The latest Phil Evans column from the South Wales Evening Post
The latest Phil Evans column from the South Wales Evening Post.
Comedian Phil Evans is from Ammanford. He is known as the man who puts the ‘cwtsh’ into comedy.
---------------------
If you read last week’s page – and if you didn’t you missed out big time, because I revealed Kylie Minogue’s mobile number and Bob Geldof’s PIN number - you’ll remember I briefly mentioned the Nativity.
Well, as the man who designed the London Eye once remarked, “What goes around, comes around.”
Because, co-incidentally, just before I started writing this article, I saw something on breakfast TV which astonished me.
And no, it wasn’t Lorraine Kelly managing to get through a whole programme without lying to the soap-actress-of-the-day she seems contractually obliged to converse with every morning, “The top secret plotline you’ve been unable to reveal to me during the last six minutes, sounds really grrreat!”, as she laughs and flaps her hands around in the rigorous interviewing style that will surely one day win her the British equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.
What I saw on breakfast TV was even more astonishing.
A news item stated that in 2014, only one primary school in three put on a traditional Nativity play, complete with two-foot tall shepherds wearing their Dad’s five-foot long dressing gowns and holding plastic lambs borrowed from a local butchers shop.
What added to my astonishment (you’d be astonished at how astonished I get sometimes) was learning that many of the dwindling number of Nativity plays still being put on in schools, don’t feature the angels, the shepherds or three wise men.
Instead, they’re replaced by characters, who, according to the modern mantra ‘Children can more easily relate to’ - like superheroes, aliens....and Elvis!
Does this explain why so many children have no idea of the real reason we celebrate Christmas?
Should we worry that the traditional school nativity play is dying out?
Is there anything we can do to halt its demise?
And am I asking you far too many questions?
A story that, whether you believe it or not, has survived for 2000 years with the same cast of characters, does not benefit from having the shepherds dressed in red & blue Lycra, spinning webs over the manger.
Neither does it need a visit from the Three Wise Cybermen.
Or the Alien Gabriel.
All it would take for children to ‘more easily relate to’ Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus, the shepherds, the angels and the three wise men is for someone in the school to teach them the story!
Because, once you become familiar with characters, whether they inhabit a Bible story or an episode of Peppa Pig, they’re much easier to ‘relate to’.
Now I’m going to play the Devil’s Advocate – I’d prefer to play the trombone, but I never learned – and question just how wise the Three Wise Men were.
Balthazar, Melchior and Casper brought with them Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.
What made them think yellow metal, white resin and spice were suitable gifts for a new-born baby?
If they’d only given it a moment’s thought, they would have brought nappies, baby wipes and a changing mat.
Oh...and some Peppa Pig pyjamas!
----------------------
A few years ago, street magician and endurance artist (well that’s what he calls himself) David Blaine spent six weeks inside a Perspex box suspended above the ground, next to Tower Bridge, London, as a publicity stunt .
He had constant press coverage. Hundreds of people hung around to check if he escaped in the middle of the night to get a bag of chips. His stunning feat placed him in the record books after he placed his smelly feet in a bowl of hot soapy water.
Many people remember the stunt.
But who remembers what he was publicising?
So I hope that the stunt I’ve come up with – channelling the spirit of David Blaine - to publicise my forthcoming show, Love and Laughter at the Lyric theatre, Carmarthen, on 24th January 2015, will create a flurry of interest amongst the local population.
At 3.00 a.m. next Sunday morning, from a remote location, I will stop the clock in the clock tower in St. Catherine’s Walk, Carmarthen, using the power of my mind.
Some of you may think this impossible.
Some of you stopped reading this in the second paragraph.
But all of you should be prepared to be amazed.
-----------------------
I recently had the pleasure of going to see The Two Tones at Bar Americano in SA1.
Rhodri and Tom are local lads, who provided us with a fantastic rendition of Crowded House’s ‘Weather with You’ as their opening number.
I’m not sure if they wanted me to sing along quite so enthusiastically, but I did!
These boy’s vocal harmonies are brilliant. They have an amazing upbeat acoustic vibe which is very uplifting...you just can’t help joining in.
It’s very hard to believe it’s just the two of them and their guitars, their voices complement each other so well and the sound they come out with is superb.
They have had a very successful summer, which has included recording an EP produced by Jayce Lewis called Fervent Foray, which means trying something new with passion, and they have certainly nailed that.
The Two Tones are building up a great following throughout South Wales and with their mentor, Kelly Marie, are sure to keep going from strength to strength.
If you get a chance to catch them at a gig near you, go along and take your mates for a great night of entertainment, you won’t be disappointed!
