Laugh Out Loud Christmas Special! 10 Dec...

Next gig Monday 10 December

The Rose on Rupert Street

8pm

Priest talks about atheism on Fox News

the new 'fad' of rational thinking....how would you explain an eye or child birth, that whole miracle, oh yeah god did it....

The Simpsons: Husbands and Knives

Earlam's Dirty Little Secret...featuring a dirty little lorcy...Wednesday Nov 28, 2007

Richard Pryor: Gun Shop

John Hurt speaking out

fuck yeah! if you've got a message get the feckin Storyteller to read it to ya! fucking excellent

Italian Spiderman Trailer

International movie cultural appropriation festival.

Turkish Star Trek

Turkish Star Wars

Iain and myself in Cardiff...

This post is probably inspired by Italian Spider-man, see above, but my friend Iain is doing a PhD on these sorts of films. (obviously not Italian Spider-Man, a modern joke on these sorts of films)

What I remember from his papers was that the likes of Turkey have a different concept of the word "copyright" so in this movie Turkish Star Wars (more info here) they just back project scenes from Star Wars and Battlestar Gallactica with blokes in helmets swaying in front of them. Interestingly,the script in this Turkish Star Wars is better than the original.

Another one is Turkish Star Trek, (more info here) where, as Iain explained the Turkish version of Norman Wisdom appears as 'the tourist' a bumbling lunatic that magically appears in these cultural contexts.

So because Monday is my only day off, and Tuesday (for three days a month) is my only morning off, I decided to spend a day watching shite movies, because, like, as a film studies student I don't do that enough.

so here's the full roster of bizarre shit on the Jimmnyhomuncutbe my livejournal site to the crazy shite that's right here....


Shrunken Heads (1994) (more info here)

Puppet Master (1989) (more info here)

and just to show that shite movies are time immorial, here's

Hollow Man II (2006) (more info here)

and to finish two of the most disturbing movies ever made...

Freaks (1932) (more info here)

I had to stay late and sneak a peak on Channel 4 to see this back in the day, and now, it's on the Interweb..for free! ...god bless the future....

and

Threads (1984) (more info here)

basically the only true postapocalyptic movie ever made, no, we won't be driving around in spiky cars and meeting Tina Turner...we'll be like this and all the smokes will have run out and even if you swap some smokes for some whiskey you'll puke because you've got radioactive poisoning...and it's gonna be hell....watch it...only if... if you have someone to hug and have a coffee and smoke with after, don't watch it on your own like I did you'll end up blubbing into a beer.

Check this mother fucking shit out!...

I got mentioned in Graham Linehan's Blog: Why That's Delightful!

also I now have a page on the comedian's CV site

dave allen

Beaver Boys - Tim and Eric Awsome Show: Great Job!

it's dilly
crunk...lookin' real fine

Ah Neon, late nineties nostalgia and Graham Linehan.

Here's a boring tale for you all, it's about my magazine obsessions of the late nineties, when I used to do cartoons and comedy articles for magazines in Belfast and Dublin. It's a long post, but there's loads of pictures. Back before the Internet really happened* magazines were important for geeks like me living in rural Ireland and then Belfast. My favorites were Bizarre and Neon but then the Internet happened and the need for magazines like Bizarre went from 56 percent to 0 percent overnight.

Anytime I go home, I normally pore over my old Neons and on my most recent trip to auld Rockcorry I brought some over to read on the plane like some sort of time traveller getting all excited about the prospect of Leaving Las Vegas being made by Alex Cox. Neon really created an atmosphere of injokes and extreme filmic geekiness that was enthusiastic but was never afraid to say when films were total shite, or good when others thought they were shite. They always referred to Arnold Schwarzenegger as 'Arnolt', and were taking mericiless piss out of the Cruiser before it was fashionable.

Anyway, one of my vague claims** to fame was getting a letter published in Neon in the Vincent Gallo issue cover below(click all pics to enlarge):

Note how my friend Jimmy Hanley has written "[scribble] You Hanley, Hanley, Jimmy" on my most prized copy of Neon. I was angry at the time, but he also pissed on my best friend's head, so I think I got off lightly, plus it kinda looks like a cool tattoo on yon Ricci's arm. This was akin to my wee sister once spilling diluted orange juice on my copy of V for Vendetta whilst I had to play Scrabble, but as you grow older you realize this quirks make your copy different to everyone elses and make them more valuable in emotional terms.

My Letter(it's the first one):

What was the reason for the letter? well, Graham Linehan, who has recently been classed as a bone fide living genius and looks like this:

had been writing one of the funniest film columns I have ever read, "The Filmgoers Companion" and Neon had continued with the column without explanation and his name taken off it, what was the dillio? perhaps I'll never know.

