Slings and Arrows: Season 1 episodes 1-3

Thanks to a colleague (Cheers Anthony!) I've been put onto a series from about 7 years ago called Slings and Arrows ---

Slings and Arrows is a Canadian TV series, set at the fictional New Burbage Festival; a troubled Shakespearean festival similar to the real-world Stratford Festival. The program stars Paul Gross, Stephen Ouimette and Martha Burns.
The blackly comic series produced three seasons of six episodes and was created and written by former Kids in the Hall member Mark McKinney, playwright and actress Susan Coyne, and comedian Bob Martin, the Tony-award winning co-creator of The Drowsy Chaperone. All three appear in the series as well.

I'd sort of vaguely heard of it, partly because I'd spotted it on the CV of Rachel McAdams (Time Traveller's Wife; Guy Ritchie's actually rather enjoyable Sherlock Holmes) and partly because it starred Paul Gross (Due South).

Knowing I'm rather fond of a bit of Shakespeare, Anthony thought I'd enjoy it and loaned me a copy of the first series on Region 1 DVD: sadly, my DVD player is one of the only ones in existence NOT to have a Region hack.

Still: YouTube comes in handy sometimes!

I've just spent the morning watching the first three episodes and chuckling loudly (Neil was next door busy on his computer) - for there is MUCH to delight in this series. As a behind the scenes portrayal of acting (especially Shakespearean acting) and the world of theatre, it is hilarious - aging actors, young actors, corporate sponsors, the use of Shakespeare in corporate training, prima donna adventurous directors, old rivalries, Hollywood incomers... brilliantly skewered.

It's highly recommended, either on DVD or elsewhere!

And breathe.....

Well, it's 2am and I've just finished watching the finale!


"What finale?" you ask...?


Well, where the hell have you lot been all week?


Down the same off-line hole as me?!


So, I survived the hen night. I was compelled to wear a pink sash declaring the group of us. I at first rebelled, quite vehemently, till with pursed lips and a clear indication this was under extreme sufferance, I allowed them to put it over me. It could have been worse: some parties were decked out in Hawaiian skirt outfits (note: I suspect these were plastic and extremely flammable. I tried to steer well away from the ones smoking fags outside...) The comedy club experience was (only marginally) redeemed by a less funny turn by James Dowdswell who Cloud and I had seen at summer sundae two years ago (he was funnier there, not having to play to the beered up posses of stag and hen groups). Otherwise it was - in the words of the bride to be herself - "quite the most offensive minutes I have had to sit through ever". Well, yes. Unfunny, excruciatingly crass, swearing for its own sake, misogynistic, racist... like the 1980s revolution in comedy had never bloody happened.

Still, I did dance to Tainted Love at the post-'comedy' disco. And then on 12 midnight ran for a taxi home. It was nice to be out with everyone - and it was lovely to be amongst people who all love our friend so much -- but it wasn't what I would ever want. Why do people do things because it's 'what you do'?


Anyway.


Still here?

Then if you want to be spoilered about the latest finale you will have to wait till tomorrow. I'm not even gonna try to write a review yet. Suffice to say, talk about having your cake and eating it! Jack's remark - and if you watched you will know which one - caused me to laugh loud and hard at the fanfics it will no doubt spur.

*sigh* there was sadness, and it was very RTD in its typical OTT way, but it was much better than I could have hoped for and well worth running from the ball to come and see.

Oh yeah, and I did have to stick my fingers in my ears at least twice during the hen night - there had been some video/sky+ recordings set for both attendees and offspring. I hope that they were happy with what they got. Apparently, the lovely Em cheered loud enough with brother Chuck to "wake the dead" (or at least echo across the country!) - so I'm glad someone was happy!

As for me, I'm satisfied. It's been a hellish week on the back of this. I'll be with you all over the next few days catching up!

Cheers!

Last night's jokes

Had a fun night out with Cloud and a friend watching a comedy night with Ivan Brackenbury (hospital radio DJ - aka Tom Binns) doing a practice run for Edinburgh, followed by Tim Vine doing a practice run for his forthcoming DVD filmed set.

My sides hurt a bit from chuckling but it almost made up for missing out on the following possible gig night (which helpfully Cloud emailed me about today before realising it had happened during our comedy night out!). Chances missed eh?! And they sound so good!

