Archive for 2009

Linky Update – Two projects and some ego press

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Birthday Cats

catty

A song / video produced for JibJab by me and Dave. This is the second version (they hated the first version), and I thought up the rough idea for the video in Old Street tube station 1hr before the first Sickipedia night. I was waving my fingers around going, “it could be like this!”. For the actual production Dave drew some lovely kittens, we stuck them to his hands and I tried to keep the camera still so I’d be able to edit it together. BTW: My favourite line in this is “Happy Birthday, it’s catty purrday!” which comes from a joke I have with my 4 year old son about giving our cat Rocky a birthday.

Watch ‘Birthday Cats’


Alien at the Bottom of the Garden

alien

To support a Channel 4 TV program Generation XXL – about overweight children – C4 asked me to produce a tamagotchi style game on didn’t mock the subject matter. A pretty difficult brief for me so I dragged in Matt Round and it was his brilliant insight that making the main character an alien would solve many of the problems. Well done Matt!

Play ‘Alien at the Bottom of the Garden’


Ego press – not sure why but there was a tiny flurry of mentions of B3ta and myself in the press at the end of 2009.

Sickipedia Comedy Night 2.0 – 9th Dec

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

Sickipedia 2.0

The night that should NEVER happen is back…

With the first one being a success, the Ents Manager, Russ Tannen has invited us back. To be honest I’m shitting myself even more the second time around – I spent most of the time with my head in my hands going, “please don’t say anything that’ll get me beaten up and thrown out.”

Sticking people on stage is anxiety making in the extreme. Will these people sink? Will these people swim? How do I get people on and off stage effectively? How do I stop people who who hog the mic and won’t go? Last time I was advised to use a torch in peoples eyes which was as about effective as a mouse going squeak.

So the plan is as before – ask the B3tans and Sickipedians (and anyone reading really) who fancies doing a 5 minute turn. People who have never tried this before are welcome, so get in touch asap if you fancy it.

  • Location – The Old Blue Last, 38 Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch, London, EC2A 3ES. Google map.
  • Date – 8pm, weds, 9th December
  • Nearest tube: Old Street
  • Capacity, about 100
  • Facebook event

The Line Up So Far…

Mushy Bees (returning) – triumphant from his debut at the first comedy night we did, is our favourite arty tranny. We also invited Mushy to our birthday but he can’t make it as he proved so popular at the first night he’s got a booking that clashes. Still, he can make our comedy night and that’s the important thing. mushybees.com

Dan Pearce (new) – Aged 27 and from London, ‘Reason I am doing this: A drunk conversation with mates where I might have said “how hard can stand-up actually be?’ So now I am going to be made to eat my words!”

Boyce Bailey (new) “I’m 34. I work for a financial training company doing design. I like to brew cider, which doesn’t come out half a rough as you’d expect. It’s better than all pub and shop bought stuff. If you can cook, you can brew.”

Michael J (new) – “I’m 18, from Hertfordshire and still at school but work part time in a newsagents.”

David Stevenson (returning) – I work with David doing both B3ta projects (he co-writes the newsletter), and also Dave does a lot of illustration stuff on the other commercial work I do. Dave also is doing the comedy circuit and can be found most weeks in various London clubs. www.david-stevenson.com.

Jewish Nazi (returning) – “I’m a fencing erecter – neither Jewish or Nazi but I am circumsized and have a swastika scarred into my left butt cheek.”

Joel Veitch (returning) – of rathergood.com fame, Joel promises to do ruder jokes this time as last time he was concerned that we were filming it and was worried about what might end up on Youtube. To be clear, if we film anything then we will put nothing online unless we have the individuals express permission. www.rathergood.com.

tricyclic_looper (returning) – “born in the cultural wasteland of Essex, and currently resides in the literal wasteland of East London. After discovering the sick joke website Sickipedia, he found a convenient receptacle in which to pour his bile, hatred and rampant misanthropy with disturbingly compulsive regularity. tricyclic_looper hopes his return to the jungles of Shoreditch will be less ignominious than Jordan’s.” View sickipedia profile.

Nick James (new) – “Londoner. Late twenties, late developer, latent homosexual. I went to the first Sickipedia night and had a laugh at some of the acts. I thought I could probably do better than some of the others though.” He he – the challenge is on!

Richard Tingley (new) – best known to me as Bovine from the B3ta boards, Richard has recently been running a video blog which with it’s mixture of jokes and confessional I’m finding rather compelling. I reckon there’s a independent film in it somewhere. Very pleased Richard has agreed to join in our silly plans. Watch Richard on Youtube.

Robert Auton (new) – “I’m a stand up poet. I’m 27. I live in Walthamstow. I shared a dressing room with Lionel Blair at this years Edinburgh festival, an experience I will take to the grave with me.”

Jay Rolfe (new) – “I’m 23 and from Surrey” writes Jay. He also works in TV as a runner.

Jeremy Gomez (new) – “40s, Brick Lane, Minicab driver, learnt English by listening to Radio 4.”

Mike Rampton (new) – “I’m 26, a journalist, and in London. I used to be called mike on b3ta way back in the day.”

David Schaal (new) – “Just for your information, I play Jay’s dad Terry Cartwright in The Inbetweeners.”

If YOU fancy doing a turn then please get in touch ASAP with me at robmanuel at gmail dot com

Sickipedia videos

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

One of the interesting people who got in touch over the Sickpedia Comedy Night was Joe Rigby who asked for permission to film it. Everything was last minute and a bit rushed and I didn’t expect a bloke to turn up with a proper camera asking how he could plug it into the PA. I.e. he knew what he was doing, unlike me.

Today he’s sent me four lovely videos. (He recorded many more but I don’t want to swamp you with this stuff.)

Mushy Bees

First up is Mushy Bees who did an extraordinary act that was the magic combination of being both original and funny. He’s never been on stage before and you can commission him to do his lovely art work via his site.

Richard Tyrone Jones

Richard is an old hand at this stuff and also has a book out. Richard did two short sets, I particularly loved the first but he doesn’t want it online so I’m going with the second. You can also stalk him via his facebook page.

Tricyclic Looper

Tric is one of our highest scoring sickipedian who crafts all his own gags on the site. He’s also dreadfully interesting to talk to about what makes gags vote highly. Read his jokes here.

Wylis

Wylis came down all the way from Leeds to join us. Read his jokes here.