http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O79-Z7sqtyw

This is the video Raff and I made for the doritos competition - if you like it and want to vote please go to: http://www.doritos.com.au/?sq=1339 Thanks!

Hi all
Around this time of year as the spring wind starts wafting it's sweet delivery into the eyes of hay fever sufferers everywhere, Halloween rears it's largely redundant head in Australia. Ever keen to capitalise on a holiday - Impro Melbourne is holding a three day festival of shows featuring guests from all over Australia and New Zealand. It'll be a great weekend full of wheezes.

Here's the schedule:

Friday, October 31st

    7.30 – 8.15pm Impro Magnifique

    A travelling French impro company have arrived in town. Luckily, Mr Gambino from Impro Melbourne speaks enough French to invite the company to perform and voila! Instant fun!

    8.30 – 9.15pm All Together Now

    Everybody onstage. All the time. A show where the actors act, but are also the props, staging and scenery. It's both juicy and tasty.

    9.30 – 10.30pm Fortune

    Destiny unveiled Impro Melbourne style. An audience member's future is foretold by the plucky oracles of IM. Can you handle the truth?
Saturday, November 1st

    7.30 – 8.15pm Grandpa Willard's Bedtime Stories

    Pull up your blankets kids, it's story time. Snuggle down and listen closely.
    Let Grandpa Willard tell you amazing stories and watch them come to life before your very eyes. Now, don't get too excited. If Nanna Ethel hears that you're still awake, we'll all go without breakfast. Right, where is that book?
    Ah, here.
    Are you ready?
    What was the name of that story you love so much…?

    8.30 – 9.15pm The Wishing Tree

    Imagine a world where all your dreams came true…

    9.30 – 10.30pm Pia Zadora

    Pia Zadora was a much maligned actress from the 1980s, who churned out some terrible films before marrying a millionaire and disappearing into an awful music video with Jermaine Jackson (look it up on YouTube—hilarious). This show, however, is a fully improvised hour of story and characters—nothing like Ms Zadora really…
Sunday, November 2nd, 7.30 – 9.30pm

    7.30 – 9.30pm Theatresports
Where:
    Theatreworks
    14 Acland Street, St. Kilda (Melway ref. 2P A7)
Tickets:
    $20 Full (includes all three shows on the night)
    $15 Concession
    $15 Groups 10+
    $55 Family Pack (2 adults, 2 children)
Bookings:
    Tickets on sale now!
    Book online at Theatreworks
    Or by phone: 03 9534 3388


I'll be performing in All Together Now and directing Pia Zadora - so please come along and enjoy.

Here's some video to get you in the mood:

July came and went with some highs:

The Off the Cuff Improvisation Festival, Brisbane July 18 - 21
Organised by the good folk of Impro Mafia - this follow up to last year's fest was packed full of fun. Jason, Rama, Rik, Patti and I came up from Impro Melbourne to put on our format from Late Nite Impro - "You've Got The Part" and Patti, Rama and I teamed up with Derek Flores to revive "Mr Fish and His spooky Library of the Improv Macabre" (which we hope to take around to a few festivals). Jason, Rik, Rama and I stayed at Bunk which was a hilarious display of drunken accents, booze, lust and backpackin' shenanigans - except for our room - which resembled the galley of a small submarine.


We performed at the Powerhouse which was an amazing venue with some beautiful views and featured some of the wankiest barstaff/chef attitude I've seen in some time. Glorious.

While in Brisbane we managed to see the amazing Picasso exhibition and plenty of street entertainment including a karate demonstration, a native hip dance tutorial, Charlie Chaplain, a jazz trio, a wheezing spraypaint artist and a giant egg.

The weather was hot and so was the impro - a great way to spend Winter.

Other Highs included:

Amanda Buckley and Susie Youssef dropping in on Melbourne and we all went Wicked.

Visited The Art Deco exhibition and was inspired by the lines (and how they related to the resurgence of style in European illustration in the 80s)


Re-watching Amazon Women on the Moon - classic stuff folks.

Downloading a burning 7 years of family photos off an old computer - whoo boy - Memory lane. I'd forgotten the kids were ever that small!

Caught up with Geoff Paine and Roz Hammond while shooting a corporate vid. Best people evah.

And The Lows:

I've got a cold.

and I owe the Taxman...

