It's not every day you find yourself in a packed Leeds pub, watching a man in a fluorescent shirt and a fedora hat shout excitedly about the selection of toys on his windowsill at home while his backing band knit bouncing basslines with abrasive punk chords.
This was the scene at the Abbey Inn, Newlay, where Mik Artistik's Ego Trip were in full swing.
A glance round the room earlier in the evening showed that the audience ranged from the seasoned regulars to teenagers, and by the time the show started, there was already an anticipatory buzz around the crowded bar.
When the first chords of the opening song started, Beeston-born Mik had donned his alter-ego's paint-stained jacket and immediately had the room's full attention.
Kind of punk, kind of comedy
Before I went to the gig I was told the trio were 'kind of punk, kind of comedy', which is just about right, except it's not right at all. Trying to explain the energy and imagination of the performance in a few words is nigh-on impossible, and the whole irreverent experience has a fantastic feel to it.
Dozens of chaotic, low-fi songs ensued, on themes from naming Mik's daughter Condoleeza Rice, to the fact that he's been diagnosed with just '44 years to live'.
Speaking to Mik later he told me the inspiration for these songs can come from anywhere:
"I get the ideas for the songs from all sorts of things. Some of them I've been performing for years and were from my older stand-up routines, but a lot of the songs are taken from ideas or experiences that make me laugh."I've written a song about a toy hippo that I found out walking, and it's on my windowsill at home with a three-legged horse and some other toys. What a magical world it is. There's always something to write a song about."
The live gigs are only a part of the Mik Artistik repertoire. Alongside the band, which he formed with guitarist Jonny Flockton and bassist Benson Walker in 2004, Mik has other outlets, including a script for a pilot show for Radio 4 on which he has worked alongside Johnny Vegas.
He said:
"It's going to be like a comedy show focussed around the fictional character Mik Artistik. If they like it they're going to commission a six-show series so it's pretty exciting."As well as that we've been approached by an Irish documentary maker who has been filming us. Also filmmaker Sean Conway wants me to play a gravedigger in an upcoming film he's shooting."
Mik also pointed out that while all these developments were exciting, he still made time for his original artistic passion, his painting. He said:
"I made a living for 30 years just from painting. I've had exhibitions of my pictures on paper bags, I used to go up to people and say 'My names's Mik and I draw people on paper bags'. What I'm doing at the moment is big oil paintings, I've had an exhibition at Bradford Playhouse."
Despite all these projects, Mik Artistik's Ego Trip have been touring extensively throughout 2010.
Mik said:
"We've travelled a lot in the last 18 months. We've played 20 festivals including Glastonbury, and played shows as far south as Cornwall.
"We've played Glastonbury four times now and it's always a lot of fun."
Airplay on BBC radio
It was after one of these festivals that the band received their first airplay on BBC radio. Mik explained that he ran into Jarvis Cocker while they were on tour: "I bumped into Jarvis while we were playing at the Port Eliot festival in Cornwall, I gave him the CD and a couple of days later he played it on his show!"
A lot of the humour in the show is Leeds orientated but Mik explained that the band have had a good reception all over the UK and he never needed to alter the act to suit the geography:
"We don't change the set at all based on where we are. People get into it wherever, Cornwall, Ireland, Doncaster, wherever. Sometimes I do slip into a bit of freeform rambling though - we once played the same song for 45 minutes, so it can vary."The music seems to hit all generations, people come and tell me that the kids have knackered their CD from playing it too much."
The Ego Trip are playing gigs right up until the end of the year. Having just played at Cheltenham Literary Festival they are now lining up more pub gigs, including The Verge at the Cheshire Ring, Hyde, on November 26.
For more information, visit Mik's website.
* Guest blogger Jude Cosgrove is a Leeds-based journalism student at Norton College, Sheffield.
