New Year - new updates?

Ok, ok, ok so it's been May since the last update. I blame the curse of facebook, twitter and flickr - the tiresome burden of having to choose which one to layer with some sparkling bon mot, hilarious image or scantily clad anecdote... is all too much. Woe is me.

So here's what's been happening in the past few months:

Enjoyed myself immensely chewing the scenery as the dastardly villain "Menzies McFadden" in Channel 11's criminally underwatched "MicroNation" (watch it all online) - I can't believe more people didn't tune in at 6.25 pm to watch the funniest 5 minutes of television a night (fingers crossed for a DVD - I really want to do some commentary). Great cast, great writers , great production team, great director, so-so pelicans....

"It was the chair"

Between two Johns - Jon Williams & John Leary

I do good war films

There's a famous story about Marlon Brando turning up on set during the filming of 'Apocolypse Now'

"When Brando arrived, he shocked everybody – he was enormous, maybe 300 pounds. "You couldn't see around him," says Frederickson. This gave Coppola palpitations, as he had envisioned Kurtz as a lean and hungry warrior. Also, what the hell was he going to wear? There was no Green Beret uniform on earth big enough!"  - The Independent.co.uk

This is how I imagined Andrew Garrick must have felt when I totted on to the set (I have since given up a load of sugary treats and lost some kgs...).

Eat it up fatty boom bah

Menzies McFadden - rotter.

I've also been participating in a wonderful show, imaginatively titled: Impro Sketch. I came up with the idea to 'borrow' the Second City format of combining revue and improv in 2011 and approached Impro Melbourne AD Jason Geary about mounting a production. We both agreed it was a great idea and sorely needed but it got put aside as other things came along and time went by and our baby was born and it sort of slipped through my fingers and ended up in the hands of Jason and Jimmy James Eaton (from the local improv group The Big Hoo Haa!).

The combined forces of these two companies was a blast of fresh air that buoyed the members of this fledgling group along as we cautiously began the long process of writing, editing, casting and performing.
 What we ended up with was a consistently funny show with loads of laughs and a more than a couple of stinkers (ya gotta have them folks). There will be more later this year and I can't wait to see what emerges.

Here's a bunch of poster and book designs I did for various shows during the second half of 2012 - you can find more (including a huge array of spot illustrations I have amassed over the years working for Fitness2live) at my Flickr account.

This was for a play reading I did at La Mama - great piece of theatre.

 What does this year hold?

New comedy festival show! Amanda Buckley, Lee Naimo and I are mounting our first ever show under the moniker 'Merit Badge: Adventure' Here's a couple of teasers for the production:

More information to come soon.

If you want more updates or care to take a peek into my internet rummaging, why not join me on facebook and twitter (mainly used for esoteric jokes and bad puns.

Cheers

Smokey the bear