Two columns that I'll never forget are this one about the Titanic

Especially this bit about the "Iceberg Desdemona"

In my memory, there was an elaborate League of Extraordinary Gentlemen/ Leviathan style cut out drawing but that wasn't the case, must draw what I imagined the Desdemona to be. Even now, a mere mention of 'The Desdemona' will have my friends (well one in particular) in fits of laughter (well, I'll be laughing and he'd be there, yeah well I remember that)

The second great Linehan column was his Klaus Kinski adjusting to normal life one (which if you're read Kinksi Uncut, and you should, you'll understand)

Despite Linehan's involvement, they still get Ardal O'Hanlon's name wrong in this review of The Butcher Boy:

Here's some pictures of Mr. Kinksi to send you all peacefully to sleep...'I'm going to the cinema'...

*Hey the Internet, it's a good laugh isn't it? what will happened at the end? it's a great read isn't it? Great characters, twists and turns, I think what will happen at the end will be when we find out that we could have found aliens or gone to space with this technology but it was more important for us to watch a video of a chimp scratching his hole and sniffing his fingers and then falling out of a tree..


**Others include interviewing Mark Lamarr, Placebo, Gary Moore and Graham Fellows.

"when I quit smoking I'll be perfect"...Yeah Tom you really sorted yourself out....

See I'm not saying Neon, great as it was, was perfect, take, if you will, this fawning piece on Tom Sizemore. Look above, this is the chunky down at heel blue collar hero of Saving Private Ryan and the article reflects this by going on about how he's really turned his life around: (click images to enlarge)

And this is the Tom Sizemore of the future we all have to deal with. To quote the above: "My life has completely turned around", says Sizemore proudly. "I'm a success story. I'm one of the winners--knock on wood".....

better version of my stand up flyer...

P.S. Karl Whitney adds...I should put "As seen on the Tom Green Show"...

Salt Box Comedy Tales....

Jonh Brittan and John Kearns and the land lady of the Horse and Drey who decided to go into the pic for some unknown reason

James Kettle

Christian Ancliff and Owen Bryant (a foremost deviant) enjoy comedy..and me.

For about fours weeks in a row, I'll be doing comedy after teaching for six hours in Lowestoft (which normally involves getting up at 2/3 am and preparing class, so I don't know how that helps or hinders my comedy skills. Last Thursday it was the Salt Box Comedy Club, organised by Dan McKee and featuring Carrie Ann Guthrie and James Kettle.

There was an EDP write up here.
It was my first experience of doing comedy where I stood in a corridor before hand and walked straight in, not knowing what the room would be like. As I could see everyone, and knew only about 2 people in the audience it was a weird experience, there was a few older people in the audience so I curtailed my porn stuff a bit, cut down on some Belladonna based descriptions and went more for the cheeky drunken Irish stuff, but it went well, next one this week November 22 at the Queen Charlotte .

It was good to meet Carrie Ann and James and hear from people that had been doing it for a while, some pics below

Organiser Dan McKee

Carrie Ann Guthrie

James Kettle

Tomorrow, Salt Box Comedy Club, Horse and Drey Pub:

"promising local comic talent " according to the EDP

...and Me

Bill Shatner

Up coming stand up dates

Myself and Dan McKee, Salt Box Comedy MC

The Horse and Dray

Ber Street Norwich

8pm Thurs 15 Nov 2007

Queen Charlotte

Derehem Street

Norwich

8pm Thurs 22 Nov 2007

Google Video Madness

After the whole East Anglia falling into the sea debacable, I couldn't go to work so I spent some quality time with laptop and watched some crazy Google Video (use the advanced search duration function at 20+ minutes to find comedy gold, forthwith:
first up some Mr. Show




Some Dave Chappelle



hey here's an idea why not listen to Henry Winkler (eeeh!) being interviewed for 2 and a half hours, part of an oral history series on American Television Archive series, there's also a Bea Arthur one (seriously) one and Richard Matheson, I think these are really interesting, but you might disagree...p.s. he doesn't hit a jukebox and go eeeeh at any point in the interview their blog's here. Oh and and George Takei and Ossie Davies. It's a geek overload basically.

In your face President Gas!! Jimmny Wins

Tom Moran works on some comedy gold (or is it a cigarette) , courtesy of Sauv Blanc

Work in Progress..

A happy Winner...

Yesterday was probably the most surreal day of my life, because it lasted for like 24 hours and crazy things happened. On Wednesday I has a rare day off and spent most of it sleeping as per usual on days offs. It wasn't a day off per se as I had to prepare class, for Thursday. I ended up getting upa t 2am Thursday morning, 4 hours of prep, six hours of class in Lowestoft, got home had time for a crap two cigarettes and a few pages of Walking Dead, equally as addictive.

