Written And Directed by James Tinniswood

Cawmeddy

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:13:00 +0000

Over the last few months I've been gradually getting back into performing at open mic gigs around Brisbane and they've been starting to pay off. Although they're only five minute unpaid spots, I've been getting back confidence to perform on my own again - particularly after being in ensembles for The Complete First Season and Les Miserables. I don't get nervous when I'm part of a group - even when I know I have solo parts - but when it's just me in the spotlight at the mike, nerves are always wracked. Especially when I know I don't have any friends in the audience to support.

So I've usually been getting up and doing a solo performance - more often than not, of the Anne Hathaway song - and it's gone down well. Met lots of awesome new guys trying their hands and wits out and managed to get acquainted with some other comics who I've seen in the past. And I realize that's why I like comedians. More often than not, they're very approachable and humbled. Moreso at these open mic nights, where people get up and do their bits while also holding down day jobs - they're mostly just regular people with little ego about them.

So the nights went down well enough to get me a few extra spots at other venues like the Sit Down and St. Paul's Tavern. Next week (Wednesday the 18th) a bunch of the open mic-ers get to perform our spots for people up from Melbourne on the search for comic talent to use in the Festival Club or the Comedy Zone. Fingers crossed for us all.

So yeah, my coming dates for short spots are...

Wednesday 18th November @ St. Paul's Tavern - MICF2010 New Talent Showcase (free tix, book through the Sit Down on 33694466)
Saturday 28th November @ Sit Down Comedy Club - both shows at 7PM and 9:30PM, headline act is Pommy Johnson, $30 tickets.
Wednesday 2nd December @ Bramble Bay Bowls Club, Woody Point - The Rogues Gallery Comedy Club - a new room that's just opened up, free entry
Friday 4th December @ St. Paul's Tavern - another short spot for The Comedy Zone, tickets $25

I did five open mic spots with effectively the same schtick each time. I asked the emcees for feedback/criticism which was given very constructively and I appreciated that. My plan was to then go away over summer, not do anymore spots at the same venues for the risk of becoming stale and write all new material. Will this eventuate? I think it could.

I also went to the trouble (and it was trouble) of returning to MySpace to set myself up a musician profile. While MySpace is generally regarded as an antique in terms of social networking in the era of Facebook and Twitter, I've become aware that MySpace is still very useful for marketing unsigned musicians, bands and comedians. I've always wanted to have one of those music players on my profile to play music that I've written but have been too lazy to do a proper video to. So now, it's there.

So here is my brand new MySpace Music page - http://www.myspace.com/jamestinniswoodsings

If I write a song and record it and I REALLY like it, but have no idea what to do for a video (or the video I want to do is just beyond my technical capabilities), that's where it shalt lie. If you still have MySpace, please add me. :)

The Complete First Season is still going - the group is still deciding the format and venue of our next show, but mostly certain it's going to be the first quarter of 2010. Still a lot of exciting things to be decided, planned and executed before then though, so no more said or else to jinx it.

The Mount Alvernia Head Shaving Scandal Bias

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:04:00 +0000

So, in the last few days, one of the most viewed stories on the Courier Mail website has been regarding the Mount Alvernia girl who was suspended for shaving her head in support of her father's battle with leukaemia (link here, image linked from article).

The story first appeared as a news item on Monday night's Channel Nine News in Brisbane and by Tuesday had gone national. As I look at the story tonight, two days later, it is still one of the most viewed and discussed stories, with 279 comments.

Typically, when one of these stories about outrage and disgust at a private school's apparently strict rules comes about, I would feel disgust as well. But I'm a Padua old boy - the brother school of Mount Alvernia - and, this time, it didn't sound right to me. I find it hard to believe that there's not anything more to this than what is being reported.

From the Mount Alvernian girls that I've spoken to in the last few days, they're devastated by the dark shadow that's been cast upon them and their school. They agree that the whole story is not being reported.

I don't know and have never met Emily Pridham or her family. The girls I've spoken to have their opinions on her and what's happened, but those opinions are theirs and not for me to repeat nor endorse. For the tough and traumatic battle the Pridhams are going through at the moment with leukaemia, they deserve our sympathy and support, no doubt about that.

But 97% of the reporting of this story really has come only from the girl involved and her mother. Really go and read the story. Watch the video of the news report. In all of the reporting of this, Mount Alvernia is given a two word quote as their response: "ongoing issues". And yet, go to the Mount Alvernia website and see the full statement that was made. No news outlet has picked up on nor reported this official statement from the school's principal. Here is an extract.

I write with reference to the media reports of the suspension of a student from Mount Alvernia yesterday. Sadly for our college community, the media reports that have been aired do not accurately represent the situation. We value and respect the rights of every young woman in our community and we will continue to respect this student’s right to privacy by not making public details of the disciplinary issues involved.

As a Franciscan school our philosophy is to actively assist those in need and we do this on a daily basis. It is distressing that necessary caring guidance provided to this student over a range of issues has been misrepresented. Her father’s illness has been known at the college and we have continued to actively support the student and her family throughout the years they have been associated with the college. It is unfortunate that this head shaving incident has received wide publicity when all the facts are not known.

