Penguins & Pessimism

You Can’t Change The Past, So Make The Future Awesome!

That title comes from something one of my close friends said to me one evening when I was feeling shitty and it has stuck with me ever since as an excellent mantra by which to live life. It isn’t worth getting stuck in the mud of what has past when you can give your wheels a good spin and get out there into the unknown void of the future and live your life to the full!

As you may have guessed, this is my generic reflection of the year behind me post. 2009 has actually been quite a good year for me, although the beginning of it was marred by the fallout from all the shit that happened at the very end of 2008. I went into this year with my mind incredibly fucked up after what had happened and the first month or so of the year was spent sorting my head out. This was the time my friend divulged the quote in the title during one of her many attempts to rouse me from my depressed state. Eventually, I did get over it however and my year actually managed to get going.

Perhaps the most awesome thing about this year has been all of the awesome people I have met up with from forums. From my very first meet-up (Birmingham signing for Henderson’s Boys) to all of the future ones, it has been great fun and I thank all of the people who made it possible for me to see these people, particularly Stevie & Josh, without whom I would never have been able to get to that initial meet-up and none of the other ones that followed.

And by extension, if I hadn’t got to that meet, I would never have been at the awesome day that was June 20th and the MF meet in October where I got to meet the awesomeness that is Gareth David-Lloyd, who was fucking awesome! I mean, how many other celebrities would quite happily tell one of their fans to shut the fuck up? Strangely, that only strengthened the opinion of the fan. It’s odd how much closer a fan gets to a celebrity once they have suffered a swearing outburst. He was brilliant!

I also did my GCSEs this year and got awesome grades. This was one of my proudest moments of all time, although I’m almost certain that these will be pretty much entirely eclipsed in terms of importance by my A Level results, whether they are good or bad. Nevertheless, my rather nice GCSE results will stand me in good stead for future educational endeavours, which is great.

This year I have found myself. I am now happier than ever to define myself as a geek and my online friend network is spanning new depths and extends further than I ever would have imagined. To all of my online friends, I love you all and we have a great year ahead of us in 2010 and so do I.

I can’t change 2009, so I am going to make 2010 fucking awesome!

DVD Review: Jason Manford Live At The Manchester Apollo

Jason Manford is one of the most popular comedians on the circuit at the moment. His delivery manages to be gentle, yet still hilariously funny. None of his comedy particularly pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable, but he still manages to be one of the most entertaining and original comics around.

Main Feature

The main feature is a solid 90 minute show with Manford showcasing some of the best material possessed by any stand-up comedian around at the current time. Some of the jokes will be familiar to those who have seen his appearances on Live At The Apollo, but some of his best gems of humour have been reserved for this DVD including a masterful slice of material about men going to the toilet, which doesn’t sound funny in itself, but Manford makes it so!

Some of the most successful bits of the feature are when Manford directly addresses the audience, particularly with some questions such as the most painful thing ever and the slightly more awkward queries of how often on average they masturbate and which urinal they use. Manford gains many laughs from the answers and responds well to some of the more ludicrous suggestions.

Manford’s main domain though will always be his pinpoint observational comedy. Almost all of his material strikes a chord with the audience and the viewer as he seems to have the same eye as Peter Kay in terms of seeing comedy through the eyes of your average working class bloke. This persona works very well, as Kay and now Manford have established as they attack a huge demographic, that being almost every normal citizen of the country.

Extras

Unlike some other stand-up DVDs (Lee Evans’ various releases being a good example) there are a wealth of worthwhile extras on offer here. There is a heart-warming and very amusing interview between Jason and his brother Colin which lets us know about some interesting aspects of Jason’s life and also tells us a fair bit about the difference between Jason’s comedy career and Colin’s which consists of tiny little clubs, dwarfed by the huge venues Jason is able to play in.

The other features are less impressive with one being a charming, yet weirdly over the top exchange between Manford and the Manchester City mascot Moonchester, which borders on the farcical at times and tries too hard to be funny. You also get a behind the scenes documentary of the tour which would be great if it didn’t finish so damn early. Just as I was starting to get into the insightful footage, it seemed to end, which was a disappointment.

