November 11, 2008
Q&A NEWS!
FILM & Q&A FROM MUSIC VIDEO LEGEND, THIS SATURDAY 15th NOVEMBER @ BFI SOUTHBANK
I seem to be more or less living in the BFI Southbank and spending a lot of time asking you to pay to come and see me, but as I haven’t had a bad night there yet, I hope you won’t mind if I do it again. After our 6 Music show this Saturday afternoon I’ll be hosting a special screening of Choking Man, the new feature by pop video titan Steve Barron. Apart from the pop promos, Steve has quite a bizarre feature filmography that includes Electric Dreams, a well received version of Pinocchio and the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Check out Siskel & Ebert kicking the Turtles here, ouches!
I haven’t seen Choking Man yet but I hear it’s very different from his previous films, very much an indie feature about ‘a morbidly shy Ecuadorian dishwasher toiling away in a New York Diner’, which blends ‘psychological drama and magical realism to encapsulate the contemporary immigrant experience in America’. Check the trailer here. I’ve only heard great things about it and if it has half the imagination and visual invention of some of Steve’s wonderful music videos from the 80’s, it should be a smash.
Speaking of music vids, I think the plan is to show a few of Steve’s favourites from his own mighty cannon as part of the Q&A after the film so it’s going to be a visual treat-a-thon! I’m also going to have to ask him about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles too I suppose, and I may dig out a few You Tube comments on some of his vids depending on how robust his sense of humour seems to be…
The Choking Man screening and Q&A starts at 3.50pm on Saturday. You can book tickets here
Here’s some vintage Barron fun to keep you going til Saturday. Hope to see you there.
July 1, 2008
FAMOUS GUY AT 93 FT EAST!
BOOKSLAM BBQ, JULY 8th, 8PM
This Friday’s Out Of Focus Group is now sold out but if you’re up for catching me as Famous Guy as well as Alabama 3, Irvine Welsh and others next Tuesday evening, come along to the Bookslam in East London. If the weather’s good it should be like an amazing barbecue with interesting people and a twat dressed in a flightsuit pretending to be American. If it rains it’ll be more or less the same but inside. Details and tickets here.
June 25, 2008
COME TO ‘OUT OF FOCUS GROUP’
4th JULY AT THE BFI!
A reminder that I’m doing a show at the BFI Southbank on Friday 4th July. It’s early (about 6.10pm) so you can come along and still have your Friday night ahead of you. I’ll be doing a few bits of live stuff including Famous Guy and showing a few video bits some of which may be familiar, some not. It’s the first time I’ve done this kind of show in a larger venue so I’m excited to see if it’ll work!
you can book on line for Out Of Focus Group at the BFI website here or call 0207 928 3232.
Contrary to what I’ve said before there seems to be no seat allocation this time round, so you can sit where you like on the night.
As well as my contributions I’m expecting to be joined on the night by:
I really hope you can come along. Now I’m off to pack my bags for our 6 Music stint Glastonbury. Unfortunately Joe still isn’t well enough to make the journey too so Garth will be helping me out again. Maybe see you out in the mud for Vampire Weekend on Friday afternoon!
June 2, 2008
BUG SHOWS, OUT OF FOCUS GROUP @ BFI AND OTHER LIVE NEWS
IT’S A GIG-O-RAMA!
Herewith details of several new BUG dates, as well as a few live appearances I’ll be making in comedy mode. Hope you can make it to one or two.
OUT OF FOCUS GROUP @ BFI SOUTHBANK, FRIDAY 4th JULY 2008, 6.10pm
I’m really excited about this and I think it’s going to be a good night so do get in there early with ticket bookings. I used to do these at The Zetter Hotel for a fairly tiny audience and I’m looking forward to trying it out in a larger venue. Basically it’s around 90 minutes of live comedy from myself and guests, interspersed with bits of video I’ve made. For our inaugural BFI Out Of Focus Group there’ll be a bits and pieces from previous shows as well as brand new stuff, all taking advantage of the top quality audio visual facilities at the BFI.
NOTE: The show has now been shifted from a smaller cinema to NFT 1, the biggest auditorium where we do BUG. If you’ve booked tickets already and wish to check on your new seat allocation call 0207 928 3232. Apologies for the fannying about. You can also use that number to book tickets if you haven’t done so already or;
you can book on line for Out Of Focus Group at BFI here
As well as my contributions I’m expecting to be joined on the night by:
so I really don’t see how you won’t dig at least some of it a lot. I hope it will be the first of many such nights, albeit on a not particularly regular basis.
