I’m spending most of September prepping for my October 13th WIP (BALD PERSONALITY DISORDER – link here) at the Lambeth Fringe, which has included the outdoor performance photographed in the above photo at Emma Cons Gardens.
As someone who lived for performance from childhood through to the end of university, stopping that abruptly when I moved to London was probably the worst terrible decision (of, tbf, many terrible decisions) I ever made. Though I did some live poetry in 2017-19, I allowed the pandemic to arrest that burgeoning personal-cultural renaissance and it collapsed again, though that time the entire world fell apart around me, too…
I continued to write and publish, and although no meaningful change occurred because of them, the positive feedback I received re: the longer works from that period – the pleasure of regret, hip-hop-o-crit (from Broken Sleep Books) – gave me a sense that I was doing something with a small amount of value beyond writing as linguistic mastication of thought/feeling slash narcissistic literary onanism.
In 2023, I knew I had to do something both creative and off the page, tho rather than returning to the poetry scene (or joining whatever it had become in my 5 year absence), I took an improvisation class. I did this for a few months and concluded with a single public performance. I enjoyed this a lot, the play and the chasing of laughter, but the loss of the rigour of the writerly process left me feeling unsatisfied. That sense of play was enjoyable (and so refreshing for me at that point in my life), but the medium wasn’t suited to what I look for in cultural works, which is catharsis and human connection from, I suppose, a singular voice opening themselves to an audience.
So I decided to try stand-up comedy. In the 15 months since then, I’ve performed comedy just over 100 times, including 45 minutes of fully naked #FlatEarth poetry.
It’s been refreshing, reinvigorating, and with this show, I’m excited to re-incorporate seriousness into my practice, as this won’t be (just) an hour of chasing laughs. This does mean that the risks and opportunities of the piece are different from the mode of performance I’ve been practising for the last year. But I’m excited. Hopefully see you there!
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scott manley hadley aka SOLID BALD live
Here’s a video of me recently performing at the prestigious (it has a Wikipedia page) comedy night, Quantum Leopard. Listen to how much fun the crowd is having. You could have that much fun, too!
Forthcoming gigs include the following – there may/will be others:
17th March 2026, 7pm: Slap & Giggle @ Coin Laundry, Clerkenwell
24th March 2026, 7.30pm: Lolipops, Southwark
26th March 2026, 7.30pm: Comedy @ Cosmic, Plymouth
9th April 2026, 7pm: Sunset Comedy, Chalk Farm
15th April 2026, time tbd: BALD PERSONALITY DISORDER 40min-ish WIP at Shirker’s Rest, New Cross (more details soon!)
27th June 2026: Twinkles Cabaret, London
9th August – 14th August: BALD PERSONALITY DISORDER at The Street, Edinburgh, part of PBH’s Free Fringe
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