I’m not saying I’m better than the BBC but…

The BBC Pay reveal shows a gap between what men and women are paid and that BMEs are underrepresented (not great news if you’re a BME woman).

Now I’m not saying 3Prong Attack (the #prongcast I do) are better than the BBC but…. both me Prong1 and my co-presenter Prong2 have absolute parity when it comes to pay. I say pay, it’s more like costs.

Plus with me being a person of colour and Prong2 being Jewish, we must tick some cultural boxes. But neither of you are women, I hear you ask. Well, firstly some of our 20 to 30 regular listeners are women and secondly, when we started out the third presenter was a woman. The last I heard she was living out in LA, no doubt continually contemplating on what could have been.

In many ways, we are the model the BBC should be copying, apart from the lack of making money and the no audience but other than that they need to be taking notes.

@anunknowncomic

The last word on the General Election

I know the world has moved on from the General Election but I feel everyone needs to read my thoughts, so here goes.

  • Firstly, why would you call an election and make it about personality when you don’t have any … erm… personality.
  • Hopefully this election has put to bed the idea that Lynton Crosby is some kind of genius. Thankfully the public saw through soundbite politics. It would appear the electorate weren’t prepared to put up with ‘strong and stable’ for 7 weeks.
  • Despite their best efforts it would appear the ability of papers like The Sun and The Daily Mail to influence the voters is on the wane.
  • The last point may in some ways have something to do with the increase in the youth vote, who don’t get their news from the traditional media.
  • And finally it was good to see the experts before the election telling us how it was going to go and then after the election tell us why these things didn’t happen. It’s almost like the political experts don’t really know what the electorate is going to do.

@anunknowncomic

Have a listen to my comedy prongcast. Cheers

Exposure

Two people I know from the Manchester comedy and poetry scene, Daliso Chaponda and Tony Walsh (Longfella Poet) have in recent weeks received TV exposure, making them known to people nationally and internationally.

Daliso was on Britain’s Got Talent, finishing third overall. Whilst Tony’s reading of his poem ‘Choose Love’ at the vigil for the Manchester bomb victims was broadcast live and has subsequently been transmitted across the world.

Both performers are talented having spent years working in pubs and clubs honing their skills but without the magnifying force of TV, when would they get the opportunity to showcase their work to such a sizeable audience?

Does this mean that despite the popularity and potential reach of social media, the only way poets/comedians can ‘make it’, is still via TV?

@anunknowncomic

Check out my comedy prongcast. Thank you

 

No experience required

If Evgeny Lebedev had asked me to become the editor of the London Evening Standard, for multiple reasons I’d have to say no. One being, my lack of experience.

What I definitely wouldn’t do is accept the position and continue with my job as a teaching assistant. I’d probably think that due to my lack of experience I’d need to put all my time and effort into the job. George Osborne faced with this situation, feels he can edit the paper alongside being an MP, a consultant for BlackRock and not forgetting his lucrative talks.

Other than time management concerns, it does seem somewhat dubious that a serving MP should be in a position where he has influence over a potential audience of 8m people every evening.

It  begs the question, what next? Alastair Darling becoming the controller of Radio 1xtra.

@anunknowncomic

Should you have time, check out my comedy prongcasts. Cheers

Normal service will be resumed shortly

You have to feel some sympathy for the right wing press, after the Red Cross said the NHS is facing a humanitarian crisis.

Firstly, people in this country like charity and charities and the Red Cross is one of the more established charities, which makes them harder to be attacked.

Secondly, people in this country are fond of the NHS, they like how we pay into it over our working life and it is free to use when we are ill. For this reason we are protective of the NHS, which makes it harder for it to be attacked.

Thirdly, the NHS is staffed by many non-British people, which doesn’t fit in with the right wing media’s rhetoric that all our woes are the result of immigrants.

You needn’t have too much sympathy, as I’m sure normal service will be resumed shortly and the immigrant bashing will continue as usual.

@anunknowncomic

Checkout my comedy prongcasts. Cheers.

 

 

 

 

How Grimmy can save Radio 1

Hola. Hope you are well.

I read an article recently, looking at how Grimmy (Nick Grimshaw) can attract young listeners to Radio 1.

This interested me because I have a foot, loosely in both camps. As I am sure you’re aware I prongcast (podcast to most people) under the name 3Prong Attack and for the last 4 years I’ve worked in a Secondary school, working with 14,15,16 year olds, an age group Radio 1 would covet.

Thanks to Google and me having my first and surname on my ID badge, some of the children were able to track down my prongcasts. This meant that despite having what could be described as a niche audience, a large percentage are teens. So if Grimmy really wants to boost the number of young listeners to his show, he should take a job working in schools. That or get a well paid job judging talent on X Factor.

Til next time, be nice to each other.

@anunknowncomic

 

What UKIP are for

Hola. Hope you are well.

It might be wrong but I’m slightly fascinated by UKIP or more pertinently the amount of coverage they get. Despite having no MPs not a day goes by without them being mentioned in the media.

With the majority of our print media leaning towards the right politically, they probably share many of UKIP’s beliefs but at the same time wouldn’t want them taking votes from the Conservatives. So instead of attacking their policies, the papers have turned their focus on some of the individuals in the party. Fortunately for the press they haven’t had to do too much digging to find a UKIP member displaying their ignorance, whether it’s ‘Bongo Bongo Land’ or telling Lenny Henry to move to a ‘black country’.

With the press are fixated on UKIP they don’t appear to have the capacity to scrutinise what the government are doing. For example 13m in this country live in poverty  and of those that are in work dissatisfaction reigns, with teachers, the fire brigade, lawyers et al all striking this year. So, perhaps UKIP do have their uses, as a kind of Farage headed trojan horse.

Til next time, stay safe!

@anunknowncomic

Prongcasts