One day, I shall come back...

The comedy diary of Angus Dunican (formerly 'Gus') and his life since being young and stupid.

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Podcast coming soon

One day I shall come back will soon become the name and internet home of my Podcast.  It’s not going to be anything in particular at first - mainly a scrapbook of material that I’ve accumulated - possibly monologue or short stories.  I just need a place to put things that I’ve made that aren’t necessarily stand-up so this will be it.  More to follow. Cheers.

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Some of you have, in the past, wanted me to let you know when I will be performing The Bravery Test next. At present, the answer is 'I don't know'. However, if you would like to listen to it on your way to work or something, then it is available here to download for a limited time. Hope you like it. x

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A quick story.

I wanted to buy some concealer today. I wanted it because I am a vain, prissy man who wanted to have the option to even out my complexion should my skin be looking particularly bad. IT'S FINE GUYS, IT'S FINE! However, I went into a shop to get some and, upon placing it on the counter, found myself muttering the covering lie, 

"Huh! hope this is the right stuff."to make it sound like I'm on an errand for my girlfriend.

'Yes, it's hard for men isn't it - sent out to get these things. Very easy to come back with the wrong thing" replied the nice woman behind the counter.

'Huh! Too right' I mutter, all the while looking around casually, sniffing and narrowing my eyes; as if gently bored by it all and lost in thought about more manly things...such as shouting or woodwork.

The woman then points out that I've come to the counter with one of the testers instead of an unopened new one. I say that it's fine but she insists. 

"No no! Can't have you going back with the wrong thing." So, reluctantly, I follow her to the make-up display. It transpired that there were ONLY testers left. 

"It's fine" I say, "I'll just peel the tester label off of it." 

"No." She insists.  "We can't for hygiene reasons. I mean if it was for YOU, that might be different, it's your decision but if it's for someone else - sorry".

Touché Madame.

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Jodorowsky's Dune (2014) - HD Trailer: The greatest film never made.

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Pretentiousness chaser: Chico on the piano in 'A Day at the Races'. This tune is pure mischief

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Look out the window at your neighbours little lives.

Listen to this while you do it.

How strange it all is...

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Thoughts on 'The Flash' (spoilers).

One of the advantages to feeling like utter crap is that I'm getting a chance/excuse to catch up on all of the TV I've been missing.  If it wasn't for sickness, procrastination or mild bouts of depression I would never watch anything except the intro sequences to 80's cartoons on YouTube.

First up, I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed in The Flash - especially as the general consensus seems to be 'It's pretty good you know?'. I'm currently taking an improv class and my teacher (a man of taste and venerable nerd credentials) seemed very taken by it.  So I watched with an active desire to see past the faults and to find the good because my being something of a dyed-in-the-wool Doctor Who fan makes me an expert at overlooking flawed execution in favour of good intentions.  However, even my capacity to freely distribute the 'The Doubt' to any and all benefit scroungers wasn't enough to enable me to just straightforwardly enjoy this show.  

It might be that I'm just very jaded with the whole superhero thing right now.  Since the late 80's onwards, the narrative of comic book adaptations has been (for the most part) 'let's re-invent the popular conception superheroes for NOW yeah?'.  However, it's no longer a niche or marginal thing. Superheroes have been mega business for the last ten years at least and we've now done all the stripping down, building up, reimagining, darkening, lightening and every shade of humanising possible to these characters. This is now just what shows (that aren't sitcoms, the news or on HBO ) are like.

That's my first major complaint I suppose, the expositional and structural beats are all too familiar.  It's a series of characters telling each other who they are and what their relationship to each other is oh-so explicitly that, at times, it feels like a pastiche.  Exactly what everyone is for and what module or node of story function they will be fulfilling is astoundingly clear within seconds.  From a certain angle, this sort of thing is perhaps enjoyable.  People in TV land like shows that don't mess about with setting up the format-maze nice and quick so the mouse of conflict can be released into it to find the delicious resolution-cheese...all the while avoiding the bad-metaphor traps, just like I haven't.

