts the Comedy Arcade podcast, which probably features your favourite comedian one at least one episode, taking part in the hilarious anecdote competition across three rounds. 

When we refer to "The Cavs," on this episode, we are talking about The Cavendish Arms pub in Stockwell, which runs the comedy night Comedy Virgins. You can find out more about the Cambridge Comedy Festival competition here, but unfortunately it's too late for any new entrants. 

You can see Vix's work-in-progress 'I Feel P(r)etty' at Brighton Fringe and The Cavendish Arms this summer, while you can catch a live recording of Comedy Arcade at the Camden Fringe. 

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Here's where to find Suchandrika's fringe show 'I Miss Amy Winehouse':

Brighton: https://www.brightonfringe.org/whats-on/i-miss-amy-winehouse-wip-153490/

Camden: 3rd-7th August at the Etcetera Theatre, ticket link TBC

On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised their work.

Newsletter: https://buttondown.email/suchandrika/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freelancepod/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/freelance_pod_

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

YouTube: https://goo.gl/chfccD 

 

 

Journalist, poet and publisher / writer of media criticism newsletter Conquest of the Useless, Mic Wright guests on this episode. This is the last one of the current second season. Don't worry though, I'll be back with more great guests later in the year! 

Mic both works within the media, and makes a living critiquing it, through his newsletter and Twitter feed. Digital platforms have allowed all kinds voices to be heard, and fair criticism of our media industry is vital. On this episode, Mic tells me how he does it, how it impacts upon him and what advice he'd give to a new journalist. 

Find Mic on social media:

Twitter: @brokenbottleboy

Instagram: @brokenbottleboy

Mic mentions the journalist Henry Dyer on the episode, find him on Twitter here: @Direthoughts

If you would like 50% off a subscription to  Conquest of the Useless, use this link: https://brokenbottleboy.substack.com/freelancepod

It expires on 31 July 2020, so you've got until the end of the week from launch day! 

And here's the Alana Levinson episode that Mic mentions

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Here are the links to my August masterclasses:

- Personal essays

- Podcasting

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On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised their work.

Newsletter: https://suchandrika.substack.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freelancepod/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/freelance_pod_

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

YouTube: https://goo.gl/chfccD 

Lauren Razavi joins me on this episode to talk about the future of work, how writers can use influencer tools to benefit their careers and what the digital nomad lifestyle might look like post-COVID-19.

At a tricky moment when we're gingerly leaving lockdown and wondering how our offices are going to work (or, if you're freelance like me, if you'll ever get to work anywhere other than home, help!) it's helpful to speak to Lauren, who's spent a lot of her career writing and speaking about what work could look like in the years to come.

Having worked on content for Google and on the future of work for The Guardian, Lauren has seen how the internet can amplify what we do offline, and how technology has given us the chance to work and live in a location-independent way. Lauren herself has been a digital nomad, and she's been thinking about how that lifestyle will have to adapt to a wary, post-pandemic world.

We refer to the great Study Hall piece, The Writer as Influencer: https://www.patreon.com/posts/writer-as-30653019

Lauren mentions this piece by Tiago Forte: https://fortelabs.co/blog/the-rise-of-the-full-stack-freelancer/

And here are some useful links on the filmmaker Ondie Timoner:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498329/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_14

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3798628/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_8

You can sign up to Lauren's newsletter Counterflows here:

https://laurenrazavi.substack.com/

You can find Lauren on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/LaurenRazavi

And on Instagram here:

https://www.instagram.com/laurenrazavi/

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On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised their work.

Newsletter: https://suchandrika.substack.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freelancepod/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/freelance_pod_

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

YouTube: https://goo.gl/chfccD 

In 2011, two years after American radio producer and reporter Kim Fox had moved to Cairo to take up a teaching role at The American University of Cairo, the Egyptian Revolution happened, in response to increasing police brutality on what would turn out to be the dying days of President Hosni Mubarak's presidency. 

Kim spent time at the demonstrations in Tahrir Square, which involved up to 2 million people. Over a decade later, the scenes she witnessed in Cairo are being repeated in Minneapolis after George Floyd's death, and around the world.

Kim also tells me about how her students use social media, in a country that has faced internet censorship both before and after Mubarak's fall, and how podcasting is growing - Cairo's now got its own podcast festival! 

You can find Kim on Twitter @ohradiogirl (https://twitter.com/KimFoxWOSU), and you can listen to the Ehky Ya Masr podcast (from Kim’s students). 

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On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised their work.

Newsletter: https://suchandrika.substack.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freelancepod/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/freelance_pod_

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

YouTube: https://goo.gl/chfccD 

Alex Bertulis-Fernandes is a comedian and writer. She's been doing stand-up for the past year, and she is writing a memoir while being mentored on the Penguin WriteNow mentoring scheme*. 

Alex and I met at the late, much-loved Clean Prose writers' space a few months ago, at a memoir-writing workshop taught by writer Cathy Rentzenbrink.

Alex was actually the person who broke some comedy news to me last week - that I was a nominee for the Funny Women Stage Awards 2020 - she had been in the same position last year, and she happened to see this year's announcement before I did! 

On this episode, Alex tells me about her 'Dial down the feminism' artwork, which went viral on Twitter, and what that felt like. She goes into how social media helps a comedian's work these days, and how writing stand-up sets has influenced the writing of her book. She rounds off the episode with some great advice on why writers should aim to be vulnerable. 

Find Alex on

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/alexbertanades

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexbertulisfernandes/

* Click for more information on the recent report into the lack of diversity in UK publishing

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On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised their work.

