Artist Dotty found himself interviewing me after hearing about my mission to run up and down every street in Brighton and accidentally join the London to Brighton marathon for the British Heart Foundation. But after I stopped prattling on about myself for 10 days and whinging that BBC comedy had relocated to Manchester, normal interviewing procedures resumed play with Artist Dotty.
Creased coffee stained journo pad on table, with naff pencil and dried up pen, I asked: So Artist Dotty what have you being doing recently? “Listening to you banging on” came the reply. Artist Dotty seemed disgruntled and proceeded, in a confessional way, to spew out his recent new direction at embracing AI digital art.
AD2023 was on the one hand singing the praises on new AI art and its fantastic capabilities and on the other hand looking facially perplexed, as if his face was saying, “Have I sold out as an art purist to the power of technology?”
He proceeded to tell me that pitching art concepts is now far easier, but was a touch upset when he discussed a digital piece that was generated on the strength of a prompt description. The description read as follows:
“An architect-style Dotty art gallery, with a space age Dotty band, jamming music”. Within seconds the piece auto generated, through the multiplex dottyverse algorithm and produced a fantastic piece of digital art.
Dotty explained how he racked his brain to try to multiprocess the digital art in order to put his own artistic stamp on the composition. Then he came to a resigned conclusion, that the piece held its own as a visually great piece of art and narrative.
Dotty began breaking up his wooden coffee stirrer and dropped each piece in his drink, as if to demonstrate an act of defiance and disdain at a robot creating a robot band and kicking the artist out of his arty processes. AD2023 was also concerned about the future of media and journalism; any number of fake scenarios could go out with photorealistic AI dark web wizardry. “Is there not a board of ethics by now?”
The other side of the AD2023 coin is that his responses for his new strand of art, is causing quite a stir.
The other day AD2023, while musing in Powis Square, it recreated the Royal Pavillion as a piece of digital art, with colourful Dotty designs on the side. This caused a class war debate on the Facebook page, Keep Brighton Weird, proving if nothing else, that there’s still life in the old prankster.
Nadia Abbas reports on a new comedy show coming to Brighton
Being a new parent is an exciting and magical time, as you finally get to meet your bundle of joy after waiting for what feels like forever. You become immersed in a world of toys, milk bottles, and baby clothes, and your house is filled with adorable baby laughs, screeching cries, and melodious nursery rhymes. As wonderful as this time is, sometimes parents need a break. But gone are the days of partying and no responsibilities, so where can new parents go for some fun and laughter? The Bring Your Own Baby Comedy show in Brighton allows new parents to enjoy a hilarious afternoon of adult comedy and delicious drinks alongside their baby this December.
The Bring Your Own Baby Comedy show will take place on the 5th of December 2023, from 12-1:30 pm at Komedia in Brighton. It is suitable for parents and babies aged up to 15 months. It will feature hysterical comedy stars Mark Cram, MC Robyn Perkins, and Joe Bor, and there will be a fully stocked bar. Carly Smallman, Bring Your Own Baby Comedy director, said: “The purpose of the comedy shows is to give parents a great night out during the day so they can have a laugh during those tricky first months.” Parents can also bring friends and family along to this event who don’t have children. Carly Smallman, said: “We try and keep it as friendly as possible; if someone’s baby screams, we don’t mind at all. We’ve had worse heckles than a baby crying!”.
This event is suitable for babies because the venue will have soft flooring, toys, baby changing, and buggy parking areas. The Bring Your Own Baby Comedy and Komedia team will also be available to help parents with anything they may need. Carly Smallman, said: “We are breastfeeding friendly, so if people need to whip a boob out or get a bottle out and feed their baby, they can. If they want to walk around at the back with the baby to shush them, the guests are welcome to do that.”
This event has won several awards, including a UK Enterprise Award for Best Mental Health Boost for Parents and a HOOP Award for Best Bring-along Baby Activity. Carly Smallman, said: “I’ve had parents come up to me and hug me and thank me, and say that’s the most fun I’ve had since my baby was born.” This event has also won a Prestige Award for Best Family Friendly Comedy Service. Carly Smallman, said: “There was one woman who said that during the show, her son kept staring at her, and she was like, ‘Why is my baby staring at me?’ And then she realised it was the first time she had laughed since he was born.”
Tickets for this event cost £13, and babies can attend for free. They are available to purchase from Bring Your Own Baby Comedy’s website.