These United States & Vandaveer.
These United States
“It is, without being at all overly enthusiastic, one of the best records you will hear this year, and it will make you feel completely human. You’ll feel your fingernails grow. You’ll start to understand what all of your facial muscles do when they’re not smiling or frowning. You’ll taste that blood as it finds all of your many cracks and detours.” DAYTROTTER

Vandaveer
"This generation's Nick Drake." -- XM CAFE "Very dark and beautifully grim. It’s like the Decemberists with a Tom-Waits-by-streetlight feel, and just a hint of Andrew Bird in the vocals.” -- YOU AIN'T NO PICASSO

enten/eller
Music that strives to capture the same emotions as a Herzog film, a Bacon painting or a Sarah Kane play. Stark, brutal and thrillingly honest portrayals of the intensities of existence. Fans of Low, Silver Mt.Zion, English folk and Wilderness should enjoy this...

Brief comedy review: Sean Hughes, Nottingham Playhouse - Saturday 20 October 2007

Sean Hughes current tour seems to be having a rather erratic impact.

All I can say is that I did laugh a lot, but he did tread dangerously close to some unfunny territory, the audience was VERY hard labour indeed for a comic, and I was really glad I wasn't sat closer to the front.

Edinburgh Comedy night in aid of ACCORD

Awh, shame they couldn't have scheduled this whilst Anna was up in Edinburgh but this event looks grand - and is in a good cause:

Comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe are staging a special one off Dcotor Who themed comedy show as part of the david-tennant.com appeal fund, raising money in memory of David Tennant's mother, Helen McDonald, who died recently.

The gig will take place at the Laughing Horse@Linsays, (Fringe Venue 56), on Saturday 18th August from 9.10pm - 10.10pm.

Although the show is not ticketed, and is not part of the official Fringe programme, those attending will be asked to donate £10, with all proceeds going to the ACCORD hospice where Mrs McDonald worked for many years, and where she spent her final days.

Among the comedians taking part so far are Mitch Benn, Bill Bruce and Toby Hadoke whose 2006 Fringe hit - Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf - has recently been turned into a successful BBC Radio show.

This is a late night show, and is therefore not suitable for anyone under that age of 18. Entry is on a strictly first come, first admitted basis.

The full line-up of acts will be announced prior to the event.

Ken Mathie, Fundraising Manager for the ACCORD hospice, commented: "Everyone associated with ACCORD has been extremely moved by the public reaction to Helen’s passing. She was such a lovely person and will be sorely missed by everyone who was fortunate enough to know her. This show is a wonderful example of the support we are receiving from fans of Doctor Who and I wish all the comedians involved every success"

So far fans have raised over 9,000 pounds from the appeals set up by david-tennant.com and members of the Outpost Gallifrey Forum.

Donations can still be made at justgiving.com. People who donate are asked not to mention David Tennant in the comments section, in order to protect his privacy.

Notice from Outpost Gallifrey's news page. Personally, if I wasn't a continent away, I'd have loved to have gone... if only for the wonderful Mitch Benn.

Tonys for Tom (and an Arthur Smith anecdote)

Brilliant news regarding the wonderful Coast of Utopia trilogy which has just swept 7 Tony awards. A pity it wasn't as successfully received here in its original production but there's plenty to take a vicarious thrill from in it winning in the USA.

Talking of Stoppard, who provided one of my most oft-used expressions of frustration: "for the love of Hegel", we had a very fun time seeing Mr Arthur Smith at the Nottingham Playhouse last night. Besides reading out Cloud's "I'm grumpy because..." line (of which I will let him write up the story), Smith recounted how on one of the few occasions he has gone up to praise a famous person for their work it was Tom Stoppard whom he saw in the National Theatre bookshop.

I said "Hi, I'm Arthur Smith and I just want to say how much I admire your work" - and he just walked off! The bastard!

Years later I was at an opening night party for a play starring Tom Stoppard's son.

And it was at this point I realised that Tom Stoppard is a tall man.

For years I had been bearing a grudge against a short man who just looked a bit like Tom Stoppard...

Brilliant. A very enjoyable evening in the company of Mr Smith.

John Shuttleworth

Hard to know how to respond to his humour, except by laughing your socks off.

A very entertaining evening was had by all (especially those in the audience who knew all the words to several songs - and there were many of those sat near us).

Mind, it's hard not to join in with the classic "Pigeons in Flight"...

Quick Review: Punt and Dennis

I could just write: "Hilarious" but you'd probably be a bit disappointed with that?

