Puppet Up Down Under 2014 – April 21, 2014 – Goodbye Melbourne
A day off.
Today we have a day off and it is our final day in Melbourne. I started the day by sleeping in pretty late. Later than I have in past days. I then got up and went down to the gym and ran on the treadmill and lifted weights. Afterwords, I went back up to my room to shower and get ready to go look for some food with Dan. Brian woke up and decided to join us so we went and had some lunch. After lunch I struck out in the city on my own. I walked around a bit, filmed a Vine or two with Uncle Interloper, and then went and picked up a few props I needed for an Uncle Interloper idea I’ve had for a while. Then I headed back to the hotel room for a bit.
Once I got back to our hotel, I decided to film the Uncle Interloper Vine that I had bought props for. Brian was on a phone call in his room, so I was glad that no one was around to see me film is Vine. Partly because of the position I had to get into to film it, and partly because whenever I film something like this I do a million takes. Take 2 was probably perfect, but I need to do a million of them because on little thing will be wrong in the shot. I’d be a horrible movie director. I’d be over budget the first day. At any rate, I am now one of those people who have spent way too much money on a six second Vine.
Finally getting the take right, I just spent some time in my room doing some writing and answering some email.
There was sort of an unofficial plan that everybody would go out to dinner around 5:30 PM, I had a Vine idea and I needed Brian’s help with it so we planned on leaving the hotel a little early to go film it. There is a street near our hotel called Hoiser Lane. It’s really neat and that all the walls of this, basically, alleyway, are covered with really impressive works of graffiti. So Brian and I went down there and we filmed an Uncle Interloper Vine in that alleyway. It was cool saying all the different kinds of graffiti all over the place. The alley was filled with a ton of other tourists who were all there taking pictures of all the different graffiti designs.
After filming the Vine and walking around for a bit, we went over to the restaurant. I was immediately not enamored with the restaurant. The maître d’ at the front door was extremely rude to me when I went up to put our name in for a table. . I brushed it off, but then when we went to be seated the maître d’ had told us he would get two booths instead we said nine people around one tiny booth. When I said that the maître d’ had told us we could get to booths the server said that was impossible. So then we sat down in this tiny little booth and looked over the menu.
This is a very, very hip restaurant. There’s lines out the door. But it’s one of those places where you don’t get a lot of food but you pay over $30 for the food that you do get. I can usually hang at places like that but this was one of those restaurants where there would be one ingredient that would throw the whole dish off. This is not an example from the restaurant but it’s the same idea: grilled chicken, with mashed potatoes, and squid sauce poured all over it. That’s kind of thing. So there was nothing really enticing to me on the menu. Patrick had to leave the meal early because he was meeting another performer from the comedy Festival, so I decided I would leave with him and find my own food.
I walked around a bit and then went to an Indian restaurant that I had gone to the first week we had gotten here. I had a great dinner on my own and just kind of enjoyed my last night in Melbourne. After that I just headed back to the hotel and started to organize my stuff for our departure tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow we had the Brisbane!
I’m going to miss Melbourne a lot.
Puppet Up Down Under – April 20, 2014 – Melbourne Finale
Before I get started on today, I forgot to mention something else about last night. After the pump it up show, then I went to go see another show that is part of the Melbourne international comedy Festival. We went to see a standup comedy show. Featured three comics from United States. I have seen a lot of standup so the show was not incredibly hilarious. The final comedian of the evening was pretty good and had me and Dan both cracking up.
This morning I woke up to the sound of Brian bustling around in our kitchen. He was getting ready to meet up with Dan because Brian has decided that Dan needs a haircut and the two of them were going to go out and get a haircut today. I got ready to go and leave with them, not to get a haircut but just to go get lunch.
As they were having their “spa day”I walked around the city and found a nice place to have lunch. Then I walked around downtown a little bit more and then headed back to the hotel. I did some writing, some email and worked on my song improv for a bit. Then I had to vacate the room so housekeeping could clean it. I sat down in the lobby and continue to write and then Dan and Brian arrived with their new haircuts Intel. Their haircuts are the top of the company.