Pickleball? Heard of it? Done it? Do it? Ceri Barnes Thompson goes for a dink…
About 18 months ago the American podcaster, author, social worker and researcher Brene Brown posted a photo of herself on Instagram (right) that really caught my eye. She was wearing aviator shades, a headband and was holding a little racket and holey ball the like of which I’d never seen. She was also, importantly, wearing the most enormous smile.
She wrote underneath this sunshine of a photo “For me, joy + play = pickleball. The court might be the only place in the world where I’m fully in the now. Not thinking ahead, worrying, wondering—just keeping my eye on the ball and my head in the game.”
What is this “pickleball”? Surely she meant “paddleball” or “raquet ball”? I asked myself, keen to achieve anything close to the level of happiness in that photo. I swiftly googled ‘Brighton and Hove Pickleball clubs’ and sent out an email to Richard Ellis hoping to join any kind of waiting list going.
I got a swift and warm reply inviting me to come for a beginners ‘dink’. A week later I was on a court in Mouslecomb with around 16 people I’d never met before, welcomed and guided through the rules as a newcomer then straight into the deep end of playing pickleball. They take no prisoners those pickleballers, let me tell you.
Liz is a whiz and keeps you on your toes. Paul is steady and stealth. “Stay out of the kitchen!” they yell! Before I knew it everyone was gathering up the gear and saying goodnight.
Two hours had passed and Brown’s words couldn’t have been more true. I was elated. Maybe from running around – it’s a great work out. Maybe from feeling so welcome amongst strangers – it’s hugely comforting. Maybe from laughing out loud at myself.
It’s really quite embarrassing when something that looks so easy is actually kind of hard. Maybe from the challenge of learning a new game – it’s very rewarding – but mostly I just felt like my over-stretched and stressed-out brain had had a break. Just like Brene, I’d experienced two hours just fully immersed in the game thinking of nothing else but that crazily lightweight ball and how to keep up with the rotation of each game. I came out feeling refreshed on a level I’ve not felt for years.
I asked Richard when he’d started playing the game. He’d been in Thailand looking for a doubles tennis game and they only played pickleball so he’d given it a go.
Pickleball is often described as a mixture of tennis, badminton and ping pong – invented by three dads in the 60’s in the States for their bored kids during the summer holidays it’s massive in the USA now. The court is smaller than badminton and the net is low, like a tennis net.
Richard and his wife loved it and the fact it’s easier on the joints than tennis so on returning to the UK they searched – a bit like me – once they came home to Brighton for picklers here. Finding one other couple – aces Joe and Liz – they persuaded the Stanley Deason people to let them mark up a badminton court for pickleball and started to play.
Putting it out on Facebook they soon got a regular cohort of players with new people joining weekly. I asked him what it was about pickleball he loves. “I usually feel elated, glad to have played feeling we have had some good exercise with a great bunch of people, hoping to improve with time”. Jacqueline, another club regular who started playing the game in Florida in 2014, lives in rural Sussex and rides horses. She loves pickleball as it uses very different groups of muscles and is a good aerobic workout. She loves the people she meets as she has to travel widely to play – Bexhill, Eastbourne, Burgess Hill, Brighton, and she stressed “It’s not an old people’s game – it’s for everyone. It’s very social”. She’s right.
On the day I played there were players from 18 to 80 – and the 80-year-old woman was one of the most sprightly and skillful on the court. I found it can be as gentle or as hardcore as you like – some of the games were seriously impressively skillful dinkathons with extremely competitive members sparring.
Richard and Trish devote a lot of time to running something which, as with all community efforts like this, really delivers a huge scoop of joy to those who play. Sessions are broadly Thursday nights and Tuesday mornings give and take a few logistical bits and bobs. It’s harder for them than it should be due to the lack of facilities – they’ve recently moved to Moulescombe Leisure Centre, always searching for somewhere reliable to play. You can find them on Facebook – Brighton and Hove Pickleball Club – or if you google them, you can contact lovely Richard Ellis directly. You won’t regret it. And maybe we can persuade Brighton and Hove council to install some courts dedicated to the Mighty Pickleball.
Sam Wollaston of The Guardian recently wrote about the game – coming to it with a hefty dollop of cynicism not least because he finds the name silly – ending up just like me, completely energised and turned around. “The thing about pickleball”, he said, “is that you can play at any level. As my level increases, I will play with greater intensity. And it will, and I will. Because it turns out I’m brilliant at pickleball! A total natural, nimble of foot and thought… the deftest of dinkers!”.
That’s honestly how it makes you feel, very swiftly and without all the weight of tennis’ ladders, rankings and years of play. As George Bernard Shaw said “We don’t stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing”.
