John Hegley
The Sound of Paint Drying
Monday October 13
"This show is dedicated to everyone with teaching difficulties."
John Hegley - bespectacled, dog-loving, poetic - is widely known as one of the country's most innovative comic artists with eight well-selling volumes of verse to his name. His new show - named, like his latest book, The Sound of Paint Drying - drew a large and enthusiastic audience, filling the Gala Theatre itself.
John Hegley started out with some witty one-liners, such as:
The spud
Sped.
one of his many potato-themed poems. But the fans needed little softening-up, and willingly joined in the songs almost as soon as John Hegley picked up his mandolin: "I'm sometimes asked what this is called." he remarked. Then, with perfect timing, the reply: "Steve". For a song inspired by the proverb It's the wheel that squeaks that gets the oil, a quatrain of lines each beginning "It's" ("I call it my "Greatest It's"), the audience were divided into five, one part to sing each line plus one heroic soloist who delivered a crucial squawk right on cue.
The extracts from The Sound of Paint Drying suggest a man trying to come to terms with a difficult relationship with his father, from his boyhood in a Luton Bungalow (described in reconstructed diary entries and a punk rock song) through adolescent conflict to his decision, last year, to visit Nice in France and attempt his own version of a scene which he knew through a painting which his father had made 70 years ago. Clearly, his affection for this carefully detailed depiction of an archetypally French café, all vines and dappled sunshine, helped to reconcile him to a father with whom he had fought as much because they were alike as because they were different. The narrative maintained a perfect balance between emotion and humour, paying as much attention to John Hegley's small daughter's dislike of her father's absence as to the essential role of the yellow Strepsil in art. The theme was neatly rounded off with another piece of audience participation, in which the poet's desire to reconnect with his French roots took the form of a poem in French (about a man's love for a potato, naturally), which was translated line by line by a volunteer from the gallery.
Afterwards, the reactions "hilarious" and "very clever use of language" could be heard from the queue to buy books and have them signed, which extended across the room and down the stairs.
John Hegley's books are available from the bookstall throughout the Festival:
