September 21, 2007
FAMOUS GUY AUTOREVIEW, DE-NIRO CALYPSO COVER & SHOCK VIDEO CLIPS!
KNOCK2BAG AUTOGIGREVIEW
I do live gigs so infrequently at the moment that I seldom have the pre-show confidence afforded you by consecutive nights of doing the same material until you’ve nailed it. Thus I cycled off to Shepherd’s Bush on Wednesday with a not inconsiderable sense of dread and fear. I think that’s something everyone gets before a gig, no matter how seasoned they are but this was a little more intense than normal. It’s hard to analyse exactly what it is that makes one so anxious. I suppose the most obvious thing is not wanting people to think you’re crap and if you don’t have the wherewithall to tell yourself for sure that they’re wrong and it was just an off night, that’s a frightening prospect. It’s not dissimilar from the dread of visiting a doctor when you suspect there might be something badly wrong with you except with an audience you’re worried you’re going to be diagnosed with terminal mediocrity.
The flipside of all of this diffidence is the coke style sense of euphoric indestructibility that a good reaction from an audience can give you. Presumably that’s why so many performers end up hedging their bets and just taking Charlie Farley but that’s not a route I want to go down just yet. Anyway, Knock2bag at a nice little place called Bar FM off Shepherd’s Bush green turned out to be great. The MC was Jarred Christmas who kept the audience very happy and was a bit spikey without being horrid, which is hard to do well. The first act I saw was Dave Earl as Brian Gittins who I’d heard about from Tony Law but hadn’t seen before. He was brilliant and he’s only been doing live stuff for a year and a half so he’s just going to get better and better. The character he does is a weird creepy guy who runs a mobile café and you keep thinking he’s going to say or do something revolting but he constantly up-ends your expectations winningly.
After the break I was on and it went really well. I did Famous Guy with a few of the new bits that died so spectacularly at The Albany a while back and I was very glad to find they went down a treat although it should be said the audience was amazingly supportive and I got away with a few slips and lapses that would have stuffed me with a tougher crowd. I was so relieved it had gone well that rather than get back on my bike immediately and begin the rainy trek south, I accepted a delicious beer form the organiser and watched as the next act came to the stage.
From where I was standing I couldn’t quite see him properly but I could hear he was a Kiwi and he sounded funny. Then I got a closer look and holy shit! It was Murray (aka Rhys Darby, the manager from the Flight Of The Conchords TV show!!! He is the Bob Fossil of the Conchordsphere with all the brilliance that implies! He wasn’t in character obviously and his act (which he’s been doing for a while and involves a lot of beautifully executed impressions of odd sounds and mechanical noises) was very slick and as funny and inventive as you’d hope from one of The Conchord team. The audience went nuts for him too and when he finished I couldn’t help going up and introducing myself in quite an overwhelming and stalkerish fashion. He was dead nice and said he really liked Famous Guy, which was a kick. Also I got my photo taken with him. When I got home I kept looking at it. Me and Murray!! BAND MEETING!!! If you still haven’t seen the Flight Of The Conchords show BBC4 are running it from next Tuesday so check it out. The first episode is great so you’ll know pretty quick if you’re going to like it or not, but you in for a very happy time if you do. Also get down to Knock2bag it’s a good scene and all the acts that night were excellent.
Thanks for coming down if you did and to the guy I spoke to about acting, give us a shout via You Tube, I’m afraid I laundered your details!
WE’VE ARRIVED!
Someone forwarded me this link featuring some chaps doing The Robert De Niro Calypso at a gig, which you can see here. As they admit under the clip, they start off a bit shaky but they do it proud later on. It’s amazing when people you’ve never met like something you’ve done enough to do their own version. I saw Sam Bain the other night (he and Jessie Armstrong write Peep Show) and he was saying how thrilled he was at having seen a fan version of Peep Show on You Tube. One of the very first things Joe and I did with a video camera when we were about 13, was to reconstruct Monty Python sketches. I still have the one we did about the man who writes the funniest joke in the world then dies laughing. It’s not quite as good as the original but it’s got something. OK, it’s got 2 quite posh 13 year old boys and that’s about it, but it was fun doing it. Oh, and in case you thought I was drawing a direct comparison between The Robert De Niro Calypso and Monty Python, you’re absolutely right. Checkon!
ADAM & JOE RADIO SHOW LACK OF NEWS!
We have a couple of offers floating about at the moment for podcast and radio things but we’re still waiting on the BBC for a decision. This may take a little longer due to the resignation of Ric Blaxill, the man responsible for getting us into 6 Music in the first place. There’s a story about the whole ludicrous fartstorm here. The situation seems way out of control over there at the moment and my heart goes out to Ric and Leona McCambridge and anyone else losing their job and for what? They were trying to put an enjoyable show on and a few times they cut corners in one area that they presumably felt no one in their right mind would ever give a flying fuck about. Could they not have been warned? These are talented, hard working people here! Fair enough, routine deception isn’t to be encouraged but it’s hardly the same as the wankers on those late night TV call-in shows who would do everything they could to fleece people and not even give them anything more entertaining in return than Brian Dowling giggling distractedly next to some barely sentient girl. And the Blue Peter debacle beggars belief! Joe’s theory is that the viewers actually voted for the wretched cat to be called ‘Pussy’ not ‘Cookie’ and that was the reason for the switch to ‘Socks’. Either way, this is a chapter in the BBC’s history that people are going to look back on with bafflement in a few years.
SHOCK VIDEO CLIPS!
I got a message from a You Tube type the other day requesting some Shock Video clips. I had a quick search to see if anyone else had put anything up from either of the 2 groundbreaking series but then I remembered…it’s the show with tits in it, so they wouldn’t have been able to due to You Tube’s sensible no-porn policy. You can find out more about the genesis of Shock Video in the ‘Career’ section of this site but for now here’s a couple of specially censored clips for you. I might put some more up in a few weeks but the censorship is fairly labour intensive! The one about Morten Gungle who wants to be gay took us about an hour to record because we were laughing so hard. The bit that really got us was the name ‘Frunke’ but it was all quite tricky. You can still hear Joe struggling with some chuckle stifling around halfway through. Apparently they’re having chuckle stifling in the Olympics now. Joe could well be coming back with gold!