0-Die Bastard : 1-Crap : 2-Rubbish(watchable) : 3-OK : 3.5-Nice : 4-Good : 4.5-Very Good : 5-WOW
31.12.12 : Elevation U2 : South Hurstville RSL - music
Not as good as the big U2 cover bands, but close enough. First set was 80's Australiana, which I don't like. 2
29.12.12 : Comedy : Laugh Garage Syd
NYE here is also a tradition, but the no show on Monday had me going to the Saturday show instead - which turned out better -. It was a similar lineup to last week, with the exception of Mick Meredith, but the crowd was bigger, there was more enthusiasm, and comics had faster deliveries, and that made it quite good. Mick is always good, but Jacques Barrett was equally good - same as last week -. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4
27.12.12 : Liberal Arts - movie
Rom-Com | Drama : When mid 30's Jesse returns to his alma mater for a professor's retirement party, he falls for a much younger college student. It's a very nice, and I don't mean sappy Hollywood nice, but intellectual, intelligent, Independent cinema nice. I liked it. 4.25
26.12.12 : The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - movie
Adventure | Fantasy : The adventures of Bilbo Baggins before LOTR. It wasn't as boring as most reviewers were saying. It has that blockbuster big visuals, and if you discount the boring 30 minute dinner party to plan their quest at the start, it travels along nicely. I don't ask for much in these visuals over substance type of films, just that thing keep happening, and this one has something happening through most of it. Minuses for this film are, it's more of the same as the LOTR, the story is pretty simple - same as LOTR -, and it's only part 1 of the same story split into 3 parts. I didn't mind it at all, but it isn't anything new. 3.75
24.12.12 : Comedy : Old Manly Boatshed
It was either this, or stop the tradition of going out on Xmas eve. Unfortunately it turned out that I should've stayed home. Darren Casey was good, and "I'm the best stalker in the land", Alice Fraser, was fine, but everyone else just wasn't funny. On a side note, things have changed at the Boatshed since 20 years ago, because they got rid of the surfboard on the stairs - if you want to know what the 60's was like, just go inside -. Crowd : 3.25 - Me : 2
23.12.12 : Comedy : Laugh Garage Syd
Because there is no show here on Xmas eve, and tradition dictates I go to the Garage on Xmas eve, I went to this earlier show. Things turned out better than past Xmas eve shows, because a bigger crowd turned out on the Sat before. It was one of those relaxed shows, and it was fine, it's just that my familiarity with every comic in Sydney kind-of dampens everything for me. A couple of comics delivered their stuff flat out fast, which helps me somewhat, but it still comes down to the familiarity problem. Crowd : 4. - Me : 3.5
20.12.12 : The Guillotines 3D - movie
Drama | Action : Too complicated to retell. I was intrigued by The Flying Guillotine saga, when Mythbusters tried to make the ludicrous head chopping device, so I hoped this would clear it up. Unfortunately, it didn't. I was hoping for ridiculous action - typical of Asian marshal arts films -, but what we got was a long winded, convoluted, brooding, emotional drama with hardly any head chopping fun. A bit like Skyfall, with 10 minutes of action at the start followed by 2 hours of drama. 2
15.12.12 : Match Box 20 : South Hurstville RSL - music
I didn't realise they had so many songs on the radio, because I knew nearly all of them despite not following the original group. And even though I didn't know the 3 new songs, they still sounded good. 3
11.12.12 : Here Comes the Boom - movie
Action | Comedy : A high school biology teacher looks to become a successful mixed-martial arts fighter in an effort to raise money to prevent extra-curricular activities from being axed at his cash-strapped school. It's simple and silly, but a lot of fun. If I think about it it's nothing special, but for some reason it really appealed to me. I laughed all the way through. 4
10.12.12 : A Rational Fear's End Of The Fear Special : Kings Cross Hotel
It started off pretty good with high school student Nina Oyama killing it with her 'Schoolies Rights' speech, but after that it dropped somewhat. Nina's talk was very funny, but when I though about it afterwards, it seamed very extreme compared to what we used to do in the old days. And as we all know, it's only takes a few people to push the boundaries over peoples sensibilities, before it gets legislated for the public's safety. At the end of the second half they interview someone about a serious subject, and I know it's a comics job to get laughs at any expense - it's their job -, but Wil went too far and totally negated the guest's efforts. It's ok to make mild comedic remarks sparingly throughout , but he totally dominated the end of her section for laughs, which seamed like an insult to the guest - it did total trash any point she put forward -. I would prefer if there wasn't a serious section - it's more fun to laugh -, but that's the way it is. Crowd : 4. - Me : 3.5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN1OHndLiXU
08.12.12 : Rod Quantock - Live : The Red Rattler
I never went to see the big names of Australian comedy when they were at their peak - they were on TV enough -, but now that one was in the area, I thought I better check it out. This night was a fundraiser for the Australian Fair Trade & Investment Network (AFTINET), and since this is a modern problem the promoters probably thought that it would attract a young demographic, hence all the opening acts being of the newest comedian variety. But in actual fact the demographic was rather old, on account of Rod being a legend from the past, because practically 60% of the audience was in the 60 year old age group. These different demographics caused the conundrum of have topics that were a bit unrelatable and inappropriate for such and old group, so it ended up being a bit hit and miss. The first half was decent enough, it's just that the start of the second half died a bit. Rod did a relative short 30 minutes and comes across as an fantasy improviser comic, but not the high end fantasy type like Ross Noble, but more of the realistic variety. As an example, his opening bit stemmed from the fact that this theatre is a co-op, stating that he had to bring his own microphone stand from home because the venue was so poor. He then when on to other uses for it, where he noticed it was made in Germany. That then led to a story where it had been given to him by his parents when he was 10, and that it had been used unsuccessfully by troops in Dresden as an anti-aircraft gun, hence the reason Dresden was blown to bits during the war. Being an activist, the main gist of the subject matter was world changing environmental issues, which he simplified and miss directed. Things like, the world is over populated and that everyone should kill someone to save the world, which is kind of a generality, because why should we kill ourselves when first world population growth is actually decreasing. Even though it feels like everything is improvised he must have most of it worked out, because I spotted him using a routine that Kitty Flanagan uses about stupid names kids are given these days - he used L-a(Ladasha), where as Kitty uses N-a(Nadasha) -. Crowd : 3.5 - Me : 3
06.12.12 : The Man with the Iron Fists - movie
Action : The Governor assigns a clan to guard a gold shipment through a dangerous village, but when other clans get wind of it, they want the gold for themselves. American/Chinese hybrid that doesn't live up to a Marshall Arts fighting film. Not even Russell Crowe, or the fact that it's in English, can cover up that this is a long slow story with only 3 action scenes - only one short one was good -. It has slight Quentin Tarantino influence at the end, with Kill Bill clique fighting women and split screens, but it was minor. It didn't have the one trick wonder Tarantino sadistic cruelty, but more of that over-the-top fun splatter fest that is acceptable. Too boring for me. 1
04.11.12 : Tractor Monkeys - Ep8 & Ep7 : ABC studios Ultimo
These days I go out for the exercise, rather than the show, and since it's free, I went. They filmed the final show first, and this is were we learnt where Tractor Monkeys came from. Tonight we saw Katie "Monty" Dimond and Dave O'Neil in a body hugging Hypercolor Lycra bodysuits, which wasn't very flattering for Dave. We also found out - in in-between banter -, that Merrick Watts had is drink spiked and fell, where he split his head open. A girl found him in the gutter and stayed with him until the ambulance arrived. And that in hospital he nearly died when his brain swelled. Tonight had Adam Richards, Mel Buttle, Ronny Chieng, Denise Drysdale, Toby Schmitz, Anthony Morgan, and a broken footed Toby Truslove. 3
03.12.12 : Fun Size - movie
Comedy : Wren's Halloween plans go awry when she's made to baby-sit her brother, who disappears into a sea of trick-or-treaters. Opps, I forgot to check the rating and found out too late that it was PG. Too simplistic for adults, so it's mainly for teens - the teens in the audience were laughing throughout -. 2
30.11.12 : The Axis of Awesome - Album Launch & 6 Year Anniversary Show : Factory Theatre
I'm a bit desensitized to comedy, because I see so much stuff, so I'm always going to whinge about something. I don't really do common everyday comedy any more, and since The AoA aren't common, I will tend to go see them. I find AoA exceptional most of the time, but there were some things less exceptional tonight. It's not that anything was bad, it's just that those things were only good, but not brilliant. This is probably only me, because I'm like a junkie that needs a bigger hit each time to feel something, but the opening songs were quieter versions of known songs - or maybe my earplugs were too good -. It's understandable that they try to mix-it-up to make it less repetitive, but I did feel a difference. I usually don't like the loud stuff, because I can't hear the words, but when it started with the song Floppy Guys, there was a lot more energy. I liked this part of the show the best, heaps of energy and I could hear the word perfectly - the words are essential in AoA because they are so clever -. On the negative side, some of the new songs seemed word heavy and without a hook - it's like Tim Minchin's lyrics, where they loose effectiveness with the massive number count -, something that AoA don't usually do. I could just be me because I'm unfamiliar with the new stuff, I initially didn't like the Cigarette song, but it's fine now - I could hear the lyrics the second time -, but most of their stuff astounds you in the first listen. I'm sure Jordan will add some theatrical hook to give them more zing. Even after all my less than favourable comments, I still like it a lot - the crowd were regulars, so they were quieter than they should have been -. Also, I don't see the starting act Nice Kicks often, so they were as good as the first time. Crowd : 4.25 - Me : 4.25
30.11.12 : The Perks of Being a Wallflower - movie
Drama | Romance : Set in 1990, an introvert freshman is taken under the wings of two seniors who welcome him to the real world. It's sad, and nice, all at the same time. An emotional type film. 3.75
29.11.12 : Cal Wilson is All Ears : Comedy Store
The premise for this show is that embarrassing real life stories are funnier than actual jokes. Most comics use a theme that isn't really there - they use the loose link of a theme to join unrelated stand-up routines -, but Cal's is a well thought out continuing theme, that makes her show gel together beautifully. The first third analyses how people tell stories - mainly how people stuff it up by making them boring -, and the rest is stories based on subjects we picked from the board - Cal asks the audience for funny stories pertaining to it, and then caps it off with one of her own -. She also talks so fast, that you feel like you are getting more show than you paid for. Starts at a 4 and ends at 4.5. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4.25
28.11.12 : Story Club - Thanksgiving : Hermann's Bar
Funny is not good enough for me these days - I've heard every gag before -, so it's only the unexpected that amuses me. Luckily, the one thing you can expect at Story Club, is the unexpected. This months theme was Thanksgiving, so as you would expect, it was all about masturbating - did I mention the unexpected -.