Mount Alvernia is taking the high road, whether they want to or not. Their hands are tied (possibly, legally) on what they can say about the girl and hence they're doomed to take the brunt of the media beat-up. And it's not fair.

I'm not saying Emily is right or wrong, or Mount Alvernia is right or wrong - I don't know. Like I said, anyone who is experiencing the devastation brought about by leukaemia deserves sympathy and prayer. I just wish, AS USUAL, there was adequate coverage given to both sides so there wouldn't be 200+ gullible, Catholic school bashing Courier Mail readers and the 4,600+ members of the Facebook group who seem willing to burn a good school to the ground because they read/saw a report on one side of the argument.

Donations can be made to the Leukaemia Foundation - http://www.leukaemia.org.au

What?

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:47:00 +0000

I sat down at the bus stop on Gympie Road, watching the on-coming peak hour traffic carefully to ensure my bus didn't pass. I'm slurping on a Creme Chocolade from Zaraffa's.

Suddenly an older woman with the detectable dry stench of nicotine appears from behind the wall of the bus shelter and sits down next to me. Between her yellow stained fingers is the cigarette I had sensed.

She looks at me for a moment.

Her: "Hello. Would you be able to give me two dollars for a bus fare?"

Me, following my natural instinct to people who can clearly afford cigarettes asking me for money, is no. I qualify it with "I spent the last of my money on this drink" and claiming (truthfully) that I use a GoCard.

She looks at me for a moment, then reveals to me an old, faded photograph of two young boys - must be aged 10 or so. She's been holding the picture the whole time. The photo looks like it's from the early to mid-eighties.

"These are my boys. This one is 28, and this one is 32."

"Oh, lovely" I say. I make a joke. "They look good for their ages."

She looks at me blankly for a moment.

"This one had his ball chopped off by an Indian."

A pause.

I say "... oh."

She says "Yes. The Indian thought he had cancer down there, but he didn't."

A pause. She takes a drag of her cigarette.

She says "Do you have 50 cents? I thought I had ten dollars on me, but I spent it on this chicken instead."

She holds up the chicken in a Coles bag.

After blinking several times, I gave her 50c, careful not to reveal the five dollar note in my wallet.

The woman got on the Scarborough bus and hopefully made it home to Deception Bay.

My Les Mis Journey

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:31:00 +0000

It's taken me a week to get around to writing my post Les Mis wrap up. It's Saturday night, and I'm home capturing two hours of footage I shot today for a law firm's Christmas video. I'm exhausted from a long day so what better way to fight exhaustion than to write an epic essay of Victor Hugo proportions about the significance of Les Mis and its impact on my life. (Note: Please disregard my own disregard for continuity of tense. :p)

I needed to find the right time and the right words to express just what a journey doing Les Mis was for me. If you've been reading my blogs, following my tweets or watching my YouTube videos, you'd know it was all I could really talk about for the last six months. I thought maybe the best way to revisit the whole journey of it would have been to cut and paste all of the tweets going way back to my audition in March. Part of the reason I signed up to Twitter and use it actively is to keep a personal record of my life and thoughts. But by God there were a lot of them. Also, I realized in retrospect that my descriptions of the rehearsal process weren't all that particular, more emotional descriptions. And those emotions tended to repeat. I was either "tired" or "amazed". So, there wasn't a whole lot of point to that.

So the Les Mis journey started for me when I was in primary school - I'd guess Year 4 or 5. Dad had managed to get a taped copy of the Original Cast Recording from a mate and he would play it in the car on drives. On top of this, Dad photocopied the lyrics booklet and put them into a folder with plastic sleeves so we would be able to read and sing-a-long to the extraordinary music. Whenever there was a swear word, Dad would give a little yelping noise to mask it out. "Comforter, philosopher and lifelong WHOOPS" is how Master of the House sounded to us, followed soon after by "Raise it up the master's WHOOOOOOP!" Of course, the fact we had the lyrics in front of us completely defeated the point of such censorship.

The point is, Les Miserables was the musical I first listened to from start to finish. It was the musical I grew up with. I knew every song from constant play and replay. I would end up seeing it twice at QPAC with Rob Guest as Valjean and Bruce Spence as Thenardier, and then not again for some years.

In 2005, Ignatians did it. This was the first time I'd heard of the group "Ignatians". It was marvellous from what I heard but I didn't get to see it, because of my busy schedule with prepping the Law Revue. Daniel Pizzato - Law Revue legend and one of my best friends - was a Les Mis nut. Dead set. He lived and breathed it. He played Gavroche all those years ago and thankfully never let it die within him. We both connected over the love of Les Mis, as well as Marc McKechnie who convened that year, and we rewrote One Day More to close our own first act. It was an odd instrumentation admittedly with guitar, keys, drums, bass and trombone, but the whole cast leapt behind it with great gusto. Such was the power of Les Mis. I do two more years of the revue before I graduate and leave it behind for good.

In 2008, I join Ignatians' choir based on a recommendation from a friend. It's a fun year, it introduces me to a whole new group of people who I now consider good friends and one very special person who is now my best friend and more. The choir meets every Wednesday night and eventually a show is put on by July. But it seems the choir, while fun, is overshadowed by Ignatian's big production of the year - Into The Woods. I'm gobsmacked by the design of the show and the talent on display, it's the first show I've seen of Simone de Haas's.

