#4: teamwork makes the nightmare work
plus, first casting announcements & set photos!
The funniest moments in Casual Violence’s stage shows rarely came from me. Yes, this DID always hurt my pride a little.
When we were a live act, I’d write sketches and scenes to bring into our rehearsal room (for years, this was a slightly grotty music rehearsal space called “Under The Bridge” in Brighton) - and we’d workshop them for our monthly work in progress nights in London.
I remember bringing in a pair of sketches for our 2012 show A Kick In The Teeth, about the curator of a museum of outdated technology - the Obsoleteum - giving the audience a tour of his beloved exhibits. Hector hated the modern world so much that he had a clockwork pacemaker instead of an electric one - a literal turnkey sticking out of his chest, which he had to keep winding to stop himself dying.
Dave’s performance as Hector - bolshy but tragic; pompous with a streak of vulnerability - was at the heart of what made the character a regular part of our live set. When we collaborated with James Huntrods and Andy Goddard to spin the character off into his own podcast sitcom, Hector Vs The Future in 2016, Dave’s gravitas and comic timing made a deeply obnoxious character subversively endearing.
But it wasn’t just Dave’s work that elevated the material: the first version of his monologue didn’t have a proper punchline (a common flaw of my early sketches). It ended on an intentionally sad note, with George winding Hector’s clockwork pacemaker back up, only for Hector to realise his tour group (the audience) had all lost interest and left his museum. It was a one-liner pitch from Luke that gave that moment the final, tragicomic laugh it needed.
Our live musician Adam was also integral to making this character a success on stage: the jaunty piano he was playing to back Dave’s performance would slow down like a music box every time Dave’s clockwork heart needed winding up. The turnkey sticking out of his chest was a prop made by my old school drama teacher, and lasted through literally hundreds of shows. Alex - an infuriatingly gifted physical comedian, despite no acting training - playing the largely silent caretaker as a foil to Dave gave the whole thing an extra layer of visual comedy that brought the routine together. And Greg, whose only role in this sketch was to silently hold a prop in front of his face, improvised a line on stage one day made us break down laughing. We kept the line in forevermore.
Over ten years later, this is still how we work. Even though we can’t regularly meet in the same physical space like we used to, Casual Violence lean into their individual strengths to sharpen the scripts I wrote for Murder for Dummies. I turn to Alex for absurdist wordplay and one-liners, and Dave for excruciating-but-joyous puns. Luke has taken the reins on directing our performances, grounding my stupid jokes with believable characterisation, while Greg has an uncanny knack for finding a secret fourth dimension to every character he plays, taking everyone by (very pleasant) surprise.
What makes Murder for Dummies particularly special is it feels like the purest distillation of our identity as a group; a marker for the creative progress we’ve made, and all the work that got us to this point.
So yeah: maybe spending dozens and dozens of hours honing Casual Violence scripts only for one of the others to casually pitch a funnier joke stings a little… but it makes me proud of us, rather than proud of me. Honestly, it’s a much nicer feeling.
Our film director: J.W. Roberts
If we’re the Beatles, then James Roberts is George Martin.
We’re definitely not the Beatles (our cultural impact is closer to Ringo’s solo work). But Roberts is still George Martin.
“The other James” approached us after seeing our Edinburgh show Choose Death in 2011, and offered to collaborate with us, convinced we’d be on television in no time. He was technically right: we were on television in… no time.
But he stuck with us anyway - and after more than thirty short films together, we’re still perpetually impressed with what he brings to the Casual Violence table.
No matter how ludicrous the pitch, from “what if we did The Snowman but it was the other way round”, to “can we make a Build A Bear come to life”; from “what if putting in contact lenses was completely f**king horrible” to “can we do a gritty reboot of beloved 90s British kids show Brum”, Roberts has ten ideas for how to pull it off on screen before you’ve even finished speaking.
His ambition, optimism and professionalism make him the perfect creative partner for Casual Violence (ambitious but pessimistic, mostly unprofessional). Roberts and I share a knack for creative-problem solving, but his is far more practical than mine. I might be able to make things work on the page (and occasionally on stage) - he’s the one who can make everything actually work on film. Comparing him to a wizard might sound like an exaggeration, but who else makes impossible, ridiculous things real?
