February 27, 2007
LIVE AND TV NEWS!
GOOD GIG, SHIT GIG, & RUSH HOUR
Last Friday’s Out Of Focus Group at the Zetter Hotel was a peach if I say so myself. Martin White was great and Jo Neary was hilarious as usual. Sooner or later she’s going to be a big star I reckon. Have I said that already on here? Well, it bears saying again. Julian Barratt was in the audience and got up to sing a version of Port Of Amsterdam with Travis bassist Dougie Payne, which was amazing. Julian can really sing! The evening was rounded off with more music from Mara Carlyle and Robyn Hitchcock who were both on top form. Jimmy Bignutz has uploaded one of Robyn’s songs from the evening for you below.
I also did a couple of character bits that night. One was a new thing using a voice I do in Rush Hour for a character called Jolyon (a posh Marilyn Manson wannabe schoolboy), but applied to a character who could have been Jolyon’s Dad and the other was my Famous Guy character, which was on Comedy Shuffle last week. They both went down well I think and Famous Guy especially felt good and funny. Because of that I was feeling excited about playing the highly regarded Sunday Special at Up The Creek, a legendary comedy club in Greenwich on Sunday night. I was asked to do the gig a while ago and said yes not really thinking about what I’d do. I only really realised that I was technically headlining the night about a week ago and started to get a little worried because I knew I didn’t have a good half an hour of any one thing. The extremely genial organisers said that it wouldn’t be a problem so buoyed by Friday’s success I thought ‘OK, Famous Guy is in good shape! I’ll do that!’
I spent Sunday trying to write some extra stuff to get the act to run at more of a headline length but I made the mistake of checking out some of the videos of previous acts from the Sunday Special on line. I started to get a vague feeling of anxiety about doing a character bit in what seemed from the clips quite a traditional stand-up night with a large vocal crowd watching. Turns out I was right to be anxious and after a fairly over the top introduction from the reliably clever and funny Mark Watson (who was MC-ing with Welsh accent), I hit the stage and quickly realised I was in trouble. Not massive trouble mind you, because a good few people were laughing, but I was by no means thrilling a capacity crowd who seemed very happy before I arrived. It’s such a frustrating feeling to feel a night slip from your grasp like this and to watch a room full of potential fans become gradually disappointed. Maybe it wasn’t that bad but that’s how it feels when you’re not on top of it. Of course the moment you admit that to yourself on stage, you’re fucked. My confidence leaked out of me like air from a bad balloon and I felt the audience could see it. Gutlessly, I ditched the extra stuff I’d written and pegged it.
As I was unchaining my bike outside the venue afterwards a girl came up to me and enthused sweetly about having loved The Adam & Joe Show. “Sorry about tonight then,†I offered. “Yeah, your humour really misunderstood me tonight for some reason†she replied. I thought that was a good, if oddly worded diagnosis. Oh well, it paid for a couple of days of childcare, enabling me to spend my days thinking up more lame crap that’ll mystify people in comedy clubs.
Speaking of disappointing people, I was filming a promo for Rush Hour last week, and the very nice make up lady said she’d seen one of the shows in order to match the ‘looks’. She said she thought bits of it were quite funny but didn’t get a lot of it. Everyone knows that’s code for ‘I thought it was shite’ don’t they? My heart sank a little. When I got the job last year I was delighted to have actually just got a job and it was even better that it turned out to be a couple of months of very good fun working with a load of incredibly nice people. Plus it was enjoyable for me because I wasn’t writing it (apart from a couple of sketches) so that pressure of doing the whole shaboobah yourself wasn’t there. But then when the finished product comes out, other people start telling you whether they like it or not and that’s never fun.
I was staggered by how lavish the budget must have been for this promo though. There was a crew of about 50 with a fleet of cars, camera trucks and low-loaders all for this 30 second trail. A whole 30 minute episode from the series probably cost less to produce. This may sound churlish and I’m very impressed that the BBC are getting behind the programme but why not cut a trail from the finished show and put the money into producing a few new and more unusual comedy shows? Still, I’m glad they think Rush Hour is worth it!