Newsletter: https://suchandrika.substack.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freelancepod/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/freelance_pod_

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

YouTube: https://goo.gl/chfccD 

Freelance writer and author Flora Baker has combined memoir and a self-help guide in her first book, The Adult Orphan Club.

Flora lost her mother at 20, and her father at 30, just a few years ago. We 'met' via the Young Orphans Whatsapp group, although thanks to lockdown we have not yet met in person. 

After her mother's death, Flora went travelling for five years, and detailed her adventures on her blog, Flora the Explorer. She admits now that the travelling allowed her to postpone doing the work of grieving, as the day-to-day adventures pushed her mourning aside.

She's written the book she needed back then, one which unflinchingly, but kindly, describes the complex aspects of grief that aren't talked about enough, and so arrive as a horrible surprise for the newly bereaved.

Flora's blogging has helped build her social media presence, and it's only this week that she's written for analogue media, with a piece in The Telegraph about her book, accompanied by a suitably socially-distanced photoshoot.

Self-publishing her book was a very different task, and she describes all the work needed on top of the writing to make a non-traditionally-published book the best it can be.

The Adult Orphan Club is available for pre-order now, and on sale from Saturday 20th June.

You can find the Young Orphans on social media:

Instagram: @Young Orphans

Twitter: @YoungOrphans

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On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised their work.

Newsletter: https://suchandrika.substack.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freelancepod/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/freelance_pod_

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

YouTube: https://goo.gl/chfccD 

MEL Magazine's deputy editor Alana Levinson joins me remotely from Los Angeles on this episode, to talk about how necessary editing is for good writing - but it's been devalued in a digital world where any of us can press publish whenever we like. 

Sometimes, editing can feel like a judgement on the quality of our writing [bad, we assume], but Alana wants to reassure freelance journalists looking to pitch MEL that editing is a collaboration, to make the article the best that it can be. 

And yes, she also delves into the origins of The Great Solicited Dick Pic Experiment by MEL writer Miles Klee, and what the piece revealed about the difference between male and female experiences of the internet.

We also talk about his piece on what Frankie Muniz - from Malcolm in the Middle - is up to now, part of a series on '00s nostalgia. He lives in Arizona and own an olive oil company with his wife, as well as tweeting rather cryptically! 

Alana also shares tips on how to pitch her, what kind of stories she's looking for and how she works with writers as an editor. Her job as deputy editor at MEL involves overseeing long form features, investigative work, and special issues — in addition to daily editorial direction. She has also been a freelance writer for the past four years, so she knows what it's like on both sides of the fence.

Here are three MEL investigations recommended by Alana:

- Who are the women of the Manosphere? 

- The Doomsday prepper's time has finally come

- The trans men who get abortions

You can find Alana Levinson on social media here:

Twitter: @alanalevinson

Instagram: @alanalevinson

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On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised creativity and work.

Newsletter: https://suchandrika.substack.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freelancepod/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/freelance_pod_

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

YouTube: https://goo.gl/chfccD 

 

When I saw Marie Foulston's tweet about the lockdown houseparty that she threw in a spreadsheet, I knew that I had to invite her onto the podcast to hear all about it!

Marie is now a freelance creative producer and playful curator, and was most recently Curator of Videogames at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. During her time working there, she was Lead Curator of the 'Videogames: Design/ Play/ Disrupt' exhibition, and you can read more about it in this New York Times piece: 'Playing Games Can Be Hard Work. So Can Choosing Which Ones to Display'.

Marie tells me about the anxiety of organising the spreadsheet party and waiting for her friends to arrive - just like hosting an IRL soirée! The theme of feeling anxious links her shared doc party (which went v. well, thanks for asking, they even watched the sun rise, blissed out) to the mandatory nature of Zoom calls under lockdown, and to the huge success of the game Animal Crossing: New Horizons during the pandemic.

Her stories of trying to create shared spaces online during the lockdown beg the question: what is the best way to be social when we can't be together? 

You can still visit the party on Google Sheets here, but be warned, the document is now locked, and all the cups contain off-brand vodka - sample at your peril... 

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On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised creativity and work.

Newsletter: https://suchandrika.substack.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freelancepod/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/freelance_pod_

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

YouTube: https://goo.gl/chfccD 

Joining The Writers' Hour every morning for one week early on in lockdown helped me break through the cobwebs and write the outline of the book that I've been working on for the past year, in fits and starts. I used the hour to write longhand, which always helps unlock my creativity. 

The Writer's Hour is a simple idea: every weekday morning between 8 and 9am BST, the founders of The London Writers' Salon, Parul Bavishi and Matt Trinetti, hold a Zoom meeting where writers turn up, enter into the chat box what they want to achieve in that session and then... write. For an hour. With the web cam trained upon them. Meaning that a load of other writers can see them writing too. It helps alleviate the loneliness of writing, which is particularly lonely during lockdown. At the end of the hour, Parul and Matt hang around for 5-10 minutes to chat.

Parul, a book editor who's available for consultations on manuscripts, joins me on the podcast to talk about how the publishing world works in a digital age, the questions to ask of yourself before getting started on that book idea - and what it was like to fall for Stieg Larsson's novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo before the public did, making it a massive hit.

Here are a few links from the episode that you might find useful:

https://twitter.com/paruledits

https://twitter.com/writerssalon

https://twitter.com/trinetti

https://londonwriterssalon.com/

https://writershour.com/

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On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised creativity and work.

Newsletter: https://suchandrika.substack.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freelancepod/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/freelance_pod_

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

YouTube: https://goo.gl/chfccD