Ben Jenkins challenged the conundrum of buying a gifts, when he spotted a set of taxidermy possums having dinner. But would he, or won't he, think this is appropriate for his girlfriends birthday. Better than nice.
James Colley, after being struck in the face with a dildo, went on his first supposedly mature Uni girl date. The date didn't go too well, with a horror film, and a family dinner, but things turned around when they assigned him his American Indian tribe name, even though they have never been to American, of Mountain Dog. Better than nice.
Kirsten Drysdale went in a direction I could predict - because I know too much -, when she put her feet in gumboots that had been left out all night on her parents farm. Nice.
Michael Hing started off mildly enough, if anything he does is mild, but then it turned it into a self-help, motivational lecture for the Devil. Better than nice.
Richy Cooke gave us, as he put it, Analogue Masturbation. This story was about how we found out about sex the old fashioned way. There was no 24/7 internet porn, but only scraps of scantly clad people in Best and Less catalogues, and the even rarer elusive porno mags that may have been left accidentally unattended. Good
David Cunningham produced a story of utter filth and depravity. But again he used his magical skill of construction, and turned it into a work of art. Modern day Caligulas use a phone and an App for instantaneous short term rendezvous, of the squelchy type. But when Horny 69 proved to be less than horny, but more a shy pseudo intellectual antiques collector, it produced much amusement for the crowd. Excellent.
Zoe Norton Lodge's story was embarrassment PLUS, because the families old but reliable cleaning lady miss took her pink vibrator as a table ornament and thoroughly cleaned it and placed it front and centre on her mantel piece for all to see. Things were bad enough, but then she openly sort it out to decorate a table. Good
Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4
27.11.12 : Tractor Monkeys - Ep5 & Ep6 : ABC studios Ultimo
If you know what you are getting, a TV recording with some laughs, not a comedy show, and are patient, it quite alright. I wonder what the TV show will be like, because the ad-libs are what makes the recording fun. Josh Thomas, H.G. Nelson, Tommy Little, Ronny Chieng, Fiona O'Loughlin, Rob Carlton, Joel Creasey, Jeff Green. 3
27.11.12 : 2 Days in New York - movie
Comedy : It's that usual 'annoying relatives staying with their sensible city slicker family', but with a French twist. I didn't like it because it felt staged, like everyone was being ridiculously annoying to force conflicts, and that made the film seem like it was just a long series of fake situations. 1
22.11.12 : Skyfall - movie
Action | Adventure | Crime : Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. This is not a very good Bond film. The first 15 minutes is pure 5 out of 5 007 action film, but the rest of it felt like 2 hours of reinforcing that the 007 character is a has-been. Not enough Bond action, and in reality not that much good action in general. 3
21.11.12 : The Improv Den #9 : Hermann's Bar - impro
Logistics are a PITA. I nearly went home because all the signage in the area has changed, and now there is no parking.
Team 1 - A boy and girl nerd are kicked out of their homes by their parents, in a bid to make them seek a relationship. Crowd : 4.25 - Me : 3.75
Team 2 - When a Giraffe is given the job reading the news the Lakembanese Mohammad, Russian Buddha, French Zeus, and Indian Poseidon, go to Scienctology Island to confront Tom Cruise and Robot John Travolta about getting rid of him. Crowd : 3.5 - Me : 4
Team 3 - A man builds up and trains his jaw until it's the best chin line in the world. Crowd : 4. - Me : 3.5
The Bear Pack weren't their usual accurate detailed self - the linking of one ridiculous story to another wasn't as accurate -, but no one else noticed. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 3.75
Crowd : 4.25 - Me : 3.75
20.11.12 : Robot & Frank - movie
Comedy | Crime | Drama : An old man is given a robot to look after him, but he finds a better use for it. Nothing spectacular, but it's ok. 3
17.11.12 : Peter Helliar & Merrick Watts : Comedy Store
Good. Crowd : 4.25 - Me : 4
16.11.12 : Frankenweenie - movie
Animation | Comedy : Young Victor conducts a science experiment to bring his beloved dog Sparky back to life. I usually don't like animation, but this is quite alright. 3.5
15.11.12 : Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 - movie
Adventure | Drama | Fantasy : The Voltari want the kid. Unlike that POS Part 1, this has a decent story and ok action, but it does suffer the "one story split into 2 movies" padding out in the first half. Would of made a decent movie if it was only one movie instead of 2. First half a bit dull and clunky, but the second half is exciting enough. 3.5
13.11.12 : Tractor Monkeys - Ep1 & Ep2 : ABC studios Ultimo
Is hard to tell if a TV show will be good based on the recording, but I do see problems with this one - then again I always see problems -. My record isn't that good in this department, because I didn't like The Unbelievable Truth recording, but I do like the TV show, and I liked the Randling recording, but the show isn't that good, and the main difference that I can see is that the editing can make or break a show.
The way the show works is that they show the first part of an old archival ABC news story, and then get the panel to guess the outcome - it's kind of like a Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation, but with more serious subject matter, mashed with GNW, Qi, and Mock the Week -. Because of the age of the stories it seams that this show is going to appeal to an older audiences, unless the editing targets the mocking of the stupidity of the era. The Gen Y's in the show didn't have a chance because they just didn't know anything that was more than 10 years old, which was everything, but even the middle aged comics struggled because they were also too young. Even I struggled remembering the stories - which are now just a vague fogs in my brain -, because they were so long ago, and it was only after they were explained that I remembered the details. The 1st Ep seamed very haphazard, with Q&A questions next to multiple choice questions in the same segment - I like the segments clear and regimented so they can be easily digested -, but by the 2nd Ep things seamed more ordered - maybe my old brain got used to it -. There was a physical challenge in each Episode, Ep1 was good but Ep2 was pretty stupid, and the main theme for both Eps was similar, old men leering at scantily clad young women of the time, so it felt a bit repetitive. I would say a miss, but we will see after the edit. 2.5
10.11.12 : Denise Scott - Regrets : Comedy Store
This venue is always a PITA, with the cost of parking, booking fees, petrol, and a coffee, you have to add $20 to the price of a ticket - any sponsors -, but on this night there was some big event that had the place packed, making it even more of a PITA. Thankfully Scotty was great, and that made all the crap acceptable. In fact I found it so good, that it became one of those exceptional "warm and fuzzy" shows that make the drudgery of going to all those average shows a little less annoying. I does have quite a few jokes about getting old, but people wetting themselves is funny to any age group. A show I desperately needed. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4.5
09.11.12 : Alex Cross - movie
Drama | Crime | Action : A homicide detective is pushed to the brink of his moral and physical limits as he tangles with a ferociously skilled serial killer who specializes in torture and pain. When you can see the cameraman shake the camera on purpose - you can tell because it shaken abnormally excessively - you can tell it's pretty "B" grade. First half is boring, with all the character and story line development - heaps of dramatic emotional talking -, and when the action starts, it's just plain dumb. Crap. 1
08.11.12 : Seven Psychopaths - movie
Comedy | Crime | Drama : A struggling screenwriter inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends kidnap a gangster's beloved Shih Tzu. I like weird, because the unpredictability makes it funny. Nothing like the trailer suggests, but more like Burn After Reading mixed with a mild Tarantino. Good 4
07.11.12 : Wisecracker Wednesdays : Oatley Hotel
The crowd was very good, and the comics were fine, it's just that unless it's blistering, it doesn't really grab me anymore. On a side note, I wish Peter Egner would sit down and script his routine, and make it blisteringly funny like the old days - which is ironic because he was the only one that made me laugh on the night -. Probably should have stayed home. Crowd : 3.75 - Me : 3
05.11.12 : End of Watch - movie
Crime | Drama : Two young officers are marked for death after confiscating a small cache of money and firearms from the members of a notorious cartel during a routine traffic stop. I didn't like it, and it wasn't for the obvious faults. The obvious ones were :- They use the gimmick of filming the whole thing from the perspective of one of officers video log cameras - so it's badly framed and very shaky -, and 2/3 of the film is uninteresting everyday banter from the cops real life - so it was dull most of the time -. But those aside, the thing that really annoyed me was that the technical accuracy was plain stupid. Things like, they were running out of ammo and had just shot a bad guy, yet they didn't pickup his machine gun. I don't think the audience minded, but for me it was quite boring. 1
01.11.12 : Bachelorette - movie
? : Three friends are asked to be bridesmaids at a wedding of a woman they used to ridicule back in high school. Everyone in this movie is so self centred and selfish that there is nothing about this film that is likable. Neither a Rom nor a Com, just rude people running around in a story that doesn't make that much sense. 0
31.10.12 : Gory Club - A Spookaween Spec-Dracula : Hermann's Bar
Not one of the super sonic ones, but still well worth going to - this might just be me getting used to them -.