Anyway, it was a VERY funny night, made even more lovely by running into my favourite Cud Fan. Hee. Very nice to see her again, even if her going to Glasto makes me V. jealous indeed. Still: we have the small but lovely Summer Sundae to look forward to.

So how funny were Punt and Dennis? Just brilliant actually. Hugh Dennis must be a real pain to 'straight man' to, since he clearly just loves to see how far he can push his mimes and physical comedy to wind up Steve Punt (even if that is a clearly defined act, it still works very well). And since reviewing comedy is always hard to capture let's just say that swans, YouGov and Poole Harbour will all subsequently induce random giggling in us.

A joy.

Too blooming busy - thank goodness for some comedy

Off to see Punt & Dennis tonight. After a long week - and with a social whirl of events this weekend (cinema, meal, Chesterfield) - I need the break.

If we opt for staying at home to tidy and garden tomorrow instead of trotting off to Leicester to see if Summer Sundae tickets are ready to collect yet, or Nottingham to book hotels for our trip to NZ (the LA bit), then I will most probably blog you tomorrow. If not, see ya on Sunday when I hope to come up for air in the blogosphere.

Josie Long - a place for kindness and whimsy in this crazy world

It's all too easy to get jaded. So what I needed was a dose of Josie Long.



She's full of joyful niceness (her blog is called "drawing moustaches in magazines"). You just can't watch her and get cross; she's too warm for that reaction. She has great taste in music (her first genres listed on Josie's myspace page are Scottish Indie and American lo-fi - I'll forgive her UK Hip-Hop... well except the good stuff obviously). She loves Rushmore! How can she NOT be wonderful?!

Anyway, she comes highly recommended - for quirkiness, her stickers, her badges, her drawings and so much more - and if you get chance to see her go and have your heart warmed by her. She did Nottingham with Isy Suttie, also a bubbly and gentle comedian and very good fun to see.

(It was) A (Very) Good Year

Oh it really shouldn't have been, but I have to admit I had a huge hoot of a time going to the flicks on Wednesday with the lovely Helen Lisette to wallow in the daft and slated film A Good Year.

It has had some stinky reviews, although I also initially came across some more tolerant ones as well; most of them focus on not feeling that Russell Crowe has a grasp of comedy. That seems awful harsh. It's not a Marx brothers film, or a Jack Lemon/Walter Matthau classic; it's not up to screwball standards, and it can't rival Shaun of the Dead. But taken on its own terms, by heck I did laugh. And heaven knows there are enough 'comedies' which have induced in me Not One Giggle.

Okay, watching it with Helen has its own frisson of hilarity-inducement (she has a certain L'amour fou for the brusque Australian), but even accounting for that it still made me laugh.

I really can't say fairer than that. Stereotypes in every direction; some very ropey dialogue; the usual Peter Mayle 'Englishman abroad' brushstrokes of character and place: check, check and check. But it was lush, entertaining, and had a happy ending. Shucks, it was even 241 Wednesday and this time I got it right (unlike last time). I had a blast!

In defence of Green Wing...

I know I know, here come the bricks and bottles complaining Green Wing just isn't funny.

I have to say that I LURVED the first series. It was just perfect for my insanity.

With all the criticism, some from very well respected corners of my blog world here, here, and here I was probably expecting it to be not just a let down compared to the first series but a revelation convincing me I was utterly wrong to find that first series funny at all.

But you know what? We got friends to tape it when we were away in New Zealand. And we caught up with the episodes. And we've been watching since our return. And guess what? I STILL think its funny.

Maybe not as superbly mad as the first series, but gigglesome and wince-worthy in the right measures.

And I LOVE Tamsin Greig. The whole thwarted Caroline & Mac thing? Sigh....

Comedy and the possible return of Green Wing?

That there HolyHosesRob commented on the unfunniness of much current comedy. Well, if we're talking Little Britain, you know where I stand on that. If, however, you are talking about the wonderful GreenWing, that's another matter entirely.

I don't know if it will hit the heights of the first series, but it seems that there may be hope for a second series if the other commentator on Rob's post has good info...