Then it was off to The Golden Star for the Yer Having a Laf comepetition sponsored by Outline nine comedians and I won!! Couldn't believe it. I was up against some Laugh Out Loud contemporaries and it was seriously close. I was on after a local Norwich character called 'President Gas' who did poems about Big Brother and X-Factor. Before the performance I was in the bogs and he was having a piss next to me going on about how he came second last time and second is the first loser and how he was definitely gonna win I just kept quiet. What's great about stand up is that you know immediately if it's going well, which it was with me, I have a good ten minutes now for open mic spots that I can do at the drop of a hat without hesitation. Know it's time to write more! Good help yous all...

And then there was the post-apocalyptic Lowestoft storm warnings so I got to stay in bed and not teach and celebrate by watching crazy google videos in bed! see above.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Art Star - Pollock

Crumb on Marketers: "something close to child molesters and heroin dealers"...

I'm on this comics scholars' list thing which sometimes throws up interesting thought provoking questions, in amongst the cringing self-promotion of academics (i.e. not being able to answer a simple question without pointing readers again and again to their own articles and books) and questions like 'em...I want to get into the whole comics thing...what are the best graphic novels to mention in class?'. 

Good post on it today, some poor deluded editor of Promo, a marketing magazine, (sample soul-destroying article on McDonalds here) contacted Crumb to do a cover or an illustration! it'd be like contacting Bill Hicks to help market Pepsi or New Kids on the Block. The response is hilarious:

Editor's note: Want to know what the other side thinks? I received the following hand-written letter from legendary comic book artist R. Crumb in response to my inquiry whether he would be interested in illustrating for Promo. A disclaimer: the author's opinions are his own and do not reflect the magazine's sentiments. But we would appreciate your comments on his perception of the business. Please send them to: larry.jaffee@penton.com

 

Jaffee:

I'm glad you sent me those copies of Promo. Every page is dripping with an approach to life and business that is a bit shocking to a layman.

 

In the four issues that you sent me, I found only one small critical article, the one in which the professor questions the ethics of product placement. I commend you for running at least one article in which ethical questions were discussed.

 

Yes, it was educational to read Promo. My wife Aline and I learned a lot about how they're planning and scheming to "lure" us with "incentives" to "drive" us as "consumers" to "target" our "demographic." It's kinda horrifying, Larry. Children need to be protected from these people. They're preying on our hearts and minds to get our money. Many of them use the word "fun".. "the fun personality of the brand." Right... "Fun," that's the ticket.

 

I can't imagine doing a cover for this magazine that wouldn't be offensive to the advertisers and the typical Promo reader, as I would have to portray these marketing geniuses as something close to child molesters and heroin dealers. To me the level of morality in what they do isn't that different...the disregard for the sociological consequences of their actions (though it's all perfectly legal, of course) is appalling to behold.

 

Promo, in that regard, is a real revelation.

 

I believe that in a society that inundates its members constantly with manipulative sales pitches, we all suffer a kind of brain damage. Truly, it is harmful to us, to our minds, our intelligence, our emotional well-being. The alert individual finds that he/she must cultivate strong habits of resistance, and a strong, constant critique of the "fun" being sold to us.

 

I wonder that so many people can be engaged in this business of preying on the "consumer."

But like I said, I'm glad you sent the magazines. We get to see inside the business. Our knowledge of how it works is increased.

"Guerrilla marketing." That's gonna be the next big thing. Ho boy...STAY ALERT...

R. Crumb,
Sauve, France

Days of Future Blogging.

On a post it on my computer I have a load of topics I want to blog on but currently don't have the time. This week's and next will be with either kitchen work, bar work or teaching everyday. Today was theoretically free so it was mostly sleep so here I am at like 2.45 preparing class until 6am when I walk to the train.  When I'm preparing the classes I'm thinking this is great! (like last week on Dadaism and Surrealism)  the kids will love it, and then I present them and may heart descends at their apathy, they really don't care. I can understand, they are art and design students and this is a compulsory theory course, but they can more or less write about any aspect of art and design, but they want just the most straightforward way to get the essays out of the way with out inspiration or enjoyment. 

It's a very flexibile course so the scope would be there to do philosophy, animation, movies, advertising, book design, comics, etc. etc. but their definition of 'art' is of a strict level of conversvatisim that belies their age. So it's more like straightforward art history, I did force a class to watch and episode of Bang, Bang, It's Reeves and Mortimer and got them to discuss whether they thought it was 'surreal', and how this label has been appropriated in a popular culture rather than a purely art history sense. They seem suspicious, as if the philosophical concepts I'm describing, say Primal Scene or postmodernism, I'm just making up and they are my own quirky beliefs.

  

Anyway, Future topics:  

Crispin Glover

Primer

"John Titor"

Doing Stand Up 

Batman's Boots

Tina Kruger

Stewart Lee

the list will no doubt grow until some crazy ranting blow out blogging day.

Attention Scum - Episode 1 - Part 1/3

Reeves and Mortimer - Stars In Your Eye's (FULL)