Ben Jenkins started us off with his best story yet - actually it was equal to his 'being crashed into while sleeping in his car' story - an he did it by giving us a different, and funny, version of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven". Excellent.
Mark Sutton (MARK GLUTTON (FOR STABBING))
Lee Zachariah (LEE MAKES-YOU-CRY-ARGH!)
Phil Spencer (PHIL SPECTRE) <-- a="" also="" because="" doubly="" is="" murderer.="" p="" spooky="" that="">Cait Harris (CAIT HARRISED BY THE WOLF MAN)
Eddie Sharp (EDDIE SHARP KNIFE IN YOUR FACE)
Zoe Norton Lodge (ZOE HAUNTED LODGE)
Sorry, too overwhelmed to do the other stories - Crowd : 4.25 - Me : 3.75
26.10.12 : Tai Chi Hero - movie
Action | Adventure : Chinese Steampunk martial arts blockbuster about the early years of Tai chi master Yang Luchan, the man who founded in the 19th century what has now become the most popular Tai Chi style in the world. This wasn't what I was looking for. I look for the big over-the-top martial arts fight scenes, where as this was a small number of unremarkable short fight scenes, in predominantly story based movie. Other problems were, the subtitles were so fast that I had trouble reading and absorbing them, making the story hard to follow for a Gwei Lo like me, and that this is the 2nd part of a trilogy, where I hadn't seen the prequel story. Not enough fighting. 2
26.10.12: Argo - movie
Biography | Drama | Thriller : A dramatization of the 1980 joint CIA-Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran. Lots of emotions with this one. Disgust as innocent people get caught between American self righteous greedy political policy, humour at Hollywood shenanigans, and life and death high tension. Not my cup of tea, but it is good - stay for the credits -. Me 3.5, but others would say 4 or more.
25.10.12 : Sydney University Theatresports Grand Final!!! : Manning Bar - impro
No luck with this one, I couldn't hear a thing. I know my hearing is bad, but I don't think the PA was helping that much, because I couldn't even hear the hosts talking directly into the microphones. There must be a trick to getting the PA loud without the numerous microphones going into feedback, because there have been times I could hear perfectly. I couldn't piece together what was happening from the few words I heard, so I can't comment on much. Oh well, that's the breaks. Crowd : 4 - Me : na
25.10.12 : Dredd - movie
Action | Sci-Fi : Dredd is judge, jury and executioner. Judge Dredd(1995) wasn't very good, and if anything, this is even worse. It passes the time. 3
24.10.12 : P52: The Improv Den #8 (This show dedicated to Jordan McClellan) : Hermann's Bar - impro
I couldn't separate the teams, it was like 94 minutes of solid 4s. Every team went with the continuous story, as opposed to the random skits, and even though they got bizarre, they were engaging throughout.
Team 1 - A zoo keeper buys a cat from a indifferent pet shop owner, but it becomes a murderous sexual deviant when he puts a dead mink around it's neck to disguise it as a lion for his empty zoo. The cat then goes on it rampage riding the corpse of a young boy he killed, but a laser pointer eventually distracts him and the zoo keeper and his boss are able to remove the mink shawl. Crowd : 3.75 - Me : 4
Team 2 - A yo-yo pro is enlisted in the yo-yo army to fight against the Rubik cube army. He eventually brings an end to the war by combining the 2 into Yobiks and Ruyos. Being the most experienced team, they used their smarts to get laughs by punctuating the scene with board game gags and general cleverness - Wil stole the scene with his angry arm flailing against a innocent curtain -. Crowd : 4. - Me : 4
Team 3 - This teams scene was like a punch to the d!ck, and I don't mean that literally, I mean they were actually punching each other in the d!ck. Tom was testing a player resolve to not react to him boxing his balls, because he was supposed to be playing a woman, and this just started a plethora of d!ck punches. I was distracted by all the d!ck punches, and can't actually remember what the story was about, but the crowd liked the slap stick stuff. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4
The Bear Pack probably do this 40 minute show 20 times a year, and with all that practice, they produce a show that is consistently good. 2 pants less brothers try to find their fathers long lost magic island, in order to eat sand and sh!t diamonds. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4
23.10.12 : Safety Not Guaranteed - movie
Comedy | Sci-Fi | Romance : Three magazine employees head out on an assignment to interview a guy who placed a classified ad seeking a companion for time travel. It's one of those small quirky cute cool films - something like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but less clever -. It's also like the recent film Ruby Sparks, but a lot better. Lovable, with a bit of RomCom. 4
17.10.12 : Project 52 - The Glorious Return of The Comedy Tonic : Hermann's Bar
I had the opportunity of going to a once in a life time experience, seeing Led Zeppelin on the big screen, but because this show had such a big lineup of pro comics, I went to this one instead. Last year P52 turned this show around by adding pro comics, which made it worth while for me, and that coincided with Redbull sponsoring the room, not that anyone knew because it was delivered so clandestinely - I thought Michael was just being annoying -. My take on advertising is, so long as they are supporting what I like, advertise away - I actively choose the stuff that is associated with my favourite things when I have a choice -. In my opinion, Redbull pours money in to entertaining people, as opposed to the others that squander money at advertising agencies, so it has to be better for us. I was a bit worried that without Redbull this year the quality would drop, but with such a big line-up tonight, it doesn't seam to have effected it. Even though my score is a bit low the show was good, it's just that I'm a bit over stand-up at the moment. Also the crowd seams to be quieter this year, so they were probably a 4 even though they only made enough noise for a 3.75. Good show. Crowd : 3.75 - Me : 3.5
16.10.12 : Comedy Night : Harold Park Hotel
On the negative side, the crowd was small, and on the positive side, I hadn't seen Ro Campbell before. It was OK. Crowd : 3 - Me : 3
04.10.12 : Wil Anderson - Wilarious : Comedy Store
I'm beginning to question if I even want to go to comedy, because every blog starts with some lame BS reason to go to shows. So keeping with that tradition, this lame excuse is that I feel I have to go shows, because I'm ticking them off some crazy list in a collection - I feel I need the whole set -. As usual, this show is good, just not brilliant - something the crowd will never notice -. There was some technical points, like there was a couple of repeat gags, and there was a couple of those 'different versions of other comedians jokes', but again, I'm the only one who's going to notice. No complaints, because it's still good. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4
04.10.12 : Taken 2 - movie
Action | Drama : Someone gets taken. It's was ok to watch at the time, but it's the usual 'in one ear, out the other' no discernible features type film that's easily forgotten. 3.5
03.10.12 : Project 52 - Ultimate Fringe Round Up of Draculas : Hermann's Bar
This was short snippets of people's Fringe shows, and was good enough to make me think that I should have seen more shows at the time - I only went to the Fringe to see if I still wanted to do this, so I skipped a lot -. I decide to go because the numbers were low on the FB event page - as an audience filler -, but surprisingly everyone was good. David Cunningham was back to his best, Carlo Ritchie was surprisingly clever, Steen Raskopoulos solo sketch continued the form of his, and Susie's, great Nice Kicks show, Ian Ferrington covered a phenomena that I see everyday, ie, supposedly grown adults, acting like spoiled children - act your age you tools -, and even Shane Matheson was good with a truncated and fast delivered version of his Bucket of Gravel show. Crowd : 4 - Me : 3.75
The Druce And Hing Podcast
The subject matter might not have been everyone's cup of tea, with masturbation, rats, and bad comedians, but they made it interesting enough. Crowd : 3.75 - Me : 3.5
28.09.12 : David Quirk - The Very Best Of Somebody You've Never Heard Of : Factory Theatre
When leaving I overheard 'His name is pretty apt, because that was quirky'. And just as I stole someone's else's quote for this, most of David's decent jokes weren't his, but stuff said to him by others - so he didn't even write them -. Like the one where he asked his friend 'Would you do her', and the reply he got was 'I would swim upstream through a river of shit just to suck the d!ck of the last person that fu*ked her'. I shouldn't be giving away the few jokes that he has, but it's not really his joke anyway. David also gets distracted easily, because every time the door creaked, he would stop the momentum of a joke to ask if someone came in late. This didn't really spoil that many jokes, because there wasn't that much good stuff, and most were predictable anyway, but every other comic that was interrupted - which was 98% of the shows I saw at this festival -, handled it better. Overall it felt like he didn't have that much material, at least not good stuff, so there was a lot of going no-were fill. Crowd : 3.5 - Me : 2.5
28.09.12 : The Bear Pack - Spinning Yarns Since 1846 : Factory Theatre - impro
Most of it wasn't as good as last week - not as technical, and not as crazy characters -, but there was one scene that was a lot funnier than the best scene of last week. This scene involved the 2 of them playing 4 Ancient Greek Gods, where they had to quickly switch characters, and positions, to make the another Gods speak. This was difficult enough, but then they made the God characters ridiculous - like Zeus was a Lebanese character from Lakemba -, and because the switching positions couldn't be done quickly, sometimes the other player would switch and play the character that the other had started. So it was Steen doing this exaggerated smart-arse Lebanese Zeus, but when Carlo had to do Zeus, he would exaggerate what Steen did - in a kind-of mocking impression -, causing Steen to laugh when he realised how ridiculous his character must be. But when he figured out that Carlo's reinterpretation of his character was an over exaggeration, he started over exaggerating Carlo's, causing Carlo to laugh, which in turn started 10 minutes of ridiculous impressions of exaggerated characters that had the room dying with laughter. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4
27.09.12 : Nick Cody - Inappropriate : Factory Theatre
After last night wasn't that good, Cody turned it around with the funnies of a stand-up that knows what he is doing. Crowd : 3.75 - Me : 4
27.09.12 : Bard to the Bone : New Theatre Newtown - impro