Come on, have a dink!
l Check out the Facebook page for Brighton and Hove Pickleball Club
I kinda like magic. I like the idea of it, the mystery of it, the promise of something, of life being not quite as it seems. And I’ve always loved the mix of show, of comedy and magic – well, I once wrote the biography of Tommy Cooper, so… kinda biased. Which brings us to…
The Great Baldini, who is, according to the press release, a “legendary magician and illusionist”, sounds right up our alley and has a new show called ILLUSIONATI: A Magical Conspiracy, at the Brighton Fringe.
It’s 1930s Britain: The Great Baldini is a fixture of the British Music Hall Magic Circuit. However, he has never quite achieved the success he feels he truly deserves, and he suspects that an unseen power is working against him. When Baldini obtains the diary of the Great Lafayette, a clue scribbled on the last page identifies a secret cabal of Magicians (the ILLUSIONATI) as this power.
Baldini is determined to find and confront the ILLUSIONATI and finally take his rightful place as the preeminent magician of his age. The show will take audiences on a thrilling journey of mystery and intrigue, as Baldini reveals the secrets of the ILLUSIONATI. Combining comedy, storytelling and miraculous effects, Baldini will captivate and amaze audiences of all ages.
‘ILLUSIONATI: A Magical Conspiracy’ (50 minutes) By the Great Baldini 29th May – 2nd June | Laughing Horse @ The Walrus (BN1 1AD) | 18:45 | £10 (£8 conc)
3rd-4th June | Laughing Horse @ The Quadrant (BN1 3GJ) | 14:45 | £10 (£8 conc)
David Bramwell’s Odditorium returns and if you’re at all familiar with Dr Bramwell and The Catalyst Club – “celebrating the singular passions of everyday folk” – you’ll know we’re in the world of curious talks, performances, music and arch-weirdness from the fringes of culture. There’ll be people who’ll make you think or maybe smile. Expect the unexpected, as someone else probably said about something else.
Lucy Cooke Bitch: Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal
Sun 14th 7.30-8.30pm, Bosco Theater
What does it mean to be female? Mother, carer, the weaker sex? Think again. Author and filmmaker Lucy Cooke demonstrates how the female of the species has been marginalised and misunderstood by the scientific patriarchy; not least Darwin, who cast the female in the shape of a Victorian housewife: passive, coy and monogamous.
The Weird and Wonderful World of Some Bizarre Records + The Book of Goth with Wesley Doyle & Cathi Unsworth
Wed 17th 7-8pm, Bosco Theater
Featuring the likes of Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, Blancmange and The The, Some Bizarre was the vanguard of outsider music in the 1980s. Label boss Stevo’s unconventional dealings with the industry are legendary. Wesley Doyle tells us how a teenager from Dagenham took on the music industry and beat it at its own game.
Lifelong Goth, music journalist and crime-writer Cathi Unsworth takes us on a journey through Gothic music during the Eighties.
Sing-Along-A-Wicker Man 50th Anniversary + Magnet’s Peter Brewis
Wed 17th 9-11pm, Spiegeltent
Dust down your best Scottish accent, dress up as your favourite character and come join in with this horror classic. To mark the 50th anniversary of the film they’re joined by Peter Brewis, who appeared in the film and was on the Wicker Man soundtrack.
Legacy of the Stones with Jeremy Deller, Annebella Pollen and other guests
Tues 23rd 9-12pm, Spiegeltent
Billed as “An evening celebrating the rich neolithic history and stories around our henges and monoliths, our folk horror legacies and occult artists and groups”, speakers including Jeremy Deller and Annabella Pollen talk about Britain’s neolithic monuments and counterculture, and how they helped shape his work, and the mysterious green-clad hooded figures of the 1920s who performed ritual gestures (naked, obvs) on Silbury Hill, Stonehenge. The evening wouldn’t be complete without more Wicker Man (which Bramwell claims to have seen over 200 times) in the shape of The Dark Heart of Wicker Land.
The Drone in Music
Wed 31st 7.30-8.30pm, Bosco Tent
Harry Sword, author of “Monolithic Undertow” joins David Bramwell, for an exploration of the sub-cultural and spiritual significance of ‘the drone’. From the neolithic burial chambers of Malta to the psychedelic glory of Hawkwind; the vital influence of Indian drone traditions on the 1960’s counter culture to the thieving doom and stoner rock underground of today, They’ll also talk about the personal and spiritual significance of the ‘universal hum’.
There’s also a Catalyst Club Special: Live from the End of the Pier at Horatio’s Bar on Palace Pier,
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