December 2008. News comes through to me that Ignatians' show for 2009 will be Les Mis again. After saying "squee" more times than a fully grown straight man should say, I calmly decide to be bold and audition. On a rainy rainy night in March with shitty shitty public transport arrangements, I audition for the part of Thenardier but am more than content to simply be in the ensemble. I brought the pliers from work to use as a prop for removing teeth from bodies in the sewer. The special CD I made isolating the backing music to Be Back Soon from Oliver screws up so I have to nervously fudge my way through Master of the House without properly remembering the lyrics. I do get a call back - there's a lovely guy named Alan who's also been called back. I leave the callback thinking "I'm out of my league here. He's good. He's right for it." There's confusion and conflicting messages from different directors as to what my role will be, but in the end, I'm confirmed I'm in the male ensemble, which I'm more than fine with. There's absolutely no room for ego when you're finally going to get to be in the musical you've loved since you were 10. I say "squee" one more time before I put that silly silly word to rest.

Our first meeting/rehearsal in April. The entire cast of 40-45 sits in a giant circle. There are maybe half a dozen people I recognize from choir, the rest are all new people to me. I recognize Brad McCaw from Starlight's Rent at the Schonell a few years ago and from Into The Woods. In the circle, I'm seated next to a friendly guy who introduces himself as Chris. He knows nobody here. He asks who I'm playing, I say "male ensemble". I reciprocate the question, he says "Javert". "That's awesome!" I say, and I cheekily think "The good villains are always nice in real life. This is good." Simone, Edgar, Harmony, Sara, Bryn and Christine all introduce themselves and their roles on the production crew. We're reminded of how awesome we are to have gotten through 200 auditionees and it's reassuring - the first feeling I get of "this is really going to be good". We're told to not listen to any cast recordings for fear that they will influence our performances. We're told to take three months to learn the music and read the book - to do our research, to base the show on the original source of which the musical is an abridged, condensed and altered version. Simone's vision for the show was gritty and seamy, like the streets of Paris in 1832 should have been. I thought it would be like the Batman Begins version of Les Mis.

In June, the rehearsals start. The strangest night was reading through the show, like a script reading, with only occasional singing. Given the show is entirely sung, it felt and sounded quite odd to hear it spoken, particularly with all the rhyming. It was like Dr. Seuss had written it.

We were shown models of what the set would look like and a description of the lighting and costuming and how it all ties into the concept of the show. There would be a forced perspective design with buildings on trucks/trolleys that will give the appearance of a street with connecting alleyways; as a result, the barricade will completely (and appropriately) block the whole street off, as it would have back in the real Paris of 1832. The lighting would be done in a way to represent the passage of a single day, as if, "this is the life of Jean Valjean, from the moment he changed his life in the prologue to his death at the end". We're all already stunned by how much thought has gone into this.

Week by week, scene by scene, we slowly pieced together the music with Harmony and Edgar. The ensemble parts are cast as we proceeded. Eventually, the staging began. It's also a slow process, but painstakingly done to Simone's vision. We hold a special rehearsal where really really workshop all of our characters, even the ones with no names or lines. It's Simone's vision to have an incredibly detail pastiche of characters with their own storylines happening in the background, reinforcing the fact we are an "ensemble" not a "chorus".

Week by week, the cast began to grow closer. We bonded over Sunday afternoon drinks at the RE or Regatta. At first, there were only four or so people. The next week, there were twelve to fifteen. It kept growing until the majority of the 30-something cast were there casually socializing. We started to see each other three times a week for rehearsals, and if we didn't, we added each other on Facebook and would talk online all the time. We'd get together for coffee and movies and social arrangements outside of rehearsals.

We had our first run with the AMAZING orchestra at the end of August. From the first note of the overture, we were in tears, we were giddy. The music we'd heard over and over on the piano was suddenly a fully fledged beast of an epic, and all of the pieces slid into place. We erupted with applause. There were no words that could describe the sensation of sitting there and hear that first timpani bang, cymbal roll and blast of the brass in the Old Museum that day - shivers, goosebumps, tears and standing ovations. It was suddenly very very real. We were in Les Miserables. There was no doubt, no fear. There was nothing amateur about this show - this was as professional as you could get without being paid for it. This will be spectacular. :)

And it's at this point that I realized that I called it at the start of the year.

I made an observation that, every five years, I'll find myself in a emotionally unhappy place but will then happen to get myself involved in a show so amazing with people that become incredibly close friends. In 1999, I did my high school musical which did so; in 2004, I did the Law Revue with people I'm still close friends with and work with. 2009 was Les Mis for me.

Tickets sales rocketed even before we'd done any real press for it. We had about 8500 seats to fill over 20 shows. By the end, thanks to amazing word of mouth and reviews from the local media, we ended up selling out most of those performances. 420 people a show. People who baulked at the ticket price initially saw the show and rang up the next morning to rebook and demand to be in the front row. The audience reception and demand for tickets was phenomenal. On the last few nights, there were women with signs in the foyer begging for someone to sell them a ticket. I had friends who had to cancel their tickets - when I alerted the box office as to this, the tickets were resold in a matter of minutes. One desperate girl confessed to searching eBay for them (she didn't find any, but still...). In the end, almost 8000 tickets were sold. I can't believe we were all in a show that played to almost 8000 people.