I picked this because I thought it would continue the night on a high, because on paper this looked like a guaranteed winner, but it just wasn't that funny. I don't know if this is the format they intended, but they played it pretty straight, which made it feel more like a theatre play than comedy Impro. I can't fault the training of the players, because all of them projected loudly, everyone was very animated, and none left any doubt as to the intention of their mimes, but the thing that was missing was the easy laughs of mixing Shakespeare with the absurd. I would of liked to see Shakespearean Blade Runner, or Shakespeare with robots, because it uses the unexpected out-of-place factor for laughs - It's like the child character Kylie Mole talking about adult concepts -. Jon Williams did get out a couple of 'out-of-place for Shakespeare' gags with a Planet of the Apes reference, and it was mainly these that got the laughs. Every show is different, so maybe the next one will be funnier. Crowd : 3.75 - Me : 2.5
27.09.12 : Looper - movie
Sci-Fi | Thriller | Action : In 2072, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent 30 years into the past, where a hired gun awaits. It didn't really grab me totally, and it doesn't travel that fast for most of it, but it does get more and more interesting as it goes, and it does have a big finish. 3.75
26.09.12 : Umit Bali - Just The Start : Factory Theatre
Everything Umit does is good, so with the prospect of even a small amount of new stuff, I though it would have been worth it. Unfortunately there was no new stuff for me, but to be fair he did cover everything he has, even the stuff I have only heard once, so it wasn't that bad. What was bad, was that the audience didn't turn up, and that made it awkward for both the comic and the audience. But regardless of the situation, Umit punched it out like a professional in energetic style, and with heaps of material, but when your audience is so small, and they already know the material, and they are of an older unrelatable demographic, it's never going to be that much fun. Crowd : 2.5 - Me : 3
26.09.12 : Heath Franklin's Chopper - On trial : Factory Theatre
Even though the laughs have diminished over the years, the attraction of tickets at one third their usual price make it worth it. Chopper is slowly morphing in to Heath Franklin, in that it's gone from Chopper's usual short over-the-top exaggerated roasting of something, to these long winded Heath Franklin jibes about things that are wrong in society. The statements are just as offensive as before, but now they stick to one subject so long that I worry that someone will take offence to them - Chopper's were always short and sharp, but they moved on quickly -. Tonight's crowd were good about the offensiveness of it all - they are smart enough to know it's not real -, so everyone had fun. Crowd : 3.75 - Me : 3.5
26.09.12 : Genevieve Fricker - Lucky : Factory Theatre
Even though I knew half the stuff I thought it was going well, but then it ended surprisingly short. On a side note, we did learn more about the comedy tour she did around Australia with other comics - also covered in Rhys Nicholson's show - which was new to me. When the second half of this show gets written it will be good. Crowd : 3.5 - Me : 3
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25.09.12 : The Expendables 2 - movie
Action | Thriller : The Expendables reunite for what should be an easy paycheck. Because all action films seem to start with big action these days, the first 15 minutes of this film was so much fun, that rest of the movie seamed dull. I wish there was at least 3 equally spaced big action extravaganzas throughout, instead of only one at the start. 3
22.09.12 : The Cold Play Show : South Hurstville RSL - music
I'm no Cold Play expert, but the songs I knew sounded good. 3.75
22.09.12 : Dan Ilic - Is Legally Ambiguous - Factory Theatre
Something good from one of the smarter comedians. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4
21.09.12 : The Bear Pack - Spinning Yarns Since 1846 : Factory Theatre
Good old reliable Bear Pack, finally something to laugh at. This was a different Steen Raskopoulos than I had seen before. The mines were so succinct, that I nearly got all of them straight away, he had plenty of crazy ideas, he added plenty of details - that were remembered and constantly called back up for good effect -, and he and Carlo Ritchie had heaps of totally exaggerated over-the-top characters. I don't know if it's my absence at shows lately, but that was a very powerful and competent performance by the pair. Crowd : 4.75 - Me : 4.25
21.09.12 : AJ Tennant & Kilian David - Suppose Whom : Factory Theatre
The crowd seamed to like it, but for me, I couldn't fathom why. To me every sketch was just characters, totally devoid of any gag, joke, or punchline, so I just don't know what they found amusing. To me characters on their own, just aren't that funny without the comedy part. No laughs at all for me, and even the crowd didn't laugh that much - they applauded a lot at the end though -. Crowd : 4 - Me : 1.5
21.09.12 : A Series of Young Asian Comedians Not Doing Asian Jokes : Factory Theatre
Some comics were fine, and some were new to standup, so it was a bit up and down, but the biggest problem was that the crowd was rather small. I was wondering why the crowd wasn't that big, because shows are well subscribed on Fridays, and it was something that hadn't even occurred to me, because only when I was leaving, did I realise that the title of the show only attracted one demographic - and a quite one at that -. Mild but ok. Crowd : 3.5 - Me : 3
21.09.12 : Ruby Sparks - movie
Fantasy | Romance : A novelist struggling with writer's block starts hallucinating about a girl. I was expecting something quirky and cute, like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). And even though it was cute, I was never truly convinced with the premise - I think if they changed some points, you would have fallen into it like Spotless Mind -. I waited for the credits, to find out who wrote this, and I was very surprised to find out it was young Zoe Kazan, the girl in the movie - good effort for a first time -. Good idea, but maybe not executed brilliantly. 3.5
20.09.12 : Dayne Rathbone - Its me Dayne : Factory Theatre
Some comics said to see this, because it's so funny, but I didn't find it so. Dayne went for the ironic 'adult acting like a child' character. Classic cases are Poppy(Felicity Ward), and Kylie Mole(Mary-Anne Fahey), which are brilliant, but a touch older characters. Dayne's character is about 4 years old, which is a much less coherent age. Other pluses for Poppy and Kylie, was the shock 'a child shouldn't be saying that' statement, which Dayne didn't use until near the end. I'm sure it's hard talking slow, disjointing your words, breaking up your lines, and making everything overly simplified, but I'm kind-of immune to that sort of thing. I didn't get it, but all the young people were laughing throughout, so I suppose it demographic specific. Crowd : 3.75 - Me : 1.5
20.09.12 : Tien Tran - If You Don't Know, Now You Know : Factory Theatre
Not super funny, but it's ok. It's pretty much mandatory for the latest generation of OzAsian comics to have a racism section, but one section was ironic. He said that he doesn't like his White South African friend, because all White South Africans are born racist by default, but saying that very statement, it makes you a racist - I laughed -. Tien made a good point, that making a word taboo, gives it power, but if it's over used, it loses it's meaning. And that got me thinking that the Wog Boys practically changed the word form bad to good, by using comedy to own it - see, modern comedy can dispel racism -. Crowd : 3.5 - Me : 3.25
19.09.12 : Alistair Wallace and Tim Reuben - Double Booked : Factory Theatre
I didn't find it funny at all. Crowd : 3.5 - Me : 2.5
19.09.12 : Rhys Nicholson - On Trial : Factory Theatre
It was utter filth, as you would expect from Rhys, but not his usual intense 'I've just been butt raped by comedy' stuff, but more like you have just been slapped in the face with a diarrhoea covered ball sack. One for the Buckers fans, Rhys supposedly has Haptodysphoria (fear of velvet) as well, even though he picked up the velvet curtain pretty easily. Crude and rude, and still funny. Crowd : 4 - Me : 3.75
19.09.12 : Mel Buttle - Stop It You Are! : Factory Theatre
Mel talked so fast, made so many quick little jibe side comments, and had heaps of material, that it felt like it was 2 shows crammed into one. It was basically all her life experiences from 6 to now, but not just 'listen to stories', because there was so much humour, that you nearly laughed through all of it. Laugh value is about a 3.75, but I loved it, so I gave it a 4. Crowd : 3.75 - Me : 4
18.09.12 : Julia Morris - No Judgement Tour Warm-up : Factory Theatre
I have to hand it to Julia, because finally someone turns up with their sh*t together for a preview. It was getting to the stage that previews are a waste of time for me, because nearly all of them have the comics stumbling over their words, pausing, forgetting lines, and general intermittent-ness, but with this one you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between it and her proper show. I have seen Julia 3 times. Once ages ago when she came back from England, where she was great. Once at Revesby Workers a couple of years ago, where again she was great. And once at Mounties, where she was a disappointment. The reason for disappointment was that it was just a repeat of the previous show, making it an expensive disappointment for me, but it made me realise that Julia need new material, which is what she brought plenty-off tonight. Julia went for what I call 'on stage audience participation fill in', in 2 small spots, maybe because she thought she didn't have enough material. But she didn't really need them, because she couldn't get out all her spoken stuff in the 1½ hours anyway. One of the participation things was a Karaoke song, which was ok, but the other one was an interview/ad-lib with 3 audience members, which she was surprisingly good at - Adam Hills could learn some lessons for his dull Gordon St here-. The basis for the show is the hate campaign against her when she accidentally said something inappropriate on TV. My take on comedy shows on TV, is that you are watching a COMEDY show, not a news report, so comics will say stuff for comedic effect, it's their job, and if you are too stupid to know it's comedy, you are in the wrong. Comics sometimes say things that offend me, but I don't whinge about, because it would disturb the majority that are enjoying themselves. Really good show. Crowd : 4.25 - Me : 4.5
18.09.12 : Resident Evil: Retribution - movie
Action | Horror | Sci-Fi : Alice fights alongside a resistance movement in the continuing battle against the Umbrella Corporation and the undead. I usually avoid this stuff like the plague, but when the trailer had epic Sci-Fi based CGI, I got curious. Straight away it reminded me of Æon Flux, but not the crappy movie, but the interesting original avant-garde science fiction animated television series - you can see the similarities -. Both have that sexy, weird, crazy, but "cool" feel, and that's why I quite enjoyed this. Some of the dialogue is that lame video game quality, and on the whole it's probably moronic, but because it has cool action, and it's interesting, I had no problems with it - I wish I saw the 3D version -. Fun. 3.75
15.09.12 : Dave Hughes - The Comeback Tour : Enmore Theatre
