good at masking

18-05-2026

Several times recently I've said to someone that I'm good at masking, only to have them laugh in my face. On these occasions, I laughed too - because I am good at masking.

My doctor recently said "I can tell you're really frustrated about this" during an appointment and it's really thrown me. I thought I was behaving normally. I thought I was a picture of calm, speaking plain non-wobbly sentences - I described my agonies with the lackadaisical serenity of a bodhisattva. Friends who work for the NHS have reassured me that female doctors sometimes just treat men like they're furious pre-emptively, in the hopes it lets a little air out of the balloon. It let a lot of air out of me; I felt fully exhaled. It's ableist the amount of additional reassuring behaviors I need to rehearse and dole out. I'm going to have to start smiling more. Winking. Nudging people in the ribs my elbows and saying "wahey". Lord grant me a low context culture.

Other than that though, love going to the Doctors. Load up on health. There are so many organs whose wellbeing you can query. I've been asking if they can iron out all the wrinkles I'm gaining from excessively folding and unfolding my arms. I think I'm entering my hypochondriac phase. Yesterday I caught myself googling "is it normal for your legs to be sore if you go on a really long walk?". It is, thankfully. It is normal.

experimentalist

I got a nice little mention in the British Comedy Guide. "Sean Morley is one of the great experimentalists in what it's possible to do in a live comedy room. It was a pure thrill to witness" Sometimes I can be a little circumspect about an appraisal (One of my toxic traits I try to keep on the down low is that minor interactions play on my mind for years) but this one - it's pretty good!

I've been pretty lucky in my career really, I haven't really had any devastating reviews. I've mostly been damned with faint praise by someone who begrudgingly admits I am clearly trying to do something interesting, even if not always succeeding. In a weird way, pursuing experimentalism is quite a conservative position from someone who knows they'd take a poor review pneumatic press to the skull. For some reason I've found people are more conciliatory to a failed experiment than failed commitment to dramatic sincerity.

I still remember the first proper gig I put on that I invited reviewers to. It was at a bar called The Harley near to Sheffield University where I was attempting to establish a comedy club. It eventually all fell apart when the venue manager insisted people should be able to come into the main room without paying if they just wanted the burgers and not to watch the comedy. There are lots of problems with this policy but I'll let you imagine them all rather than detail every headache we had trying to police this reasonably at the door. Anyway, after a few months of momentum I invited a reviewer from the local paper. In the same week a local act who'd been around for ages, asked if he could sneak his mate onto the bill who was just starting out. He was quite insistent and I relented. I always relent. His mate overran a 10 minute set into 20 minutes telling a single story about how he farts in bed and it stinks. He lay down on the stage to mimic what it was like as he farts in bed, waving his arms like a ghost to imitate the covers gently rising and falling as he farts. I still remember my blood running cold, darting my head between this guy (who i never saw again, who i dont think ever gigged again) blowing raspberry's into the mic and the reviewer in his thin little tie scribbling furiously into an a5 notebook. When the review came out the fart guy got a lot of emphasis and he said the night was "dirge". But he said I was good, and also praised this other guy (who grew up to be Glenn Moore).

bulletin

Thank you to anyone who's ever replied to one of these. Since I've been doing this mailing list thing I've ended up having a lot of wholesome chats with entirely new people. New to me, at least. They weren't babies (I hope). So I just want to invite and remind you that that's an option. I feel like there's something a little unfair, that all the messages go directly to me. Feels a little asymmetrical in my favour. So, in the interests of levelling the playing field, if anyone wants to message me with something to share to everyone else I'll happily implement a little bulletin board section in the mailing list. And then if anyone wants to respond to that bulletin, I can pass that message onto the message author. It'll be like social media, but it's all completely manually done by one guy and it takes ages.

brighton fringe: backchannel + wes

This Saturday I'll be at Brighton Fringe for two reasons. Number one I'll be doing Backchannel - my very good about [redacted]. Also(!), I'll be appearing in Late Night With Terry Wogan at Brighton Fringe. I'm going to portray Wes Streeting, alongside many other celebrity cameos. I'm not good at impressions, and I felt he was a good blank canvas to play a grotesque. I plan on making some kind of head out of pink rubber.

Also next weekend I'll be at Rik Mayall Comedy Festival. With Backchannel and also appearing Midlands Child Syndrome!

For all other upcoming live dates look here!!