Author: Ed Jefferson

  • How to avoid awkward silences (at video game themed comedy karaoke nights)

    For the last few years I’ve been helping to run a sort of karaoke night called Maraoke, monthly-ish in London but also at video games events around the world. Maraoke works basically the same as karaoke – you pick a song you know from the list, we call you up to sing, you sing along…

  • Why do London buses keep disappearing? (And how I’m trying to find them again).

    Why do London buses keep disappearing? (And how I’m trying to find them again).

    Here’s an annoying thing that happens to me fairly regularly: I’m waiting at the bus stop for a bus. I pull out my phone to check when the bus is coming. It tells me the bus is coming in 9 minutes. I check again, it says it’s coming in 8 minutes. Then I check *again*,…

  • #89: 211 (2018)

    My name is Ed, and I, like all of you, watch a Nicolas Cage film every week, pick six numbers from within that film, then play the National Lottery with those numbers. This week: a film whose title is a number! Surely a good sign, even if it is too long a number to be…

  • #88: Looking Glass (2018)

    My name is Ed and I watch Nicolas Cage films and pick numbers out of them and use them to play the National Lottery because I’m normal. It’s obvious what I get out of a film like Looking Glass: the potential of winning millions of pounds! And presumably Nic Cage and everyone else involved get…

  • #87: Mandy (2018)

    My name is Ed and I’ve been playing the lottery by using numbers from Nicolas Cage films, because I believe some kind of magical force will travel out of the films into the real universe and cause me to win millions of pounds. Over the last 5 weeks I have matched precisely zero numbers (including…

  • #86: Dark (2017)

    My name is Ed and I watch films in which Nicolas Cage appears, write down numbers from them, and then play the UK National Lottery, which I will eventually win because of this. When you decide you’re going to watch everything Nicolas Cage has ever been in to try and win the lottery, you have…

  • #85: The Humanity Bureau (2017)

    My name is Ed and an oppressive government regime is threatening to deport me to a non-existent place unless I watch every Nicolas Cage film and win the lottery using numbers from within that film. I was trying to figure out why the title The Humanity Bureau is suggestive of one of the various mostly…

  • #84: Mom and Dad (2017)

    My name is Ed, and each week I play the lottery using numbers I’ve divined out of a different Nicolas Cage film. The first two weeks of starting to do this again have not inspired confidence that this is a worthwhile activity – not only did I get 0 matching numbers, but both films were…

  • Podcast appearance: Caged In

    As well as trying to win the lottery by watching Nicolas Cage films I also have a secret goal of trying to be on every single Nicolas Cage-related podcast, and a couple of weeks ago got to have an extensive chat about both Cage, the experience of trying to watch all his films, and in…

  • #82: Vengeance – A Love Story (2017)

    My name is Ed, and I used to watch Nicolas Cage films in what turned out to be a futile attempt to win the lottery. Cage claims to have used a method he calls the nouveau shamanic to channel mystical energy into his screen performances, and my theory was that by picking numbers based on…