It was good, but not brilliant like in the old days. When I left the theatre I was happy enough, but when I got home to write this, and saw that the ticket was a bit expensive - I bought it so long ago that I forgot -, that I started thinking that maybe I should have got a lot more. Dave was brilliant in the old day, and a guaranteed 5 every time, but because this is a comeback, I was only hoping for a 5, but realistically expected a 4.5. Unfortunately it was only a 4. It was about 60% new and 40% old, with the old stuff being the funniest, but the biggest difference was the delivery. In the old days Dave would get excited and talk fast, pounding the audience with 20 to 30 minutes of relentless laughs - you couldn't catch your breath -, but this one was just paced delivery. When I thought back about the night, Matt Okine opened with material from his new show - not even his best stuff -, and the audience was initially very stand-offish toward him - because they didn't know who he was -, yet by the end of his routine he got a more enthusiastic applause than Dave. I still like Dave a lot, but the absence of working live seams to have made him rusty in that department. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4
14.09.12 : David Cunningham's Evening Learning Humour Symposium : Factory Theatre
It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, in that it wasn't as funny as I would have thought. To be fair, about 30 - 40% of the audience laughed throughout, so I can't really speak for the audience and what they thought. David could have phoned in this show just by piecing together all the bits from his Project 52 appearances, and it would have killed, but at least on the plus side he went with something totally new - new kind-of covers for less laughs -. Was it too Trainspotting?. No not really, because there was only one, 1 minute spot. Was it too complicated? No, there was only one spot, and it got the most laughs - David can deliver "complicated" well, just by using his controlled coherent style of delivery -. The main impression I got was that it jumped around a bit, even though the stuff was separated in to groups, which is really a minor point anyway. I just can't really put my finger on it, other than to say the humour part of title is correct. Crowd : 3.75 - Me : 3.5
13.09.12 : Shayne Hunter - Self Awareness in an Unconscious World : Factory Theatre
For $10 I took the risk on one, and thankfully it ended up really good. Shayne is an angry man that covers the big topics, like religion, capitalism, etc, but he just has this knack so that nothing gets too serious and always stays funny. At one point he even said that the world is so FU that we need another Hitler, but still turned it around and made it funny. There were 2 small points at the end that sounded like it was getting too real, but again it ended up funny. This is how political comedy should be, funny first, and thought provoking second. On a side note, this show had the same theme as Damien's, in that he pointed out how stupid people act because the monkey side of their brain takes over. Really good. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4.25
13.09.12 : Damien Power - Monkeys in Space : Factory Theatre
Matt Okine said we should see this total unknown because he's good, and that's when I realised I'm seeing people I know because I feel obligated, rather than taking a risk and seeing people I haven't seen before. So I took the risk, and found out Matt was right. Basically the show is about how most of our brain still thinks like a animal - monkey brain space -, and that a lot of what we do is still very stupid. The first half is killer funny of the superfluousness non-serious stuff, covering things like relationship and meeting stupid footballers, with the second half covering more serious news stories, like Coal Seam Gas and Julian Assange - these 2 subjects that are bit too close to my heart, so not that funny for me, but that didn't affect anyone else -. On a side note, I follow motor racing, and I was quite surprised when he told us he is the bother of the successful Australian driver in the U.S., Wil Power - he even looks like him -. Really good, 4.5 tapering to 4. Crowd : 4.25 - Me : 4.25
13.09.12 : The Watch - movie
Comedy | Sci-Fi : Four men who form a neighbourhood watch group as a way to get out of their day-to-day family routines find themselves defending the Earth from an alien invasion. The first 1 hour is boring, tedious, and unfunny - it's that passive aggressive ironic talking stuff -, with the last half hour being quite decent. It wasn't "Rubbish but watchable", but instead, "Rubbish that was hard to watch" for most of it. 1.5
12.09.12 : Ronny Chieng - Can You Do This? No, You Can't : Factory Theatre
Ron is good, but tonight he used the first half for new material, it was the usual first night/new material teething problems, so hopefully latter shows will be better - this might explain the cheap entry price for the first 2 nights -. The second half was known material, that worked, from his first good show, but the sporadic first half dampened it somewhat. Crowd : 3.5 - Me : 3.5
12.09.12 : Matt Okine - Broken Diamond House : Factory Theatre
The good stuff, and well executed, but I had heard most of it before - it was his rarer stuff, but I still knew most of it anyway -. The crowd like it a lot. Crowd : 4.25 - Me : 3.5
12.09.12 : Ben and Hing - Do Sketches at you for the Better Part of an Hour : Factory Theatre
It is pretty haphazard - probably intentionally -, I knew half the sketches, and it had first night teething problems, so it was only amusing for me. Hopefully later shows will be better. Crowd : 3.75 - Me : 3.25
11.09.12 : Mat Wakefield - Thought Crime : Bedlam Bar
Lots of material, funny, and fast paced. I liked it a lot, and if I hadn't known so much of it, I would have scored it higher. Crowd : 4. - Me : 3.75
11.09.12 : Alice Fraser - Word Crime : Bedlam Bar
Lots of material, funny, and fast paced. I liked it a lot, and if I hadn't known so much of it, I would have scored it higher. Crowd : 4. - Me : 3.75
11.09.12 : Stories for the Coping Hearted : Bedlam Bar
It is just like Story Club, and even used some of the same story tellers. The only thing that let it down was the smallish crowd - probably due to it's early start -. Crowd : 3.75 - Me : 3.5
11.09.12 : Hit and Run - movie
Action : Former getaway driver Charlie Bronson jeopardizes his Witness Protection Plan identity in order to help his girlfriend get to Los Angeles. It's pretty bad, actually it's just plain uninteresting. It's about a 1, but I will give it a 0 to discourage people form wasting their time. 0
06.09.12 : 2012 TT Isle of Man Experience - movie
Documentary : This race is a time-trial format with single competitors starting at 10 sec intervals, like a rally, which basically made the whole 100 minutes of the film look like it was just a single bike going fast through scenery. The whole movie melded into one big unmemorable blur. 2
05.09.12 : P52: Would You Rather A Night of Would You Rather? : Hermann's Bar
Because this is one of the good show formats, you have to go even if you are sick of it all - it's pretty much a guarantee that it will be worth it -.
The overall impression of the first show(12.10.11) was that it was good, but the audience was a bit rabblely(talking throughout). But you quickly realise that getting the audience involved is what the show is all about - it's just makes it a bit harder for people with hearing problems -.
The overall impression of this second show was that it was good, but the rules were pretty much ignored. The usual format makes you choose between 2 competing hypotheticals, hence the "Would You Rather?", but some questions were a single hypothetical. Like "Who from history would you talk to for 10 minutes, but after 10 minutes, had to punch in the face and then stay to cop 1 minute of their abuse", or "Would you go to Mars knowing that you could never return home again". Even the questions with 2 possible choices were different. Usually both scenarios were either good or bad, making them relatively equal, but this show had a good thing against a bad thing. Like, "Would you rather have orgasm every time you sneezed, or uncontrollably shout EVA BRAUN during sex". To me that looks like one good thing against one bad thing, which makes the vote predictable, because I can't really see the bad part of having an orgasm, or at least nothing that an adult nappy couldn't handle. I do remember there were pros and cons read out with the question in the first show, which exemplified that they were both good or bad, but they didn't do that in this one, and even when the panel asked a clarification question, it was steered so that it stayed in it's assigned category. Other good/bad ones were, "Would You Rather be Mario, or Hillary Clinton?" - Mario won -, "Would You Rather live in Star Wars universe as Jar Jar Binks, or live in a universe where Star Wars never existed". Initially you think that Ja Ja is the most hated character in the world, which makes it 2 bad scenarios, but when it was pointed out that you would be in his universe, where he is a hero and a Senator, it becomes a easy good/bad scenario again. Even, "Would You Rather have all the knowledge of Wikipedia, including all the wrong bits, or all the knowledge of Microsoft's Encata 95?". This seamed obvious, but strangely Encata won, because I thought being the go-to guy would be a no-brainier, because once you have that creditably you can make BS fact.
More equal questions were "Would You Rather not know about Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, or live as Bonesaw McGraw(Macho Man Randy Savage) from Spider-Man(2002)" - he got beaten up by skinny Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) in the wrestling match -, and "Would You Rather dress like Capt Planet for the rest of your life, or Capt Hook?"
The one question that was a surprise for me was, "Would You Rather be known world wide as the person that murdered Steve Jobs, even though you didn't do it, or the person that actually murdered Neil Armstrong, but no one knew about it", because nearly everyone in the room wanted to kill Neil Armstrong. I would have thought that a hero that risked his life, would trump a capitalist that risked a few dollars. Apple products are good, but Steve was all about the money, that's why he invented an expensive closed draconian monopoly, something that Microsoft could only dream about - you try making an Apple product without Apple taking a cut -. Back in the time the moon landing was such a big deal, that it stopped the world. The newspapers pumped out 2 weeks of front page news about it - modern stories last about 3 days -, TV had many hours devoted to live feeds, it was very emotional, because of the fear for their safety, and then the utter euphoria when something so complicated worked. It was a happy time for me, because it was so amazing, but it also gave everyone hope that science could now solve anything. I expect superfluous history to fade with time, like when old people think that young people are stupid for not knowing about the Beatles, but they don't realise The Beatles have no relevance these days, look at the Idol show were they young people were condemned for not doing some arcane trivial history justice. The moon landing was literally the biggest thing on the planet at the time, but unfortunately it now looks like history is only important to the people that experience it.