Anyway, putting aside the absurdly perfunctory dialogue (It is probably unfair of me to judge early episodes by weight of exposition), I can't say I've warmed to Grant Gustin as Barry Allen.  His sincere/heroic acting cheeses me out something terrible but then I don't buy the quirky/geek side of him enough either, so it's a valueless compromise. Nothing about him feels properly nailed down, which is a shame in a show like this where they're clearly trying very hard maintain suspension of disbelief.  This is doubly irritating because that's something they wouldn't have to do if they just pitched the mood of it slightly differently.  For me, The comic book conception of The Flash (at its best) was always two things; it had extraordinary visual energy and big, lovely, silly silver-age ideas. I mean, look at this for goodness sake:

Bloody ridiculous

In their attempts to keep it all cool and quippy and casual and 'IT'S NOT A CAMPY SUPERHERO SHOW WE PROMISE!!', the programme makers negate any sense of visual or idiomatic world building.  Call me old fashioned, but I like comic book adaptations to at least reflect their mother-medium by having a touch of mise en scène.  I find this extra bizarre because the show is intended as a lighter, breezier sister show to Arrow. While I have many problems with Oliver Queen's particular brand of 'fannying-about-on-the-roof', Arrow does at least manage to sell the idea of its setting to me. Conversely, I look at The Flash and think

"Huh! Look at that...some more Vancouver.  I wonder which part of town Smallville is going on in?"

However, criticising The Flash for poor realisation of these elements is, perhaps, a low-blow as Central City has never been one of the more characterful DC locales.  No my issue is more with composition and design. Say what you like about the 90's Flash TV series (lord knows, people do) but when I look at this, do you know what I see?

I see a bloody superhero!  In fact not just a superhero, one that's bedded in a rich palette and is actively glorifying in its use of iconography and anatomical shade - something DC impressario (and silver-age Flash Godfather) Carmine Infantino was ALL about. Now compare that to this:

In my eyes, that could never be anything other than an ill fitting Halloween costume.  It gives us no sense of the the form of the man at all.  Now I'm not saying that Flash has to be stacked (in fact he shouldn't, he should be sleek) but, again, the attempts to ground the show in reality (the suit was supposedly intended for fire fighting) end up sabotaging that which could be fun and striking if approached differently.  I would have been happy for them to, perhaps, build up to a more trad-superhero look in stages of semi-improvised gear.  In fact this might have happened if they'd put Barry out on his own for while rather than simply having him wake up in a fully formed mission control that seems to scream '...and this is how this TV show will be working from now on'.

Also, this obsession with making sure everything has to be in muted tones, with varying patinas and textures littered across the surface to make it look practical, gets on my nerves.  Ever since the Sam Raimi Spiderman movies, it's been basically illegal to have a superhero costume that isn't patterned with an intricate web of tiny hexagons or something - as well as having raised areas or rough surfaces on it. Maybe it's a way of justifying HD? You can only tell if your TV is any good unless you can make out the fact that your average metahuman has the complete text to Moby Dick written all over their tights in braille.  Even the costume from Man of Steel looked like you could use it to sand down a table.  It's a visual shorthand for 'This isn't lycra or whatever, it's some mad future fabric that does stuff OK guys?'. This post-Christopher Nolan sense of denial the DC seems to be in about what it does best annoys the hell out of me.  I've always been more in the DC camp as a comic reader but at least Marvel seem to realise tthat how these characters look and move is PRETTY central to the audiences appreciation of them.  All this tinkering for the sake of verisimilitude muddies and detracts from my ability to just enjoy it - I can smell the focus-groupy-ness of it all.

Having thoroughly bagged it out, I should say that these complaints are not really the fault of the actors (for the most part) and there are one or two lovely character things happening, albeit slowly and somewhat by the numbers. The bread-crumbed mystery of Professor X's Dr. Harrison Well's knowledge of the future and his fake paraplegia is enjoyable and the the promised appearance of Professor Zoom is keeping me watching for now but it's slim pickings on other fronts. The 'love-from-afar' romance between Barry and Iris is a very accomplished level of disinteresting and the only villain to have stayed on the lam (and therefore someone we're meant to be eagerly anticipating the return of) is the heroically under-performed Captain Cold.  I will continue to watch for the time being  but it's going to take some pretty drastic improvements or decent subversions of expectation to bring me back for another helping once e the current order of episodes has run its somewhat less than supersonic course.

