Michael Brunström 🎄

A photograph of a tree every day 333/365
#tree #treephotography

Just checked my Leicester Comedy Festival ticket sales. Very early days, of course, but currently more seats have been allocated to awards panel members than have been sold to the public, which is very on brand for me.

Next year I will make zines.

Marienbadvent Day 4

A list of my shows: The Human Loire (2014) The Golden Age of Steam (201 5) The Hay Wain Reloaded (2016) Parsley (2017) The Great Fire of London (2018) World of Sports (2019) Umlaut: a Colon into a New Dimension (2020) One Thousand New Ideas before Bedtime (2021) Missing (2022) Theme & Variations/ A Sequence of Baffling Enclaves (2023) Copernicus Now (2024) Michael Brunström Sings Ten Songs about Moths (2025) William Tell versus the Algorithm (2026)

A few years ago I used to worry that I’d done a lot of shows without achieving any “success” (e.g. fame, paid gigs, Soho, etc.). Time’s passed, and now that I’m putting together my 13th show, it’s clearer to me what the goal was all along: to keep making and performing new comedy. It’s what I love.

It’s time to say goodnight to this interesting and weird little show: MICHAEL BRUNSTRÖM SINGS TEN SONGS ABOUT MOTHS. Thank you to everyone who came and sang along. I always feel melancholic when it’s time to move on, but it’s good to focus on new endeavours. Farewell moths. Greetings William Tell.

Marienbadvent Day 1

Moss

Spoon

Which would win in a fight?

It is important to oppose AI art on principle, not just because it’s often poor quality. It will ‘improve’. Within a year, it will get hands right every time. But it will be much worse for art, imagination and the planet.

Muesli this morning. #cat

A photograph of a tree every day 329/365
#tree #treephotography

NF Simpson fan, the first playwright I loved, Travesties, Arcadia, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Lord Malquist and Mister Moon, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, Leopoldstadt... RIP Tom Stoppard, a genius of a writer.

a robot is spinning a blue object on its head ALT: a robot is spinning a blue object on its head

Watching Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (1974). Surprisingly violent.

SLOW-RISE BRAIN ROT
Strangely squishy!
Crazy funny!
Collect them all!
#gachapon #gashapon #slowrisebrainrot

Snuggles was actually the name of the doctor, not his horrifying creation.

Controversial take: Miracle on 34th Street is a Die Hard movie.

Hi Netflix,
Why would you provide me with a Mike Birbiglia special and then ruin it by putting adverts in the middle of the quiet emotional bits. Why?

Recent context-free fun on stage.

They domesticated us.

A photograph of a tree every day 327/365
#tree #treephotography

But I believe in my work, and many of the people I admire the most in comedy continue to support me by coming to see me and saying nice things. I enjoy the process of making comedy and the experience of performing it live. Everything else is irrelevant to me.

I’m an amateur comedian. I’ve just started writing my 13th hour-long show. You haven’t heard of me. My shows are never profitable and, on paper, my career is almost indistinguishable from that of a ‘bad comedian who should stop embarrassing himself’.

"That'll fix it", thought Ron, but he was wrong.

Typically I will have a couple of compulsory bad days. After that, I am permitted to attempt a good day.

Two important rules my brain has:
1. Michael is generally not permitted to have two good days in a row.
2. If Michael *does* have two consecutive good days, day three will be a complete nightmare.

The Mercator projection

Ironically, the number of spammy AI-written posts on my social media feed pointing out the unfitness of the Mercator projection … is grossly disproportionate.

The Mercator projection

Ironically, the number of spammy AI-written posts on my social media feed pointing out the unfitness of the Mercator projection … is grossly disproportionate.

The stakes at comedy gigs can be too low sometimes.
“Thank god there’s no audience.”
“Do as little time as you want.”
“Let’s get this over with.”

A sign near Barbican for MOUNTJOY HOUSE. Above the word MOUNTJOY, someone has drawn the name DOUG with a wet finger out of the grime.

This is my favourite bit of graffiti in London. It’s been there as long as I can remember.