I might sound like the show was a downer, but it wasn't, because the crowd laughed pretty loudly at points, so regardless of my thoughts - I'm old -, it was a success. The hosting was good, and everyone on the panel was funny, but I found Jack Druce the cleverest with his lateral thinking scenarios. Crowd : 4. - Me : 4.25
Ouch, there goes another 4 hours writing.
30.08.12 : Ian Bagg(CAN) : Comedy Store
I wasn't looking forward to this, and didn't really want to go, but I bought tickets quite a while ago on the proviso that I must see anyone I haven't seen before, in case that there might be a serendipitous surprise around the corner, and thankfully it was. Ian is a true funny funny comic, as opposed to a supposedly funny comic, in that he is very funny because he is not very PC - even the young anti-racists comics were laughing, because I heard them -. His routine seamed to be all improvised ad-lib with the audience, in the likes of Darren Sanders, Akmal, etc - if you want to see ad-lib done badly, just see Adam Hills - Mucking Around, or Gordon St -. What I dread about this place is all the repeat comics before the main act, but thankfully all were pretty new to me except one - he was still pretty good because I hadn't see him in a while -. On a bad note, when I got home, and in a quite room, I noticed my ears ringing and quite painful - even though I wore earplugs -, which is weird because the earplugs made me miss a lot of what was said, because I couldn't hear properly with them. For me, the Tinnitus makes my ears super sensitive after they have been damaged - I have my TV set to volume 1, something no one else can hear, yet it still hurts my ears. The absence of going out, and loud noises, has helped, but I still need earplugs for everything, even waiting in the queue of this show with people chattering. Ouch. Crowd : 4 - Me : 4
29.08.12 : The Impro Den #7 - It's Long Awaited Return : Hermann's Bar - impro
I unfortunately got a bad seat, so I couldn't hear that much, but what I did notice was, the more experienced the team was, the more I could hear - they projected better -. The last team in the first half (the P52 veterans), were the best for me. Being clever and experienced, and the fact that I could hear more than half of what was said, they were the funniest with me, and the audience. I started getting a sore back, and couldn't hear that much, so I decided to miss the second half and have an early night. Crowd : 3.5, 3, 4 - Me N/A
28.09.12 : Seeking a Friend for the End of the World - movie
Comedy | Drama | Romance : Everybody on the planet only has 21 days to live. Objectivity, most people might say that it's a bit slow in places, and that Steve Carell is just doing his familiar, well trodden, sad nice guy routine again, but that didn't bother me, because I liked it - there is just something nice about a mildly emotional film about 2 attractive people -. The premise doesn't sound like much, but as the film showed in a short section at the start, that there is a lot of material for humour - something the film could have exploited a lot more -. Basically in this section, everyone was pandering to every whim in their, and others, bucket list. If you could imagine it, people could have sex with no regard to disease, or pregnancy. An attractive, and nice film. 3.75
23.08.12 : Total Recall - movie
Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi : A gritter, realistic, more professional looking version of the original - no golf-kart taxis, all CGI -. The lead isn't as strong a character as Arnie, but who could be - it probably would have spoiled this movie if it was -. Even though this one looks better, some sections weren't as good, but the biggest thing that stands out is that it doesn't have the memorable iconic scenes like of the original - all the scenes blend into the others -. Nearly blockbuster good. 3.75
22.08.12 : Story Club: Know When To Run : Hermann's Bar
Story Club has a couple of facets that can grab you. It can be funny, it can be interesting, or a factor of both, but if one facet doesn't grab you, the other will. This one wasn't as good as the last one, but it was still pretty close.
Ben Jenkins - covered the common social problem, that no-one has heard of, about the loss of self worth - mainly in males - in latter life. This problem mainly stems from the loss of employment, and the realisation that you have pasted your highest potential earning years, and that no one wants you anymore - I have seen people drink themselves to death because of it -. Luckily Ben's father bit the bullet and turned his life around, in what is a life changing moment, and purchased a plant nursery business to pursue a hidden passion.
Jess Bellamy
David Cunningham
Cait Harris
Alistair Magee
Phil Spencer
Zoe Norton Lodge
Sorry, too overwhelmed to do the other stories - Crowd : 4 - Me : 3.75
21.08.12 : Stand Up For Shapiro : Harold Park Hotel
It had the strong lineup Eddie Ifft, Simon Palomares, Darren Sanders, Sally Kimpton - Sally got the most laughs -, Paul Warnes, Peter Meisel, Ben Ellwood, and MC Damian Smith, but unfortunately the audience was a let down for me. Because I know all the jokes before hand, I need a largish audience as a laugh track, or I find it hard to enjoy myself, and the problem was that there just was enough of them - it didn't affect them, but that's the breaks for knowing too much -. I can't remember why I didn't see Shapio when he was here, maybe because I couldn't afford the high price of admission to Cockatoo Island, or that maybe I saw a clip and he looked too political, but after seeing Darren's great tribute performance of him, I thought that maybe I should have made the effort - Darren was very funny -. Crowd : 4 - Me : 3.5
15.08.12 : P52 - Improv Extreme Theatresports Laser Air Show : Hermann's Bar - impro
Japanese game show mashed with Impro, in that each Impro game has a physical task It's not the most intellectuality stimulating thing you'll see, but it's stupid enough to be ok. The main reason why it's like that is because the players are too busy trying to survive the stunt to be able to produce good Impro. Out of the 24 or so scenes about 5 had actual Impro, but the ones with not much Impro were still quite watchable because of the stunts. As an example, the cleverest scene was Amish Rake Fight, in which the team left the room while the audience picked an era from history. The team then return and play their scene, but if they mentioned an item outside of the era they were supposed to be in, some angry Amish would rush out from behind the stage and poke them with rakes - because they hate any technology out of their era -. In this example the team were given the 'Early Middle Ages', with the prompt 'Space', so when one mentioned guns - adjudicated by David Cunningham -, he was relentlessly poked by Amish rakes. The team then used this punishment/non-punishment, as a guide to hone in on the era. Others include Head In A Bucket...Of Milk, Touch To Talk...after everyone's hands were coated with honey, Dodgeball....with a cactus, blindfolded while walking through mousetraps, sit stand upside down, etc. Another good one was when a player could only answer in the constant depressive - I think Blake Mitchell's - tweets. Also, Tom Walker was rather good as host - he kept the energy up -. Crowd : 4. - Me : 3.5
13.08.12 : The Bourne Legacy - movie
Action | Adventure | Thriller : Since the authorities failure of a Bourne type agent, they go one further and create a chemically enhanced spy. Slow for an action movie, mainly because there isn't that much action. It tries to instil tension throughout, as a cover-up for the lack of action, by using a long winded uninteresting clandestine story. 3
09.18.12 : The Campaign - movie
Comedy : Send up of the paid for popularity contest that politics has become. It has some laughs, just not all the time. Not the funniest Will Ferrell movie, and a bit up and down, but it passes the time. 3.25
02.08.12 : Abraham Lincoln : Vampire Hunter - movie
Action | Fantasy | Horror : The title says it all. It's not that good, but there's enough CGI action to make it tolerable. 3
01.08.12 : Story Club: Why Don't You Make Me : Hermann's Bar
Story Club is a known quantity, in that it is consistently good, so even if you don't feel like going, the show will change your opinion. Everyone in the first half was pretty equal, with a "better than nice" score, but the second half pushed it even further.
Ben Jenkins - implicitly implied that Swatch watches are offensive to paparazzi. Nice.
James Colley - Used the story of a horror comedy gig in Queensland as a segue to all his travels around the world, like Nowra. Better than nice
Eddie Sharp - Gave us the sequel to Ferris Bueller's Day Off, called Ferris Bueller, the Coma Days, due to Ferris suffering a blow to the head from the people that he pissed off. Nice
Dave Harmon - Gave us his dissertation on behavioural psychology, entitled "Anti Social Behaviour Amongst Intimate Cohorts, While Partaking in Network Accessible Programmed Games", or how to piss off your mates by going overboard in what should be a friendly interaction - so much for games bringing people together -. It usually comes down to people interpreting the rules differently to get an advantage, while other deem it unfair going outside the spirit of the game. And attacking close friends because knowing their personalty intimately makes them a easy target, like unexpectedly attacking and conquering your girlfriend's country, making her cry when she discovers she has been betrayed -. This one had an interesting element added to the laughs. Good
Richard Cooke - Being old, I don't like stories about injustice, even the ridiculous situation of a short fat teen girl trying to mug a 6ft 2" man, but Richard's story was so funny that it turned me around. Good
Zoe Norton Lodge - As per usual, the baby faced assassin of the literary world - I wouldn't want to run into her is some dark back alley debating comp, because she'll rip you a new sarcasm hole -, the newly Jenkins named, ZoNoLo - one better than JLo -, turned the simple story of going to 2000 Sid-den-knee Olympics band practice in Bathurst, into yet another ridiculously funny fable. Somehow this innocuous story get processed and compiled into her invented genre of Hilarity Drama, or DramHa as I like to called it, so that it gets transgendered into the funniest story of the night. I was seeing spots, so it gets the maximum score.
