Monthly Archives: March 2011
April Fools Day Comedy Show tonight in West End!
As soon as I saw the amazing Ice Cream Factory space in West End, I was mega inspired. It’s a very funky, New York City slice right in the middle of my favourite Brissie hub of all, West End.
So the fact we get to perform there tonight is very cool indeed. I’m a little curious (slash nervous!) about how it’s gonna run in a space that’s really designed for circus, but in some ways, having to march boldly into the unknown just seems kinda perfect given that that’s what improv is really all about.
Would love to see you there – a new venue means a new reason to celebrate! And you know, with bullying, neurology appointments (for my daughter) and more, it’s been quite a week. I’m looking forward to just forgetting all the crap and PLAYING!
xxx
What: April Fools Day Comedy Show with Gumball Theatre
Where: The Ice Cream Factory, 35 Mollison St, West End (opp Three Monkeys)
When: Friday April 1st, 8pm
Tix: $10 at the door
Operation Focus! Ideas & Projects for the Coming Year
Small Hands Big Hearts
I’m so excited to announce the start of a whole new project – the one I’ve been teasing you about in mild amounts, the one that’s on my bucket list, etc. etc. My sister-in-law and I have started up a new undertaking called ‘Small Hands, Big Hearts‘, focusing on working with our kids to make a difference in the world. We’ve got HUGE dreams for this thing – not the least of which is a not-too-distant trip abroad with the kidlets to do some volunteering, plus some other very cool ideas (if anything our problem right now is just being overwhelmed with both the need in the world and the possibilities) but anyhoo, we’ve made a start with the new world-changing device…the humble blog. You can check out deets over here.
Writing a Humorous Parenting Column
I am itching to land myself a column, itching, I tell you! Ever since writing one in Canada – what a brilliant experience that was – and really seeing for myself how much the discipline of a weekly deadline did for my creative output (not to mention actually fuelling my life even moreso with the lens of a writer’s eye), I’ve been wanting to get back on that horse.
Sitcom
So I’ve had this idea buzzing round in my little ole head for a while now; we have a fantastic location to shoot it in too (taking more than a passing note of advice from Rob Rodriguez’s “Rebel Without a Crew”, where he advises creating production value out of what you’ve already got access to!) – I need to just set a deadline to shoot the pilot and make the rest happen. Deadlines, people. The secret is deadlines.
Comedy and Fringe Festivals
I am making a conscious effort to focus the performing side of my work from this point onward on the festival scene. It works better for my work AND my family. Ding! Ding! I will be applying for lots and lots of festivals for 2012! On my radar include Sydney Fringe, Melbourne Fringe, Brisbane Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, New Zealand Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, Hollywood Fringe, New York Fringe…it’s all a bit mad, really. But my philosophy is to apply for them, see which ones stick and go from there. Very. Damn. Exciting. (And expensive). But for now, let’s just focus on exciting.
Travelling abroad
I’ve got the LA trip coming up this year (still unsure of the timing on that one right now – may well be July/August, but depends on some extra funds! Otherwise there’s a small possibility we might make it over later in the year, will see!) I’m also desperately trying to see if I can swing a stint in London and/or Edinburgh this year to check out Edinburgh Festival and do a few guest spots while I’m at it. I made some rather nice connections at Adelaide Fringe with folks who offered to hook me up with some comedy spots over in London town, so am very keen to make it happen if possible!
Comedy Cabaret in West End
I’m very excited about this idea – it’s one I’d just toyed with i.e. running a variety cabaret night where I can MC it, experiment with my solo improv stuff (including musical improv) in the process, and encourage really experimental and cool different acts, from characters to performance poetry and everything in between. Anyhoo, thanks to some encouragement from fellow creative peeps, this idea has gathered unexpected early momentum and thus is gonna be taking shape very, very soon, kicking off in fact, with the first one as part of the very cool indeed Anywhere Festival! Save the date (if you’re in Brizzles, if not, carry on…) Saturday May 7th. It’s gonna be grand.
Tour bus
Not that this is necessarily on my agenda in the immediate future, but hot DAMN. I want a family friendly tour bus. On every continent. It is my DREAM……!!! Slobber, slobber, gurgle…
I have many more ideas actually. But I think this is quite enough for right now.
What about you? What ideas are prodding at you, making your tummy rumble and your hair stand on end?
Bullying: a personal tale
I have never publicly written or really even spoken about a couple of rather traumatic years in my primary school years, where I was bullied to the point of wanting to kill myself.