Apparently the trail is going to feature characters from the series as if glimpsed from passing cars, all slo-mo and surreal with a kind of ‘ooh this is weird!’ whispery voice over (which I think I may be providing). It’s all being put together not by the team that made the show but by Red Bee (the BBC’s promo department) who usually turn out pretty impressive and effective promotional clips. I guess they’ll start running the trail in a couple of weeks or so.
As far as the finished show goes the only thing I’ve seen is this clip on You Tube. I imagine someone form the production company must have stuck it up there. It’s one of the sketches I wrote featuring a character called Rock Dad who tries to indoctrinate his young son with his musical tastes (although I think the idea for using NWA came from either producer/writer Neil Webster or Charlie Brooker who works out of Zeppotron too) . I think it’s worked out nicely.
Now to dissipate any feelings of unease that today’s rollercoaster of solipsism may have induced, here’s Robyn Hitchcock with a track from his lovely album You & Oblivion. If you’re interested in further investigating his magnificent canon, I’d start with Black Snake Diamond Role then head off to the first Soft Boys album. Then you can go where you like and it’ll always be a happy time. Now I’m off to put the finishing touches on a short video that made my brother laugh and he’s a tough crowd, so I’ll post it later this week for you. Stay tuned!
February 24, 2007
PIC NEWS!
SHOP WITH AN AMUSING NAME
I love shops with amusing names. 
February 23, 2007
LIVE NEWS
OUT OF FOCUS GROUP TONIGHT, SOME WALK IN SPACES LEFT!
I’m doing another night of videos, music and live comedy tonight at The Zetter Hotel, 86-88 Clerkenwell Road, nearest tube Farringdon. Show starts at 8pm sharp, tickets are £7.50 on the door but here’s the bad bit: I can’t guarantee you’ll get in because it’s technically sold out. However in the past we’ve always managed to fit a few more people in, either on seats that haven’t been claimed or perched round the side of the room. It’s always a fun night with old and brand new vids as well as other surprises and random crap so if you don’t mind taking a bit of a chance, come along but please don’t give the staff a hard time if they say they can’t get anyone else in! I know you wouldn’t but I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to that stupid twat there. Yeah you. Remember though, the chances of loads of people mobbing the place having read this with only a few hours to go are so slim, it’s quite a good bet you’ll get in! Sorry not to have mentioned it before incidentally, it just sold out by word of mouth this time…
Maybe see you there! If you do come and can’t get in, the bar upstairs is a nice place to hang out anyway!
February 19, 2007
VANITY NEWS!
VANITY NEWS & AN OLD KEN NUGGET
After my last post I’ve received a load of incredibly kind messages via my You Tube channel from people concerned about my dented self image. Now I’m worried that my posting that bit of hate mail just looked like a big compliment-fishing trip, which was not the case I SWEAR TO YOU!!! I’m as sensitive to criticism as anyone but I’m not so fragile that a few anonymous net trolls are going to destroy me! If it was a big gang, that would be another matter, but that’s why I stay off those really frightening comedy analysis sites.
That said, it was very heartening to have so many genuinely supportive messages and I really appreciated it. Jesus, I sound like Kylie. As I’ve said before on this site however, communicating via You Tube or message board or whatever is not something I enjoy so if I haven’t replied to a message you sent or comment you posted it’s nothing personal so don’t go suddenly turning troll on my arse! A letter and an SAE via my agent (address on introduction page of this site) does however GUARANTEE* a response, if that’s what you’re after.
As far as other news goes, still nothing to report on the radio/podcast front maddeningly. I think I’m on Comedy Shuffle this week but I’m not certain. There’s news to follow shortly about this BBC3 sketch show I did Rush Hour (still haven’t seen it though so no idea if it’s any good or not) and other random projects that have come along recently. Also Joe and I are working on a couple of potentially very exciting things that I will talk about when and if they progress sufficiently. Ooh! Mysterious!
