Water into Wine
It's finally streaming...
Dropping today, 12th May, is a live recording of my stage show special, Water into Wine.
What is Water into Wine?
It’s a one-man stand-up theology show that I’ve been performing across the UK since Dec 2021. It’s about my quest to find out why Jesus did his most famous miracle, turning water into wine. And that show is now available as a download or via streaming (via Vimeo).
Wait. ‘Stand-up theology’? What’s that?
So, it’s like a stand-up comedy special, but with a lot more biblical theology than you’d get from Bill Burr or Dave Chappelle. And lots of PowerPoint. But funny PowerPoint. Imagine Dave Gorman but with lots of references to John’s gospel.
The show combines my 20+ years of being a BBC comedy writer, (Miranda, Bluestone 42, My Family, Hut 33, Another Case of Milton Jones) and my fascination with the Bible. This is why I ended up studying theology at university (not Cambridge, sadly, as I explain in the show). The results are surprising and funny – and surprisingly funny.
So why ‘Water into Wine’?
During lockdown, I wrote The Gospel According to A Sitcom Writer, a book drawing together funny routines that I had performed over the last decade or so, and adding new ones to join them all up into something coherent. In the end, the book is romp through John’s gospel, which contains the most famous miracle of all: the water into wine miracle.
In fact, this miracle is only in John’s gospel – and none of the others. And it’s the first one. Why?
As I went through John’s gospel, I noticed there was a similarity with the next five miracles John includes. This, in turn, explains lots of other strange aspects of the Water into Wine story.
Who is this show for?
You might think I wrote this show for Christians, as it contains a lot of Biblical theology. But I actually wrote the show for the kind of people I work with – intelligent secular folk – who might be interested in finding out more about the Christian faith and understanding the appeal. On the surface, an evangelical presentation can appear rather flimsy or simplistic and therefore not credible. It is true that the message of the gospel is simple enough for a child to understand. But the Bible is a long book, and endlessly, beautifully fascinating and compelling that will sustain and nourish your soul for a lifetime.
Despite my degree in Theology, hearing a sermon almost every Sunday for decades, regularly attending Bible studies and listening to podcasts, I’m only just beginning to see how many depths there are to plumb. I’m 47 and I honestly feel like I’ve only just made a start.
Only last Sunday, I got intriguing hints of a detail about Jesus is second most famous miracle – which I also cover in the Water into Wine show. When Jesus feeds the five thousand, a small boy has five loaves and two fish. Why five loaves? Why is this detail reported? Five is not as poignant a number as seven or twelve. Five? Some might say ‘John reports five because, er, that’s how many loaves the boy had.’
Okay, so why did God cause the boy have five loaves? And cause John to report it?
I couldn’t be sure, but could 1 Samuel 21 contain a clue?
David is on the run from Saul, and says to Ahimelech the priest, “Now then, what have you at hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.”
David, a man who is not yet king, but anointed by God, wants five loaves of bread. The feeding of the 5000 contains all kinds of Moses-based overtones, as I explain in the show, but at the end, Jesus slips away, concerned he is going to be made king before his time. Moses is not a kingly figure. But David is. Is that anything?
And what’s the significance of the 5000?
I still don’t know! I hope to find out.
How long is the show?
77 minutes. It’s a proper night in. And it’s suitable for kids, families and teens. Try it with your kids. They always seem to enjoy the show when I do it live. So you might be surprised at their reaction.
Isn’t that a long show for three short Bible stories?
I also cover why there’s no nativity in John, the first joke in John’s gospel (and how there’s another one buried in chapter 7, just when you least expected it) and I explain how Jesus narrowly averted a Zombie Apocalypse (but caused another one) and how the calling of Moses at the burning bush really went down. And you might know more Aramaic than you thought you did.
Whether you’ve been reading the Bible all your life, or just know the famous bits from Carol Services, Water into Wine joins the dots to create a funny, engaging picture that has been delighting audience in churches all across the UK. Why not find out what they’ve been laughing at – and support this substack in the process?
And while you’re there, why not get what, in my opinion, is the best thing I’ve written to date: a romantic comedy about love, faith and science, The God Particle, which, like Water into Wine, was also professionally filmed in front of a studio audience? You can get that on the same page.