I knew this would be a fun show, but I genuinely didn't realize it would be this good.

Les Mis is a favourite musical of everyone involved - it was such a labour of love. Early on, I proposed to some of the guys that the show was coming along so well simply because of a love of the material, but I was quite quickly met with looks of "I don't know" and told it was much more than that. And they were right. They'd said that they'd been in some right rotten casts with divas and limelight hoggers, of which there were none in our show. It's one thing to love a show, it's another thing to love a show, be talented and be in good personal company. It really came down to the calibre and quality of all of the people involved - the crew, the cast, the orchestra, the backstage, the sound/lighting guys - who aren't just talented but beautiful people as well. Simone continually described us not as a chorus but as an ensemble. There is a difference and it's a difference that changes the significance of a show to the people involved.

It really was one of the best things I've had the honour and the privilege to be a part of. I'm forever personally grateful to Simone, Harmony and Edgar to give me - and all of us - the opportunity to do something I will never forget for the rest of my life.

To me, there will be no other Les Miserables cast like ours and I'll never see or listen to the show the same way again.

They are the people. They are my friends.
I hear them singing.
I will always hear them sing.

For more information on Ignatians and how to get involved in their choir or other productions, go to http://www.ignatians.com.au

A Vloggery Moment Of Self-Indulgence

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Again, a long time between video drinks but that's because I've been hella busy with Les Mis, which closes tonight. This is a little video I made backstage last night.

I'll do a proper piece of writing summing up the show in the next few days when I've recovered (and even try and sneak in a longer video showing off backstage and the awesome awesome peeps involved) but this has been more than I'd ever expected of the show. Almost 8000 tickets sold, twenty-one shows, standing ovations... it's been overwhelming and amazing. :)

In other news though, I've been getting back into open mic comedy gigs, getting up and playing a song or two, seeing some cool new talent around the traps. I've managed to score a couple of spots at the Sit Down Comedy Club and St. Paul's Tavern which is awesome! I'm nervous and excited. I'll pimp them closer to the dates.

Les Mis Review Roundup

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:24:00 +0000

It's been one week since Les Mis opened at the Schonell last week, SEVEN shows done - it's been energy draining, but it's been so much fun so far. We've had standing ovations, tears have been shed, curtain calls, encores... people are loving it. The word is out and tickets are getting harder and harder to get - with full houses or back row only for some shows.

So here are four rave reviews we've had published about us...

Nigel Munro-Wallis on 612ABC gave us four stars. On air (not in the printed copy) Nigel gave us what I consider the biggest compliment of all from a theatre critic - he has disliked the show Les Miserables for many many years, but we were the ones that finally converted him. I really appreciate that comment. :)

If you have ever enjoyed Les Miserables then get along and see this production. It goes a long way to proving my suspicion that there is a great deal to offer in Brisbane in terms of musical theatre and that there are a significant number of highly talented devotees to the art out there who are doing a great deal to lift the bar with regard to the standard we can expect.

If you can't get out to catch one of the many offerings that are currently showing around town as part of the Brisbane Festival then go and see this. At least it has a descent run, as opposed to so much of what is on offer as part of the festival that only runs for a couple of days.

Well done.

--

Jason Whittaker at Australian Stage Online...

This is a labour of love for many; from the really clever staging (the battle scenes at the barricades are terrific), effective lighting and sound design and dazzling costuming faithful to the revolutionary times, and a tight, well-rehearsed orchestra under the co-batons of Harmony Woollett and Edgar Chan. Experienced director and choreographer Simone de Haas pulls it all together quite seamlessly, efficiently conveying exposition that moves at a swift pace in the first act.

The stage bursts with talent. It is a uniformly excellent cast, right down to each member of the large chorus who really do give it their all.

...

Lovers of musical theatre won’t be disappointed. It’s great fun.

--

Lauren Dillon at Timeoff...

With a cast of voices that would rival any other, an orchestra primed for action and a budget worthy of the requirements of such a production the Schonell Theatre was transformed into nineteenth century France much to the delight of the supportive and appreciative opening night audience.

Director Simone De Haas has outdone herself by being able to wrangle over 20 performers, an orchestra and special effects including gunfire in this mammoth production. Her skill combined with that of co-musical directors Harmony Woollett and Edgar Chan makes for an epic production...

--

From Perform Magazine...

When a theatre company decides to take on a musical of this scale and present it to a paying audience, they want to be very sure that they can come up with the goods. Director Simone de Haas and musical directors Harmony Woollett and Edgar Chan have delivered in spades...

When I saw that Chris Herden was the understudy for the original Sydney season of Phantom of the Opera, as well as having sung with the Queensland Pops Orchestra and Opera Queensland I was relieved. The role of Jean Valjean is so pivotal to the story that a less than professional performance would ruin the whole musical. Herden became Valjean and held the audience in the palm of his hand as he stood on the barricades and sang Bring Him Home. It was one of the finest renditions of this haunting piece that I have heard in either a professional or community production...

