How Cool is Dean?

This work blows me away. Check out the ads in the Supertrain...

http://www.deangorissen.com/

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"

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.

Portrait Portent

"LAST year, Melbourne artist Rick Amor saw a young woman serving in his local organic food shop and decided he wanted to paint her portrait. "She struck me as an interesting-looking person, so I gave her my card and assured her I wasn't some old perv," Amor recalls."

Dad painted my portrait over a couple of months in '06 - it was the most time we had spent together alone talking, joking and laughing in some time. Unfortunately my relationship to my partner was unravelling at the same time - and it was during a sitting that I told Dad what was happening. I find it very hard to look at that picture now. I'm hoping it will have a "Dorian Gray" effect - the picture will get older, uglier, more bitter, twisted and gnarled with resentment while I remain happy, carefree, a louche layabout... but so far I've been framed, accidentally covered in varnish and hung on a wall in a ladder mishap... not sure it's working properly...

Rest of the article here

Anyone for Tennis instead?

Judge bans Underbelly in Victoria

"A Supreme Court judge has banned Channel Nine from broadcasting the gangland TV series Underbelly - which was due to premiere tomorrow - in Victoria or on the internet."

so anyway who wants to look at some drawings instead?

I've posted a whole bunch of chicken scratchings and doodles that I've collected over the years onto my flickr site - enjoy...

Underbelly update

hmm the big question now is will it, won't it? The pre-release on the website has been pulled and there's plenty of people out there who don't want it seen - including the family of the character I play.

"The Workmans' family lawyer, Stan Waites, said episode one, The Black Prince, was way off track to portray Greg Workman "as a cowardly and subservient fat slob"."

I played a man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, I didn't see his actions as cowardly - he just wanted to get out alive. At the end of the day it's up to casting to select who they want for the role and the actor to play the part as briefed and according to their own approach to acting. It's acting. It will never be real.

Time to Blow My Horn

Ok. Here's what it's all about...

"In the riveting opening scenes of Underbelly, Screentime's dramatisation of Melbourne's gangland war, the so-called "black prince of Lygon Street", Alphonse Gangitano (Vince Colosimo), violently kills Greg Workman (Lliam Amor) to settle a bad debt." - from an article in the SMH by Michael Idato



Shooting this episode was intense. To be part of something so well crafted - from the sharp, black script to the level of focus of all involved was an incredibly satisfying experience. The fight scene in particular was gruelling and getting shot was an...errr an interesting moment to say the least. The show airs on Channel 9 on Wednesday 13th February at 8.30pm. You can see a glimpse of it earlier online at the website:

www.underbellytv.com.au