As well as film directing and editing (and usually taking the lead on our VFX work), Roberts co-produces all our shorts with me. Murder for Dummies is our most ambitious project to date, and I’ve been staggered by how much this man is pulling off. He brings together wonderful crews and unites them all behind Casual Violence’s really stupid ideas. When they’re in his hands, though, they feel a lot less stupid.
Casting Announcements: Round One!
Our biggest show means our biggest cast. We’re working with faces old and new on Murder For Dummies - including but not limited to…
SEAN GARRATT as KEITH FLAPP
This is Sean’s first time collaborating with us, and we were insanely lucky to have found him: a casual conversation with a friend who happened to “know a ventriloquist” brought this exceptionally kind and heinously talented man into our orbit. He’s deeply unlikeable as our murder victim, Keith Flapp - who is, unequivocally, a bastard - but that’s just a marker for how talented Sean is.
An actor, clown, voiceover artist and puppeteer, Sean trained at East 15 Acting School. An experienced teacher as well as an artist, Sean not only puppets one of our dummies as Keith, but also taught two of our other actors how to handle their dolls too, including…
BETH EYRE as SUSAN FINANGLE
Beth is one of the most talented and versatile performers we’ve ever worked with, and frankly, we’re utter morons for not putting her on camera before now (although she is the dulcet voice you hear in two Casual Violence sketches, How To Put In Your Contact Lenses and How To Remove Your Contact Lenses: her deadpan delivery of “If you drop your eye on the floor, you’re an idiot” is my favourite reading of any line I’ve ever written).
Beth is best known for her theatre work and voice acting. She played Antigone in world-famous podcast sitcom Wooden Overcoats, and has appeared in several other acclaimed audio dramas off the back of her exceptional work in that role. Beth’s first collaboration with us was in Hector Vs The Future as callous mayor Sylvia Pinch. Here, she’s playing someone very different: Susan Finangle, the meek and wispy puppeteer who inherited Henry, Keith’s ex double act partner. But there’s more to her than it seems…
LUCY FARRETT as ESTHER FARRAGO
If you’ve followed Casual Violence for a while, you already know how incredible Lucy is. She’s in Bear Hugs, she’s in Prior Engagement, she’s in When You Can’t Decide What To Watch On Netflix, she’s in our Doctor Who 2017 Casting Announcement, and she played multiple roles in Hector Vs The Future, as well as playing the lead in Peaked, a podcast pilot we made in 2019.
If you don’t follow us, you might know her anyway: she was in Julia Davis’s SALLY4EVER, and was in Alice’s Adventures Underground for acclaimed UK theatre company Les Enfants Terribles. We discovered her through her character comedy alter ego Ladyface, and immediately fell in love with her electric presence on stage. Lucy is playing Esther Farrago - the documentary filmmaker behind the camera, who finds herself increasingly embroiled in a violent murder mystery. Can she figure out who the killer is before all her interviewees get killed… or before she does?
HENRY DEADSON as himself
Despite being a dummy, you couldn’t accuse Henry of giving a wooden performance in this show. This might be because his voice is uncannily similar to that of
THOM TUCK,
an Edinburgh comedy award nominated actor, director and comedian we’ve collaborated with a few times before. Thom is the founder and host of cult comedy night #acms, and can currently be seen on BBC iPlayer in “The Play What I Wrote”. He’s easily the most charismatic and affable performer we’ve ever had the pleasure of working with; someone who takes being silly very seriously, in the best possible way.
I’ve learned a lot from working with Thom in the past - especially in 2015, when he directed my solo character comedy show James Hamilton Is So Lonely - and I’ve always been slightly in awe of his talents. He’s made Henry both very charming and very sinister, and I’m especially thrilled he provided the voice for this completely ludicrous character.
In the next newsletter…
Major production updates! More casting announcements! Glimpses behind the scenes! And more about the creative influences on Murder for Dummies!
I personally have been impacted more by Ringo's solo work in this specific video than by most of the Beatles canon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV8JFj17AtY