Dear friends near and far,

A big fat hello from New Zealand, where I’m currently in Wellington performing “Forest of Dreams” with my furry friend Heath McIvor. It’s my first time in NZ and as such we were keen to make a good impression, so we took the forest creatures out for a bit of a sightseeing trip ...

We were a little worried on opening night that we’d forget our lines (or at least the puppets would), as it’s been a little while since we’ve been in the forest, but two nights in and we’re now rolling along merrily, felching unicorns and all. I don’t care what the rest of Australia says, those Kiwis are alright. 

Winding the clock back a month, thanks to everyone who made it along to “1999” in Adelaide and Melbourne. I had a fascinating time performing the show as reactions varied from “hey man great show” to “Sammy, that was pretty dark, are you OK?” Turns out schoolyard bullying hit more of a nerve than I was expecting ...

Highlight was definitely seeing many of my old teachers in the crowd, including one from Grade 5 who I managed to catch up with after the show. He fondly recalled how I used to draw cartoons outside the art block and sell them for 50 cents. I remembered this part, but then he reminded me that I also got my best mate James Clarke to be my security guard in case there was ever trouble ... nice to know I’ve been covering my own arse ever since I was ten! “1999” is now in hibernation for a few months before arriving in Edinburgh in August. 

Huge props also to Mr McIvor whose debut solo show, “Randy’s Postcards from Purgatory”, scored rave reviews and a nomination for the Golden Gibbo Award. If you missed it, buy a ticket to Edinburgh now as it’ll be blowing some Scottish socks off come August. 

Also worthy of praise and adoration are Doody and Jase from “Anyone for Tennis” - you may have seen their giant bike-sandwich-board around the Town Hall - whose show “Cutthroat” packed out and earned them an embarrassing amount of fans. If you haven’t heard of these guys, jump on their Facebook / Myspace pages and check them out - you’ll be singing their songs for days (in private of course; they have a very good lawyer). 

Final special mention goes to Vigilantelope, a bunch of ridiculously fun dudes from the local revue scene, whose show also scored a Gibbo Nomination and had people in high places saying all sorts of awesome things. I think I actually slapped my thigh whilst watching their show - piss funny wouldn’t begin to describe it. Stay tuned for a return season from these guys. 

Post comedy festival, Mr McIvor and I are spending an inordinate amount of time living and traveling together this year, much to my wife’s amusement. We have already been mistaken for a gay couple while here in New Zealand as we tend to finish each other’s sentences and laugh uncontrollably at very silly things while out in public.

The next Forest season is in Brisbane for the “In Stitches” Comedy Festival at  QPAC in June, before heading over for a full week in London’s West End, then a return season in Edinburgh, then a frighteningly long UK tour in September. Good news is we’ll have lots of stories to tell you all when we return. Bad news is we may die in the process.  

Here’s the World Tour promo (filmed in London last year):

Closer to home, I’m doing some workshops and discussions as part of the Emerging Writers’ Festival in Melbourne in a few weeks’ time, including one on the writing of 1999 at the Town Hall. Quite arty, I know, but hopefully it’ll be an interesting little session. There’s always the Fingering Song if people start to glaze over ...

Randy himself will be joining me on the Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow throughout June, in NSW and Tassie - should be a hoot. I’ll also be selling the new album “Sticky Digits” while on tour, although why you’d want to carry around a physical copy when you could buy it cheaper on iTunes is anyone’s guess. On that note, thanks to everyone who has purchased and rated it - do tell your friends, or at least the ones who might like it. Here’s the iTunes link:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=306691952&s=143460

So, broadly speaking, that’s my life for the next six months - hope I get to see many of you out and about on this funny old planet of ours. Do drop me a line if you’re ever along to a gig as it’s rather nice putting faces to names. And I like to steal wallets, too. 

I hope 2009 has been, and continues to be, a fulfilling one for you. 

fond regards,

Sammy