Month: June 2009

Leave a comment Posted on writing

Art

bison

(thanks to the credit crunch, this picture is only worth 903 words. Here are the other 97 I owe you…)

I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like. Sausages. I bloody love sausages. I hate art. It’s just pictures and that, innit?

Call me old fashioned, but to me art should be crudely rendered representations of buffalo and large-breasted fertility goddesses drawn on cave walls in crushed-beetle dye and mammoth poo.

Although I do actually admire the work of the Italian renaissance artists, Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Botticcelli, Pontormo, Bronzino, Campanelle, Fusille, Penne, Rigatoni, Macaroni… um…

…actually I think some of those might be pasta shapes.

Man. Who’s hungry? I fancy a sausage.

pipe

Leave a comment Posted on comedy

Is There Anybody Out There?

seraf_popper

A new project by Peter Serafinowicz and Robert Popper, creators of the peerless comedy Look Around You,  has materialised online for totally free:

The Other Side

It’s the flagship programme from Radio Spiritworld, the top broadcaster in the afterlife. It’s really funny.

I always assumed that my afterlife listening would consist mostly of Chris Moyles, but that’s because I’ve been a very naughty boy indeed.

Leave a comment Posted on opportunities, sketches

The Works

the-works

So there’s this new live sketch show in London on July 10th.

Performed in the heart of Soho The Works is a gang sketch show in the style of Saturday Night Live, and an unmissable night out!

“A new generation of sketch” The Independent

I think they’re using one of my sketches, Why I Hate Mechanics. They had me rewrite it, and split it into two parts. I hope they don’t drop it, cos I’d really like to see how someone else performs it (me and Mr George did it live in Edinburgh).  Might even be worth a trip to the smoke.

mechanics

(Me and George doing it in Edinburgh.)

It’d be cool to see all the other sketches too.  But, y’know, mostly mine, obviously.

The original call for sketches came via their Facebook Group, so if you want to get involved with the next show that would be an excellent place to start.

Leave a comment Posted on short film

I’m Playing Glastonbury

uke

Sigh. I wish.

Still, two of my films, Moon Shot UK and Come Back are playing at the Village Screen (sited at the meeting point at the festival, one of the busiest places on the site) between 10:00 and 03:00 every day from 22-26th June. Glastonbury Festival is a complete sell out, and will be attended by 350,000 people, many of them wearing big, colourful hats.

Me and my ukelele are not invited.

Leave a comment Posted on short film, sketches

King of the Road

Barry Gifford - King of the Road

Hey, so how’s it going? Long time no, you know, whatever.

I’ve just flung a bunch of little sketchy things up onto Funny or Die. They feature one of my favourite characters, Barry Gifford. Created by Mr Morris and Mr Diamond, Gifford is an ignorant, misanthropic, driving instructor, and tons of fun to play. The first Gifford film, King of the Road, was an eight minute mockumentary, but we had so much fun driving round with Barry that we revisited him a few times, at first continuing the mockumentary stylings, and then later with a more scripted, controlled approach.

This one might be my favourite:

Barry at the car wash.

Don’t know why, really. It doesn’t have a punchline; it rambles on a bit and then just kind of stops, but there’s something in the interaction between the three characters that I really enjoy. I can’t remember how much of this was scripted and how much was improvised, but it all feels naturalistic and real. 
I think basically I like Barry cos he’s a colossal arsehole, and I enjoy being a colossal arsehole from time to time.