Lax and Pax

How re-miss of me too leave this blog lying fallow for so long. So much has happened in the 'betweening months that it pains me to try and recall them but here goes:

My little brother turned 20. Not so little anymore.

Flew to Syd for Jordan & Alicia's Rock Wedding at the Vanguard

Scared the crap out of a child on an ABC3 show

Enjoyed bits and pieces of the Fringe Festival (watching a punter throw a plastic milk crate onto Daniel Kitson's head was both mind numbingly tedious and perversely hilarious)

Tried my hand at Storyboarding. Good fun. Better without the ridiculous deadline.

Flew to Sydney for the World's Funniest Island Mini Comedy festival. Much laughter and drinking and toothache was had.

(L-R Lee Naimo and I avoid looking at each other, AB and I dressed to the nines, AB in faux fur 'cause she's Fauxy, Luna Park shenanigans, The World's Funniest Island - a lot of these were taken from Amanda's Flickr page. I hope she doesn't mind)

Auditioned for an impro TV show and had a ball. Seriously disappointed when I didn't get in.

Back to Syd for Lee and Marlo's Yummy Wedding - more fun and frolics, dancing with the pretty ladies.

The IM Halloween Classic was fun and ridiculous. Great to see so many our countries top improvisers in the one room (sadly quite a few were missing as well)
Note - The huge colour A0 poster I made to hang out the front of the theatre was stolen after two days. I take that as a compliment.


Made pink worm spaghetti and "Brain" sauce for kids. Delicious.

Loads of auditions. Nothing. Que sera sera.

Went to the Gold Coast and spent four delirious days shuffling around in the heat wearing a black suit. A great Japanese meal was had.

My boy turned 12 and a pizza party was had by all. Participants roundly drenched by Spring rain dump.

Directed a photoshoot with the supremely talented Mark Gambino for IM. The closest I'll ever get to being David Bailey.

Auditioned for West Side Story. Hilarious in it's farcical nature. My apologies to Brett Cousins who I called "Scott" - terrible faux pax.

Was one of a final three for an ad worth a lot of money. Was one of the two who didn't get it.

Snogged at the Theatresports Grand Final. Good Times.

Amanda's Birthday! We sent up a package o'goodies.

(Amanda having a "Cargument" courtesy of the NAVman ad)

Saw Spontaneous Broadway at the Comedy Theatre with my artwork on the Marquee. Great stuff (and my song was actually chosen - first time ever)


The Impro Melbourne Christmas show (as part of the National project "Impro Unwrapped") went really well and we raised loads of money and donated gifts to St Vinnies. Funny show too - I got to play a hunchback bell ringer who got to rub a nun for kicks. Ahhhh Christmas - it brings out the best in people.

Root Canal work. Grrrrr but thank you for the ultimate painless dentist. Alan Solomon - you rock.

End of year school performances were lovely. The boy MC'd and the Girl was a Sheep (admittedly one with ADHD)

And so we come to now - the drinking and feasting has begun. And the inevitable spiral that leads to outlandish New Year's resolutions is starting to twirl. But Play on I say.

2009 has been a mixed year of sorts I experienced so many wonderful moments of love and friendship as well as the regular plunge into bouts of inky blackness as we pathetic humans are wont to do. I raise a glass of something good (a Negroni perhaps?) to all my friends, family and work colleagues and wish you all the best for coming year - may you find happiness in unusual places and goodwill follow you everywhere like an annoying yappy lapdog. Salut!

XX

What if?

Mad Men was an actual TV series in the 1960s...

"Set in today's busy New York city, the new NBC drama Mad Men follows the lives and loves of the professional Ad men and women of Madison Avenue advertising, a zany world where key players make an art of the sell!" Coming this Fall and proudly sponsored by Kimberly Clark.

Star Love Wars - Episode One

"Oh my gawd Vanessa? What's wrong??"

"Sob, gack, choke... sniff... he says he doesn't love me anymore! Bwaaaaaa!!"

"That bastard."

"Just go away Jeremy! Don't you think you've caused enough pain for one day?!"

"But I....."

"Just GO!"

"Just forget about him Vanessa."

