RADIO, TV AND VARIOUS GOOD STUFF NEWS!
I’VE BEEN AWAY!
But now I’m back and despite the weather going all biblical and television finally being exposed as the cesspool of deceit I always suspected it might be I’ve got a fair bit to enthuse about. First let me tell you how my gig at the Albany went before I went so rudely AWOL.
MY GIG AT THE ALBANY, 12th JULY 2007
On my way to The Albany I was cycling past stationary traffic on Whitehall when someone opened the passenger door of a black cab and I slammed right into the edge of it. I went most of the way over my handlebars and sustained quite a serious bashing to my right shoulder, left thigh and shins. I didn’t flip out but I said to the guy who was looking at me with a mixture of alarm and indignation, “what are you doing opening the door without looking!?†He came back with “what are you doing cycling up on the inside?†“That’s generally where people cycle†I replied. Yesss! Score 1 for me!!! He looked chastened but not perhaps suitably chastened. The show was starting in 10 minutes so I decided against a pointless row and peddled on, a little shaken and achy. I suppose in those situations the correct thing from a legal point of view is to exchange details in case my injuries turned out to be more severe than I thought and I decided to call Baines & Ernst or whoever. I can’t help feeling that life’s too short though.
The gig went OK to begin with but I quickly lost control of the filthy mother. For a start I had foolishly drunk a pint of fizzy lager backstage and for the first few minutes of my act I was negotiating with a belch that refused to surface and torpedoed my concentration somewhat. Plus the lights on the tiny stage, which were only a couple of feet from my face (but several faces from my feet), seemed unusually bright. I could see Rob Baker, who was an AP on The Adam & Joe Show sat in the audience. ‘Fuck’ I thought, ‘I haven’t seen him for ages and now he’s going to think I’m a loser.’ All in all in was in a bad frame of mind and that was before I got to the new stuff I’d just finished writing just hours earlier.
Needless to say I was no way on top of these shiny new nuggles and after a few minutes I managed to completely silence a previously very jolly room. In my defence they went quiet during a dramatic passage for which silence was entirely appropriate, but later on when some laughs would have been welcome, they remained disrespectfully silent. In fact it was probably the quietest reaction I have ever got for anything I’ve done live. It was so extremely quiet I couldn’t help laughing a little at the utterness of the quietude. They only started laughing again when I had left the stage and Dave Armand & Nick Tanner had returned.
In the past that kind of reaction would have shaken me a fair bit but for the first time I found myself not minding too much. I knew the stuff I had written was good and I just needed to do it more to make it work. It’s worse if you know deep down that you’ve gone out with some ropey old shite and been busted for it.
Anyway, I’ll let you know when my next experiment with silence is due. Now for the rest of this week’s inconsequential fartcloud.
THE TAO OF BERGERAC NEWS!
Back in mid June I played a part in the first episode of a live recording of a new Radio 4 comedy series called The Tao of Bergerac by Will Smith and Roger Drew, who I met while working on Time Trumpet. Inspired by an audio book of John Nettles reading the Tao, the show features Will ‘navigating the minefield of his life’ and it’s very good indeed. I can say that without smugness because I had absolutely nothing to do with it’s creation other than turning up and reading one of the parts on the night in the incredibly fancy new BBC radio theatre in Broadcasting House. You can listen again to the show here and catch future episodes on Wednesdays at 6:30pm on radio 4.
One of the most amazing parts of this excellent programme is when at the end Will links random films to episodes of Bergerac by connecting the work of their featured stars. I should stress that only the first of these was scripted. When we recorded the episode Will took about 6 or 7 films shouted out by members of the audience with no prior preparation and was able to link every single one to specific episodes of Bergerac in less than six steps with no hesitation whatsoever. It was one of the weirdest, nerdiest and most strangely impressive things I have ever beheld. Check it!
BBC PILOT NEWS!
This month I start work on my pilot for the BBC with the provisional title of MeeBox (although that may well change as there seems to be a glut of projects with ‘box’ in the title at the moment). The overall idea is to create a sort of spoof of the kind of material you find on places like You Tube, ie. clips, virals and ‘vlogs’ from various ludicrous characters (including Famous Guy and possibly Ken Korda) spouting off about all kinds of moronic crap. I’m aware that there are probably about 100 other projects not dissimilar to this either being pitched or in production at the moment, but I hope I’ll be able to make it my own somehow! Basically I’m going to try out all kinds of different bits and see what fits and what doesn’t.
One of the things I wanted to do was incorporate some phone call stuff that wasn’t so much pranky as character based but having seen a few clips of E4′s excellent Fonejacker, I might steer clear. If it was just another shit Crank Yankers type thing it wouldn’t be a problem but Keyvan Novak and his chums have breathed enough new life into phone japes, I’m worried that particular route might be a bit redundant for the time being, although as with Trigger Happy TV, I’m always amazed when someone does just one thing, albeit very well, for a whole half hour and then makes a whole series of it. That’s the way to get into people’s head though I guess. Keyvan Novak’s clearly a talented guy though. Can really be the same unfeasibly handsome Iranian actor who appeared in Holby City, Spooks and Syriana?! If so, I feel another Sasha Baron Cohen coming on…Bastard! If you haven’t already seen it, type ‘fonejacker ‘ into You Tube and get watching, you’ll definitely like at least one or two. I’ll keep you updated with pilot news in the next few weeks.
VERY LATE FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS RADIO & TV SERIES NEWS!
As usual I’m a few years late with the latest comedy sensation, but over the last month my life’s been improved by Flight Of The Conchords. In case you’re as tardy as I, they’re two engaging Kiwi chaps who write very amusing songs, mainly parodying various musical genres in a non tedious way and banter winningly in between. I only just listened to their radio series a few weeks ago. It’s a peach! This week I got hold of a couple of episodes of their US TV show from Bit Torrent and it’s an even more delicious peach! Joe, if you’re reading this, check out this amazingly loving and spot-on tribute to the sublime ridiculousness of early Pet Shop Boys from episode 2. How much more kindred do you want your spirits!?
I’m telling you, if you’re partial to super talented, funny musicians (see also Matts Holness and Berry and Julian Barratt ) and the kind of enjoyably odd conversational rhythms that the Boosh do so well then it’s time to book your Conchord flight! (yeah? Get me a job on a shit magazine, IMMEDIATELY! But not NOW!) Look out for many exciting US comedy talents in the Conchords TV show too, some of whom, like Eugene Mirman and Kristen Schall, were on the bill with David Cross when he was over here a few weeks back. Here’s one more blast; surely the last word on pathetic rap (although nothing will ever stop me pathetic rappin’!) ‘I’m a motherflippin’!’