Notwithstanding all this, it is still easily the best of the stand-up discs I have seen so far this year, even eclipsing Michael McIntyre’s first DVD from last year, which is quite a feat indeed.

Feature: 10/10
Extras: 8/10
Overall Rating: 18/20

DVD Review: Rhod Gilbert And The Award-Winning Mince Pie

Rhod Gilbert has had an excellent 2009. This is the year that has thrust him into the mainstream of stand-up comedy due to his appearances on various TV shows on which he has showcased some of his excellent material. This is his first DVD which has been released straight into the incredibly crowded stand-up DVD market. It will do well though because Gilbert is now a television personality and an internet superstar after his luggage rant went viral, getting millions of views on YouTube.

Main Feature

The main feature of the DVD revolves around Gilbert telling how he tried to leave behind all of his surrealist made-up material to get into the real world. He mentions how he realised he wasn’t cut out for real life when he had a mental breakdown over a mince pie at a service station. Throughout the show, he weaves in some of his beautifully insane ranting on some of the most mundane topics you could ever think of. It is these rants that mark Gilbert out as a truly outstanding performer. The fact he supplements his material with props of some of the items he mentions only serves to make them even funnier.

The highlight of the whole performance is the ending in which he reads out the best bits of the letter he received from the manager of the service station in reply to his complaint letter. The parts he reads give tantalising hints to how delightfully sarcastic the original letter was and gain big laughs from the audience.

Extras

Rather oddly, my main issue with the DVD was its menu screen.

There is no doubt that the rotating pie idea is more inventive than most, but having to wait for it to spin around to get to the scene selector or special features does get very annoying. It’s only a minor irritation, but I need to say something bad about the disc just to fulfill the pessimism aspect of the blog.

Along with the excellent main feature comes a couple of lovely extra bits. You get to see the now infamous luggage carousel routine, complete with prop and mental ranting and also a few fantastic outtakes from the filming of the show, including the reaction to a few children (one as young as 10) being in the audience, a revelation which Gilbert exploits for a few big laughs.

The final feature is a documentary entitled Back To Llanbobl in which Gilbert shows us around the fictional town in Wales. Although it is amusing at times, it seems superfluous and it goes on for about twenty minutes, which is far too long for something which is mostly uninteresting.

Overall though, it is a very good all-round comedy DVD and will definitely not be the last successful release of Gilbert’s career.

Feature: 8/10
Extras: 6/10
Overall Rating: 14/20

Rage Against Rage Against The Machine

“FUCK YOU, I WON’T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!”

These are the lyrics that will be echoing all over the country for the next few weeks as Rage Against The Machine’s track Killing In The Name has been given the Christmas #1 spot at the expense of X Factor winner Joe McElderry. For about two months now, there has been a campaign on Facebook to get RATM to the top spot. It seemed that I couldn’t log onto Facebook without having the campaign rammed down my throat by someone, which is odd coming from the people who dislike how X Factor is rammed down our throats. A pot, a kettle and a certain dark colour come to mind.

Anyway, the whole thing is stupid and has undermined the concept of Christmas #1 even more than X Factor’s dominance has done. So basically, all this has achieved for us is the knowledge that the Christmas #1 will either be X Factor or a song that the public chooses to campaign for. Every year is going to turn into a two horse race, which is hardly very exciting is it?

What’s even worse is that Killing In The Name is in fact a terrible song. I agree that Joe’s shitty Miley Cyrus cover doesn’t deserve number one, but replacing it with a shouty protest anthem is not what Christmas number one is all about. The number one at yuletide should be a rousing, happy tune instead of a song that is just angry. Angry is not what Christmas is about.

One of the worrying things about the campaign is that people were buying the Rage song for the wrong reasons. Many of the people who purchased the track were not doing so because they genuinely liked it, but instead were doing it purely because it wasn’t X Factor. This is completely the wrong reason for buying something. At least the Jeff Buckley campaign last year was because people genuinely liked the Buckley track, not just because they wanted to have a BADASS MOTHERFUCKING REBELLION!

Now I do appreciate the humorous value of a song full of shouting and swearing beating the X Factor. However, I dislike how vigorous the campaign has been and how much flaming I have had to endure after expressing how little I support the campaign. It would seem that my dislike for RATM has meant that I dislike music… somehow.