Postscript:

If you're in Sydney - don't forget to get along to Celebrity Theatresports - this Saturday at the Enmore. I ...um... won it last year but won't be up for this one unfortunately - but heaps of great people are - so get along.
(poster design by.... me)

Hi all - a quick update and some flyer work:

Here's the show I'll be presenting out at Deakin on Wednesday 28th - I've been teaching a bunch of talented students the in's and out's of this improv malarkey and it's time to put it to the test. If you're in the general vicinity then feel free to drop in. It's free.


p.s. had a great birthday with loads of friends and lots of good times - thank you all.

But....This year something was different.

I was exhausted. I simply couldn't handle the pace, let alone the comic demands and the imbalance of reality and fantasy ("Come to the Laugh Side Luke...") left me reeling.


That's not to say I didn't give it a red hot go...


Late Nite Impro - because I directed this season the overwhelming sense of responsibility was huge (if somewhat unwarranted - I mean, c'mon, the show is so freaking simple...). The opening weekend was great, the cast hilarious and Rebecca De Unamuno and Deborah Frances White were perfect guests. And so it went for the rest of the run. We (Impro Melbourne) are lucky that the show has been around for quite some time now and has built up a strong following in Melb - hey, we never get reviewed by the major papers but we consistently sold out our houses which (in this fest) is an amazing feat in itself.


So much blue around the lack of audience members this year, it was a hot topic of conversation for quite awhile... "did you hear - last year at this time they had sold 400, 000 tickets - this year only 160, 000.........groan..."

My heart goes out to all the poor buggers who did it tough this year and I thank my lucky stars that the Trades ended up passing on the show Rik Brown and I had proposed. It would have been a financial nightmare.

The Hi Fi was rocking the first night of Patton Oswalt's set - although severely jetlagged he held the crowd in the palm of his hand and treated us to a solid set of no-frills stand up that had me doubled up in laughter. I enjoyed the unabashed silliness of the boys in Pappy's Fun Club (god-how refreshing it was to just relax and laugh with impunity), Scratch had me shaking my head in awe at their improvised prowess and narrative logic, Comicide was in turns: laugh out loud and (happy) groan inducing (yeah baby- you know who you are), Blank the Musical knocked my socks off - with a spine-bruising finale to die for, iMPro3 Shuffle had me in stitches onstage and off, Kristen Schaal was a horse and I looked at her dance, looked at her move etc etc... House of Anomalous was back in a tighter package and deserved bigger audiences..... and a whole lot more.....

And...who could forget standing in a laneway at 4am in the morning with Amanda, Susie, Arlen Konopaki, Kevin Gillese and Al Pitcher discussing the latest Mickey D misadventure, while two munted guys took a leak up against the opposite wall...

But the one stand-out-I'm-not-going-to-forget-this-in-a-hurry memory was when Rik broke his wrist during Celebrity Theatresports. I'll say this for him - when he does a pratfall - he COMMITS.

It was wonderful to see so many friends again. I'm suffering from Post-Fest syndrome (feeling grey, wandering around the city streets at 3am looking for a venue and scratching at the door of the Trades Hall) and deeply envious of the guys in Sydney who are keeping the flag flying at the Cracker fest....

I need a comedy hit - and I need it now...

Wow. That went seriously fast... between now and the last pitiful post quite a few jolly times have flowed under the rainbow bridge to Happyfundrinkyland.

- The NSW National Theatresports Championships

If you scour back through the blogemporium to March last year you’ll find an entry about how the mighty Theatresports team ’El Diablo’ came, saw, laughed and conquered. This year we were fortunate enough to be asked back to defend the title. Jason Geary, Rik Brown, Rama Nicholas and myself packed our bags and flew up to Sydney. Before hitting the Enmore stage we stopped off at the Roxbury to watch Axis of Awesome strut their stuff and admire the dogged determination of the drug dog squad who raided the place. Inspector Rex goes abroad?

The Nationals were great and all teams had a moment in the spotlight. We had won the belt the last two years in a row and so it was with no regrets that we gladly handed it over to the NSW team "Wizard’s Finger" who pipped us by one point. It was worth losing just to hear the roar that went through the crowd. Excellent stuff.

Made merry all through the night and then mooched my way around Watson’s Bay the next day with the lovely Amanda. A glutton for punishment - I played that night in the all-new 4 coaster branded show - iMPro3 Shuffle. A great format and loads of fun to play.



- My Dad

Turned 60 - had a great dinner at Tolarnos
Had a Book Launch at Readings
Has a retrospective at Heide
He’s having a good year I suspect...


- and of course... The 22nd Melbourne International Comedy Festival has begun.