The firearms and gunfire in the barricade scene were so realistic that I ducked in my seat every time one of the actors turned toward the audience holding a rifle.

--

DON'T MISS OUT. We're on until the 16th October but don't wait until the last minute to see it. People have seen the show and were initially skeptical about the ticket price and got back on the phone and rebooked to see it again. It's of a quality you'd seen in a professional show at half the price.

http://www.ignatians.com.au for dates and details on how to book.

Interrupting

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 01:42:00 +0000

Got my topical video done, like I said I'd try to. :D

An updated version of an old joke, in light of recent events.

If you like it and you haven't gone and voted for me already, please go to SamProof's Battle Of The YouTube Non-Stars Round #2 video and post a comment with "almostfamous83". That's all. That easy. And if you can check out the other battles' contestants and vote for them, that would be coolios too. :)

And post-script, RIP Patrick Swayze. It was obviously a long time coming but it's still quite the unpleasant shock. RIP Bodhi.

I say "pimp" as a verb A LOT

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:11:00 +0000

Round #2 of the Battle is up. I need your votes. Please go here and post a comment with "almostfamous83"

Here, however, is a video in which I plead for your votes but also pimp Les Mis which opens THIS FRIDAY. WOOOOOT.

Les Mis rehearsals are getting tougher. We're in tech week - every single night is a full dress/tech run through with the orchestra, ballistics, scene changes... the show opens Friday night and it's going to be an exhausting week.

Meaning my time is REALLY limited and I MAY not get to do a challenge video. Which would suck. If you can vote me back into the next round, I would be super psyched.

I've also tweeted that if I get voted back in, I will do a future Battle video naked. Unsure how people would react to that, but nonetheless, I need your votes.

Again, Les Mis. Opens Friday. Five weeks. It's tres awesome. Hook into it, musical lovers of Brisbane. :D

http://www.ignatians.com.au

The Purge - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 11:22:00 +0000

I've been thinking about this for a while. I didn't think about it really hard until I received an email from YouTube a couple of days ago saying they had reviewed my channel and considered me a "great candidate" for the YouTube Partner Program.

This could have been sent to everyone or it could have just been sent to a handful based on viewing stats. Who knows.

What would this mean? It means I can allow ads to be inserted in/around them and earn (a very small amount of) money from my videos. I would get more promotion via searches and front page promotion, and have more control over my channel designs and video settings. The money isn't really an issue, as I've heard tales of woe of how little the pay is from Google - what I AM interested in is the promotion.

Unfortunately, if I want to follow through and apply for partnership, things have to change. And for me, it's a big one. Relatively.

I'm going to have to remove a quarter of my videos.
Mostly Law Revue ones at that.

I'm not going to be one of those idiots who AngryAussie often (and quite rightly) rants about - people who put up copyrighted material and whinge incessantly when they get shut down, claiming ignorance and that they "didn't intend to" infringe. I don't claim total ignorance. There were things which were perfectly fine in terms of copyright, things which were borderline, and things which were not. In the end, I used them because 1) they suited the jokes and made the Law Revue videos work as best as they could and 2) I didn't think anyone would care about our silly little sketch show in a university theatre.

But times have changed. Back then, YouTube was still a new thing - it was known enough to have it blocked on work computers but not enough for Viacom to sue it for a billion dollars. It's now synonymous with internet video and it's much much bigger, more technical and more policed. If you couple that with the fact I'm averaging 1000 views a day across my channel, it was bound to happen. I'm just surprised it took this long.

The biggest one I'm going to have to move is March Of The Engineers - the video that a lot of people still really love, still gets favourited, is always in my top 5 rating videos on YouTube Insight, and production-wise summed up the best of the Law Revue years for me. It got me work and got my name around. If I could rescore it with new music, it could stay on the channel as March Redux, but I don't have the raw video files or the original Ross McNab audio recordings in order to rescore it with original music anymore either, so that is the final possible cut. And it has to move.

Now, I don't think it's a guarantee that I'd be made a partner. But even if I don't, in the last week, I've had one video removed (without any notification) and half a dozen others with content identified (even if they were just little snippets) and then links to iTunes as per the content sharing arrangements between YouTube and various record companies. These videos have been up for a long time - for years - and they've amassed thousands of views for me, been favourited, commented upon, forwarded around... but it really was only a matter of time, and I knew it.

My channel is still really important to me, even if they reject the partnership application. I've worked hard on it over the years. In the last year, I've uploaded more and more original content with myself, especially songs, and my subscriber count is pushing 600. I want to start promoting myself as much as possible with this channel, and promoting The Complete First Season with that YouTube channel. Is it worth jeopardizing all this progress I've made (some of which I was foolish not to back up) over a handful of vintage Law Revue videos that are now averaging maybe 10 hits a day at most? No.

So this is the plan.

One day this week (probably Monday or Tuesday), I will delete all of the videos I believe would get me kicked off. This is includes the videos on which content has already been detected but not disabled. A big content cleanse.

I'll then upload them to a new channel which will serve as a depot of sorts for said older Law Revue videos. This should leave my almostfamous83 channel relatively copyright-clean, but with three quarters of the videos left.