"sob... choke...I'll....I'll try"


(whispers) "I'm sorry...."



More on my flickr site.

made by Lliam Amor 'cause he's a geek.

Mish Mash Entry

After a months of being incredibly busy, I find myself, still incredibly busy - good for me - bad for blogging.

So here's a quick and dirty array of some interesting things that have caught my eye recently:

Teddy Boy Culture - brilliantly captured by photographer Ben Watts

They also pop up in this BBC doco looking at fashion from the streets.

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The Cloudy Collection is simply stunning. - http://www.cloudycollection.com/

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The colourful world of Helen Dardik - http://orangeyoulucky.blogspot.com/

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This Isn't Happiness - http://nevver.tumblr.com/

Education.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Graphic Design and/or Corporate performance

iMPro3 Shuffle Flyers & Posters

Some more design flotsam from the recent files:

I drew everything first - all based on characters and scenarios that the cast told me about from personal experiences "...yeah, there's always a cheerleader in there". Then I scanned it in as a high res jpg, then re-drew and lettered in Illustrator as an A3 poster.

After receiving some change requests I cleaned it up and dropped the artwork (piece by piece) into Photoshop, tweaked it some more and buggered about nudging elements here and there...

Finally I saved as a high res PDF and emailed it off... then I watched a film at 2am and then went to bed.

I really enjoyed this project - lotsa colour, drawing and shapes. Very satisfying.

Original Version from Illustrator - the font is my own hand lettering.

Final cleaned up sexy versions.

p.s. If you're in Sydney go and see the show - they are wonderful improvisers and hilarious as well.

Secret Agent...

...no more!

The lovely folks at BGM now have a brand spanking new website. If you wish to procure my services please don't hesitate to - click - for me.

Illustrators share a brain!

Some of my favourite French illustrators - all in one animation.

IT'S HERE!

Already?
Gosh.

Some of the best comedy impro in town.

There's plenty to see this year, yes - loads of expensive international stars but please don't neglect the incredible local content we have...

Thank god it's time to Laugh again :)

Help needed - Doritos Ad

My son really wanted to do this so we came up with the idea and spent a weekend making it.
Could you take a moment to please click and vote?
Thanks and enjoy
Cheers
Lliam


Lliam & Raff's Cheeky Chips Ad

Cracking the Comedy whip

MICF is heading our way and so the air is filled with the sounds of hundreds of comedians and performers scrabbling to finish their shows. A chorus of hair-tearing groans and screams come wafting through the streets and back alleys as jokes are tried out on long suffering friends and family. I, for one, cannot wait - let the celebration of the funny begin!

-PLUG-

I'm in Late Nite Impro on Friday 3, 10 & 24 of April - I'd love to see you there.

Because I know my way around a design program or two - I was asked by friends to put together some posters and flyers for the festival... here's a taste of what I came up with:



More here

More Fakies

(clingclang for larger size goodness)
Fake Book Covers - made up names and titles
(apart from The Spirit by Will Eisner - a legacy I worship and of which, no well meaning but flawed film will tarnish)

Fake Album Covers - made up names and titles.

I have enjoyed making these but am finding the randomness becomes a hindrance after awhile.

The Difference...

...Between me and a lot of other people is which one I'd choose to watch...

Fake Book Covers

Pot Boilers and Sci Fi - $5 ea or 3 for $12

Discerning stories for the Female of the house.

Thrillers and Detective - Buy One get one Free.



Made by me for fun.

Fake Albums are great but I've always fancied getting my teeth into a book...

Based on the last Facebook set up here's some links I've put together:

To design an FBC (Fake Book Cover)

1 - Go to The name Generator - http://www.thenamegenerator.com/ and click “Generate New Name” – this will be the name of your Author.

2 - Go to the "Random Title Generator" - http://mdbenoit.com/rtg.htm and click “Give me Some Titles” - choose a title for your book.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” http://flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/ choose an image to suit or hit “reload” until inspiration hits – this will be your cover image.

4 - Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together. For inspiration – go here: http://www.bookcoverarchive.com/.

I'll post some examples soon:

in the meantime - enjoy this little cut-up I made:

"It's an outrage!"

