Magnus Betnér » English blog

In english this year.

Magnus — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:02:32 +0000

This year I’m gonna try to work as I possibly can in english. Tomorrow I go to Switzerland and after 3 gigs there I’m gonna finish my tour of Sweden and do 8 episodes of my own tv show for swedish tv but I will also visit London, Helsinki, Estonia and Belgium this spring to do gigs in english. I will try to add some UK dates over the summer and come august I will do my 2nd Edinburgh Fringe. More info about that later. 2nd half of the year I’m going back to the lovely Glee Club to do gigs in Cardiff and Birmingham and I’ll try to add as much other gigs in english as I possibly can. There are of course always loose plans of going back to the US and or Canada but nothing is definite yet. Trying my best to make it happen! Anyway, looking forward to a year with lots of gigs in english. All new dates will be added to the calendar as soon as they’re set. I’m also gonna try to get some clips up as the stuff posted now is getting a bit old.

Buy me!

Magnus — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:20:43 +0000

A couple of months ago I had my picture taken for Funny Faces, a charity for Shelter. Pictures of me and the other comedians can be seen here and the auction will start here wednesday. all proceeds to charity so get in there and bid your ass off!

London.

Magnus — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:20:43 +0000

Just came back from London where I went to check out Doug Stanhope’s latest show. Highly recommended of course. He’s playing Leicester Square Theatre until sept 3. While I was there I figured I might as well do a gig too, so I ended up headlining The Comedy Café on saturday. Here is a short clip from that gig where I talked a bit about the riots, cameron and the suicide bomber we had in Sweden last year. I was a bit off in the beginning, but I suppose I won’t be talking much about the riots next time I go to the UK in september, so figured I might as well post it now even though it’s far from finished material.

In Dublin.

Magnus — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:34:30 +0000

This trip feels like it’s been going on forever. Started with a couple of days semi-off in France and from there we went to Jersey because I had 3 nights of work at the Jersey Comedy Festival together with Simon Munnery and Hattie Hayridge. It was all compered by Geoff Whiting and very nicely organised. It’s so nice to go to new places and to Jersey I’d never been, even as a tourist. Lots of interesting WW II history there that I didn’t know much of. Anyway, all 3 gigs went well and audiences were lovely. Wish I could have stayed longer, but I had to jet off to Ireland and a bunch of gigs here. First gig was at the Woolshed, a nice little room run by Damian Clark that I’ve played a couple of times before. Gig was uneventful but before my set two comedians got into a fight. Something you rarely, if ever, see in Sweden. In the UK and Ireland it seems to happen ever so often. Maybe it’s something in the water. Anyway, I managed to try some new stuff and that’s really my main concern at the moment. Producing new stuff. I’ve come to the level where I’m pretty comfortable improvising in english and don’t really need the crutches of old “safe” stuff anymore. Speaking of safe stuff, next stop was Belfast. Another city I’d never been to and one that I’d been warned about. Don’t talk about religion, don’t talk about politics, don’t talk about nationalism and all that. As usual people was wrong. I did just that and the crowd at the Empire seemed to love it. Promotor said he wanted to give me a longer set next time i come over, so I’m definetly gonna try to squeeze Belfast in again as soon as I can. Really interesting place too. We took a tour with a former member of the IRA and got his side of the story so next time we will even things out by taking a tour with somebody on the other side of the conflict. The day before we got there the worst secterian violence for years sparked off and on the night of my gig it was even worse, with people getting shot and stuff. They might be in for a long and violent summer. Let’s hope not. After Belfast it was back to Dublin where I am now sitting in the lovely Fitzwilliam Hotel on my day off. Rain is pouring so I don’t there will be much activity on my part except for the occasional pint of Guinness. Tomorrow I do a long set at The Number 6 in Dublin and on saturday I’m going to Monaghan to do a gig. Should be fun. If, for some reason, you feel the need to stay updated on my pints and gigs Twitter is the place to do it. Details on all other gigs in english are in the calendar. Left this year is Denmark, Scotland and London. More might be added.

Back home from London.