Crowd : 4.25 - Me : 4
31.07.12 : Magic Mike - movie
Drama : It's about male strippers. First 2/3 is a 3.5, but when it gets serious. it becomes less likable. 3.25
28.07.12 : Tim "Rosso" Ross - Special 1hr solo show : Comedy Store Sydney
I don't know anything about Rosso. I've never heard any of his radio shows, nor have ever seen him perform live -, so I bought tickets - back when I was still doing stuff - based on the curiosity, and first time, factor - the unfamiliarity of a first time makes the laughs bigger -. I don't think Rosso does that much stand-up, because he was a bit shaky at the start, but that didn't really matter, because he is quite good. He's kind-of old school, with most of his material being about what it was like in the old days. Like the lack of OHaS rules back then, which makes being maimed a normal part of childhood. The stand-up only lasted half the show, which makes me think he's probably not a big stand-up performer, with the second half being musical comedy accompanied by Kit Warhurst. I quickly assumed the song portion was just a time filler, due to lack of material, but evidently these two have a comedy band, and have been doing musical comedy for quite a while. These two know a bit about musical comedy, and how to make it funny, because the songs were more medleys of short 2 line songs - one verse line, one chorus line -, so the gags come pretty fast. He's not one of the top comedians, but the stand-up was pretty good, and the musical comedy was pretty good, so it was pretty good. Crowd : 4.25 - Me : 3.75
26.07.12 : Ted - movie
Comedy : A boy's teddy bear comes to life, and stays with him into middle age. That is some funny sh!t. There are references to old 80's films, like Flash Gordon and Flying High, so the oldies will get more out of it. 4.25
24.07.12 : Not Suitable for Children - movie
RomCom : A party guy with testicular cancer discovers that he only has two weeks to father a child, before he becomes sterile. Modern Hollywood romcom's usually have background stories running parallel with the main premise, to make them feel busy, but this small film from Sydney only has the main story, so it feels a bit sparse. Nothing outstanding, but it's ok. On a side note, it was weird watching the streets of Newtown, that I just walked through to get to this cinema, being displayed big screen in the first 15 minutes. 3
23.07.12 : A Rational Fear LIVE!! (The writer's show) : FBi Social-Kings Cross Hotel
All the writers monologues about their particular subject were good, the interview with Dr Karl Kruzeniski's was good, and Dan Ilic's replayed Vox Pop opinions from people on the street was good, but it still had that similar lack of energy like the last show. The good shows from the past felt like there was too much material for a 1 hour show, so it came at you in very rapid fire fashion, and even though Dan was trying, this one just didn't feel as intense. Also, between the monologues Dan asked the writers questions, hoping for impromptu funny gags, but unfortunately most of the responses weren't funny, so that killed things somewhat. All the writers were pretty equal, with Alice Fraser standing out by being the funniest. Better than last time, but not as good as the ones before that. Crowd : 4 - Me : 3.5
19.07.12 : Dark Knight Rises - movie
Action | Adventure | Crime | Drama : Eight years on and a new terrorist leader overwhelms Gotham. The movie is like it's main protagonist, a bit slow and uninteresting. This movie lacks intensity, with the actions scenes spaced pretty far apart in what is a long film, and even when they did happen, the actual action wasn't that intense. There is a decent background story, but when it's stretched over 2 hours and 45 minutes, it does lose its impact. Not quite blockbuster good. 3.75
12.07.12 : Axis of Awesome - Cry YOURSELF A River - Edinburgh Preview Show : Factory Theatre
Not as hilarious as their last couple of shows - which is understandable because this is new and those were best offs from past shows -, but it was lovable all the same. Nothing wrong with this one.
Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4
07.07.12 : Led Zeppelin Show : South Hurstville RSL - music
I wasn't even considering going to to this one - I'm over Led Zep -, but someone I know said they wanted to go. As usual Mr Reliable piked out, so I thought 'What the hell', and went anyway. Thankfully a big dedicated crowd turned up, making it rather fun. 3.75
05.07.12 : The Amazing Spider-Man - movie
Action | Adventure | Fantasy : Not much so much a prequel, but more a different version of the original story. A touch lower compared to Spider-Man (2002). Blockbuster good, ie, enough big stuff to keep you amused. 4
04.07.12 : P52 The Impro Den #6 : Hermann's Bar - impro
The heart was willing, but the brain said no - guess I'm not ready for big crowds yet -.
03.07.12 : The Three Stooges - movie
Comedy : The usual Three Stooges antics but souped up for today audiences. Not super funny, but I liked it - the children seamed to like it -. 2.5
30.06.12 : Elevation U2 Show : South Hurstville RSL - music
These guys have been around for ages - it's been 16 years since they played here first -, and with so much experience, you know they will be good. 3.25
27.06.12 : Story Club: Best Served Cold : Hermann's Bar
Not a big laugh edition, but there is always something different to make it interesting.
Ben Jenkins started us off with his best story yet - actually it was equal to his 'being crashed into while sleeping in his car' story - an he did it by giving us a different, and funny, version of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven". Excellent.
Adam Yardley
Daniel Swain
Zoe Norton Lodge
Tim Spencer
Antony Faisandier
Tom Walker
Sorry, too overwhelmed to do the other stories - Crowd : 4.25 - Me : 3.75
25.06.12 : A Rational Fear #4 : Kings Cross Hotel
I only went because the last 2 shows were good - I needed a pick-me-up -, unfortunately it looks like they can't all be winners. Not as fast paced, nor as funny, as past shows. And with subject matter like an Australian race horse overseas, and lingerie football, I suppose it wasn't stuff that was that funny to start with - also incorrect facts like not knowing there is a red caviar doesn't help -. Some small funny bits, just not heaps. Crowd : 3.75 - Me : 3.25
22.06.12 : John Robertson - The Old Whore : Comedy Store
I saw his 27.04.11 : John Robertson - Dragon Punch : Seymour Centre show, and I liked it because it was like LadyNerd, but only the popular culture stuff like video games and TV cartoons. This is isn't conventional comedy, because it's more a meandering surreal/real story. It actually feels like a premeditated Long Form Impro continuous story, because it has some character impressions, it sidetracks to separate stories at times, and it replaces reality with the absurd, like the story was about him going to an orgy with his girlfriend, the Queen of England. Now this obviously sound ridiculous, but we found out the story was based on something real, because there was a girl in the crowd that John hadn't seen for years, that shared a house with him and the girl in question. Not big laughs, but still quite engaging and interesting. Crowd : 4. - Me : 3.75
21.06.12 : Snow White and the Huntsman - movie
Action | Adventure | Drama : If you didn't know the basic story, and was seeing it for the first time, you would say it was quite good. That being said, they did change the basic story to make it quite interesting. Kristen Stewart's face seams out of place, because it's not the fairest in the land. 3.5
20.06.12 : No Laughing Matter : Enmore Theatre
Order of funniest Matt Okine, Greg Fleet, Akmal, - next 4 were equal - The Umbilical Brothers, Mikey Robins, Ronny Chieng, Tommy Little(MC), Dan Ilic, Scott Dooley. Good show Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4
16.06.12 : Green Day Show : South Hurstville RSL - music
More a cover band than a tribute band - tribute bands try to sound exactly like the originals - because the singer didn't sound as close to the original as one would expect for a tribute band. 2.5
14.06.12 : That's My Boy - movie
Comedy : While in his teens, Donny fathered a son, Todd, and raised him as a single parent up until Todd's 18th birthday. Now, after not seeing each other for years, Todd's world comes crashing down when Donny resurfaces just before Todd's wedding. The gags aren't big enough for today's standards, even the buck's night wasn't that outrageous. The script wasn't that good either - it was like it was written over lunch or made-up as they went. Not that funny for me, even though others in the cinema laughed in places. but it was still acceptable. 2.5
13.06.12 : Progect52 - Comedy Tonic : Hermann's Bar
There was quite a bit of alternative comedy, as you would expect here, so it's more story/thinking stuff, but it was still ok. The highlights were the comic comics, because their jokes are joke jokes, and funnier. As you would expect, it was the more experienced people like Daniel Townes and Rhys Nicholson that everyone found funniest. Followed that was Jack Gow, and the first 10 minutes of Shayne Hunter's set - he went on a misanthropic rant for another 10 minutes -. The second half stared with a Ben Jenkins, from the sound desk, correcting Michael Hing session, that was funny. I'm probably still not in the mood to go out - brain failure -, but it was ok for me. Crowd : 4. - Me : 3.5
09.06.12 : The Nickelback Show : South Hurstville RSL - music
I went because I wanted to see why everyone hates Nickelback - actually it's because it was on the way back after Luke -. I don't know if it was just me, or this band sounds different from the original - I don't know Nickelback that well -, because I didn't recognize that many songs. I did only stay for the first half, so maybe more hits would have been saved for the second half. The songs that I didn't know, sounded like typical Nickelback - which is a sound that I don't mind -, so it was still ok. Amusing things were, the singer was singing with such a low voice - like Chad -, that it was giving me a sore throat just watching. It's ok, and something different for me. 3
09.06.12 : Luke Heggie - Master of None : Comedy Store
Even though I have see Luke before, and knew he is good, this was another comic that really impressed me at the 23.03.12 : SCF - Preview Night : Factory Theatre. Unfortunately I had to miss Luke's show at the festival, just like Ronny Chieng, because other shows conflicted with it, so when this opportunity arose, I had to make the effort to see what it was about. The basis of the show is all the jobs Luke has had - 3.5 per year -, and all the numpties that he has had the misfortune to meet on his journey - like the woman that though Evon was pronounced Wiffiny -. This is another one of those rapid fire machine gun delivery shows, like Ronny Chieng and LadyNerd, and that means that it's packed with material. I have seen comics, even pros, that have done shows that you can tell are stretched to fill the 1 hour required time period, because there isn't enough material, and that that reduces the energy and makes the show feel sparse, which makes you feel like you got less of a show. But these RFMG delivery shows are usually brilliant, because you get so much stuff, and no time to be disengaged. This was nonstop funnies all the way through. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4
08.06.12 : Friends with Kids - movie
RomCom : Two best friends decide to have a child together while keeping their relationship platonic, which is good on paper but not so good in real life. It's not done particularly well, but it's a new concept, so it was interesting. Heaps better than 'What to Expect When You're Expecting'. 3.25
07.06.12 : LadyNerd - Sydney return : Slide
Miss Keria Daley got a Large Hadron Collider, and smashed comedy, with song, with history, with science, with pop culture, with ladies, to produce the new elementary particle, the Daley Nerdson. After one year, it's still good, and it's not just that the material is good, but because of it's rapid fire machine gun style delivery. I thought this show wouldn't be as funny the second time, because I knew the material, but what I didn't realise was that the dialogue is delivered so fast, that you don't realise that there is so much material that you couldn't possibly remember it all, and that makes it's quite easy to see more than once. Other benefits of the fast delivery is that the show is more dynamic, and that adds more excitement. The Prototype was a touch looser and free, as you would expect, but this one is packed with tighter surgeon-like precise gags, maximizing the effect. From memory, this one has extra little hooks, like Mark Chamberlain playing little video game effects and theme songs. I will spare you another actual review of what happened, because you can find it at 24.06.11 : Keira Daley - LadyNerd: A Prototype : Roxbury Hotel, but I will say that if you're a nerd, that likes a bit of science and history mixed with nerd things, you will love it just like this audience did. The most fun you can have with your brain. Crowd : 5. - Me : 4.9999 recurring
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njbo75tUhE8
07.06.12 : Prometheus - movie
Horror | Sci-Fi : A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. They shouldn't have tried to pretend that this is something new, because I got annoyed when I realised that I had seen it before. Would have been good in the 80's. It's probably a 3.5, but it irritated me. 2.75
07.06.12 : Story Club - Don't Mention The War : Hermann's Bar
The rain did it's usual impression of spoiling our night, but enough people turned up to make it good, even though it was a touch subdued.
