Puppet Up Down Under 2014 – April 14, 2014 – Luna Park Too
Woke up to the sun flooding in my room here in beautiful Melbourne. Working out as I have been the past couple of weeks I decided to take a day off. My legs have been really feeling it with all the running and squats I’ve been doing, so today is a rest day and tomorrow back at it.
After showering, Brian, Dan and I went to breakfast at a place called Self Preservation that is right near our hotel. I’ve walked past this place daily on the way to our theatre and they always have the most amazing looking food items in the window. I had three small buttermilk pancakes with fried banana and salted caramel on top. Yeah. Amazing. We had a nice breakfast and then came back to the hotel for a bit where I answered some email and just relaxed.
Around 1:00 PM, Brian and I had to vacate the room for housekeeping so we crashed at Dan’s place for an hour or so. We each had things to do so we stayed out of each other’s hair. I busied myself with watching an episode of Mr. Squiggle. Its a children’s show that Hamish mentioned to me yesterday and it’s one of the longest running shows in Australian TV history. It has some really amazing marionettes in it. The show has a very neat look and there’s a ton of clips on YouTube to check out. Mid you have some time, do a search and see.
Around 3:00 PM, Brian, Peggy, Dan and I hopped a car to Luna Park in Melbourne. It’s very similar to the Luna Park in Sydney but the two are not affiliated. They gave us free passes to ride the rides because we had done that photo shoot there the week we arrived. We road the Scenic Railway with is the longest, continuously running roller coaster in the world. It was built in 1912 and is still running today. We went on it. It was a lot of fun. There’s an actual employee who rides the coaster and acts as a brake-man. They stand the whole time. It’s pretty amazing.
After the Scenic Railway, we were joined by Patrick, Andy, Colleen, Ted, Allan and Julianna. Then we all braved the Ghost Train ride. It’s a classic Dark Ride, built in 1934. The track is the same as the 1934 attraction but the inside is different. It was supposed to be fear inducing, but it was hardly scary at all. I think the most fun thing is that we all went on it, though only two at a time. After that a few of us rode the Ferris Wheel and that wrapped up our day at Luna Park. Glad I was able to get a little Uncle Interloper footage while we were there.
We then walked over to the St. Kilda Breakwater at dusk to see the colony of ‘little penguins’ that nest in the rocks there. We didn’t see a ton of them, guess that happens more during the summer and we are now getting into fall, but we did see a few of the fuzzy birds. It’s a very popular tourist attraction though so I soon had to beg off because tons of people were crowding onto the tiny wooden dock to view them and they were getting quite pushy about it.
Afterwards we all went and had dinner together at a restaurant near the beach and then it was transportation back to the hotel.
All in all, a really fun day off.
Puppet Up Down Under 2014 – April 13, 2014 – Vine
Before I get to the rest of what happened today, I have to add a little bit to what happened last night. After writing yesterday’s tour diary, I was invited to go see Ingrid Elkner, who came and saw the show last night do some busking. For those that don’t know, busking is street performing. So I sought her out and heard her play a song on her ukelele. Then we chatted for a bit and then she went off to her tram and I back to the hotel. As I’ve said before, it’s always fun to hang out and chat with immensely creative people.
So, today, Sunday. Beautiful Sunday morning here in Melbourne. The sun is out and the weather was so great. I got up, hit the treadmill and the gym and then came up to shower. While at the gym my iPhone earbuds were acting weird and it dawned on me that some lint or dirt may be in the earbud jack. A common problem. An online searched revealed three ways to try to fix this issue. 1. Compressed air, which I didn’t have. 2. The end of a paperclip wrapped in tape, which I didn’t have and 3. A trimmed Q-Tip. Which I did have. So I trimmed a Q-Tip and carefully put it in the earphone jack. The remaining cotton on the end of the Sean promptly slid off the stick and was now lodged in the jack. Great. I was soon down at the front desk asking for a paperclip and tape. Luckily they had it and all is now right with the world.
I then headed off to the Parliament Gardens to meet up with a friend from the social media service Vine named Hamish. We had fun walking around and filing some vines with him and Uncle Interloper. I haven’t met many people from Vine in person and I think it’s funny that one of them was here in Australia. It was a great afternoon. Afterwards it was back to the hotel to relax for a bit before our show tonight.
Had a brief meeting with Patrick about the thing Dan and I had been working on. Not to give too much away but a few months ago, Patrick said I should work up a song improv that can be rotated into the show when I’m in it. Dan and I came up with one and, if all goes according to plan, it’ll debut next week! Patrick really liked it and I think it’ll be a fun addition to the show. I’ll keep you posted.
The show tonight was a big ball of fun. From the opening number to the closing it was a ton of fun. The Hot Dogs had a Sex Ed course, a beaver was in labor and had a monster for a child, we heard the story of Jerry’s Bad Day and the Alien Barbershop was on Commercialism.
Commercialism
Just makes me sick.
And I’ll protest it,
After I got to the mall real quick.
After the show we met the folks in the lobby and called it a night. Tomorrow we have a day off and there’s some possibility that we may have some super fun activities involving Penguins. Stay tuned.
Puppet Up Down Under 2014 – April 12, 2014 – Late Show
Today’s schedule is a little but different from the other show day schedules we have had so far. Tonight there’s a televised comedy show, that’s also part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, that’s using the Princess Theatre for a show that ends at 5:00 PM. That means they won’t even be done cleaning up by the time our normal call is. Because of this our show has been pushed back to 8:30 PM. So today is a little more relaxed than normal. Not that our days are ever rushed, but we just have a little more time than normal.