----------------------
You can follow Phil Evans on Twitter @philevanswales
If you read last week’s page – and if you didn’t you missed out big time, because I revealed Kylie Minogue’s mobile number and Bob Geldof’s PIN number - you’ll remember I briefly mentioned the Nativity.
Well, as the man who designed the London Eye once remarked, “What goes around, comes around.”
Because, co-incidentally, just before I started writing this article, I saw something on breakfast TV which astonished me.
And no, it wasn’t Lorraine Kelly managing to get through a whole programme without lying to the soap-actress-of-the-day she seems contractually obliged to converse with every morning, “The top secret plotline you’ve been unable to reveal to me during the last six minutes, sounds really grrreat!”, as she laughs and flaps her hands around in the rigorous interviewing style that will surely one day win her the British equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.
What I saw on breakfast TV was even more astonishing.
A news item stated that in 2014, only one primary school in three put on a traditional Nativity play, complete with two-foot tall shepherds wearing their Dad’s five-foot long dressing gowns and holding plastic lambs borrowed from a local butchers shop.
What added to my astonishment (you’d be astonished at how astonished I get sometimes) was learning that many of the dwindling number of Nativity plays still being put on in schools, don’t feature the angels, the shepherds or three wise men.
Instead, they’re replaced by characters, who, according to the modern mantra ‘Children can more easily relate to’ - like superheroes, aliens....and Elvis!
Does this explain why so many children have no idea of the real reason we celebrate Christmas?
Should we worry that the traditional school nativity play is dying out?
Is there anything we can do to halt its demise?
And am I asking you far too many questions?
A story that, whether you believe it or not, has survived for 2000 years with the same cast of characters, does not benefit from having the shepherds dressed in red & blue Lycra, spinning webs over the manger.
Neither does it need a visit from the Three Wise Cybermen.
Or the Alien Gabriel.
All it would take for children to ‘more easily relate to’ Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus, the shepherds, the angels and the three wise men is for someone in the school to teach them the story!
Because, once you become familiar with characters, whether they inhabit a Bible story or an episode of Peppa Pig, they’re much easier to ‘relate to’.
Now I’m going to play the Devil’s Advocate – I’d prefer to play the trombone, but I never learned – and question just how wise the Three Wise Men were.
Balthazar, Melchior and Casper brought with them Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.
What made them think yellow metal, white resin and spice were suitable gifts for a new-born baby?
If they’d only given it a moment’s thought, they would have brought nappies, baby wipes and a changing mat.
Oh...and some Peppa Pig pyjamas!
----------------------
A few years ago, street magician and endurance artist (well that’s what he calls himself) David Blaine spent six weeks inside a Perspex box suspended above the ground, next to Tower Bridge, London, as a publicity stunt .
He had constant press coverage. Hundreds of people hung around to check if he escaped in the middle of the night to get a bag of chips. His stunning feat placed him in the record books after he placed his smelly feet in a bowl of hot soapy water.
Many people remember the stunt.
But who remembers what he was publicising?
So I hope that the stunt I’ve come up with – channelling the spirit of David Blaine - to publicise my forthcoming show, Love and Laughter at the Lyric theatre, Carmarthen, on 24th January 2015, will create a flurry of interest amongst the local population.
At 3.00 a.m. next Sunday morning, from a remote location, I will stop the clock in the clock tower in St. Catherine’s Walk, Carmarthen, using the power of my mind.
Some of you may think this impossible.
Some of you stopped reading this in the second paragraph.
But all of you should be prepared to be amazed.
-----------------------
I recently had the pleasure of going to see The Two Tones at Bar Americano in SA1.
Rhodri and Tom are local lads, who provided us with a fantastic rendition of Crowded House’s ‘Weather with You’ as their opening number.
I’m not sure if they wanted me to sing along quite so enthusiastically, but I did!
These boy’s vocal harmonies are brilliant. They have an amazing upbeat acoustic vibe which is very uplifting...you just can’t help joining in.
It’s very hard to believe it’s just the two of them and their guitars, their voices complement each other so well and the sound they come out with is superb.
They have had a very successful summer, which has included recording an EP produced by Jayce Lewis called Fervent Foray, which means trying something new with passion, and they have certainly nailed that.
The Two Tones are building up a great following throughout South Wales and with their mentor, Kelly Marie, are sure to keep going from strength to strength.
If you get a chance to catch them at a gig near you, go along and take your mates for a great night of entertainment, you won’t be disappointed!
----------------------
You can follow Phil Evans on Twitter @philevanswales
Comments