Will this be enough? I don't know. But like I said, it was bound to happen sooner or later. I really don't want to completely get rid of a lot of these videos because they are, well, my roots when it comes to comedy and film-making. They're a memory not just to me but to all who were involved in those videos and my channel has always been a place for them.

To be continued.

(I should clarify that I'm not deleting ALL of the Law Revue videos from my channel, just the iffy ones when it comes to copyright content. I'll post the new links here and do up a video to address where they've gone to my subscribers.)

Twitter's Effect On My Cognitive Processes: A Lengthy Essay

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:16:00 +0000

Since joining Twitter, I've been wondering if the short message service has in any way affected my ability to stay focused on one thing at a ...

...

.

.

.

.

.

.

Bored. Onto something else.

2009 UQ Law Revue Vidjeohs

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 13:35:00 +0000

Yeah. I spelled it "vidjeoh". Like an illiterate Mexican would.

Made it to this year's UQ Law Revue on Friday night and as usual a pleasant night out. Well done to all involved.

Highlights for me were "the elephant in the room"; a Romeo-and-Juliet love story involving royal blue and burgundy coloured snuggie wearing gang members; a seemingly-improvised skit involving an incompetent judge being reviewed; a beat poem (very cool, cat, I dig ya), and; the guest speaker at a Bachelor of Arts graduation ceremony.

And again, the videos by Ryan Van Dijk were of high quality production. Find them here. :)

The Complete First Season's X & Y Gig

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:52:00 +0000

I just got home from another Complete First Season performance - this time, an all musical comedy show. Our friends at the X & Y Bar on Ann Street, Fortitude Valley are trying to establish a regular musical comedy room called "Laugh Your X Off" and we were some of the peeps who got to perform, along with MC Chris Wainhouse and Brisbane musical comedic duo The Laundromats. Jo was out due to Law Revue commitments, and Marc was out because... well... just coz, leaving myself, Alex, Grdo and Tom to take it.

One day, all six members of The Complete First Season will do a show together. Someday. Otherwise, 'complete' just isn't the right word to describe us. :p

We essentially recapped all of the musical highlights from "22 Sketches..." and "More Iguana: Now With More Iguana" but played three new songs as well, including a doo-wop rant about Masterchef and a fat-joke laden Beatles parody. All new material went down a treat.

This was a very new format for us, to perform as a musical comedy group, given musical comedy was only a fraction of our sketch shows. But the material successfully translated, which means we can realistically adapt it quite easily should we need to do it again.

I hope X & Y continue to do this event and get it advertised amongst the Brisbane comedy scene. There are so many open mic rooms and clubs that have been popping up over the years, but this is the first event I'm aware of in Brisbane that has a specialty (musical comedy).

Les Miserables Cast Pics

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:42:00 +0000

Here are some supercool pics of the cast of Les Miserables which is being produced by Ignatians Musical Society.

AGH! Have I not stressed to you how frigging spectacular this show is going to be??

Every rehearsal there's some new element that's added that makes it a little bit more real and a little bit more cool. Today we sang with the orchestra for the first time, got into costumes and got our pictures taken a lot.

This is easily one of the coolest things I've been lucky enough to be a part of and we're not even all the way there. It's going to be epic. It will be spectacular. Do not miss it. Don't.

20 PERFORMANCES from September 18th to October 16th at the Schonell Theatre, University of Queensland. Ticketing and box office info from the Igs site - http://www.ignatians.com.au. Group and family bookings available.

"These men who seem to know my crime will surely come a second time." -- Jean Valjean

"I dreamed that God would be forgiving..." -- Fantine

"Do you hear the people sing..." -- Enjolras

"Do not forget me, 24601." -- Javert

"It's a world where the dog eat the dogs..." -- Thenardier

Photos courtesy of Simone de Haas.

The almostfamous83 Song

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 05:59:00 +0000

So here is my introductory (and hopefully not the only) video for Battle Of The YouTube Non-Stars #3. I woke up this morning to discover my rival had posted their video and suddenly burst ahead of me in the voting, so I hope hope hope I'm not too late with this submission.

You can vote here at SamProof's "Round 1" video. You can only vote once though and it's gotta be before midnight August 11th. So go! Vote for me! Now! Please! :)

Battle On!

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:53:00 +0000

Super cool YouTuber dctcool nominated me for a contest on YouTube called "Battle Of The YouTube Nonstars" in which a weekly video challenge is set for twenty-four contestants and then people vote for their favourites. People are eliminated each round until one victor is ... well, victorious. User SamProof is running it this time around.

So my battle is up and I'm up against ciwi286 - wouldn't you know it, the first battle and I'm up against a visual effects artist. Dammit. That said, at least I'm not up against another musician who's more competent than I am (and there are much more competent musos in the contest).

I have to write and post a video in the next day or two, but if you want to help a brother out, please go to the video linked here and post a comment voting for almostfamous83. Voting closes midnight August 11th and you can only vote for one person in each battle once (no fake accounts will be accepted).

But while you do, please check out all of the other users who have been nominated in the battles. It is a friendly competition. The whole point of the contest is to raise awareness of YouTubers who don't have as many subscribers as they should and to give them some promotion, so please do check it out.