Ben Jenkins took sniffing to a new height while visiting Hamburg, by chroming the fumes of molten lead - those wacky Germans not content with just using solvents, they have to use metals instead -, and then topping it off by drinking lead toxin infused tea, in what is their NYE ritual. Nice
Michael Hing told us a tale about "Another white guy in charge that thinks he knows better". These AWGICTTHKB have been peppered throughout history, like:- The stolen generation of indigenous kids in Australia. The stolen generation of English kids that were sent to Australia. The notorious Chelmsford deep sleep therapy treatment. The English Captain in Gallipoli that stopped an Australian assault 10 feet short of the peak of the cliff face, when there was only 3 Turks left, because tea was more important than gaining the much needed foot hole that would have changed the war, thereby allowing the Turks time to get reinforcements and push the Aussie troops back. Michael's AWGICTTHKB story was about his grandfather, who got conscripted into the army as a spy, but the stupid AWGICTTHKB not realising that a Chinese man that didn't speak Japanese would stand out when he walked through Tokyo. Very Nice
Annaliese Constable is too young to have problems, but she has, and it's mainly with the humans on this planet. In a Daria-esque performance on steroids, she blasted those stupid wankers with their Sydney Melbourne rivalry that claim their city is better, racists that spout insults while in the cue for Adam Sandler's Jack and Jill movie, sexists that want to see her bits, the excessive number of Festivals in Sydney, etc. This then culminated with her "The Order I'd Kill People" list, that included people that wear Crocs, and people that don't move to the back of the bus. She was so good that I longed for the warm embrace of her mass suicide death pack. Good
Rob Johnson also went with the grandfather war story, or lack of it, because his grandfather got arrested for being AWOL when he arrived late to be shipped out. When he eventually did ship out to Borneo, nothing happened, or at least that's the story he stuck to. Nice
Phil Spencer made a slight change, and told of his father part in the war. His dad was in the RAF, but as the ground crew, and this had him constantly being transferred to different bases all over the country. This wouldn't be that bad if you were single, but because he had a family, they moved with him to. After 6 moves the rest of the family were getting pretty sick of it, but when they got transferred to a small island near Denmark, sh!t hit the fan when boredom got the better of Phil, because he started chroming with a Shetland pony. Nice
Richard Cooke surprised us all with his story of Rahul, an Indian White Supremacist. You don't have to be a genius to realise that something like that just ain't going to work, so Richard's hilarious, but jaw dropping story was about a guy that supported the people that hated him. Needless to say, some people learned a valuable lesson about the whole ridiculous situation, because they realised that maybe a common interest supersedes different skin colour. Funny in the preposterous. Very Good
Zoe Norton Lodge was subject to a deed most foul, when everyone seemingly agreed to not buy each other presents for Xmas one particular year, but in actual fact did!, leaving Zoe with none. Further humiliation was forced on her when she had to watch the delights of them opening of their gifts, when she had none. Good
Broken brain had me distracted most of the night, so my score will be deferred, but I still enjoyed it overall. Crowd : 4. - Me : n/a
05.06.12 : The Days of The Bold Passions and Generally Restless : Roxbury Hotel - impro
I was originally going to Bondi, but the storm ripped roofs off buildings, so I made a detour here. I should have really stayed home, because I wasn't in the mood, and because my head has been muddled lately, so I'm not putting much of my opinions in this review. The storm affected the crowd, because the crowd was small, and things like that don't help. This was a new format for me, but it's basically a narrator telling a story - actually it's more like a Director directing the cast in small scenes that made a complete story, like a Soapie -, with the cast using that as inspiration for their scenes. From the outside looking in, the cast looked clunky - it was like the cast was waiting for direction and didn't know when to start improvising -. There were tiny pockets of potential, but they all faded after mere seconds, and because I've been pretty distracted lately, and I wasn't paying attention, I left before the second half. Crowd : 3.5 - Me : n/a
01.06.12 : Def FX - Factory Theatre - music
I was heavily into Techno House music, and loved the strong Bass in them, but by 1990 RnB killed it, so I started looking for something new. When I first heard Def FX I was instantly hooked, it had the strong bass of dance music, but was much more high energy and exciting. Def FX were leaders in their type of music, which the mainstream could classify, but when The Prodigy's "Firestarter" (1996) became popular, they got grouped in with them as a similar genre - actually Def FX were more rock than The Prodigy dance, but I can see the similarities -.
My first Def FX show was a baptism of fire. I usually followed a city band type culture, which I had seen in the West, but I wasn't expecting this type of show. Def FX were a young band with a young audience, and their shows were mayhem compared to what I was used to. The first was a stinking hot night at the Collector Tavern in Parramatta, and we were getting bashed left right and centre, people were flying over our heads leaving boot marks on the white ceiling, shirts were being ripped off, stage diving, crowd surfing, everyone was running amok. Even Fiona Horne was going crazy, she danced so hard that she knocked herself out - we had to wait until she came to -. Now you may think that slam dancing, stage diving, and moshing is nothing new, but 20 years ago it didn't exist, and to see my first, and be in it, was pretty confronting.
I remember the release of Ritual Eternal(1995), and found it was so heavy in bass beats, that I realised it would be awesome in our cars. So I cranked up the subs, so that everyone Can You Hear the Fu*king Music Coming Out of My Car? - Axis of Awesome joke -. It was funny when you pulled up next to a car that had dance music pumping, because our Def FX bass was so low that they couldn't figure out what was making their cars shake - now do you know why I have tinnitus like Fiona -.
1997 was pretty devastating when Sean Lowry destroyed the band by quitting. Fiona wrote a heart felt letter to the fans on the site, and Def FX were no more. She then tried to continue her singing career by trying to do other stuff, like a song with Paul McDermott "Shut Up/Kiss me", November 1998, and another with Endorphin - which I saw her perform at the Globe in Newtown -.
There has been a bunch of bands from 90's reforming lately, so when I found out Def FX were doing one, I had to go. I knew right from the start that this new Def FX wouldn't be as good as old Def FX at their peak. Firstly, Def FX were a very dynamic energetic band when they were young, and I knew after 15 years that they would have slowed down - I just found out Fiona is 46, and even though she looks fabulous(see photo below), there is no way she could be as crazy as when she was 24 -. Secondly, this was only Fiona. Def FX was Fiona and Sean, and Sean would never reform Def FX, nor could he without Fiona, but Fiona could reform an acceptable Def FX because the vocalist is a signature of a band. And Thirdly, the middle age audience isn't going to be as active as the old days. These factors contributed to a slow start, but I think the biggest problem was the sound - which I have noticed problems with on 3 occasions -, in that it felt flat - not enough dynamic bass -. But they slowly worked it out, and the band got more active, so by the 3 encore songs they were brilliant. For me personally, they were exactly what I expected so I was happy, but the mistake I made was trying to get a photo for this blog. Because of the poor front lighting it took me all of the show - 220 photos - to get 4 decent ones, so I kind of wasted my experience. But after I put the camera away for the encores, I enjoyed myself. There was mixed response on the web the next day, but I overheard a girl leaving say that she loved it. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4.25
It's amazing to think this is 22 years old.
01.06.12 : Get the Gringo - movie
Action | Crime | Drama .. Comedy : A career criminal nabbed by Mexican authorities is placed in a tough prison. Everyone is out to find out about the Gringo, and the missing money. The story is interesting, so it keeps rolling along, and it amusing, so I liked it. 3.75
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