As proof that I don’t ignore messages, here is Ken Korda’s South Bank Show/Omnibus style profile of Pat Sharp, which someone asked a few times if I could post. It was the first one of these we did for the 4th series of The Adam & Joe Show (the others were Handy Andy and Jenny Powell) so we were all a little nervous that it wasn’t going to be any good. I remember the first thing Pat said when we started taping was “Well Ken, I was born at a very early age…†and I thought, ‘we’re fucked!’ but in the end he did a great job, though not quite as good as Handy which is why this didn’t make it to the DVD. This is one of those things from our show that I can watch some days and think, ‘hey, that’s alright!’ then other days I think it’s not funny in the least. See whatchoo reckon!
*If for some reason you don’t get a reply and you decide to send me to jail, I am only able to serve a short term as I have children who need me to buy bad computer animated films for them. Speaking of which, Hoodwinked?!! Bottomraped more like! How the FUCK did I get suckered into that one? It’s like a Reboot Christmas special! Open Season?! That looked like a quality one but BY NO MEANS IS IT! I’m certainly not going anywhere near Barnyard or indeed The Reef! Have these fuckers absolutely no shame whatsoever? No wonder people haven’t a single qualm about using Bit Torrent if this is the crap you’re expected to fork out for (and as any parent will know, you always do eventually!) You see? I’m not afraid of dealing with the really dangerous political issues on this blog. Oh no. The Reef though! For fuck’s sake!!! How depressing must that have been to work on if you were a talented animator? Not that anyone gave a fuck how they felt because they were all in Korea. Yeah!? POLITICAL! You’d better watch out!
Next time on Adam Buxton’s blog: traffic wardens! They’re twats innit?!
Monster House however is the hooty mac!
February 14, 2007
TV & FILM NEWS
RICHARD & JUDY/INSECURITY/HOT FUZZ PREMIERE!
Wow! What an intense 24 hours! Like a demented fast cut, sound FX heavy scene from Hot Fuzz itself! Let me tell you a bit too much about it…
Richard & Judy was great as usual. Everyone very polite and smiley. I was feeling good about being there although I was a tad self conscious have just read a message via my You Tube channel from someone calling themselves something like Donkeybasket or Slut300 or Rayjazz or whatever that said simply ‘Stop ageing! It’s starting to showâ€. Now normally I would of course ignore this kind of thing as it’s never a good idea to be too thin skinned on the scary internet as Rob Buckley will attest (peace Rob!), but this time I let my vanity get the better of me and replied saying ‘if you’ve got a problem with the passage of time, you’re in for a rough ride chief. Plus, it’s rude to tell people they look old, didn’t your parents ever teach you that?’ Yeah, that’ll learn him for calling me old!
A few hours later I was all dressed up in suit and tie, sat on the couch next to Richard & Judy watching some You Tube clips as everyone in the studio hooted with laughter. Quite odd. But fun. Dave Gorman was deeply impressive at being funny and relaxed and the couple who learned the whole Dirty Dancing routine for their wedding video were dead nice too. I had a whole bunch of amusing You Tube insights in my head but as usual when the time came to speak all I could manage was my goofy big-faced grin and some stumbly crap about legal strictures. They showed a bit of my You Say We Pay video though, albeit edited for daytime, but I have to admit it was a very pleasing moment to be watching it sat next to R&J themselves and have the circle of shite completed in such style. Not that Richard & Judy are shite of course, they’re excellent and I unreservedly love them.
From the Richard & Judy studios in Kennington I was driven to Leicester Square for the premiere of Hot Fuzz!
It was raining by then and I was keen to get inside but there were a few people asking me to sign stuff, (some of them even had Adam & Joe DVD’s!) so I wanted to oblige as much as possible. If you were standing there in the rain and I failed to do your bidding I apologise but my wife was feeling like a lemon over by the paparazzi so I had to re-join her.
