Resuming Normal Transmission

Hey Kids! Let’s play "What happened to May/June!"

• Last Days of Chez Comedy Fest – I laughed, dribbled and cried from hilarity during Spymonkey’s ‘Cooped’
• Played ineffectual scrabble with the lovely folks from Scrabble Unscripted alongside The Bedroom Philosopher. We had not one but two temper tantrums, dashing the board to the ground in a fit of pique. Great fun.

• Played in the last night of Late Nite Impro – as usual, a month later, I can’t remember anything about it. Did I play the nonplussed Samurai against Simon ‘Thank God You’re Here’ Dowling? Who knows….
• Mum launched her band’s CD. The Swamp Album.
• Started shaping the new format ‘Tangents’ with a group from Impro Melbourne.
• Keith Johnstone came through Melbourne in a chipper mood and a bag full of advice. I directed Maestro with him and had a ball. Later I drove him home (from St.Kilda to Eltham – that’s a lot of terrifying small talk) and we talked about impro, his distaste of the guru status, movies, comics and art. I asked him why he still travels the world teaching, he said ”because I enjoy it…and so many people fuck it up”. Later we stopped and picked up some supplies (now I know how Jeff Griggs must have felt). It was quite a surreal moment to be standing in Safeway with a living theatre legend and finding him Soy Cheese.
• Deborah from The Spontaneity Shop swung by and we caught up over dinner then she sat in on a Tangents workshop and blessed us with her wisdom.
• My Birthday came and went. Hello i-river!

• Renovations trundled on – Walls came down, new walls went up, sinks went in ahhh finally – we had a kitchen again.
• Corporate gig for Optus in Brisbane
• Painted walls (groan)
• Deakin students heading towards end of semester and all is fine. Some great performances and films and a bunch of not-so-great ones (but you’ll never which ones know if you’re a student reading this – Maw hahahahahahaha)
• Caught a cold and thought I’d keep it around for month.
• Corporate gig for AXA in Melb
• I brought a Roustabout shirt from Route 66 – I was chatting to the guy behind the counter (called Guy BTW) and he asked how I came to shop there. I said I had been coveting their range of shirts for some time now but on this day had followed a link from the Man’s Ruin website. He chuckled and asked which performer I liked, he was an affable chap so I told him (also with a chuckle). He then said she was his girlfriend. Convo over, shirt paid for and a swift exit was called for.
  
  

• Started a new Quiz show on ABC 774 with Derek Guille – called “Who Gives a Quiz?” It’s a format that a group of us from Impro Melbourne have been working on – it’s on tonight (and every second Monday). Loads of expert fun and Derek is a great player and host.
• Last day of Uni – awwwwwwwwwww. Now - the marking of assignments – bugger.
• Dad asked if I want to sit for a portrait and so have been doing that over a couple of weekends – I haven’t done one since I was a callow youth of 15 so it was interesting to be back in the chair again. He put on his latest find - Jack Nitzsche and we talk and he paints.
• Taught a one off three hour impro workshop out at Deakin which nearly killed me…but was great fun.
• Went to a Mid-Winter Festival at my son’s school. All the kids had collected wood for a bonfire on the oval and when it was lit – Boom – a hundred or so instant pyromaniacs were born.
• Celebrated Gulliver Thompson’s first birthday – it was a pleasure to meet him at last.
• Took down a heavy wooden Ikea Bunk bed, put up a comparatively lightweight Ikea Loft bed and swore a lot.
• Claire had a ba-beeeeee. Welcome Lily – you’ve got a great family.
• Anne had a birthday and I nearly killed her with kindness – she looked quite worn out by the end of the day. Maw hahahahahahahah.

There – that’ll do.

Comedy Fest, Mario Deux & a plaster dust coat

Ok, ok I've been putting it off long enough and the Fest is nearly over...

What I did and saw at the Comedy Fest by Lliam Amor, aged 8.

I must confess for all my waffling about supporting and seeing hundreds of shows this festival I have been extraordinarily slack and/or unlucky and have only managed to catch a few, including:

Dylan Moran - I kicked off the festival with a night of heavy lidded curmudgeonly Irish goodness. We sat three rows away from this wonderful performer and enjoyed him and his second hand smoke immensely - Then again he could've shuffled in lit a cigarette for an hour and I still would've laughed (or did he just do that - I can't remember). He tapped into the usual comedy catch-alls - sex, relationships, drinking and, strangely, discussing feminist issues and how he had to deal with them onstage because "they're a bunch of loveable muddleheads".



I also took the family to see La La Luna by Wolfe Bowart the Artistic Director of The Shneedles Family Circus. I’ve been a keen follower of the Shneedles on the web and we all hurried along one cold afternoon to see this incredible show. Funny, wry, magical (and all the other usual adjectives that go into describing this beguiling show). A clown - whose not scary, the design and aural quirks of a Circ De Soleil show without the exorbitant ticket prices and some genuinely funny belly laughs from a gifted performer. Plus the kids enjoyed it to.

