Puppet Up Down Under 2014 – March 24, 2014 – I Heart Melbourne
Last night the challenge was to stay up until 11:00 PM. At about 9:45 PM I walked into the living room to find Brian dozing on the couch. I said, “Hey, thought we were staying up until 11:00 PM?” He stood up, turned off the TV and said, “No, It’s 10:00 PM.”
I put on a little Mystery Science Theatre 3000 as I normally do and didn’t even make it through the opening sketch. I was out.
I woke up at about 3:40 AM and thought I was just going to be awake, but I went right back to sleep and didn’t get up until 7:00 AM. I forced myself to get up and went down to the gym and ran on the treadmill for 30 minutes, then did some push ups and sit ups and was ready to start the day.
Aren’t you glad you know all that now?
Around lunchtime, Brian and I walked around the city a bit to find a place to get a salad for lunch. Can I just say, I love Melbourne. It’s just a really great place to walk around. The people are all super friendly and the place is clean. It also helps there are Puppet Up ads everywhere (even on TV). I like it here a lot. A lot, a lot. Going to start investigating home prices. Seriously.
We’ve only been here two days but the weather has been great. Even though it was a bit rainy, it has been really rather nice outside. And when we went for a walk, even though it was drizzling, there were continuous awnings that kept you nice and dry.
We had a great salad at a place called Nourish Salad, just a few blocks from the hotel. Then we walked around a bit more. We saw a magic shop and I dragged Brian in. It was fun poking around. They had some puppets in there that were fun to look at. After a bit we went back to the hotel.
Brian went off to deal with some issues with his computer and I just did some writing. After a few hours Brian returned and we grabbed some dinner. Then there was a company meeting and rehearsal because on Wednesday, we’re going to be on TV.
The rehearsal was fun, we blocked out a shorter version of the opening song we are going to do for the show and we also went over some press that we’re going to be involved in.
I get to be part of a group that is going out to an amusement park called Luna Park and do a photo shoot with some of the puppets. Should be fun.
After the meeting, we just hung out and talked a bit and that was it. Pretty much a quiet evening. I’ll be sad to leave Melbourne on Monday, but happy to know we will be back shortly after to spend three weeks. So looking forward to it.
Puppet Up Down Under 2014 – March 23rd, 2014 – Explore!
After checking into our hotel, we found our way to our awesome two bedroom rooms. Brian decreed that we should stay up until 11:00 PM in order to acclimate. I hardly slept on the plane, but I’m going to try my best. As I’m typing this I have three and one half hours. It can be done.
Once we freshened up a bit and checked email, Brian, Dan and I headed out to explore the streets around our hotel. We are very near Chinatown and so we had Chinese food for dinner. After, we continued to explore further. We stopped in at a Target here, which is just like our Target at home except here they put a period after the word Target.
Target.
Pretty much the same stuff on the inside. We say a huge indoor mall with a really great, cone shaped atrium, a building that looks like it’s covered in green slime, and some fantastic older buildings. The downtown area really reminds me of San Francisco and I like it a lot. It will be a lot of fun to explore the city when we get into a regular schedule here and will not be traveling.
After a few hours of walking around and seeing the sites, we came back to the hotel and then went off to meet Peggy, Patrick, Julianna, Allan and Colleen at a wine bar called Meatballs. Their specialty, besides the wine, meatballs. I didn’t have any because I was still full from the Chinese food, but they looked incredible. I did ask if they had root beer and the guy
looked at me like I was from another planet. He suggested this italian soda made of rhubarb and citrus. My first instinct was to say no, but I went for it. I should have said no. It was pretty bad.
After hanging for a bit, I headed back to the hotel to write this entry and relax. And do my darndest to stay up until 11:00 PM! I can do it!
Found out tonight we’re actually going to be on a televised event here to help kick off the Festival. That will be really cool. Also, since we are participants, we get to go see other shows for free. Sean Cullen is going to be here so I really hope I can see his show. Also there’s a wrestling comedy show that looks interesting. I’ll be checking that out as well.
So, from Australia, goodnight!
Creative Mondays #012 – Listen to the Masters.
A phrase I’m sure you’ve heard a before is ‘Listen to the Masters.’ Meaning seek out the people who are considered the pinnacles of your chosen field(s) of art and study them. In painting it’s van Gogh, Picasso, Dali and more. In music it’s Beethoven, Mozart or The Beatles if you’re more contemporary. Writing has Hemmingway, Shakespeare, Rowling or King. Screenwriting has Stanley Kubrick, Billy Wilder and Ingmar Bergman to name a few. Acting has Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, George Clooney. Just Google “Most famous (you shosen field of creative art) and you’ll get list after list. Of course, these lists are all subjective, but you’ll find the top three are usually people everybody knows. These are the Masters.