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Blog special: Rex Bloomstein - the classiest guy in showbiz.

This is Rex Bloomstein.

He'll be coming up in this story later but right now, as you can see, he's a little busy holding back a pile of wood for a friend, so I'll do the talking.

When I was a kid, my dad showed me a documentary.  It was about the history of Jewish humour and it had all of these amazing clips of old vaudeville guys plus a bunch of bits of classic SNL and loads of interviews with Jewish comedians and writers.  See my dad has this idea that he's Jewish because his mother was and while my father would be the first to argue that culture is an illusion, if it's a culture that allows him to work hokey-schtick at the dinner table when he's had a drink then he's all for it. With this in mind, he sought to instruct me in the same line and so showed me this film.

I loved it.  It showed me a world of wise-ass New Yorkers and entrenched self-defence mechanisms.  Of familial foibles bleeding into mainstream understanding.  It showed me old hands with cigars screwed into faces that looked like Holloween pumpkins on November 1st and it showed me them defy and parry their interviewers but all done with that smile in the eye that says 'come on you schmuck, try and hit me again'. 

It taught me a hell of a lot about the particular brand of masochism required to be a comedian.

Years later, when I was starting out in comedy, James Ward and I would sit and watch this documentary - picking out the finer points of these old masters and their magic.  I left the tape at his house and there it languished as we got on with the tedious business of our adult lives.

A few weeks ago, James came round with a box containing all the VHS I had ever left at his house.  I was delighted because this surely meant that I would get back the documentary after all this time and, perhaps, transfer it onto some less degradable medium.  However, after emptying the box , no tape.  It was simply gone.

I couldn't accept it.  So I started, in earnest, to try and find this film for the first time.  I mean, sure, I'd Googled it a bunch of times, hoping there'd be some clips on YouTube or something but to no avail.  It didn't seem to come up on IMDB but, having said that, I didn't even know what it was called, I'd always just called it 'The Jewish Documentary'. However, now, I was faced with the prospect that I might never see it again  so I worked harder.

I searched for everyone I could remember having been interviewed in it -  Billy Crystal, Milton Bearle, Jackie Mason, Joan Rivers, Gilbert Gottfried etc. - and, from the confluence of data, found a review for it from 1990 along with the title:

"Next Time, Dear God, Please Choose Someone Else"

Names are powerful things on the internet and, armed with that knowledge, I found battered VHS archival copies of it littered all over, albeit in university libraries in the states.  The BFI claimed to have a copy of it in their archives but it hadn't been checked and I wouldn't be allowed a copy of my own. I also checked in with the BBC, as they had originally broadcast it as part of Arena, but you're not allowed to get things from the archives unless you're using them for production purposes and, even then, the price tag is big.

So, at my wits end, I emailed the producer of the film - Rex Bloomstein.  I explained what the film had meant to me, how much it had taught me, and asked how I might go about getting access to a copy.  I heard nothing back from that email so just assumed that it had been buried under a pile of inbox traffic or straightforwardly ignored.

However, this morning I received this in the post:

I was gobsmacked. To have heard nothing and then to just be suddenly holding it was so unreal.  I looked inside the envelope and the only other thing in there was this:

'I'm touched that you should remember the film and that it played a part in your comedic universe.  Enjoy!

Rex Bloomstein'

Sheer class.  Rex, you're a gentleman - L'Chaim!

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Where has listopia gone?

Have you googled it?

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The Venue, an intimate 50 seater gothically styled room, which for that one night, was to become our own personal home away from ‘home’ Undaunted by the small crowd (4 of us to be precise) Dunican set up a Space Invaders-esk seating barometer of funny for us to gauge his comedy stylings....

