Old and New

My new comedy moniker, Elephant Empire, is up with Vimeo's slick service. I was able to check off "create a sketch comedy pilot" from my list of things to do. I envisioned the shows format as a short film told in three acts with silly sketches filling the intermissions.

Spacefighters from Nemo Dally on Vimeo.

Director's Commentary:
It's fun to watch and remember where each cockpit was shot. From my bedroom, to the stage at Unit 102, to the floor of Swindle's kitchen.

Yes, that is an old travel battleship on the right.

Those glasses on Whizzticket and the helmet are so key to this scene. Both were provided out of nowhere by Laroo.

Watching on a high quality TV hurt the production. You could see the texture and tones of various bedsheets providing outer space.

I'm always impressed by Triggs' performance as the Commander. There are countless outtakes of him yelling in error. I also love what he does with his cheek at 1:43.

The scene is missing a sound engineer. It needs the wonderful sounds of spacefighters and some orchestrated battle music to drop out and highlight the punchlines.

I'm a big fan of elaborate set ups for quick shots. I look forward to Mar-mar ya-natawan every time.

I really like my video game ship design. I love pixel art. It added a nice final layer to the scene.

Also, I stumbled upon some of my gifs from the old Ghost Robot website's menu. I quite like my only foray into animation. On the old site they would show the ghost and activate into the word upon mouseover but I don't have the time to find and test the javascript. For a superior look you're better off downloading them. It's worth it. They're adorable.

Jokesmith

I had a great phone call with Simon who is still in Australia. He's finally going to do some stand up and we were talking about his set. I was surprised that he had chosen a "one-liner" style (because I laugh most often when he tells story). He sent me a list of one-liners so we could discuss them. It's neat to talk jokes with someone who appreciates the nuances of subtle wording and predicting the audience's response. It's inspired me to create some material in the same style to see what he thinks of my make-em-laughs.


As I think about never meeting you, my Great Great Grand, I realize that this journal has gone on for a long time without me proving how funny I am. Humour is an enormous part of my life -reaching into history, future and present personality.

I have to get writing these jokes right now. But in my next post I'll breakdown what I consider to be my comedy skills.
-Visions of reactions
-Storytelling
-Confidence/Quickness
-My style
I'll also write about what I think can be trained and what develops accidentally.

Maybe this will lead to a larger series of posts about my strengths and weaknesses. You can tell me if they carry down through DNA. I would say they don't -I'm completely Nurture over Nature. I think everything comes from upbringing and there is no natural talent. But I'm dead, right? You're free to think what you will.

Stand Up or Sit Down

I was booked to perform stand up comedy for a fundrasier next week. Now it has been revealed to me that it is, in fact, tomorrow. The best part is that the event is organized by my improv coach from way back in high school. In aeronautics, his enthusiasm is a dragonfly and his organizational skills are the Hindenburg.

But metaphors-that-involve-tragic-disasters aside, I started to panic. I was secretly hoping he would excuse me from doing the show. Then I asked myself: is this really a big deal? I have about two days to prep, what, fifteen minutes of stand up? So now I'm sitting here and joking with myself. It's too rainy to complete my material generating ritual (I usually walk around the block and mutter to myself).

Worst case scenario I can include some old material. That's a personal problem for me since I like to do new material every time. But, then again, I'll be performing in Erin, Ontario and it'll be new for them...

Topics that may make the cut:
-waiting to turn left
-how when girls "play" they imagine reconstructing boring ol' reality (lets play school! lets play office, I'm waiting for my email to download! Yay!)
-witch burning
and perchance some older material
-basketball show offs
-shark attack
topics that are working their way from the minors
-watching witch burning
-don't talk while the tv is talking to us

Look at all that crap. Took me five minutes. I'm fine. I'm golden fine.