The one resounding question is why has the X Factor been successful for the last four years? It’s because people like it and people have always bought the single. At the end of the day, the single sells well and is therefore worthy of getting its spot. However, somehow people pretend that they somehow have no control over it.

The people think they have won back the Christmas Number One, but really they had never lost it.

Are You Ready For This Album Review?

This is my first proper review of an album and I have chosen a very worthy artist to be the subject of it. That artist is the truly incredible musical comedian Tim Minchin and his new album Ready For This? taken from the live recording of his new touring show at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.

This could well be very long and rambly, so forgive me for that.

Ready For This?

This is the title song of the album and is a lovely opening to the show with its loud beat starting the show off in an entertaining and exciting vain. It also allows Minchin to display some of his incredible skills by producing instrument noises with his own mouth, stating “who needs a band when you’re rocking on your own?” to cheers from the crowd. Despite being one of the weaker songs on the album, it gets the crowd going and has them baying for some of the more intense material as the show goes on.

Listen

Prejudice

Of all the songs from this tour, this is the one that has had the most exposure, under the name “Taboo”. It is one of those songs that works best the first time you listen to it, because it relies on the huge shock value of the punchline. That said, it is one of the cleverest songs on the album and indeed one of the cleverest songs Minchin has released. The main thrust of the joke comes as he flies out of nowhere with a chorus that rubbishes the belief you have held for the rest of the song in incredible fashion.

When I first heard it, it was just backed by Minchin on his piano whereas this show came with the luxury of a full orchestra. The orchestra made the chorus of this song sound fucking incredible! Honestly, the version off the album is twice as good as any of the older versions from TV appearances and stuff.

A truly awesome track!

Listen

I Love Jesus

One of Minchin’s crowd-rousing anthemic songs, this track combines the religious ridicule Minchin is famed for with out and out shock humour. The refrain of “I love Jesus!” is interrupted my an altogether more shocking line as Minchin shows his eye for how perfectly he can change the audience’s mood from content and mildly confused to awkward laughter in a matter of seconds. Brilliant.

Listen

The Good Book

This is my personal favourite song from the album. Again capitalising on his atheist viewpoint, he delightfully parodies the Bible’s shortcomings set to the traditional country line-dance tune. It manages to be clever, funny and catchy as hell at the same time, showing that Minchin is as much a musical virtuoso as he is a comedian. There are of course better tunes to get into your head as foot-tapping and singing this in the middle of a lesson is hardly the most sensible idea in the world for obvious reasons to anyone who is familiar with Minchin.

In all seriousness (or not), this is a hell of a song and manages to rubbish the Bible in an eloquent way whilst being gleefully immature at the same time. I remember reading a review a while ago in which it was said that the joke in this song didn’t quite come off. Bollocks, I say!

Listen

If I Didn’t Have You

This is the song that first got me into Minchin. I heard it when he performed at the Secret Policeman’s Ball and instantly fell in love with the awesome combination of dodgy hair, hilarious gags and incredible intelligence. The geek inside me instantly shouted that this was my kind of comedian and that I should look up some more of his stuff. I did and that is why I am writing this album review today.

If I Didn’t Have You is about taking apart the notion of love mathematically with some lyrically perfect statistics and hypotheses and is one of those songs that has the luxury of being piss-your-pants funny no matter how many times you hear it. As with Prejudice, it works brilliantly with the live band accompaniment to make the musical experience even better.

Since I’ve become more of a Minchin fanatic, I have discovered that he has much better songs than this, but this track will always have a special place in my heart. I suppose though that if I didn’t have it, I’d probably have something else!

Listen – Secret Policeman’s Ball Version

Confessions

One of the better songs that the album has to offer and, from what I’ve heard, a fan favourite at gigs, Confessions is another of the ones that builds up as a fairly innocuous song about how he feels about certain moral issues before firing off a hilariously immature chorus as a completely unexpected punchline. It’s hard to explain without spoilering it, but when the chorus hits, it is a guaranteed belly laugh moment.