This year I was asked to direct Impro Melbourne’s flagship comedy show ’Late Nite Impro’ (by directing - I mean casting and organising) and we launched last weekend to a sold out audience and a night of wonderful improvisation and comedy with our special guests Rebecca De Unamuno and Deborah Frances White. The format is new (it always is) and was invented by Jason Geary - "How About This?" - Directors pitch concepts for scenes and the performers choose what flies and what falls. Deceptively simple but hilarious. It plays every Friday and Saturday night at the Cloak Room at the Town Hall. Go here, here and here for more info.

I’m playing Friday March 28, Friday April 4 and Friday April 11.

I’ll also be playing in Celebrity Theatresports on Saturday the 5th at the National Theatre - always a fun night and this year we’ve got some spectacular performers.

Note - although Julia Zemiro appears on the Flyer she will not be able to perform due to her MTC commitments unfortunately - but go and see her show another night!

Another show I’ll be slutting myself out to is the Melbourne run of iMPro3 Shuffle which is on at the Kaleide Theatre. I’m playing on Sunday 6th and Tuesday 8th April. I’m hoping to squeeze in some time with the Scrabble Unscripted guys as well...(I’m such an impro whore...)


I got my name in lights with notcelebrity.co.uk

Shows to see:

Little Howard and the Magic Pencil of Life and Death.
Fran & Roxanne - Room For Rent
The House of Anomalous
Take The L out of Lover
Deborah Frances-White’s "How to get almost anyone to want to sleep with you"
Axis of Awesome
Alien Sex Party
Eaton Alive
A Record or an OBE
Every Film Ever Made
Comicide: Death by Funny
Andrew McLelland’s Guide to being a Modern Gentleman
So You Drink? You Can Dance!
Comic Book Funny

Have a great festival everyone - and if you see me with a stupid grin on my face, dancing at the Trades Hall or drinking at the Hi Fi or Flyering on the street - come up and say hi. Most likely - you’ll get a hug.

p.s. keep an ear out for the term "Comedy Slapdown"

Judge bans Underbelly in Victoria

"A Supreme Court judge has banned Channel Nine from broadcasting the gangland TV series Underbelly - which was due to premiere tomorrow - in Victoria or on the internet."

so anyway who wants to look at some drawings instead?

I've posted a whole bunch of chicken scratchings and doodles that I've collected over the years onto my flickr site - enjoy...

Ok. Here's what it's all about...

"In the riveting opening scenes of Underbelly, Screentime's dramatisation of Melbourne's gangland war, the so-called "black prince of Lygon Street", Alphonse Gangitano (Vince Colosimo), violently kills Greg Workman (Lliam Amor) to settle a bad debt." - from an article in the SMH by Michael Idato



Shooting this episode was intense. To be part of something so well crafted - from the sharp, black script to the level of focus of all involved was an incredibly satisfying experience. The fight scene in particular was gruelling and getting shot was...errr an interesting moment to say the least. The show airs on Channel 9 on Wednesday 13th February at 8.30pm. You can see a glimpse of it earlier online at the website:

Long time between posts again - apologies.

First up - a recent trip to Sydney for a corporate job and a birthday visit bought me in contact with friends and improvisers from far and wide and I saw the IA Cranston Cup Grand Final which was a hoot. Wizard's Finger won the night in a spectacular show of physical and verbal dexterity (and some natty ties)... but all the teams showed off their prowess onstage - much laughter from the audience reminding me again what a great theatre the Enmore is when it's full of happy punters.

I've had a few auditions recently and I'm still waiting to hear back about an ad shooting next
week (would be nice to get) otherwise I'm plying my wares on the corporate circuit at the moment. From the Regent Ballroom to the MCG, to the Fed square, businessmen and women have enjoyed me after entree and before mains...

The Illustrator in me is feeling very rusty at the moment - I have done a few design projects for friends:

...but I haven't sat down with a pen in hand for what seems like years... time to just sketch methinks.

Ok so here's the fanboy in me sneaking out again. Looks great but boy - he's looking beat now isn't he?


Have been watching:
30 Rock
AD/BC
Green Wing
SCTV
Bedazzled
What's New Pussycat?
Rankin Bass specials

Listening to:
The Octopus Project
Sufjan Stevens
Mod Jazz
Christmas music (the kids insist...well, all right just one more cd)
Rodney Hunter
Pee Wee Herman
Special mixed CDs brewed in collusion...

I predict another entry before Christmas... but just in case... Merry Christmas everyone.