Go Fish.



about





Fish Pie is a surrealist character comedy show that features some of Yorkshire’s finest alternative acts with a heady mix of poetry, puppetry, theatre and music. Set across the seas, Captain Fish fingers, and his merry crew trawl the oceans in search of cabaret talent to take back to Simon Trowel the entertainment's manager of Wisewood social club. Along the journey they come across dancing fish, clare voyant clams, Surfer postmen, Jazz lobsters and more.


History

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Fish pie, started as poetry open mic night at the Rude Shipyard cafe in Sheffield in 2013, back then it was known as the Shipping Forecast and the event would migrate across many different venues in Sheffield including The Great Gatsby, and the Riverside. At the time, host and creator Stan Skinny wanted to run a poetry night that was fun and colourful that presented poetry in a new way. The event would go on to host performance poet heavy weights such as Alabaster Deplume, Luke Wright, Helen Mort among others and build up a reputation as one of leading poetry performance nights in Yorkshire.

However, a move to London for Stan, meant the temporary end to Fish Pie, although he did run a couple of shows in Peckham, London with Alabaster Deplume. Returning back to Sheffield in 2016, Stan wanted to relaunch the Shipping Forecast as a fully character led cabaret experience, as opposed to the characters serving as breaks in-between the poetry performance It relaunched at DINA venue in 2016 in what was to be a one off performance with a group made up from performers from Monkey Butler Improv, and singer songwriter Chris Delamere, now of Soup review.





Unfortunately, due to other commitments and availability, the cast were not able to re-group to perform the show again.

It appeared that the show had reached its conclusion and Stan moved onto another project: Verbal Gerbil. Although, this initially had some success it wasn't sustained and it was also retired. Undeterred, Stan met Noah Noah in a chance meeting at Dina cafe and the idea of an alternative poetry night once again surfaced. They embarked on collaboration to re-birth Verbal Gerbal. However, short of time and resources they hadn't manage to pull together a set for the show. In desperation, Stan suggested using the now boxed up Shipping Forecast set and use some of the ideas from show. Miraculously, Stan managed to convince Terry Silver, John Paul Mcque, and Gregory Husband at last minute to don costumes and perform. Thankfully they agreed and the show went ahead and somewhat astonishingly, it warmly received.


Stan then set about finding new cast members; Joe Kent Walters came aboard and Lois Conlan, who had been in the audience for the first show, agreed to join and so, in January 2019, Fish Pie was officially launched and began a year of shows at the Cellar theatre at DINA New members; Laura Hegarty, Helen Rice and Freddie Hayes were brought in during the summer break and Roshan became the recognised sound engineer. In January 2020, Fish Pie successfully won a residency from Theatre Deli, and used the time to develop their new show 'Big shop'. They are return to Cellar at Dina for episode IX and are aiming to tour outside of Sheffield, watch this space.



Stan Skinny: Captain Fishfingers, Mr Maps, Message in a bottle





Stan Skinny is a poet, character based comedian and illustrator. He's won poetry slams including the Off the Shelf festival slam three times and been a Hammer and tongue national finalist, and also won the coveted Great Yorkshire show off competition for two years running. He's written three full length solo poetry comedy shows; Tesco chainstore massacre, Cyrano and An audience with Captain the Butcher Reality.

A unique and experimental performer he combines music hall, with Ivor Cutler inspired poetry and Kauffman esque clowning. Off the Shelf has described him as Sheffield's tallest and funniest poet and they wouldn't lie.

'A national treasure waiting to be unearthed'



Lois Conlan: Cabin Boy, Jazz Lobster, Shell





Lois Conlan is creator of the arts company The Travelling Shadow Theatre. When she’s not in the studio she can be found practicing her clown skills, travelling with a puppet show in tow or working with communities on creative projects. She likes to think that she creates art that is inclusive, playful, and full of heart. It’s important for her to be part of work that celebrates and reminds people of the hope, curiosity, and belly laughs that can be found within life. ​



Freddie Hayes: Mrs Potato Head,





"Somewhere between Emmerdale and Spitting Image"

Born and bred in York, Freddie Hayes is a local performance artist and puppeteer. The artist makes absurdist, fringe focused puppet shows and creates garish characters. Her subjects generally involve drinking, dating and clowns. Freddie has toured around the UK with her handmade puppets and orignal performances to festivals, pubs and cabarets including Edinburgh Fringe, Great Yorkshire Fringe, Shambala Festival, Moving Parts Festival.



Helen Rice: Jazz lobster, Sea slug





Helen Rice is a Sheffield-based performer combining spoken word, acapella singing, comedy and accordion playing to explore the important matters in life, like grief, sex, and bread. There’s really quite a lot about bread. Her work has been described as ‘beguiling’ by local folk legend Michael Harding and ‘very silly’ by her housemate Rick.



Joe Kent Walters: Starfish, Noah and the Whale





Joe is a comedian, actor and theatre maker from Huddersfield. He studied Theatre and Performance at the University of Leeds and has been involved in numerous fringe theatre projects, including co-founding Art Collective HalliGalli. He is also one half of alternative comedy double act, The Lovely Boys who have performed alongside John Kearns and Jordan Brookes and he was also the tour manager and technician for Angelos Epithemiou's most recent show. "A chaotic funny whirlwind" Theatre Weekly​



Terry SIlver: Pearl of wisdom, Postman





'A bubbling pixie with a frantic mind in a retrospective underbelly'.


Terry "Letters" Silver is barely known, but within those small circles that they are known, it is mostly for improv comedy. They have been performing Improv comedy for years in many groups such as Hallam Improv society, Quimprov and Guerrilla Funfare. They began focusing more on solo stand-up in 2019 and now run a regular Stand-Up night in Sheffield called 'We Digress: A Post Ironic Standup night'. They are never happier than when they are making filmy films. Their role in fish pie is as supporting characters and to bake in narrative structure and character development. Has a full collection of Jackie Chan Talisman. They act, perform, film stuff and brings the noise.



Malcolm Camp:
Deep sea diving pianist, Bryan Ferry





I am a half blind deep see diver who searched the sea bed for pianos . When that fails I come ashore in search of fish stew performance nights, where I attempt to steal the show, before succumbing to the effects of oxygen deficiency and the bends. Literally 'dieing' on stage. Ideally I'd like more air and greater musical skill and better timing and confidence. Without those things I will continue turning up until I am killed.



PERFECTION IS ACHIEVED NOT WHEN THERE IS NOTHING MORE TO ADD, BUT WHEN THERE IS NOTHING LEFT TO TAKE AWAY.





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