You Took The Wink Right Out Of My Text (Cold Winter's Night)

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:10:00 +0000

I did something silly and wasteful. Saturday night/Sunday morning, I sent a tongue-in-cheek "vent your spleen" text to mX which read like this...

To those loud, drunken women Saturday night who got off the Caboolture train at Strathpine just after midnight and were vocally concerned someone would rat them out to mX for being loud, drunken idiots... you got your wish. ;) - J

When it appeared published in mX today (Tuesday August 4th, 2009), there were two notable omissions. One, the word "vocally" was replaced by "so". I'm fine with that - that was to save space in an already long message.

But, secondly, in the printed version, they omitted the ;) emoticon, meaning it read like your garden variety, petty, idiotic complaining mX reader complaint. It suddenly read without the cheeky tone.

To those loud, drunken women Saturday night who got off the Caboolture train at Strathpine just after midnight and were so concerned someone would rat them out to mX for being loud, drunken idiots, you got your wish.

Maybe I should send a "vent your spleen" text about how the "vent your spleen" column doesn't print emoticons.

I should have added a post-script about fat elderly pregnant women in wheelchair not being given seats on the bus as well...

--

OH, and while we're on rewriting peoples' quotes for space-saving means but making them sound totally fake, how about this... right next to the "vent your spleen" column was one of those people-on-the-street polls, where they ask three people a question, take their photo then publish their responses...

What is your favourite movie comedy of all time?
Answer #1 - "Wedding Crashers, because it's funny."
Answer #2 - "Aquamarine because it is really funny."
Answer #3 - "Friday, because it's funny."

Ugh.

New Complete First Season Sketches!

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:54:00 +0000

So part of the reason I've been a bit absent from YouTube is because I've spent a fair bit of video making time with the guys from The Complete First Season. Tonight, I uploaded a selection of some of the stuff we've gone and shot to our Complete First YouTube Channel. It's effectively material that was originally performed live but we felt would translate well to video. I'm quite happy with how these turned out.

"Twins"

"Kevin Rudd And The GFC"

"A Slight Problem"

"Jay Walk Patrol"

It Starts Here

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:17:00 +0000

Yesterday was my birthday. I can now no longer honestly say I'm 22 years old.

I'm 26 now, so that rule's sorta been in effect for three years.

But yeah, yesterday the 27th of July was my 26th birthday. The family bought me a thick wool underblanket for my bed. My girlfriend Jac has now bought me an excellent present two years in a row (last year, Tales From The Crypt DVD - this year, two N64 games I wanted) and makes me love her more that she pays attention and gets me the right things. But it must be a sign of ageing when your birthday just feels like "another day". My family and Jac went out to dinner at a French restaurant the night before, but as for the day itself? Same as usual. Slept in till 10, got up, groomed, went to work for 8 hours, did little actual work, came home.

Lying in bed last night - VERY late, didn't properly fall asleep till 3:45-ish - I was overwhelmed by a sense of "what am I doing?" I'm now a 26 year old, two years out of university, didn't go into his studied profession, no idea what to do, still living at home, unable to drive, without full time employment and working a casual retail job I have no real emotional attachment to any more. Other impending private matters I won't divulge here have been put into motion and are compelling me to, effectively, grow up.

I've hence decided to set myself a challenge.

Every single day, I'm going to achieve one act of self-improvement and advancement out of arrested development.

I will force myself to write a song/sketch. Or sort out the clothes in my room. Or actively investigate job opportunities. Apply for full time work. Or cook the family meal. Go to the dentist. Go for a jog. Take a driving lesson. I'm aiming to book in three driving lessons in the next week.

It's basically a New Years Resolution-a-thon. Except the New Year is my twenty-seventh year and didn't begin in January.

One a day. Even if it's small. Something productive. No more wasting time.

Let's go. Self-improvement starts now.

... but first, to bed.

Arrested Development Documentary

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:30:00 +0000

Kudos to Marc Fennell for bringing this to my attention...

Hello YouTube, I'm Back

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:59:00 +0000

I haven't uploaded a video to YouTube since the Comedy Festival back in March. This has been due to

me not having any ideas that I thought were worth doing
working on Complete First Season material (some of which is up on the The Complete First YouTube Channel)
being busy with preparation for Les Miserables (for which tickets are now on sale)
other personal issues that I won't go into here but know I wasn't in a happy place. I'm still kinda there, but more on that later. Maybe.

So this week, I decided I'd get back into putting some things back on YouTube. I have a handful of short songs that I never got around to writing or recording because they were just silly little things.

This most recent one I wrote for 22 Sketches... back in November and was one of the songs I did at my first open mic at the Newmarket Hotel. It didn't go down that well at Newmarket, but it got a HUGE laugh and cheer at both of the 22 Sketches performances. I have video of it live, but it's out of focus. So here it is: my one joke ode to Brisbane drinking venues.

The Power Of The Punchline

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 02:32:00 +0000

Last night, The Chaser's War on Everything aired a sketch parodying the Make A Wish Foundation or the Starlight Foundation - organizations that try to provide terminally ill children with their one dying wish. The media backlash this morning is not exactly unprecedented when it comes to The Chaser but this really was pretty mean, tasteless and low for them.

