Vole's laugh-in

The highlight of the weekend - other than the Rapture of course - was seeing Karl Spain and Ed Byrne, the Irish stand-up comedians. Other than Stewart Lee and perhaps Ted Chippington, I'm rather indifferent to going to see stand-up, but we had free tickets because Karl is Emma's cousin.

I'm glad we went - both men were very funny, and even when the subject matter was unpromising (e.g. "I've just had a child, isn't parenthood funny and amazing?' - Byrne), their masterly grasp of comedy technique - how to build up expectations, when to go back to an earlier gag and so on) meant that we were carried through effortlessly. It was also brilliant hearing your friend namechecked in a gag, and her family stories being recycled in sharpened form to the amusement of several hundred people.

After the show, we hung around to chat to Spain and - it turned out - Ed Byrne. On stage, he looks like a trendy, friendly and well-paid professor of creative writing: nice jacket, ironic Robocop t-shirt, floppy hair and specs. When a guy dressed as Kevin or Perry (complete with reversed baseball cap) joined us, I assumed it was a roadie - it turned out to be Byrne himself, paying tribute to the spirit of the early Beastie Boys.

That's when it all got a bit weird. Gradually, we were encircled by a wary group of what looked like escapees from the Teen Goth Ward of the local sanatorium: barefoot, weirdly made-up and clearly coping with a range of Voices. We edged away, they edged in. In very British fashion, the nutters formed an orderly queue to say weird things to their idols.

It struck me that for Ed and Karl, staying faithful to their partners while on the road was rather easier than for, say, Keith Richards. Their groupies are the perfect contraception.

Here's one from Ted Chippington's high point:

From Misery to Absurdity

I am, as you may know, knee deep in essay and dissertation marking. As always, work goes from the absurd to the wonderful (though nobody has approached the Olympian heights of Ed's dissertation).

One of the worst aspects is marking poor work by people you either personally like, or whom you respect for their abilities. I have infinite patience for people who work hard but still struggle, and none for the lazy or dishonest. But it's emotionally draining to mark down or fail people when you know they've worked seriously hard. Responsibility is an issue, especially with dissertation supervision. If the piece has failed, isn't this an indictment of my supervision?

They say at PhD level that a supervisor shouldn't allow a potential failure to be examined: if they tell you to send it off, it's probably OK. Does this apply at undergraduate level? Of course, some people haven't bothered attending much supervision. Others have turned up to chat about ideas but not provided written material for discussion. Yet others present work you know is weak and all you can do is cajole them into the right frame of mind.

Anyway, light relief tonight: I've got a free ticket to see Karl Spain, a comedian who is supporting Ed Byrne in town tonight. He'd better be funny: I'll be sitting next to his cousin…