Leave a comment Posted on stand up

Demetri Martin

There used to be lots of Demetri Martin stuff on YouTube, but now there isn’t. Oh life, why must you keep throwing such disappointments at me? Still, this audio-only version of his remixed jokes will serve as a taster.

He’s another one-liner merchant, but the way he uses music to set a mood, over which his whimsy can work its charming magic, is really effective. He also experiments with his stage show, using flipcharts, video and people dressed as planets. He’s a bit of an inspiration.

And funny, of course. I really admire comics like Mitch Hedberg and Demetri Martin. They are funny without needing to be “edgy” or cruel, and they write really good jokes. I want to be like that when I grow up.

Leave a comment Posted on opportunities, radio

Recorded for Training Purposes

Submissions are open for series 4 of BBC Radio 4’s Recorded for Training Purposes, a sketch show based around the loose theme of “communication”.

You can find the brief on the Writer’s Room website.

Deadline is Friday 2nd October 2009. As ever, it’s worth a punt, particularly as they’ve come up with 6 communication-related themes to play with:

Power
Idiots
Obsolescence
Instinct
Abundance
Lies

which may or may not help.

Leave a comment Posted on animation, short film

The Big Story

I first saw this in the cinema, as it toured the UK supporting Pulp Fiction in 1994. Directed by Spitting Image alumni Dave Stoten and Tim Watts this is a great pastiche of old time Hollywood and features the vocal talents of The Riddler himself, Frank Gorshin.

The film has stayed with me all these years, and the last line in particular made me chuckle just because of the delivery, but I’ve only just now got the joke, fifteen years later. What a doyle!

2 Comments Posted on comedy, stand up

Mitch Hedberg

He writes the best jokes and delivers them with southern-fried charm.

Actually, that should be “wrote” and “delivered” as he sadly died a few years ago, but man, I think the world is a better place for having had him on it, however briefly.

And if you like these, off to YouTube with you. There’s much more Mitch out there!

Leave a comment Posted on sketches

Help the Police


Cos they’ll tickle you until you’re giggly.

Adam Buxton writes and performs a good-natured sketch using a bad-natured song. I love it. I love you, Adam Buxton.

In fact, to tie up the last couple of day’s posts thematically, here’s a clip of Adam Buxton talking disarmingly frankly about his experience with magic mushrooms. His sincerity and honesty turn an already funny story into something sublime. Just the tonic for a sad Tuesday. (The clip also features Bonnie Tyler, her from 2 posts down. I don’t just throw this thing together, you know*.)

Don’t go to university kids, it’s fucking disastrous!


If you don’t listen to the Adam & Joe show on BBC 6 Music of a Saturday morning, you are dead to me.**

* Not true
**You’re not really. I love you just the same.

Leave a comment Posted on blather

Oasis Split

One of the guitars Noel Gallagher went diddle iddle ee with.

One of the guitars Noel Gallagher went diddle iddle ee with.

I love music. I love rock music. So when a friend asked me recently, “if you could meet anybody from history, alive or dead, who would you meet?”, as a music lover the answer was easy: Noel Gallagher. Dead.

Because I hate Oasis. I hate their music, their haircuts, their stupid, meaningless choruses. If they have pets I hate them too. And now they’ve split, which I suppose is a slightly less drastic solution than the one I proposed, but… ah, it’ll do. So hooray, some good news after the melancholic navel-gazing of my last post.

I thought I had the opportunity to put an end to the Gallagher’s witless, leaden, derivative drudge-rock back in the nineties, when Radio 1 ran a competition to win Noel’s guitar. “Fuck me”, I thought, “I’ll enter that!” but then I realised he probably had another one. Foiled again.

Leave a comment Posted on short film

Sunday – Short Film

Depending on how deep you want to go, Nacho Vigalondo’s Sunday is either a funny film with a simple-yet-clever punchline (the basic idea behind which is similar to one I had once, but hey, you snooze, you lose) or an allegory about what happens when you get so focussed on the petty concerns and trivialities of life that you miss the true magic happening right in front of you. Or behind you. Or behind the camera.

Yeah. Actually, that analysis doesn’t really hold up when you think about it so… don’t think about it. What can I say? I’m no Chris Tookey.

Great film, though.