Comedy continued:Britain & America

Casyn's comments on my previous posting nudged some reminders my way about my taste in comedy. Somehow I managed to miss out acknowledgement of the superb Scrubs - inspiration for the hysterical Green Wing, with the seemingly misanthropic Doctor Cox, who is actually deeply human and loveable. I also missed off the wryly amusing Arrested Development (this suffers from what British viewers call the "Seinfeld syndrome" - where programmes are arbitrarily pushed around the schedules until, surprise, only a hardcore audience remains). Those who know us, of course already know that Seinfeld was a big hit in the Cloud and Rullsenberg household.

Malcolm in the Middle, though I never seemed to be into it quite when everyone else was, has been another provider of mirth and delight: I must confess that I became more of a fan when I found out that Lois (the mother) was played by Jane Kaczmarek - a.ka. Mrs Bradley Whitford. What was not to love about a character given such verve by the woman loved by "Josh Lyman"?! Seriously though, her character - frustrated, anxious, opinionated - was just a joy to watch.

At one point, when we were better off and less stressed, Cloud and I had about two years with digital TV and grew fond of the Paramount Comedy channel. Whatever the ITV equivalent of the "Seinfeld syndrome" is, we saw plenty of examples of works that we knew HAD been purchased by UK terrestrial television but which had never taken off due to poor scheduling. Dharma and Greg - almost the antithesis of 'dark comedy' - was quickly a firm favourite. Becker - one of the few moments when I didn't want to hit Ted Danson - was fantastically misanthropic, but human despite all that [anyone spotting a theme here?] and I loved his umitigated frustration with human stupidity [as Cloud cites: "we have learned to live without it..." --- oh would that more humanity could do so...].

What often frustrates me about some British comedy is its resolute and disastrous desire to keep within the sitcom tradition. And don't even get me started on laughter tracks... I know that some of those identified above include them, but generally I just find them annoying. I'll know if it's funny. I don't need you to tell me...

British Comedy

Casyn over at The Slayer Library was recently praising British Comedy. Although she identified it as the best of what was on in a desert of limited choices, she selected out Coupling as deserving of comment. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with coarse sexual humour per se, but Coupling - for me at least - often seemed to miss its mark. Farce, the disappointments of life writ at a comedic scale, walks a fine line: too far and I over-identify with the mockery and suffering and disappointment of the characters... and I have to switch off or walk away. It just hurts too much. [Identification of another type - memory - is what stops me enjoying The Office and Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights: I NEVER want to go back, physically or otherwise, to my seven years of office hell or the local 'chicken-in-a-basket' circuit venue of has&never-been variety acts]

Bizarrely, I find darker comedy, and surreal comedy, much more appealing and less emotionally destructive. Taken at face value from descriptions of the lives of its central characters, Black Books would indeed feel depressing and tragic. But its tragedy is what makes it so compelling and so painfully funny to watch (it also has a healthy sense of the surreal which probably tempers some of its darker edge). Spaced and Green Wing, the erratic quality of Smack the Pony, and even Nighty Night and Big Train - neither of which I never managed to watch as often as I would have liked - share this dark edge. Of American TV, only Curb Your Enthusiasm has anything like this dark edge to it - though I do find this PAINFUL to watch and can only deal with one episode at a time. Any other 'dark' American comedies...?

Green Wing links

Kathryn Flett not only spotted J R-T from Green Wing last week, but also the wonderful Pippa Haywood cropped up in a Robson Green drama - thus creating all kinds of problems with KF taking the drama seriously (personally, the name Robson Green does that for me).

Last night, Look Around You returned for another series. Mark Heap was there... and was that Karl Theobald in there as well? Was Olivia Coleman - harrassed mother "Harriet Schulenberg" with the fuzzy felt - also in there, looking very svelte?

Little Britain - The new Dick Emery Show

... do I need to say more? Victims of the 1970s will well recall the "hilarity" [Deep Irony Quotes necessary here] of The Dick Emery Show and men dressed as women and "playing" the stereotypes of sexuality.

Just because we are more knowing/postmodern/easily duped does not mean Little Britain is any more sophisticated as comedy.

Why are so many people suckered by this garbage when there are truly hysterical programmes like Green Wing on the planet?

I will not even dignify Little Britain with a link.

Dougal McGuire for Pope

Seems that according to The Guardian the bookies William Hill are offering odds of 5,000 to 1 on Father Dougal McGuire being the next Pope. Sadly, there is nothing on their website, so for those of you who missed this snippet on Saturday 18 September 2004, you'll just have to trust me on this.

For those not aware of the excellent Father Ted, the ineffably dim Dougal is, of course, fictional... Wonder how many have laid bets on those odds though?