I have performed in two Late Nite Impro shows now and have my last fling on Saturday night. The new format is great fun and the shows have all been selling out which is a great feeling and testament to the work that Impro Melbourne does as a company.

I'm feeling a bit burnt out though. I don't know why. I go to the Hi Fi bar and I see the same stuff that everyone's done before. Performers trotting out the same stand up acts, recycled and dusted off.... Arrgh I'm becoming a grumpy old man already. Still - good on everyone who took a punt and lost a load of money appearing in the fest this year. The rain hasn't helped.

Other things:

* Bumping into Dylan Moran on the street immediately after his gig and saying very stupidly "great show - really enjoyed it" - he looked pained but thanked me anyway.
* Watching from the top 'soundproofed' Hi Fi bar as Daniel Kitson took to task a man in a white sheet who had crawled onstage, pelting him with apples and poking him with the microphone stand. A bizarre dumb show indeed.
* Locking lips with Tracy Bartram, lifting and carrying her offstage during Celebrity Theatresports (we were in a team together - I'm not a stalker)
* Watching Jason Geary perform with a inner ear infection and still make the audience laugh their heads off.
* Catching the Umbilical Brothers perform some "old" material during the lock in (I can't believe I auditioned for their franchise project - it takes years to perfect that stuff...and even then...)
* Playing "Add in a "specific body part" to a film title" with the Call Girls, Justin Kennedy and others from the Crew in the Peter Cook Bar.
* Witnessing the blatant fawning of a group of very pretty tarts over Arj Barker. Huh! What's he got...etc etc

Celebrity Theatresports 2006, Team: CSI Moe. Me, Geoff Wallis, Tracy Bartram & Simon Rogers

I'm also going to play with the Scrabble Unscripted group on Sunday which will be great fun as I have no idea how it goes - thus the beauty of impro.

Happy Birthday Marios.
Dad was in Canberra so he slung my sister and I his tickets to the Mario's 20th Anniversary party at the Fitzroy Bowling Club. What a great night it was. Both Marios made fulsome speeches and there was much hobnobbing and chatting.

The Renovations are nearly completed (hah) and our lungs have a fine patina of plaster dust as does the rest of the house. Jeez it looks good though.

See you for a drink to finish off a wet fest on Saturday and Sunday at the Cook.

Heart Attack De Vine

My dad introduced me to Tom Waits. As much as I love his early years - I always go out and get his latest musical incarnation. There's something about his shuffling, akward mystrical beat-ness in this 1978 Vienna doc that is magnetic - even when he's fucking with the camera man and taking it all with a grain of salt.

EDIT:

Hmmm the link seemed to be causing some issues - just go to YouTube and type in Tom Waits in the search feild and you'll be rewarded with a plethora of raspy goodness.

New York Via France

Here's a great animation from some French students that uses CGI and Cut out together to make the kooky world of NY.

The backdrops and layouts make me think of my early animations I did at VCA. I wish I got my act together after that course but my son came into the world at the same time as my degree and feeding a family became more important than swanning around the glamourous world of "starving animator".
One day I'll get my shit together and make an animation (with these young punks on my back I'd better hurry)

2am Design Studio - Cont.

2am Design Studio

I've been burning a barrel of Midnight Oil (and at these prices....) to create some promotional flyers, posters, folders, press kits and CD sleeves for a whole bunch of friends and family. Here's a tasty selection of the design work I have created over the last 5 years:

More to come....

Catalogue Man to the Rescue

For all your man boob needs...

I went and saw the new Pink Panther movie with the family. Let me state first and foremost that I am a sucker for the Panther franchise - always have been, even when the movies were at their most awful, bland and run of the mill they could still raise a chuckle (if not one good guffaw). I love Peter Sellers and Blake Edwards's comedy sensibilities. While they may not have always seen eye to eye (go out and rent - or read - the beautiful and sad "Life and Death of Peter Sellers") their partnership has created some of the finest gags I have ever seen on screen. Even the spin off "Son of the Pink Panther" with Roberto Benigni had some choice moments "Your lips are like worm...mangos...". But I'm no fool when it comes to expecting too much from this battered series so I went in with fair to middling hopes.




I laughed and laughed and laughed. It helped that my 8 year old son was sitting next to me, together we conspired and shrieked at the plethora of fart, sight and sound gags that Steve Martin and Co has littered the script with. Sure it falls down on so many levels - Clouseu would never work out who the Killer was by using his brains, he never got the girl (for long)and NY is not an "exotic" location (producers pandering to the American money men?) but who the hell cares? I had a good time. And I especially liked the opening credit animation - a nice update on an old favourite. One day I would like to play "The Second Cousin Once Removed of the Pink Panther". Then all my dreams would have come true.

Next one I'm hanging out all slack jawed like is for Art School Confidential (from the Ridiculous to the Sublime hey?)

I have also entered the murky world of renovations this month - but as the D Gen pointed out so well in the Late Show - Reno Talk bores the crap out of everyone, so consider me tight lipped.

Had a great time doing a Screenplay this week. Oops too late to blow my horn yet again...