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aaaaw

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BRAVERY TEST 2014: DVD EXTRAS

First of all - this is where the show is happening:

If you've already been to see the show or fancy just looking at stuff on the fabulous internet then here are some additional bits of fun for you.  Also, if you go onto the rest of my blog, you'll be able to access the rest of my festival diary, including reviews, recommendations and HIJINX!!!!

For now though, here are some relics:

THE BOOK OF MAPS 

I don't know why but I started drawing maps when I was little.  I think maybe I was inspired by one that Niall (my older brother) drew which looked like this:

As you can see, it's pretty sophisticated stuff - it's on graph paper!  I especially like the dead-end that leads to water and the weird fish-dragon that's lies in wait for you near the end. Also it's Doctor Who themed so that was always a plus.  Needless to say, my first attempt to replicate this sort of thing was less successful.

So I think this was meant to be 'Return to Oz' but it wasn't terribly detailed. Poor Tick-Tock just had to find his way past a Wheeler and that patch of yellow (signifying the deadly desert). 

Now I think this stab at doing 'Trap-Door' was, artistically, more interesting. What's odd about it, in terms of being a map, is that - having reached the trap door - the spidery beast that gets let out then finds its way back to the beginning to spook Berk in the first place. Hauntingly cyclical. 

This Batman map, while colourful. represents something of a step backward for the cartographer in terms of clarity of form.  But then crayon is a very difficult medium.  These problems have been addressed by the time we reach this Turtles map:

Here we find the colour renderings in pencil crayon, with the more engineering orientated forms of the empire state and the Technodrome conceived in sobre pencil.

Now, seeking to match my brothers earlier effort, I went one further and drew a Doctor Who map that doubled as a board game - in which two sides (represented at the beginning of the game by the TARDIS and a Dalek spaceship) raced to find K9.  Please observe the excellent spelling throughout.

Feeling somewhat hungry for more space adventures, I rushed out this  Star Wars effort all too quickly - mainly focussing on creating an epic battle, with only the most perfunctory of nods to its status as a map.  Notable use of colour and perspective though.

This 'Robocop' map is the only example of collaboration in the Book of Maps.  Here the line of progress, the pit of spikes and the larger of the two baddies were drawn by my friend Matthew Gordon - hence the differing conceptions of scale.

This 'Ghostbusters' effort is altogether too derivative - though it does predate the Turtles map, hence the re-use of the Empire State as a landmark.

This 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' effort sees the beginning of the complexity that my final works would become so notorious for.  The route is suitably convoluted as well as there being one or two elements ( a 600 tonne weight and a crocodile) that were the pure inventions of the cartographer. Along with this 'Gremlins' map:

...we can see the beginnings of a new direction. Please note that this is the first formally titled entry.

Returning to the Star Wars universe with a bang, we see this attempt to capture the essence of 'Return of the Jedi' - with additional stylised titles (which were to become a mainstay). Once again Star Wars brings out the desire to draw perspective - with both sideways on and top-down views of speeder bikes on show. My confidence was growing.

The film 'The Neverending Story' has a prominent place in my unconscious and this colourful and detailed stab at its story line is one of my favourites.  Sadly, water damage effects much of the Ivory Tower.  I have begun discussions with a restoration team.

Finally, we have my only attempt at a sequel to my own work - a depiction of 'Gremlins 2: The New Batch'.  as well as this being, by far and away, the most busy of the maps, it also scores impressively on detail, colour and titles.  Of particular note should be the mischievous Gremlins in the corner - whom I intended to seem like the writers of the titles.  The only sad mis-step here is my terrible attempt at a speech bubble coming from the Brain Gremlin at his desk.  It was supposed to read 'I have the brain around here.' but, instead, come out as 'BRAN...I HAVE THE'

A BLOODY POEM!

Ok, so earlier this year, I had a minor relapse of my condition which led to me being put back on some not-so-very-much-fun medication and generally feeling sorry for myself. While I waited to be seen by my specialist at Guys, I found myself doing something I haven't done in years and started writing a poem. So here it is - hope you like it.