Why?
I guess because the main culprit did indeed apologise profusely (upon having my grandma finally discover what had been going on and confront said person and her mother about it) and then cease and desist from that point onwards. Indeed we’re even – some twenty years later – friends now. Not in the catch-up-every-week sense, but we stay in touch on facebook and when we’ve seen each other in person we’ve been all good.
Moreover, I actually feel like having gone through that has – insert cheese here – made me a better person. I have never, nor will I ever, treat anybody the way I was treated. Who knows? Maybe that wouldn’t be the case hadn’t I experienced the brunt of the popularity-cult-of-acceptable-schoolyard-bullying early on. It was also, I think, a key part in me discovering the funny side of my personality. When I emerged from the bullying phase, I was quick to discover that by cracking jokes I made friends quite easily. Perhaps I even owe some of this early trouble to my comedy career.
That is, I seem to have a happy ending, so to go back and delve into the foulness before happy-times seems unfair. She regretted what happened, and stopped doing it. It was two decades ago. I forgave and moved on.
But now I feel that I HAVE to come out and talk about it, namely cos it contextualises an event that happened yesterday to my own children. An event that makes me SO FREAKING ANGRY, SAD AND UPSET THAT I CAN BARELY TYPE.
So…somewhere in grade 5 or so, my “best friend” and I “broke up”. What followed was nearly two years of being avoided at lunch-times, being prank called at home during this ex-friend’s slumber parties, being told “Jenny, you’re pretty. Pretty ugly!” and seeing my grandmother’s horror when I asked her innocently what a lesbian was. Because they’d told me I was one.
There was more but most of all I remember the thought: “what is so wrong with me that everybody hates me?”
I have diary entries from that exact time where I literally write of wanting to end my life. I was ten.
So yesterday, my 8-year-old and 6-year-old went to check the mail.
What they brought in (and fortunately, proceeded to show us immediately) was two pages of drawings of nude people – with very detailed genitals – labelled with my kids names. And with an extra note saying that they hoped my kids liked them and calling my daughter a bitch.
What do you even do with that?
We are doing what we can. But whatever happens from this point, the thing that makes me so incredibly upset inside is that already, from having seen that, damage has been done. My kids have been hurt and my heart is aching for them. I want to make it right. But even if things are rectified, if the culprit apologises and makes peace, if my kids forgive, the fact remains that damage has been done.
And it makes me sick to my stomach.
Image courtesy of Eddie-S
My 10 Show Wishlist @ Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2011
So I was flirting for a little while there with the idea of going down to Melbourne to do some spots at this year’s Comedy Festival. For the moment it looks like it’s not gonna happen sadly (family, money, etc) but I’ve decided to post on here my top 10 shows I WOULD be seeing,were I setting foot down that way.
In no particular order…
1. Reggie Watts – ever since I heard that the man improvises songs using loop pedals (one of which I bought a coupla years ago in Canada and then proceeded to not get out of the damn cupboard!), I have been DYING to see him live.
2. Marc Maron – a good friend of mine put me onto the WTF podcast and ever since I’ve been a fan. I love his mind, especially the fact that he’s willing to be so real with his listeners and interviewees, and they seem to return the favour.
3. Jen Brister is British-ish – she was one of my fave finds at Adelaide Fringe Festival (and my fellow performer in Titters). I’m bummed I missed her whole show there, I’ve heard it’s brilliant.
4. Late Night Improv – cos I’m an impro junkie. Next.
5. The Crimson Goat Cabaret Club – even just by the name alone, I think I’d love this.
6. David O’Doherty – a musical comic after my own heart, I bumped into the man himself just outside a hotel in Montreal where he was lovely and friendly, despite literally wiping the sleep out of his eyes. Dear man. Have yet to see him live.
7. Doctor Brown – cos I meant to see this in Adelaide (after hearing umpteen people raving about it) and missed it. It sounds very unique and very cool!
8. The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church by Daniel Kitson – have heard it is JAWSOME.
9. Sexy Time - I spun out completely when I saw the promo for this at Adelaide Fringe, namely cos I recognised the stars: as two adorable former students of an acting school I used to manage! Of course that was eons ago – and here they are, all grown up and doing awesome comedy stuff. They guested at the finale of Titters and so I was privy to a 10 minute excerpt of this show – freaking HILARIOUS. Super physical, very different, and so damn funny. I want to see the full thing!!!
