Published: 18 March 2010
by ANNA LEACH

NOT content just to make people laugh with impressions of Nye Bevan and Cecil Rhodes, Josie Long wants to be a better person. 

She pledged to do one thing every day for 100 days to improve herself and invited other comedians, writers, musicians and ordinary Joes to do the same. 

The results were presented last week at Stamford Works, off Gillett Square in Dalston as part of the London Word Festival. 

Comedians Isy Suttie and Sara Pascoe appeared, musician The Pictish Trail performed 30-second songs from his project and the visual fruits of 100-days’ labours were exhibited. 

After Long dismissed a precocious nine-year-old heckler with deserved derision, she spoke about what she learned from speaking to a stranger every day for 100 days. 

“Talk to taxi drivers about love and not politics” she advised. 

Isy Suttie, a less geeky version of her Peep Show character Dobby, drew a picture a day for her project, but judging from the resulting canvas and the songs she performed, she should have stuck to the later. The highlight was Sara Pascoe’s countdown of the 100 honest handwritten letters she wrote for the project. 

The show was perhaps twee and perhaps unnecessary. 

But there is a lot of cynicism in comedy and the audience of One Hundred Days left with a warm fuzzy feeling, and a belly full of cake and penny sweets, and perhaps all the inspiration needed to speak to a stranger or write a hand-written letter. And that can only be a good thing.  

The London Word Festival runs at various venues until April 1. See londonwordfestival.com