A visit to an un-finished future, 

tense with trepidation 

that this day shall be that day

you wished would not come for good long whiles.

*

A TV whispers, low as conspiring children, while some soul far away

writes the minutes of meetings no-one called, 

so that we - the un-called for - can sit and read them, 

out of step with powdered lips.

*

I am on the system but he wants my details anyway.

He’s new.

Bless him, he wants to do it properly.

Soon he’ll learn the faces

and turn the wasting of their time 

to idle games for his tidal mind.

It’s the only sane response.

*

This woman seems to have fallen asleep, 

half-melted into her coat like some long-pocketed treat

and younger feet fall dispassionately all around and about.

Is she alone 

or there to bear bad news as one half of two?

From the way she’s seated I’d say she’s a

"Let’s wait and see dear."

*

Something,

not yet 4 years old, 

investigates new ways of not sitting still

and defies the will of those that made it.

its favourite game is not playing theirs.

It wouldn’t be here at all except Lee had to work

and Mum irons for Nan on Mondays…always Mondays

or else disaster.

So here it struggles, a he in fact, 

Wriggling baggage.

Cargo that wont go in the car without his owl and

"How did it get in there?", his mother asks him

but more herself.

How DID it get in there?

*

Most have stopped asking the sky this by now, 

It’s just how it goes for some so why not them?

all things can be lived with when one is stubborn enough.

"You can’t have these can you?"

"Thank you but I’ll give them to my grandson if you don’t mind?"

"Sign your name and date of birth on it 

or who on earth knows where it will fetch up”

A thimble full of something that was this mornings coffee.

*

Half an hour now and it

"Shouldn’t be allowed!" someone remembers to say.

"Today of all days, I’m meant to be working at eight.”

That TV makes a change and finds us something with some jokes.

Time slows down as you approach the speed of light entertainment

and glaciers blur past like vacuumed clouds being tidied by Mrs. God.

*

The door to his room will open soon

and someone who dares to not be me

will be pleased to step this way.

He’ll call them

"Mr. Adeyeye" or "Mrs. Forsyth"

and try and sound less tired when he asks

"How are you today?"

*

Soon it will be me, 

The best ‘till last when the rest have passed

and gone to wait elsewhere.

There I’ll be and he’ll call me by

the first name, I’ve been coming long enough for him to learn.

I’ve earned as much as that.

  ...AND NOW, AN ADORABLENESS CHASER!

  My EXCELLENT Dalek costume. 

and the day of the X-Wing.

Oh to be young was very bliss.

  MORE SOON

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Do you love puppets? Check out The Sequel, a crazy puppet comedy by Untouched Theatre at this year's Camden Fringe! http://thndr.it/1rXLo3H

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My preview at The Space With Lucy Frederick and 'The Claw of Anxiety' (20/7/2014)

This Sunday I will be performing a final stagger through of my new show, 'The Great Indoors' at The Space in a double bill of Edinburgh-bound delightfulness with Lucy Frederick and her brand spanking new show 'The Claw of Anxiety'.  

I met Lucy Last year during the Amused Moose and she is bloody excellent.  You would do well to come and see her and throw things at me while you're at it.  Tickets are £10 but quote 'Edinburgh' at the box office for 2 for 1 tickets.  That's 2 for 1 people - a fiver each for two, you heard - TWO - comedy hours.  

Come you bastards. I mean it this time - it really matters.  You know how you're always saying 'I'd love to come see you sometime'.  Well you're in luck sunshine because this Sunday is now, officially, SOMETIME.  There will be no other times like this time.  This Sunday, at The Space; in there it's our time - it's our time in there!

Seriously come or I'll be cross.

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Dirty pool old man...I LIKE IT!

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BORED, BORED, BORED.

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Comedy Diary: This Thursday at the Backyard

Hello all.  So I'll be doing a set in east London this Thursday.  You should totally come and stuff.  Here are the details so...yeah! Come. 

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This is pretty much my favourite thing in the world.