10. Girls Night- namely cos if the timing had worked out I’d be in it (sadly not to be this time around!) and cos it features some of the funniest ladies around, many of whom I had the great privilege of working with in Ads. Rock the casbah.
Also an honorary nod to one show which I would most definitely see had I not already done so recently, Hannah Gadsby’s Mrs Chuckles. Man I love that woman.
So there you have it. That’s what I WOULD be doing.
Now excuse me.
WAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!
Half the Sky
So you remember a little while ago how I said that something very exciting was in the air, change was a’comin, and so on, and so on?
Remember?
What, no? You mean you don’t just HANG OFF EVERY WORD I TYPE?!?!?! What the heck is wrong with you?
Anyhoo, point is: it is.
And yes, it has to do with my bucket list.
Deets to follow very, very shortly – but for now, let me give you a hint/piece of advice.
GO GET THIS BOOK. Pronto.
(Please.)
Video of the “You’re the Voice” Comedy All Star Band Thang at Adelaide Fringe!
As promised! (I do keep a few of them, you know.)
Note: the actual crowd surf itself is documented in fleeting form, however the point is it is documented and for that I am very very happy. Huge thanks to the lovely fellow mama comic in crime Kate Burr (or more specifically, her very nice hubby) for filming!!
Adelaide Fringe Festival Update 3 (or “No More Moshpits for Mummy”)
I really don’t know how rockstars do it. And more importantly, why they need cocaine.
Seriously, I was SO ridiculously adrenalin filled Saturday night, that I could not sleep more than a total of 4 hours over the next two days, no matter how hard my mind begged me to “do the sensible thing.”
“Why?” you ask. “Why were you so chockers with adrenalin, young gelfling?”
Well, dear darling, isn’t it obvious? Because for the first time in my life…
I CROWD SURFED.
There I was, super pumped, competely done up in some bizarre “Kiss meets David Bowie at a circus” facepaint (only cos I wanted to: duh) ready to close the show at the late night All-Star Comedy Rock Band Thang in the Garden of Unearthly Delights, when it struck me how very envious I am of musos who get to enjoy the whole experience of an adoring crowd moshing their hearts out.
So…when I finally graced the stage, I urged the crowd to come forward and to my complete delight, three people took me up on it. Yes. Three.
Hey. Even the Beatles had to start somewhere.
The song began. More people descended. And more. And more. Until there were, I am not kidding you, at least EIGHT people moshing.
Yes, oh yes. Such is the thrill that I inspire.
Around halfway through the song, I asked them to stand closer and get ready to catch me, then ran madly towards them only to chicken out at the last minute. I was the Baby to their Johnny. (If you get that, Ding, Ding, Ding! We are officially friends) only to look at my lovely Eight, the crazy Eight, the magical Eight, who kept their hands outstretched, smiled up at me nodding and called out “Come on! Come on!”
“Really?” I said.
They nodded eagerly.
“What the heck?” I thought and off I floated into their wonderful arms, all sixteen of them, all the while still holding the mic and somehow still singing “Whoa!!!! Whoa!!!!”
I have never felt so elated in my entire life.
And so in need of a physiotherapist.
Seriously: up there in the top 5 HIGHLIGHTS OF MY LIFE.
Now of course, my kids can never complain again about me. Ever.
Upon arriving home, my son told me about a boy in his class that had yelled at him.
“Well,” I said. “You just tell him that your mum jumped on a moshpit.”
My daughter told me that a teacher had pulled her up on having a hole in her tights and told her she looked scruffy.
“Well,” I said. “You just tell her that your mum jumped on a moshpit.”
“Mum,” she said, looking mortified. “You shouldn’t jump on your audience. Now promise me you’ll never ever do that again!”
As if I have a choice.
Bless.
*Note: this was video recorded!! AGH! My copy of it sees me drop out of frame at the pivotal moment, though apparently somebody else was recording it, is gonna upload it to youtube and send me the link. If and when this happens, will let you know so you can enjoy this particular brand of awesome.
Adelaide Fringe Update: Guesting @ All-Star Comedy Band Thang
Another fringe, another dream come true.
Otherwise known as my opportunity to FINALLY strut my stuff singing a John Farnham rock ballad.
AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Tomorrow night, very very late: 12.30am in fact. In the Garden of Unearthly Delights. Details here.
Come along! Say hi! Buy me a drink! (No really. Am running out of $$).
xx