And what a beautiful day it was today in Melbourne. The rain has abated and, though it’s a little cloudy, the sun was out. Perfect day to go out exploring. First though, I went and worked out, running on the treadmill and lifting some weights. Feels so good to get that back into my routine.
After showering, I met up with Dan and we headed out into Melbourne to explore a bit. We walked over to Federation Square which is this really cool part of town. Sort of old and new coming together. There’s a beautiful old church and Flinders Street Station, but then there’s a bit museum to the moving image which is in a really neat building. Lots of people bustling around. We watched some street performers, Dan took a few ‘Danaramas’ and then we pressed on looking for somewhere to eat.
After walking around and looking at all the different food options, we decided on a place called, I believe, Sea Salt. Mostly sea food, but they had regular fare as well. It was one of these places tucked deep in an alleyway here in Melbourne. Love that about this city. We walked around a bit more, then headed back to the hotel to relax a bit.
Got over to the theatre at our call time and got set for soundcheck. The top notch crew of the Princess Theatre had our set all ready to go. It was amazing, not that I doubted them at all, it just a big job. They killed it. It was like the other show never even came in.
We did our soundcheck, ran through the opening,finale and Breezy. Then it was time to get the blacks on for the show.
Tonight’s show was a lot of fun. The crowd seemed to have a little higher class suggestions tonight, though ‘fisting’ still made it in there. The Hot Dogs attempted to out out a fire, the game show was Robbing A Bank, we saw a game of Frisbee Golf mixed with some kinky sex and a reminiscence of a sex change. It was a fun night.
Got to do Alien Barbershop again. The suggestion was: Love Boat.
I watch Love Boat
And my tears start welling
and the man I have to thank
Is that asshole Aaron Spelling.
Best I could come up with in the moment. Of course, immediately after the show I came up with a different take on it, but that’s the nature of the show.
After the show I went out to help with the lobby photos. So much fun meeting the folks in the audience afterwards.
After the lobby photos and getting freshened up I went to head back to the hotel and on the way out met the, multi-talented Ingrid Elkner and it was fun to chat with her a bit in person as opposed to online.
After that it was just back hotel. Dan bailed on me for dinner so I just grabbed some on my own then sat down to write this post. One more show tomorrow and then, a day off. And we have some fun things planned for that day off.
Creative Mondays #015 – Create outside your skill set.
As an artist, you probably have many areas of art you are comfortable working in and they probably all compliment each other. Looking at my work I’d say my strength is the written word. Writing something that will become something else. Over 150 episodes of Dr. Floyd (some co-written, but most were from my head). The episodes of Did This Happen?, Thunder Crester, The Tales of Deputy Guppy, etc.. And all the projects that never made it anywhere or saw the light of day (at least not yet) Time Skippers, The Cauldron of Hate, The Untitled Western story, Sign Force One and countless others. When I look at my strengths as an artists, I say putting ideas down onto paper (or screen) and forming them into a mildly entertaining story, is probably my biggest strength. Yes, I do comedy, act, improvise and do puppets but my skills in those aren’t as honed as they are in creating stories. Maybe I’m just more comfortable putting ideas down on paper.
Today I want to talk about creating art outside of your area of expertise. Breaking through that ‘comfortable’ barrier and making yourself uncomfortable by creating art in a different medium. If you’re a painter, write. If you’re an actor, dance. Step into another realm of art. I think this can be an extremely valuable experience for many reasons.
The first reason is that it will give you different ways to look at creating. If you’re a painter and you try sculpting or modeling out of clay, you’re going to apply the practices you’ve learned from painting to the sculpting. Being neither a painter or sculptor, I would assume that some of those practices will work and others will not, forcing you to think differently about how you will achieve your creative goals on that project.
I have tried to do this at several times in my creative endeavors and it has always helped me, I feel, become a better artist. I have an iPad and I purchased the super popular app, Paper by Fifty Three when it came out. Playing around with the tools on it really clicked with me and I just began drawing daily. I’ve always enjoyed drawing in the past and would occasionally do it. Deputy Guppy was born out of a comic book I drew in high school. I was always vaguely aware though that my drawings aren’t really that spectacular. On the Paper app though I think my drawings turn out a little better and seeing that result has really inspired me to draw more. This has made me to think differently. How can I capture a feeling, a saying, a song lyric in just a picture? With no words? It forces me to retrain my mind to figure out a way to communicate what I want to say in picture only. This translates back into my writing as well. It makes me think of different ways to say the same idea and try to capture a picture in words.
Another thing creating outside my area of expertise has done is sparked ideas. I have so many random drawing doodles, that have fired up ides for stories in my mind. I started drawing these little figures that I called Dots. Just splotches of paint with arms and legs. Simple, easy to draw. But creating them fueled my story mind and made me think of lots of different stories I could create with these characters and their world. Will I ever do anything with them? Maybe, maybe not. But the simple act of creating outside my strengths inspired me.
Finally, creating outside your area of comfort may lead you into a great idea to combine the comfortable with the uncomfortable. Going back to the painter/sculptor idea above. What if the painter found a way to use sculpture in his or her paintings and came up with a completely new idea they’d never thought of before. I have often wondered how I could combine my writing and stories into some multi media piece that melds to the too. I know you’re saying, “Yeah, Grant, a book with pictures.” But I’m talking maybe a podcast with pictures. Or a story written into the designs of a drawing. Yes, it’s been done before, but not by me. That inspires me.
So take a chance. Get uncomfortable. Try something new and outside your area of expertise. Who knows where it’ll lead?
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Do you practice art outside your comfort zone? If so, does it help your main passion? If not, what new experiment will you try? Let me know in the comments below!