I think researching the Masters is a very important thing to do in order to see what can be done in your field. The amount of knowledge that can be learned from people who are ‘Masters in your field should not be downplayed at all. I would, however, like to make one small change to the phrase ‘Listen to the Masters.’
I think you should listen to YOUR masters.
I think you should study to the people who inspired you to get up off your rear and start creating. The people who you feel are the pinnacle of your chosen field(s) of creation. The people who inspired you are your Masters and you should study them totally and unapologetically. If someone who inspired you was Hemmingway or Mozart, great. But if who inspired you is or was not a household name, study them. Learn from them.
I’ve said on here time and time again that one of my inspirations is Joel Hodgson, creator of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. As popular as Joel is, when I say his name to people I sometimes get the ‘huh?’ look. When I explain he’s the creator of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, that clears it up for some, but there are still people out there who haven’t heard of that show. And that’s fine. The people you look up to don’t have to be household names. They just have to light a creative fire under you that spurs you on to emulate them. They inspire you to continue creating the art they have shown you.
I just finished the book Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon. It’s a great read that I recommend any create person pick up. It’s short and if you have an hour or so, you can probably zoom right through it. In one chapter he talks about creating a family tree for your creative self. This family tree isn’t about blood relations though, it’s about the people who inspired you creatively and made you the creative person you are today. Austin tells you to study the people who directly influenced you and then study the people who influenced them, creating a family tree of creativity.
“Weird Al” Yankovic is a big influence on my comedy, obviously. When I first heard Al’s Eat It, I was hooked. After I’d picked up his album, I noticed that he thanked Dr. Demento on his discs. I, somehow because this was before the internet, found out that Dr. Demento hosted a weekly radio show. I cajoled my parents into recording the show for me every week and it opened a whole new world up to me. Suddenly I was hearing Al’s influences. Allan Sherman, Stan Freberg, Tom Lehrer and Spike Jones. I was creating a creative family tree for my love of comedy music. I was listening to new things that would become true favorites (Stan Freberg, Smothers Brothers) and some that, though I could see the appeal, were not favorites (Frank Zappa). This was all because I followed the creative line from “Weird Al” back.
I think that listening to your Masters, is super important and should be done by every artist. You don’t know where you can go if you don’t look back and see where you have been.
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Who has inspired your creative life? Have you researched them and seen who influenced their creative life? Let me know in the comments below.
Puppet Up Down Under 2014 – March 21, 22 & 23rd, 2014 – It Begins
Pre-flight
Less than a week after completing the last tour, it’s time to head out once again for more puppet fun. This time its an extended trip to Australia for the Melbourne Comedy Festival. I think it’s kind of fitting we are beginning this trip on March 21, World Puppetry Day. Who would have thought that this crazy puppet detour I took a few years back would lead to this? I’m grateful and excited. This should be fun.
It’s going to be a long flight to Australia. We leave at 10:50 PM Friday, March 21 and get into Sydney at 7:30 AM on March 23rd! We just completely skip Saturday. And once we land in Sydney, we hop a second plane to Melbourne as that is where we are going to start this little adventure.
The Flight
We all assembled one by one at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International airport. This is a good crew assembling for this tour. It’s basically the same crew as Toronto except Alan is joining us this time. Colleen, Brian Clark, Ted Michaels and Peggy Etra round out the cast. Of course Patrick Bristow is along to host. Dan Ring is on music and Julianna is here to keep is all in line as Company Manager.
We flew Virgin Australia to Sydney and it was my first Virgin experience. Pretty great. Within seconds of sitting down Dan, Brian and I had a seat to seat chat going on our monitors, the contents of which will never be displayed here. And I hope the NSA isn’t listening in.
To kick things off I watched Bad Grandpa. It was a Jackass film so what could you expect? I laughed several times. Then, between bouts of drifting off to sleep, I watched The Desolation of Smaug.
We got premium economy seats on this trip. Not quite first class but a step up from economy. I will say that the seats, while roomier than economy, are not comfortable and after 10+ hours, my hinder hurt. Still, not complaining and I’m very grateful to be going on this trip. I can’t wait to land in Sydney.
Sydney
Once we landed in Sydney, we then had a 3 hour layover to catch a plane for the one hour flight to Melbourne. That flight was short and sweet and we were met at the gat by reps from the Melbourne Comedy Festival, our hosts. They were there to take us to our hotel.
Here in Australia they drive on the opposite side of the street so I was super excited to get in the passenger side, which would be the driver’s side in the United States. Very weird experience and I found myself glancing at the rear view mirror a few times which was facing toward the passenger seat. The driver.
We checked into our nifty hotel/mini apartment and breathed a sigh that the day(s) of travel were over. Let’s get this thing started!
Since we sort of lost a day in Saturday, I’m going to spilt this entry up into two days. Because once we landed, we explored the area around the hotel a bit and I want to blog on that. So that’ll be the next entry. Stay tuned
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