BUG 08 @ BFI SOUTHBANK THURSDAY 31st JULY 2008, 8.45PM
BUG 07 a couple of weeks back was a compromised hoot. The good parts came thanks in no small part to Dougal Wilson, our special guest and latest victim of my idiotic steamroller interview style. At one point Dougal related an anecdote about having been in the audience at a previous BUG when the chap sitting next to him started slagging off ‘that Douglas Wilson’. “I think you mean Dougal Wilson. That’s me actually” said Dougal to his deeply embarrassed neighbour. Well, it turned out the same chap was in the audience again and we got him up on stage to give Dougal a hug and bury the hatchet. As Dougal is about 6 foot 5 and this chap was about my height (and I’m the size of a tall hobbit), it was a bizarre but oddly delightful sight. Dougal is currently looking after award for best sport at BUG so far!
The bad parts of the night were due to an insurmountable problem with the sound that all but ruined a few of the videos we showed, most tragically the new video for Flight Of The Conchords, which is at least 50% about the lyrics. It was desperately frustrating for us to say nothing of our audience. It’s the only technical hitch we’ve ever had at BUG and everyone’s confident it won’t happen again but if you were there that night, I do hope your night wasn’t ruined for that reason. If your night was ruined because of me I’m still sorry, but I can’t really guarantee that won’t happen again.
You can book for BUG 08 here.
Here’s a wonderful film we sneaked in at the end of BUG 07 that I think withstood the crappy sound. It’s called ‘I Met The Walrus’ and although it isn’t strictly a music video it features the words of John Lennon and it’s amazing so we hoped no-one would object to us including it. The story behind it is that in 1969 when John and Yoko were in Toronto as part of their bed-in for peace tour, a 14 year old Beatles fan with a tape recorder called Jerry Levitan knocked on every door of the hotel where he knew Lennon was staying until he found him at which point Lennon was good enough to give him a 40 minute interview. The tape of the interview gathered dust for around 35 years until Jerry Levitan met a young animator called Josh Raskin whose work impressed him sufficiently for him to allow Josh to make a film to accompany an edited section of this Lennon tape. The result was nominated for an Oscar this year but remarkably few people I talk to about it have actually seen it. Enjoy.
ADDENDUM I failed to mention the vital contribution to ‘I Met The Walrus’ of illustrator James Braithwaite. But now I have. Click on his name, his site is both acey and spacey. But not Kevin Spacey. He’s here running through some non spontaneous impersonations with varying degrees of brilliance. Good Pacino, but my 3 year old son does a better John Gielgud than that Spaceboy!
BUG MASSIVE ATTACK SPECIAL @ BFI, THURSDAY 19TH JUNE 2008, 8.45PM
Massive attack are curating this year’s Meltdown and have agreed to let us feature some of the fantastic videos they’ve had made for them over the years in a BUG special. Even if you’ve seen them all before this will a chance to see them all big and loud on the big screen and as far as I know the Attackers themselves will be talking to me on stage. If that turns out to be bollocks I’ll let you know. Got to remember to resist the urge to ask 3D if he has to wear 3-D glasses now he’s a bit older.
Book tickets for BUG Massive Attack Special here
THE BIG CHILL FESTIVAL FRIDAY 1st – SUNDAY 3rd AUGUST 2008
As well as a special festival edition of BUG, I’ll be doing half an hour of live stuff (probably Famous Guy) at The Big Chill Festival, which takes place at Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire. BUG will be on the Saturday night (2nd August) and my live set will be the following night (Sunday 3rd August). The line up for the festival (which includes Hot Chip, The Mighty Boosh and Bill Bailey) looks good so I’m looking forward to it, big willy style.
Details and tickets for Big Chill 2008 here.
That’s it for now. I’ll be posting in the next few days about the release of Adam & Joe’s Song Wars album Volume 1 and a transmission date for my BBC3 pilot, MeeBOX.
Cheery-bye-hat
Adam 02/06/08
April 13, 2008
KNOCK 2 BAG GIG NEWS!
FAMOUS GUY ON WEDNESDAY 16th APRIL 2008
I’ll be doing a short version of my current Famous Guy set this coming Wednesday at the Knock 2 Bag comedy night at the FM Bar in Shepherd’s Bush (Hopgood Street, W12 7JU) so do come along if that sounds in any way fun. It should be a good night as I’m on the bill with, amongst other high quality turns, the mighty Tony Law and the sublimely odd Brian Gittins, two of my favourite comedy types at the moment. Details here. Hope to see you!