Comedically, it was an average sketch which had one or two moments. I admit I laughed out loud when Andrew Hansen pulls out a stick and says simply "Here's a stick."

But, in my opinion, what was the straw that broke the Chaser's back was the punchline...

“Why go to any trouble when they’re going to die any way?”

Doesn't this seem that the punchline is the key to elevating or condemning a piece of sketch comedy? Or any joke? A better worded punchline could very well have salvaged the whole thing.

It seems to me that in the dynamic of the Chaser group, Chris Taylor really has the meanest (or at least, blackest) streak. Taylor also wrote the infamous Eulogy Song, the swipe at Tim Freedman and the Jesus poo-stain in the toilet bowl sketch.

Shock humour only works to a point. Because eventually the shock overpowers the humour.

This is a similarly themed skit from The Comedy Channel's little seen The Mansion which touches the same premise but I didn't think was as nearly as tasteless.

I like the punchline of this second sketch. Is it laugh out loud funny? No. But it's far more satirical. It's saying the same thing as the Chaser's punchline but without the bluntness and meanspiritedness.

Is the Chaser getting all this media attention simply by virtue of the fact that they're the Chaser now? They feel compelled to be tasteless solely to get the talkback radio jocks material to work with?

It's not enough for me to stop watching them yet - it's but one sketch out of dozens, and like I said, I did laugh when Andrew said "here's a stick" - but I really don't like it when they do all these things for shock value. Unless there's clearly a point to it.

Separated At Birth?

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:25:00 +0000

SEPARATED AT BIRTH?

Former rugby league player and now commentator Peter Sterling, and the principal from Back To The Future (you're a SLACKER, McFly!).

Radiopedia returns (but not from me)

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:11:00 +0000

So this upset me.

Last year, you'll have read - and you can find the blog post about it - that myself and a handful of mates entered a competition for ABC Radio's Comedy Hour project, being launched by Adam Hills, as a means of emulating the radio comedy legacy of Aunty's mother radio network, the BBC.

I was frustrated and disappointed at the time that none of us even received a rejection email to say "thanks but no thanks". Because I had heard from friends down south that they HAD been told whether they were successful or not.

The concept that I pitched was a Wikipedia themed sketch show, providing a very loose structure and narrative to effectively do any radio skits or songs we wanted, while linking it together with a bit of a grammatically poor lunatic of a narrator (like Tom Baker in Little Britain without the pomposity), replicating the often inaccurate nature of Wikipedia. I thought it was unique and a winner of a concept for a sketch show.

I read here on The Chortle, about ten months later, that a Wikipedia themed sketch show filled with inaccuracies has been commissioned by Radio 4 in the UK...

Stand-ups Nick Doody and Matt Kirshen have landed a four-part series for Radio 4.
The pair are currently writing the scripts for Bigipedia, described as 'a malevolent mix between Google. Microsoft and Wikipedia'.
Kirshen says he finds the 12-hour days preparing for the show gruelling, writing on his Twitter page: 'If I'd worked this hard at uni I wouldn't be in comedy.'
Doody has previously described the series as 'a piss-take of Wikipedia, with all the same inaccuracies, written by nutters'.
The show will be recorded from this week, and go out in late July. It was commissioned from independent production house Pozzitive following a successful pilot last year.

It was only a matter of time of course before someone spoofed Wikipedia, and there's no guarantee it'll be exactly the same concept as I originally imagined nor the tone of comedy, but it's just reminded me how disappointed I was when an idea I thought was really good and had lots of potential wasn't even noticed.

I'm Sorry

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sun, 31 May 2009 09:29:00 +0000

I've been bad.

I've been neglectful of YouTube.

I'm sorry guys.

It's been six weeks since I posted a video and that was just a 10 minute video blog about what I was going to see at the Comedy Festival.

Well, the fact is, I haven't had any ideas for things worth putting up on my YouTube channel. I could put shit up, but why?

If I've been doing video work, it's been the weekend shooting and editing of skits for The Complete First Season's YouTube channel and website.

It's been going slowly but progressively, considering we've all been quite scattered location-wise over the last few months, but we're about to get back into it. We've shot three sketches so far. Yesterday we reshot the first Kevin Rudd monologue with Grdo and in doing so, we came with the concept for the next Rudd monologue.

At some point, Grdo adjusted the Rudd wig so it wasn't so "mullety". I had been joking that he looked like Kevin Rudd if Kevin Rudd thought he was Luke Skywalker. He put a hair tie in it, and he suddenly reminded me of Val Kilmer in Heat.

Today we shot a sketch at Marc's new apartment then spontaneously decided to go ten pin bowling. Which we hadn't done in years. The alley still had the original Time Crisis and Daytona USA games. Vintage. :D

So, that's what I've been doing. I really want to get back to making something for the almostfamous83 channel but it's a case of find the time and the inspiration. The very very long overdue video for Unsubscribed could be it, but, like I said, I need the time and the inspiration.

This made me laugh though. :D

A Letter To Lars

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:05:00 +0000

Dear Lars von Trier,

Do you need a hug?

Please cheer up.

If Mike Leigh can go and make a happy movie, so can you.

Sincerely,

James

P.S. Dogville was great.