Thursday, March 27, 2008

Wha' Happened to March?

Wow. That went seriously fast... between now and the last pitiful post quite a few jolly times have flowed under the rainbow bridge to Happyfundrinkyland.

- The NSW National Theatresports Championships

If you scour back through the blogemporium to March last year you'll find an entry about how the mighty Theatresports team 'El Diablo' came, saw, laughed and conquered. This year we were fortunate enough to be asked back to defend the title. Jason Geary, Rik Brown, Rama Nicholas and myself packed our bags and flew up to Sydney. Before hitting the Enmore stage we stopped off at the Roxbury to watch Axis of Awesome strut their stuff and admire the dogged determination of the drug dog squad who raided the place. Inspector Rex goes abroad?

The Nationals were great and all teams had a moment in the spotlight. We had won the belt the last two years in a row and so it was with no regrets that we gladly handed it over to the NSW team "Wizard's Finger" who pipped us by one point. It was worth losing just to hear the roar that went through the crowd. Excellent stuff.

Made merry all through the night and then mooched my way around Watson's Bay the next day with the lovely Amanda. A glutton for punishment - I played that night in the all-new 4 coaster branded show - iMPro3 Shuffle. A great format and loads of fun to play.



- My Dad

Turned 60 - had a great dinner at Tolarnos
Had a Book Launch at Readings
Has a retrospective at Heide
He's having a good year I suspect...


- and of course... The 22nd Melbourne International Comedy Festival has begun.

This year I was asked to direct Impro Melbourne's flagship comedy show 'Late Nite Impro' (by directing - I mean casting and organising) and we launched last weekend to a sold out audience and a night of wonderful improvisation and comedy with our special guests Rebecca De Unamuno and Deborah Frances White. The format is new (it always is) and was invented by Jason Geary - "How About This?" - Directors pitch concepts for scenes and the performers choose what flies and what falls. Deceptively simple but hilarious. It plays every Friday and Saturday night at the Cloak Room at the Town Hall. Go here, here and here for more info.

I'm playing Friday March 28, Friday April 4 and Friday April 11.

I'll also be playing in Celebrity Theatresports on Saturday the 5th at the National Theatre - always a fun night and this year we've got some spectacular performers.

Note - although Julia Zemiro appears on the Flyer she will not be able to perform due to her MTC commitments unfortunately - but go and see her show another night!

Another show I'll be slutting myself out to is the Melbourne run of iMPro3 Shuffle which is on at the Kaleide Theatre. I'm playing on Sunday 6th and Tuesday 8th April. I'm hoping to squeeze in some time with the Scrabble Unscripted guys as well...(I'm such an impro whore...)


I got my name in lights with notcelebrity.co.uk

Shows to see:

Little Howard and the Magic Pencil of Life and Death.
Fran & Roxanne - Room for Rent
The House of Anomalous
Take The L out of Lover
Deborah Frances-White's "How to get almost anyone to want to sleep with you"
Axis of Awesome
Alien Sex Party
Eaton Alive
A Record or an OBE
Every Film Ever Made
Comicide: Death by Funny
Andrew McLelland's Guide to being a Modern Gentleman
So You Drink? You Can Dance!
Comic Book Funny

Have a great festival everyone - and if you see me with a stupid grin on my face, dancing at the Trades Hall or drinking at the Hi Fi or Flyering on the street - come up and say hi. Most likely - you'll get a hug.

p.s. keep an ear out for the term "Comedy Slapdown"

Friday, March 07, 2008

WTF?

I'm sitting on the couch, a box of Streets Blue Ribbon Cookies n' Cream sits empty, "Love Actually" is finishing on the tele and tears are streaming down my cheeks..............

Huh?

Bloody hell. I need to get out.