Wednesday 30 April 2008

"Carry On Hip-Hop"

It appears that the RZA isn't always the intelligent well spoken guy I saw on Saturday afternoon if this story from the Evening Times is to be believed.

"One of the girls took her bra off and she was telling her friend to do the same, so she did."

Monday 28 April 2008

Back to Stand-up

I performed some stand-up last night for the first time in more than a year. I think since I've spent more time with comedians recently I got back in the mood for it. I think it went pretty well. If you've seen me before it was the same old stuff I've been trotting out for some time, just delivered a bit more effectively.

I guess I'll probably be doing it again sometime soon. One amusing incident from the night was when Mark Nelson was attempting to close his headline set a guy near to the front casually lit up a cigarette. The shock in the room was quite something. I don't think there could have been any more outrage if he'd attempted to shoot up.

Sunday 27 April 2008

RZA at GFT

The RZA at the GFT

On Saturday I went along to the GFT for a screening of Jim Jarmusch's film Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. I've always loved this film. It's so perfectly made. Every beat is just right. It's menacing, hilarious, thoughtful and thought provoking.

This screening was part of Triptych and featured an intorduction and Q & A from the composer of the film's score, Wu-Tang Clan mainman RZA. His chat was really interesting. He discussed how he came to work on the film. (He and Jarmusch smoked weed together.) He talked about working with Tarantino on Kill Bill, how he feels the Wu-Tang are cheating their audience when all the group don't show up for a gig and many other aspects of his musical, production, business and film careers. He talked intelligently and openly about his life and career. He's also, as he pointed out "Wu-Tang forever."

In Bruges

Over the weekend I went to see In Bruges at the pictures. Everything you've no doubt heard about it is strue. It is a very black comedy. Very funny and very violent in equal measure. The cast are all on top form. Brendan Gleeson is as reliable as ever as a seaseoned hitman. Colin Farrel is enjoyable as a fun-loving hitman with something dark in his past and Ralph Fiennes, although I thought at first that he was phoning in a cliche of a cockney gangster he actually delivers a really strong, funny and menacing villian. There were elements of the ending that were a wee bit too contrved for my liking, but that's a minor grumble for a very well made film worth going to see.

Edwyn Collins at Oran Mor

On Tuesday night I was at Oran Mor to see Edwyn Collins. As you may be aware Collins fell seriously ill three years ago with a brain hemorrhage. He's battled back and recovered so well that he's now on a national tour.

I was more than curious to see what kind of show he would serve up, as he's still far from having fully recovered. What kind of show it was, was first class. I've seen him a few times in the past and although this time round he talked a lot less between songs it was a corker of a set.

I was there to review it for Artrocker. My review is here and a handful of photographs are here.

Wednesday 23 April 2008

More Kids

We can't get enough of the Kids here at 'Pish. This one is a great example of Kevin McDonald being the guy who 'Doesn't say funny things, but says things funny'.

Here's a review of them from the
New York Press.

Tuesday 22 April 2008

Down at the Garage

What really goes on when you put your car in at the garage? Kids in the Hall think they know. Shame that the punchline is displayed as the name of the sketch. Still, it only got really funny for me in the last 40 seconds.

Sunday 20 April 2008

Bead-Rattling

Quite hilariously the Sunday Herald today were forced to run an apology over an article one of their sports writers contributed to last week's edition. The offending article highlighted Celtic fans' dislike of their gaffer Gordon Strachan. Its closing paragraph contained the sentence "Some fans would probably rather have a bead-rattling Hoopy the Huddle Hound in the dug-out."

How that phrase managed to reach the printed pages of a national newspaper I don't know. And neither does the Sport Editor who appears to be busy fielding the postbag of furious letters and firing and demoting his offending staff.

Radio Comedy 'Woeful'

Still Game star and comedy writer Sanjeev Kohli has been slagging off comedy on Radio Scotland calling it 'woeful'. The head of Radio Scotland hits back promising 'lots of new comedy over the next year'.

Death Cab in the Guardian

With their new album out in May and their cracking epic new single out next Monday Death Cab For Cutie gave an interview to Friday's Guardian.

"Your Princess Eugenie, apparently she's a huge Death Cab fan," he says, grinning bashfully, of Tatler's cover star. "Is she single? Would she date a guy in a band? All the other guys in the group are taken, but I'm available. Can't you just picture me, standing by her side, at some official function?"

Down below is the video for The Sound of Settling.

Saturday 19 April 2008

Robbie and the Aliens

Here is a fascinating article from The Guardian where Jon Ronson joins Robbie Williams in his search for alien life.

On December 18 2006, Robbie Williams played the last of 59 stadium shows in a row, announced he was going to spend Christmas at his home in Los Angeles, and then basically disappeared. He was hardly seen at all in 2007. He briefly checked into rehab. He spent quite a bit of time hiking and playing football (he owns a football pitch on Mulholland Drive). Then he stopped hiking and playing football. His record company, EMI, announced he had no plans to release an album in 2008. Today he unexpectedly calls me to ask if I want to go with him to the desert in Nevada to meet UFO abductees.

Williams manages to come across not as mental, but as someone who is genuinely interested in UFOs and aliens, and wants to believe. Of course he has enough money and free time that he can persue any mild fascination that occurs to him to the nth degree. It's an enjoyable article well worth a read.