Fortunately for Tim, this one hadn’t had much exposure prior to the tour, so he was able to capitalise on the reveal, safe in the knowledge that for most of the audience, it would be the first time they had heard it. Although, if they were anything like me, there is no way that it would be the last time they heard it.

Listen

Canvas Bags

One of Minchin’s classic songs, he plays this at almost every show he ever does. As usual, it is a huge spectacle, made even huger (yay made up words) by the live band as he encourages the audience to sing along with the simplistic, yet infectious refrain. The song is a real crowd-pleaser and is the perfect song to lead into the interval of his shows as it strips away most of the comedy, leaving Minchin’s amazing musical talent there for all to see.

Listen – Not version from this album

The Interval Song

A sweet little number that manages to be both unnecessary and superbly catchy. It’s only purpose is to be looped throughout the interval of the show and this is reflected by it being incredibly simplistic and boring once you’ve heard it more than once or twice. It works better than having a silent interval for the show though, so I’ll go with Minchin on this one!

Bears Don’t Dig On Dancing

This was always for me one of the weaker songs that Minchin has written. I’m sure that it’s better on the live show with the dancing guy in the bear suit, but it just doesn’t do much for me. The lyrics themselves are fairly clever and there are some really good moments, but on the whole, this song really doesn’t do much at all for me. It does get me dancing though and I bet it creates a lot of atmosphere when done live.

Listen – Not version from this album

The Song For Phil Daoust

Ah. What can I say about this song? It’s funny as hell for a start. Anyone who is familiar with Minchin and particularly those who have seen the documentary about his life will know about the bad review he was given after his first Fringe show by a Guardian reviewer named (you guessed it) Phil Daoust. The song itself goes from a genuine sounding apology to a violent tirade in the space of minutes.

I’m sure that Phil will now be ruing his decision to attack Minchin now as he has legions of fans now singing along as the guy with the “fretful porpentine hair” calls him a “fucking cunt” and suggests that he wants to make him eat his own face meat in front of his kids. Violent, no?

It’s one of the most laugh-out-loud funny songs on the album, but is also one of the ones that is most likely to offend people. Offensiveness comes hand in hand with humour though and in this case, it definitely works.

Listen

YouTube Lament

In this song, Minchin deals with his feelings about how all of his effort and humour can never do as well on YouTube as some of the stupider clips that end up on YouTube. Despite not having the major laugh factor that the other songs on the album have, it is still an admirably funny tune.

Listen

Storm

One of Minchin’s expertly crafted beat poems, this nine minute epic tells of Minchin’s encounter with a hippy (called Storm) at a dinner party. It tells the story of how he initially tries to stop himself from arguing with her, he is eventually unable to prevent himself from exploding onto Storm with an attack of common sense.

From the beginning to the end, it never feels as if it is dragging on at all. It is a mark of Minchin’s incredible talent that he can recite poetry for almost ten minutes without me getting bored. The time just seems to fly by as Minchin tears Storm apart with gleeful sarcasm. Genius!

Listen

Dark Side

Another Minchin classic. For me, this is the song that shows off his amazing talent on the piano the most as he manages to sing in a plethora of different voices whilst mashing out the complex tune on the piano and managing to maintain his façade of anger through the lengthy solos. The addition of the live band on this album makes the song even more of a spectacle and adds to the effect.

That said, this song works a lot better with the visual influence of the lighting and Minchin’s movements and facial expressions, so is better live or on a DVD than it is on an album. Still a great song though.

Listen – Not version from this album

White Wine In The Sun

Somewhat unexpectedly for Minchin, this song has much more emphasis on the music than on humour. A beautiful haunting tune mixed with more of the brilliant lyrics that Minchin is famed for. There are mild gags throughout, but the main emphasis is squarely on the song and its beauty as he talks about how much he loves Christmas. It is a lovely way to end the show.

Listen

Conclusions

There are a few weak points on the album, but in general, it is an amazing hour or so of hilarious musical comedy. Some of Minchin’s real gems are on here with new material mixed with some of the old classics that Minchin fanatics are familiar with. The centrepiece is the epic beat poem and it certainly does not disappoint, every joke coming off absolutely perfectly. All in all, a fantastic album and an essential purchase for the Minchin fan.

Rating: 9/10