Then, after housekeeping was done, it went back up to our room. Brian continued working on his project well I took a nap. And then we got ready to get over to the field
Tonight was our final show in conjunction with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. It was another fun show. The hotdogs went skydiving, we took a carpool trip to Tipperary, I saying my jamboree song about monkey, I guy in the front row who was wearing a Robin (from Batman) style mask. it went pretty well. I got a few more laughs and then last night. Excited to work on it even more in front of a crowd and get it even. and of course the aliens saying their barbershop song, this time about leg waxing.
I wax my legs
They look good in a skirt
It’s really worth it
But it fucking hurts
After the show, we went out and took Facebook photos with people in the lobby. then, sadly, it was time to pack up all the puppets and starts taking down the set getting ready for our trip to Brisbane. I’m really happy that we get a day off tomorrow in Melbourne. It’s kind of like an extra chance to say goodbye to this amazing city.
After getting her stuff back to the hotel, a group of us met up and went out for dinner. We then went to a place called the Hi-Fi for the closing night party for the festival. They had a DJ playing music and everyone was having fun. Then all of a sudden the lights went out and the band took the stage. There was sort of a Quentin Tarantino team to the party and the band was called the Tarantino’s. They played only songs from Quentin Tarantino movies. While I admired the concept, they totally killed the vibe of the party so, Patrick and I left.
And that will bring to an end our penultimate day here in Melbourne.
Puppet Up Down Under 2014 – April 19, 2014 – Debut
This morning started by getting up at 9:00 AM and quickly getting ready to head out to Federation Square with Dan. We were finally going to go see the show we had been meaning to see all week. The show is a children’s show called Luck Child. It is a one man show performed by David Collins who is one half of the group the Umbilical Brothers. I’m so glad we finally got to see this show. It was incredible. It was filled with physical comedy, sound effects, and a cardboard set that just inspired me to be creative. David had the entire room in the palm of his hand the entire show. If luck child is playing anywhere near you, and unless you live in Australia I don’t think it is, you must go see it. It is 40 minutes of just pure fun.
After we got back from the show, I went and worked out down in the gym. Then I started work rehearsing on my song improv which was set to debut in tonight’s show. Brian has been really amazing and helping me prepare for the songs debut. It would not be in the shape it was and if it weren’t for him. I also have to give a huge amount of thanks to Dan Ring who came up with an amazing track for me to sing too. It is exactly what I wanted and even better then I could have imagined.
After the Toronto tour, Patrick told me that I should start thinking about doing a song improv in the show. I tossed around a few ideas, a country western song, and 80s rock song, but nothing really struck me as being THE right song.
Before the Australia tour there was a small US tour, which you know about if you are a regular reader of this blog. We had a night off in Park city, Utah, and one night we were having dinner in this restaurant and I went to use the restroom. Well I was in the restroom a song came over the speakers that I had never heard before. It was just a really great Americana style folksong. But I could tell that it was recorded relatively recently. I remember the lyrics and later did a Google search and found out that the song was called old Dan Tucker and it was by Bruce Springsteen. It was a cover of an old Pete Seger song which in itself was a cover of an old traditional folk song. I bought the song from iTunes and listen to it on repeat. I then started thinking that it might be fun for the song improv to be a song about an audience member but turned into one of those classic American folk songs about John Henry, Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, and Pecos Bill. And that is what it has become.
During tonight’s show I sang the song about Josh the lawyer in the front row. The thing I love about this song is that it is not a solo song. The entire cast gets involved singing backup and doing some hilarious choreography. To me it’s sort of reminiscent of emmet otter, because I’m using the beaver and everyone else is using woodland creature puppets. There’s a lot of banjo and fiddle and singing together just like in a good old country song. And Brian does these little spoken interludes in between each of the verses that are just totally hilarious. The main thing I love about it is that everyone is up there with me. It’s more of a group piece that I am leading. I had posted on Facebook earlier in the day that I was a little nervous about the song debuting tonight. Peggy replied that they would all have my back up there. And it really did feel that way.