Magnus — Sun, 15 May 2011 18:51:05 +0000

This trip to London was a bit different as my daughter was with us. Fun to see London through the eyes of a kid though. We did Madame Tussaud’s, Hamley’s, Rainforest Café and a lot of other kid’s stuff. She seemed to be enjoying the city as much as we do so we’re already looking forward to bringing her back. Not gonna be many years before she wants to go alone… I was also there to work, of course. Had some meetings and stuff and I also did a photo shoot for a charity called Shelter. The pictures will be displayed at some gallery in december and then sold off. Me and a bunch of other comedians. More details as I get them. Yesterday was gig-day with 3 gigs. Started the night out at Hampstead Comedy Club where I wanted to try some new stuff and did just that. Think I was on like 22 minutes and most of that stuff was new so it was a great warmup before going to Monkey Business to do an extended set. Ended up doing about an hour and about 40 minutes of it was brand new. As I was about to take the stage, this girl came up and asked me “Do yo know where the main entrance is?” I had no idea what she was talking about so I just pointed her back downstairs… “No, I wonder where I can do a line?” Oh, ok… My bad. I guess you can do it in the bathroom… She went in there and started doing whatever it is you do before you do your line but then came out again and said “When I ask where I can do a line it means I want to do one with you. I know I can do it in the bathroom.” Oh, excuse me for not knowing the fucking coke-code. If you wanna do a line of coke with me, just ask! Do I look like I’m a cop or what? Anyway, I politely turned her down and then went on stage to do one of the most fun shows I’ve ever done. Lovely club, lovely crowd and I had som much fun I didn’t wanna leave. Sadly I had to, as I had another gig at midnight. It was time for The Comedy Store. The flagship of clubs. The Mecka of Comedy. The place where you don’t bomb and the place that gives new comedians the shakes. I really don’t find it that special, even though I always try to do my best when I’m onstage. Now, what’s my best only I can judge of course and a lot of the time agents and club owners don’t like it. That’s fine. What’s not fine though, is staying on too long. And I did just that. I had a 10-minute spot and I did 14 minutes. I have no idea what happened but I just didn’t catch the red light the first couple of times it blinked I suppose. Anyway, I don’t expect to be invited back to The Comedy Store again even though I’ve done two good gigs. They’re kinda faschisty when it comes to stagetime. And they should be. And I don’t care much either. There are other clubs. But I should have gotten off in time. After the gig the plan was to hook up with some friends over there for a drink or two but I just had to go home and get some sleep. I blame that on bronchitis. Who knows, maybe next time I’ll have time and energy to do both drinks and coke. And hopefully some more extended sets at Monkey Business. All toghether it was a great trip and I had 3 really nice gigs. Looking forward to the next UK trip already… Trying to figure out a way to get more time to go over there as we speak. We’ll see how it goes.

More gigs coming up!

Magnus — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 07:25:16 +0000

Opening for Dylan Moran was a nice experience. Love that venue and it turned out he was a great guy as well as a great comedian. Anyway, I’ve added some new dates to the calendar, so here is what I’m doing in english the next few months: May 14: In London doing 4 gigs and among them is The Comedy Store and a 1 hour solo show at Monkey Business. Busy day indeed. June 16-18: I will be at a comedy festival in Jersey. Not US, the Island for people who don’t like taxes. 20: Dublin, The Woolshed. 21: Belfast. Really looking forward to this one! First time… 22: Dublin – Headline at Anseo. One of my favourite clubs. 24: Dublin – 40 min show at The Number 6 25: Monaghan – Another first. Doing 20 minutes I think. Well, that’s my vacation time out the window but I’ve just been missing working in english lately so what the hell. In the words of every major rock star: “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” Exact details will be in the calendar and if there are last minutes changes Twitter is the place to look.

Opening for Dylan Moran.

Magnus — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:34:26 +0000

It’s not very often I do comedy in english in Sweden, but now I will. Saturday night Dylan Moran comes back to Stockholm and Cirkus for a show and I’ve been invited to open for him. Everybody tells me he’s fantastic but I’ve actually never seen any of his stuff so a great opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. I get to do some stuff in english AND I get to see one of the biggest names in comedy.You should go too. Tickets at www.ticnet.se

New club in London.