Darn that Meme

Occasionally a meme comes along that takes you by the hoodangers and gives them a twirl.

The whole "create a fake album" has me hooked. It's so damn simple and great fun for nerdy designer types like myself.

the "rules" are these:

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random... Read More”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"

or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

then you're supposed to tag people on facebook and get them to do it too but I ignore that bit...

Now - I hate hard and fast meme rules - especially when it comes to the third one - so my new version is "pick any image off that page" (why do so many flickr denizens take shots of flowers?)

Here's a compilation of the albums so far. Click for a bigger version.


*UPDATE 26 Feb*

Addicted? You betcha...

Fires

https://www.redcross.org.au/Donations/onlineDonations.asp

Hand of Amor

Sounds ominous doesn't it? It's not - it's what I've called my new typeface I created over at:

http://www.yourfonts.com/

An amazing site for a font nerd like myself. So much fun.

What if Sean Penn or Russell Crowe was your Dad...

... and they tried to tell Dad Jokes? - this was the idea behind this short series of films:



Check out the rest (including a special guest appearance of Emo Boy)

Cut Out Art

Artist Thomas Allen cuts out old paperback novels and creates incredible scenes that are reminiscent of the great films of the Noir genre.



More here

Or at the Foley Gallery

The Official 2008 Year in Review Highlights (in handy list form)

JANUARY:

Holiday at Sandy Point with Kids, fierce winds, seas and giggles.

Fly to Hamilton Island with chums for some seriously rained out gigs

FEBRUARY:

My beautiful girl turned 7

I chased a streaker (Jamie Robertson) across the hallowed grounds at the MCG

Flew to Adelaide for a corporate gig and ended up going to the festival and meeting all manner of friends for an enjoyable evening in the Garden.

Seeing Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings at the Hi Fi with AB and shaking our respective things.

MARCH:

My Dad turned 60 and we were treated to an incredible dinner at Tolarnos in St Kilda. Happy Birthday Dad!

Began teaching my own special unit of improvisation at Deakin. Some brilliant talent and fun times.

Worked with Deborah Frances White from the Spontaneity Shop

Shot a corporate video which was a send up of Underbelly. Ripe for the plucking.

National Theatresports Competition! Lost by one point! What a night!

Happy Birthday Zoe! – spent the night at Aurora Kurth’s amazing one woman comedy show.

Directed and performed in Late Night Impro for Comedy Festival. Good houses but uneven nights of comedy (meh – it’s improvised – what are you going to do?)

Danced – quite a bit.

Dad had a book launch as well as his retrospective opening at Heide – couldn’t be prouder.

APRIL:

Performed at Celebrity Theatresports (where Rik broke his wrist – and still won the night)

Box Hill Tech School reunion – scared and delighted me in equal amounts.

Returned to the Ripponlea Studios to film Comedy Slapdown – so many good people on one show.

MAY:

Turned another year older (getting coy now about reveling my age) and also celebrated Rik Brown’s birthday with chums.

JUNE:

Spent the Queen’s Birthday by the Opera House and in good company

Launched Pia Zadora (the improv format) on the world at the Impro Cave

Flew to Darwin for a corporate gig and seriously underestimated the heat. Bought some shorts.

JULY:

Hooted and Hollered from the cheap seats at the Aria Hall of Fame.

Guest role on the Hollowmen for Working Dog – brilliant show and an amazing group to watch in action.

Happy Birthday Mum! Big party that I couldn’t get to because I was:

In Brisbane for the Improvisation Festival. Loads of friends, shenanigans and improv.

AB and SY breezed into town and we went to see Wicked.

More Corporate work (before the meltdown…lovely stuff)

Resurrected “El Cheapo the magician” for Asha’s birthday party – was heckled, lovingly.

AUGUST:

Filmed an opening piece for “Last Bucket of Water” for the Hounds. Giggles all round.

SEPTEMBER:

Loads of auditions, meetings, corporate gigs.

Flew to Adelaide for a Repco conference – maaaaate. Jason and I daubed some red on the town till the wee hours of the morning.

Happy Birthday Little Brother. He survives this party intact!

Scout family camp nearly kills us both.