Once inside I immediately saw about 5 or 6 people I know but hadn’t seen for ages and the anxiety of either forgetting their names or not being able to pull off the non-rude micro catch up chat started to overwhelm me. I imagine everyone feels the same at those things so a handshake or hug and a ‘how you doing!’ is all you can reasonably expect. I should explain at this point that I am in the film in a small but pivotal role, so I knew more people there than I would normally have done at a film premiere! Top name drop moments: hugs with Paddy Considine and Derren Brown, quick nods with Matt Berry, Chris Cunningham and Tim Dalton (though not sure if Dalton remembered me) and I also did a wee next to Harvey Weinstein! Soon the lights were dimmed and the movie was starting!
HOT FUZZ SPOILERS FROM HERE ON IN
I hadn’t seen any of the film before so I was nervous about how it had all turned out. By the time it was over I still couldn’t really tell, it was so overwhelming! The barrage of fast edits, bass heavy sound FX and ultraviolence as well as the multitude of very funny gags, some enjoyably cheesy, some utterly original were just too much for me to take in on first viewing. You’ve got to see it though, it’s quite something. Nick Frost is fucking hilarious and Simon Pegg anchors it all with proper A-list charisma. Edgar Wright is of course a kind of evil genius and if you find me in any way irritating you will, thanks to him, take great pleasure in seeing me die in an extraordinarily satisfying way.
I hadn’t mentioned having done the film before in this blog because I didn’t want to accidentally piss anyone off before it opened, but I hope they won’t mind if I post a few pics from the shoot now.
These are all from the few days I spent on the set last summer. I play the part of Tim Messenger, an annoying local reporter who accidentally unravels the (not desperately hard to unravel) murder mystery at the centre of the film only to get gorily despatched for his trouble. I had an amazing time doing it and got to hang out with people I admire and like enormously for a couple of the happiest weeks ever. I’m pretty happy with my contribution too, although, yes I do look older. But, well I am older.
When I got home after the premiere I had a quick look at my You Tube clips to see if Richard & Judy had had any effect and sure enough, a lot more people had checked them out and even sent me some nice messages. There was however also a response from the guy I had replied to earlier in the day. He was less happy with me:
Message header: lol omg lolzer wtf?!!!11111eleventyone
Message:
Whoa! Where did all that crap come from punk?
Sheesh!
Is that your default attitude to me & the other 7 people who enjoyed the shows you appeared in in the past?
You should have a tiny bit of gratitude here Adam. I am actually ‘talking to you’ buddy..so please don’t go down that road.
Clearly my jests seem to be a deep seated issue in you then Adam? – How boring.
I was indeed joking on your hangups which are VERY transparent in your hum-drum posts on (your?) website that noone visits.
Don’t message me again you pathetic failure.
Now, wrinkled Chinese-Anglo dwarf LOSER – be gone please!
The guy’s clearly disgruntled in all kinds of special ways but it’s always a drag when anyone gets pissed off like this and never an enjoyable experience to read, made worse by the creepy one way anonymity of this kind of on line correspondence. Sometimes I read comments and criticisms of other people’s stuff on line that conjure an image of the authors creeping round the web Gollum like, being driven mad by the power of their invisibility, flying into a rage when they see or hear something that doesn’t sit well with them and committing it to type before they’ve had a chance to take a second look. I’ve done it myself of course and I regret that I encouraged this bloke to get all bent by responding to his innocuous tease in the first place. Can’t we all just get along? I tried to send him one more message, saying sorry if I’d rubbed him up the wrong way, but he’d blocked me. Oh well. I’m pretty sure calling me a “wrinkled Chinese-Anglo dwarf LOSER†is some form of racist bullying though. Can’t the cops look into that when they get finished with Danielle Lloyd? Where are Pegg and Frost when you need them?!