By the end of the song the entire audience with singing along about the guy in the front row. I even had the beaver tell the guy to stand up and give her wave and he did. It was a lot of fun. It’s good that I now have one time of the song in front of the audience under my belt. Now I can just work on making it better and making it funnier. Again I huge thanks to the rest of the cast for having my back, Dan for making such an amazing track. And especially for Patrick in believing in me to do the song improv.
The rest of the show was really hilarious. The Hot Dogs were in jail for being naughty and saucy, we played the game show called ‘That’s Not Your Car!”, and Brian and Allan did some amazing puppetry and had their puppet doing handstands! Of course the Alien Barbershop was in there and the subject was boobs.
I like your boobs,
You have a nice rack.
And my favorite one,
Is the one on your back.
After the show we had a fun little get together to thank the cast and crew of the Princess Theatre who have been utterly amazing. We will miss them when we are gone. Tomorrow is the last show here in Melbourne. Can’t wait to do it all again tomorrow and then see what adventure awaits in Brisbane.
Creative Mondays #016 – Become a utility player.
Here’s another aspect of creativity that I believe is important. That is being a utility player. It’s a sports term and it means someone who is able to play many different positions competently. So, in you art and your creativity, you should strive to become a utility player. I’ll admit this concept may not apply to all fields of creativity, but I think it’s generally a good rule to have in life. The concept is, be good at many different aspects of your field so those in charge have a ton of options to plug you in anywhere. This will show that you can really do anything and it will give you more opportunities to make money.
I first stumbled upon this idea when I started doing my comedy songs at open mic nights in San Francisco. I was a young comedy songwriter who just started going to comedy open mics to play my songs. I started with comedy open mice because I was singing comedy songs, but at the first ‘mixed’ open mic I attended, an open in mic where there was comedy and music and poetry, I realized I could start going to strictly music open mice as well. I found I’d do pretty well at either comedy open mice or music open mice because my act was so different from what else was going on that night. At comedy open mice I stood out because I did funny songs where everyone else was doing straight stand up. At music open mice I stood out because I was doing funny songs when everyone else was doing serious straight songs. This discovery led me to being booked on all sorts of shows because I could fit in with whatever else was going on on the bill. I learned to be a utility player, fit in as many different places you can. You’ll get booked more.
And don’t worry about bing someone who’s just starting out. I think that’s the best time to become a utility player. You aren’t pigeon holed into just being able to do one thing. This concept has really hit home with my work with Puppet Up! Uncensored. When it comes to Puppet Up! I try to be the best utility player I can be and I started the moment I began working with the company. When I was strong enough to do my first shows, I eagerly learned the part in the opening and closing numbers I was in. I learned it to the best of my ability. The next time I was asked to be in a show, they put me in a completely different part in the opening and closing. Instead of complaining, I shut up and learned it and did it to the best of my ability. Next time I was asked to go into another slot and I did it gratefully and willingly. Now there are three different spots in the opening where I can be plugged in. (And I’ve been working on a fourth on my own.)
In the show we have two recreations, I’ve Grown Accustomed To Your Face and Java. When I was asked to learn the spot of Demon Head in Face, I jumped at it. Then I was asked to try out Big Java in Java. Again, no hesitation, I jumped on it. Then I was asked if I wanted to try Lady Singer in Face. You’d better believe I said yes. Same thing with using the Henson Digital Puppetry Studio in that segment of the show. I’ve never been trained on it officially but I’ve fooled around with it enough to be able to do a passable job, so now I can be plugged in there. On top of all this, I was once asked to host the show. A big task, but instead of waffling and saying I was unsure, I shut up, said yes, and did it to the best of my ability. I did a passable job and now have been asked to host the show several times now. By saying yes I created yet another spot in the show I could be plugged in.
All this saying yes came to a head recently where at one of our shows, a performer became ill moments before we started. After a bit of nervousness about this the show worked, Patrick asked who could do certain parts of the show. I was able to say test to just about everything and was able to perform many different roles. I wasn’t really nervous because they were all roles I’d played before and it was a true testament to becoming a utility player.
By eagerly and happily becoming a utility player, you will open yourself up to many more opportunities rather than just specializing on one thing.
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Are you a utility player? Tell us about where you can be plugged in to many different spots in your field in the comments below!