OCTOBER:

Fringe festival opens and good times roll

Vapour Boys flickers onto the screen – well done Josh (and Family)

Film a scene for “Tangle” a new drama from the makers of Love My Way.

Film a scene for “Whatever Happened to that Guy?” from the makers of Peter Moon’s life.

Watch my son in a four hour school play (he tops maybe 20mins all up) – twice.

Halloween Classic kicks off with loads of friends coming to town.

Dad and I go see Jerry Lewis – and laugh and groan in all the right places.

Writing workshop/camp/weekend away turns into gag-free-for-all but forget to record for posterity.

NOVEMBER:

My Boy turns 11 and has a ‘hang-out’ party with his mates (what? No pin-the-tail guys? Guys?)

Dan and Toby have a party and we all laugh at Dan’s shorn scrotum on a prominent morning television program.

Movember Party – I’m joined by the lovely instigator AB and we marvel at the hirsute wonders.

DECEMBER:

Christmas parties galore

The “It’s a Dad’s Thing” group finally folds and we bid it a fond farewell. I smell a musical.

Russell’s Santaland Diaries is great followed by the remainder of the Skirty Christmas party.
Oh feeling very worn out by 2008 now…

Just enough time to squeeze in a pilot for a new show with Geoff, Julia, Josh, Ross, Colin, Toby and Gen. Brilliant.

Ok time to eat.

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Thanks to everyone who made my year brilliant.

All my friends are different and I love them all.

Strange but True

I loved the cinema of the '80s

Fine peice of prosey

"...aw nuts. I'm just a guy trying to get along in a crazy mixed up world. If all I'm good at is making a lady feel all warm and squishy then so be it. Come here doll and let me put my big, brutish arms around you and then I'll squeeze you like a ripe melon - my hairy chest pushing against your sweet, ruddy cheeks, you'll be gasping for air as I hugs tighter. Then you'll be so close you'll be able to feel me through the gabardine pants I'm wearing and then you'll know what time it is. Oh yes. It's time to get ready for some hot lovin'. and I'm not taking any of that coy, innocent baloney either toots. When I give it to you, you'll take it and like it...."

A passage from the new novel I'm working on - "Hello My Lovely - Diary of a Sensitive Brute"

2000 & Mine

So, here it is. It is here. The New Year takes it's baby steps while I waddle around like an overstuffed chicken on the set of Henry VIII. The season's eatings have been good to me but now it's time to pay.

I had a great time in Sydney over the NY break catching up with the delightful Buckley and friends. When the sun was too hot, the hangover too pounding or the suburb too grungy - we simply kicked back and watched TV (something we do extremely well together). Starting with the entire season of Hippies, starring Simon Pegg and other notables. It was laugh out loud in places but was more interesting to put it into context of the other shows the dynamic duo of Arthur and Graham (Big Train , Father Ted, The I.T. Crowd amongst others) have put out in their time. As Amanda quite rightly noted "It's just like the Young Ones but set in the '60s". This was followed by episodes of Brass Eye, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, Snuffbox extras, Arrested Development and the Beatles Anthology (gee that woman has good taste).

The Beatles history was fascinating as I have read quite a bit about them before but it was great to see all the footage and ephemera run past. I thought the Festival Hall clips were the cleanest looking footage of their live shows (good onya Melbourne). There was quite a bit left out as well and it got me thinking about the things that fell through the cracks - so here for your enjoyment (and with a bit of help from Ms Buckley) is Part One of the FABricated FOUR:In late 1964 The Beatles and producer George Martin head into the studio to create their 4th album "Beatles for Sale", while George ducks out for coffee and sandwiches the boys decide to make it a concept album in which they all become male prostitutes. In a burst of creative energy they write and record the non-hits "Please, Please, Do Me", "Shake, Rub & Roll", "Eight Times a Night", "I'm Looser" and "I Don't Want to Spoil the Sheets"

Sadly Parlophone baulked at such a risqué departure and reined in George Martin who threatened to take away their cushions unless they toned it down. As a small victory - they managed to keep the original name.

Sadly no one told Ringo it was merely a concept and they found him wandering the streets two days later and three hundred pounds richer.

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Have a great year folks!