Friday 30 June 2006

The Sound of Young America

I got the Dave Foley link yesterday from The Sound of Young America blog. A decent comedy blog in itself what you have to visit TSOYA for is the awesome podcast library.

TSOYA is a radio show based in San Francisco. Hosted by Jesse Thorn, a 24 year old with the voice of a 45 year old, it mainly centres on comedy in all its forms. Each show usually has two interviews, plus a little bit of music or some audio sketches.

The interviews are in depth and insightful. Folk featured on the shows that I’ve listened to have been Chris Elliott, Daniel Clowes, Patton Oswalt, Brad Meltzer, George Pelecanos and Demetri Martin. The show has also had special episodes on improvised comedy, Second City and SCTV.

If you have a look through the archives I’m sure you’ll find something for you.

Brazil Shirt Generator

With the World Cup Quarter Finals almost ready to kick off here’s a wee something to get you excited. It’s a Brazil football shirt generator. Just pop in your name and it’ll generate a Brazil shirt with your Brazilian name.

Ours are below.


Thursday 29 June 2006

Comedy Interviews

Here’s an interview with Dave Foley. I should put this quite lengthy interview into context. It’s from about 1999 when Foley was just about to embark on what turned out to be NewsRadio’s final season.

He discusses that show, the death of Phil Hartman, the rest of his NewsRadio colleagues and of course Kids in the Hall. More on where I sourced that link later.

And here’s an interview with Emo Phillips, who at 50 still performs 500 shows a year.

Wednesday 28 June 2006

At The Stand

Last night I played Red Raw at The Stand in Glasgow. I never seem to muster up a lot of pre-gig enthusiasm for these things. I’ve got too much stuff in my set that’s not properly worked out.

I was on 3rd in the second part of the evening. Not my ideal time for going on. I prefer to be on early, mainly so I can get it out the way.

Of my act I think my stage persona and delivery were a lot better than normal. I do need to flesh out rough ideas a bit better in order to sell the funny. My biggest laugh came from my opening ad-lib where I suggested the audience would be able to see me unless I moved the microphone stand. I did milk it for all it was worth, though I felt that I probably could have had them in uproar if I abandoned my set and just went on about being fat.

I’m discovering that more and more people on the comedy circuit now know me from You Owe Me Glue.

The photos below are of the prompts for my set on my hand; the walk to the venue and the sign outside.




Moose 1990-2006


Moose, the Jack Russell terrier who played Eddie on TV's "Frasier," died on Thursday at the Los Angeles home of his trainer Mathilde Halberg, People magazine reports.
"He was 16 ½ years old, and he just had an incredible charisma and was a such a free spirit," said Halberg.

The four-legged thespian retired from showbiz when he was 10 and was replaced by his son Enzo for the final two seasons of the NBC sitcom. Halberg saved Moose from a pound in the early 1990s after his owners found his behaviour – including killing the neighbours’ cat – too destructive.

The longevity of Frasier necessitated the breeding of puppies as possible replacements for Moose. A daughter, Miko, was considered but never grew large enough (she was given to a technician); a son, Moosie, now lives with Peri Gilpin. Moose's son Enzo was a closer match and turned out to have unusually similar facial markings; later in the series he was used as a stunt double to perform the more physically challenging tricks for his aging sire. Enzo took over the role after eight years.

Moose's ‘autobiography’, My Life as a Dog, written by Brian Hargrove, was published in 2000.

Moose lived in retirement with Jill, the dog from the film As Good As It Gets. (No, seriously, he did.)

Here’s a feature on Moose from 1994.

Tuesday 27 June 2006

Avoiding Clichés

A football commentator once said ‘Clichés have to be avoided like the plague’. Here’s an article on avoiding clichés in writing.

Monday 26 June 2006

June Glue

So despite a scare with the floorboards (see the first picture below) You Owe Me Glue went ahead on Friday. A decently attended show it seemed to go down quite well with the audience.

A bigger show that we normally do it went off without much of a hitch. I could have done a bit better in remembering all of my lines, but I don’t think many folk noticed.

I don’t have much more to add. There is a load of photographs down below. Shame Tommy left before I had a chance to take a photo of his giant hair.

















Sunday 25 June 2006

Get Back To Russia!


Meet Valanitine Ivanov, enemy of football.

More on this in the morning no doubt, but right now I'm spitting mad at having had an evenings World Cup football ruined by a blithering incompetent.

The Portugal v Holland match was shaping up to be classic, at least it was until the plum ref decided he wanted to be star of the show.

4 reds and 16 yellows in a match that FIFA stats say contained 25 fouls.

The World Cup is simply too important to be recklessly demeaned like this. We get 15 games of knockout World Cup football every 4 years. Valentine Ivanov and his employers have ruined one of them, in what appears to me to be a display of narcissism verging on wilful sabotage.

Ivanov has to seriously ask himself why he let things get so far out of control. Is it because he wanted to be the star, like so many cult of personality refs these days?
FIFA should be hauled over the coals for selecting this guy in the first place as well. It’s not as if he’s ever been able to cut it in the first place.


The players, having sensed early on that the ref had no clue, were also a disgrace, assaulting one another, diving, crowding the officials and generally cheating at any given opportunity. Figo and Arjen Robben (whom I have previously praised in this tournament thus applying the kiss of death to his hopes) were particularly pathetic.

The players are not the issue however, as they would never have behaved in this way had Ivanov showed any semblance of competence.

I hear a lot of people saying this is a great World Cup. It's not. 94, 98 and 2002 were all better at this stage, even with 94’s crazy offside experiment and cards galore.

The main reason 2006 has been so poor?

Record amounts of red cards from refs who have had a ham-fisted re-hash of the rules handed to them a fortnight before the big kick off by moronic FIFA overlords who think it is their duty to make up inane new rules and directives and then “try them out” in the most important tournament in the football world. Homeresque stupidity from officials so far out of touch with real people, we may as well consider them a separate species.

The refs clearly do not understand these “new directives”. If they are designed, as was stated, to let the good players play, it hasn't worked. The players actually need to be on the pitch.

I never thought it could happen, but this World Cup has been sullied and could be spoiled by the appalling standard of some of the decisions.

Lets face it; there are teams who have gone home because of poor decisions, poor officials.

At the end of the day (Harry) NO-ONE is paying any money to see the ref. They really want to get that through their heads.

Friday 23 June 2006

GOOOOAAALLLLLLLL!

Tommy's posted this on TPID but it's quite good so I'll post it here. David Brewster a regular in our fantasy leagues has a World Cup blog. Some good stuff there for all interested in the WC, slagging John Motson and our fantasy league.

Thursday 22 June 2006

YOMG Rehearsal Photos

Here’s a bunch of photographs from the last Glue rehearsal before tomorrow’s show.
















Wednesday 21 June 2006

Slow to Learn or Understand

It just gets better and better for You Owe Me Glue. You'd think with only 30 words or so The List could list us without slurring the good Glue name.

Tuesday 20 June 2006

Wounded Knee @ Glasgow Project Gallery

After rehearsals last night I went to see Wounded Knee perform at the Glasgow Project Gallery. Tucked away behind the 13th Note on Osborne Street, the gallery is easily mistaken for a close.

I ignored the old style lift with its gates (though I did take it on the way down) and climbed the four flights of stairs to the venue right at the top. It was an unusual setting for a gig, being an art gallery and all.

Wounded Knee’s folky loops went down well with the reasonably sized crowd. This time round he dedicated his set to Argentina’s second goal in the 6-0 win over Serbia & Montenegro.







Glue Rehearsals

Here are some photographs from last night’s YOMG rehearsal. Only one more to go…