Monday 14 April 2008

"I'm a Bus Driver"

This is about 2 parts hilarious to 1 part painful. Richard Herring endures one of the worst hecklers you could ever wish to encounter.

Sunday 13 April 2008

The Greatest Sketches of All Time

This is a list of 'The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time' from nerve.com complete with YouTube clips.

Because it's an American list it's heavy on US sketch shows, particularly Saturday Night Live. A few British shows creep in The Catherine Tate Show, French and Saunders, Smack the Pony and The Two Ronnies appear, as do frequent Python sketches

Some of my favourites are missing, so let's try to correct that.

Beyond the Fringe - One Leg Too Few



Undoubtedly one of the greatest sketches ever written. So good in fact it was commonly believed that, having written it while a student, it was the best thing Peter Cook ever wrote. Cook himself said in a 1993 Radio 2 interview "I've never written anything better." Jonathan Miller told the BBC's QED programme in 1990, it was "One of the most masterly sketches of twentieth century English humour."

Kids in the Hall - Girl Drink Drunk



The Kids in the Hall are quite well represented in the list. Citizen Kane particularly is one of their greatest ever sketches. Two of the other sketches I would suggest should be in any top 50 list though are Reg, where five buddies remember the friend they recently murdered, and this one.

Armstrong & Miller - Force on the Case



As this was a runner you could pick any of them, but this is probably the funniest of the lot, where Jack finally kicks the booze, and is just about to crack the case, when it all goes horribly, horribly wrong.

Big Train - Florence Nightingale




I could have went for the Wanking in the Office sketch, but this one is very simple and very funny. Linehan and Matthews always said they didn't give the girls in the show much to do, but when they did it was first class.

Morecambe and Wise - Andre Previn



Celebrities happily making fools of themselves on comedy shows is by no means a modern idea. Morecambe and Wise were the masters of it. Eric Morecambe was never any better than in this performance. "I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order."

Marty Feldman - Bishop of No Fixed Abode



Feldman gets his acknowledgement in the nerve.com list with his Four Yorkshiremen sketch appearing, this however is my personal favourite. From his own TV show here he is as a wide boy attempting to pass himself off as a Bishop. "Proper Bishop's clobber and everything."

The Day Today - Bombdogs



There's so many great things to choose from in The Day Today, as it was such a landmark show. I've opted for this, 'terrierists'.

Absolutely - Stoneybridge Bid for the 1996 Olympics



Smalltown Scotland has never been as funny as the Absolutely team's famous Stoneybridge councillors going all out to land the Olympics.

Scotch & Wry - Rangers' New Signing



The picture on this one is quite bad, but here's some classic Scottish New Year comedy as 3 Scottish comedy legends in Rikki Fulton, Gregor Fisher and Gerard Kelly dish up some football satire that was actually relevant at the time.

The Fast Show - Ted and Ralph - Drinking Game



There were lots of great moments of horrible discomfort between these two sharply drawn characters, and this is one of the very best moments.

Stick any suggestions of your own in the comments. Original link via.

Friday 11 April 2008

The Kids Speak Out

Kids in the Hall might not be the only sketch group about to make a comeback (more about that some other time) but they're certainly the most media friendly at the moment. This is an interview with them from the Onion's AV Club.

This is my favourite bit of the interview, "they're performing almost exclusively new material, in hopes of eventually creating a TV-show follow-up to their offbeat, eponymous 1988-1995 sketch show, and a movie follow-up to 1996's Brain Candy." This is a link to a
photo set on Flickr from their show at the Riverside Theater
Milwaukee last week.

AVC: How do you differentiate between an obscure scene in the show and one that isn't as obscure?

DF: I guess you know what's not obscure because people tell you.

ST: We just assume that the original "Chicken Lady" is a classic. We assume the first "Simon And Hecubus" is a classic. Maybe we're wrong.

KM: Aren't they all obscure?

MM: We're The Kids In The Hall.

DF: Pretty much our most popular sketch is still obscure. [Laughs.]

ST: Basically, we're an obscure group.

This Place is Dead Alright

Due to Ronnie being quite new to the internet :o) he's managed to accidentally kill off This Place is Dead. This means that both he and Tommy have had to turn up at the doss house, bundles in hand, looking for new internet accommodation.

You'll find Ronnie and an already healthy number of posts at
www.ronniebrown.co.uk while Tommy's monthly posts can be found at Nice Marmot. And as a new addition to the former TPID family Ronnie's wife Claire now has her own blog. Go visit them all.

Sunday 6 April 2008

A Celebrity Auction

This is one ebay auction you'll want to get right in on the bidding for. Some muppet was at the scene of Jerry Seinfeld's recent car accident, and he's found a terrific souvenir from the incident for your bidding pleasure. What's he offering for sale? A quarter. That's right a quarter, a 25 cent coin. But not just any quarter, this quarter apparently belonged to Jerry and 'fell out' at the scene of the accident. Do you think multi-millionaire Jerry Seinfeld carries loose change about with him? Why would anyone want to own this? I would call this opportunist if there actually was any sort of opportunity there. Check out the postage costs too.