Magnus — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 23:07:59 +0000

Fredrik Andersson is probably the hardest working of the swedes that do comedy in english at the moment. He’s been living in London a couple of months now and from what I heard he’s doing great. Not surprised at all since he is one of the best on the club scene in swedish and he was already good at doing his stuff in english when we worked together in Edinburgh last year. Anyway, he’s starting his own club now and it should be well worth checking out. It’s gonna be at The Pipeline, a great venue where I’ve done a couple of shows myself and it will run weekly starting this monday. Best part? It’s free! Check it out if you’re in London on a monday or just read more about it. I’m gonna try to get over there soon to try some new stuff too.

My Balkan trip.

Magnus — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 10:30:55 +0000

[/caption] Last week I did my first 3 gigs in the Balkans. Well, except when I went to entertain the swedish troops in Kosovo. But that was, of course, in swedish. I flew down early wednesday morning after 3 hours of sleep and landed in Ljubljana tired and with my winter boots on. It was snowing in Stockholm when I left and I just hadn’t checked the weather forecast for Slovenia. I should have. It was swedish summer down there. After a couple of hours we set off for Zagreb to do an english night in The Movie Pub. Standup is a really new art form in the Balkans. Some countries doesn’t have a scene at all and in Slovenia and Croatia it’s been around for 6-7 years so I had no idea what to expect from comedians or audience. It turned out to be a great first gig though with all comedians doing nice sets even though you could se some of them struggling a bit in their second, third or even forth language.

Movie Pub, Zagreb

Poster, Ljubljana

It’s always enjoyable when topics are hot. For real. And as it turned out, most of what I talk about are hot topics down there. You got a lot of gasps amid the laughter and a couple of awkward moments of silence, especially when I talked about the army and about abortions. Just the way I like my shows. I didn’t get to see much of Zagreb as the club is on the outskirts of town and I was really tired. We headed back to Ljubljana for a gig at a theatre there that turned out to be a lot of fun too. Everything was really well organized and my host Tin Vodopivec (who is also a comedian) really took great care of me. After the gig in Slovenia they took me to a pizzeria type of place about 30 km from Ljubljana and on the way there was many jokes about them bringing me to the countryside to kill me for joking about sensitive stuff. They didn’t kill me. Sadly, we did kill a cat. Or, rather Mitja Okorn did. To his defence there was not much he could do. Mitja turned out tobe a real crazy guy and there was a lot of talk about him putting me in his next movie. Now all I have to do is get a hold of swedish commercial star “Jerry” and porn actress “Bella Donna” and I might be on my way to fa

Slovenia is dangerous. For cats.

[/caption] me and fortune in Poland where the movie is supposed to be released. It was just one of those crazy nights that will stick in your memory for ever. Well, the entire trip was memorable. After Ljubljana it was time to hit the small town Brezice near the croatian border where I did a gig at a youth center that was probably the best gig of the trip. Sadly the other comedians didn’t do their stuff in english more than at Movie Pub, so I didn’t get so see much of what the balkan comedians are up to, but I think they’re on the right track. 3 gigs in as many days and all of them packed. They also have a comedy festival in august and another one i january that I hope to attend. There was also talk about getting me on stage in Belgrade which would be great fun. I really want to back down there as soon as I can to visit all the great clubs and great people again.

New DVD and more gigs.

Magnus — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 11:15:21 +0000

In a couple of weeks a DVD from my latest tour will be released. It’s in swedish but it’s subtitled in english. It’s a two-disc edition with the entire 90-minute show and a bonus disc with an interview and about 40 minutes of bonus standup from my tour around Scandinavia. Release date is set to march 25 but you can pre-order it here already. This is my 5th DVD and the previous ones are also availible with english subtitles in a boxed set. There is also a DVD in english on it’s way but release date has not been set yet. Hopefully this summer. I’ve also added some new gigs in english. Really excited to go to Slovenia and Croatia for the first time at the end of march. Spread the word! All dates in calendar.