The Lee Camp Show

I went to Lee Camp's comedy album release party at the Tank with my roommate and her boyfriend. The night began with a futile attempt to find a Dunkin Donuts in Times Square which turned to sitting in an Irish pub for a while before the show.

It started with the star of Sirius XM's "The Alt Comedy Show" Mark Seman playing guitar and a kazoo (in a harmonica holder) and rapping. I don't think anyone was prepared for that, but it was quite funny, and there was a Light Bright.

Then, JR Havlan--emmy award winning writer for the Daily Show--did some standup, and despite not doing standup often if at all, was very funny, doing bits about Facebook and Blue Tooth and gym showers.

And then of course Lee Camp did an energetic 45-minute set of mostly material I hadn't heard before, save some things he's been putting on YouTube lately. However, just earlier today, I was thinking about an old joke he did about sweatshop workers stitching cries for help on clothing and wondered why he doesn't do that joke anymore. Well, tonight he showed a video of himself sneaking shirts into retail stores that say things like "My fingers really hurt" and "Help me." Very funny. There were also two other videos--one of him trying to convince people to have an obesity exchange program for children, and one of his phonecall to the governor of Texas office.

But mostly the show was fast talking, hard thinking, and energetic. As always, we leave with that "Yeah, we really should do something about our screwed up world" because it's a bit like motivational speaking comedy. If ever there's no laughter, it's because people are still processing what's just been said and you can literally hear the delay in the laughter, which is actually quite cool because it means people are really thinking and processing the ideas. It's not your typical "You know when" comedy or "Women, eh?" comedy.

After the show, I bought a CD from Lee, which he signed (below) and I gave him his free Plain Ketchup t-shirt for guesting on our podcast (above). He invited me out to the Irish pub around the corner afterward with some other people. So the three of us, having a good half hour before we had to leave to catch the last train home, went over to the pub. Lee's wife bought a round and we talked to her a bit. Then I got into a coversation with the opener JR. We chatted at length about Karl Pilkington. Not even kidding. He seems like a pretty cool guy. I gave him my card with our podcast URL on it before heading out.

On my way out, I said bye to Lee, and he reiterated that he thinks we've really got something here with the podcast, and how funny it was. I hope to God he's right. He gave some advice on climbing the comedy latter, and then I had to go catch the train. Really was a fantastic night. If you didn't got to the show, you certainly missed a good one. But you can watch some of the same content on his YouTube channel, like here:

Updated

yay greenscreen

I Really Like Your Pants

Hey, I know this is a one-in-the-morning post, but I'm not delirious. There's this new website called yourpants.org, and I'm not into forums, I'll be honest. The last time I used a forum was probably middle school. However, there is a folder of threads in there that simply asks people to post about whatever project they are cuurently working on. So I jumped on the opportunity to pitch our podcast to any artists who might want to join our ranks. Now, this might not sound like it would work, and normally it probably wouldn't. However, the important ingredient I have not yet told you: This site was created by and is supported by Hank Green, which means the creatively energetic (or energetically creative?) online community nerdfighters will be dominating this space, and nerdfighters love projects. I've already gotten 3 replies in 1 day, which is more than I got from a week of unsolicited emails to artists I admire. Long Live Your Pants and May it Bring Us Imaginative Friends. (Oh by the way, if you don't know who Hank Green is, go to Google, and just type "Is H" and before you hit enter, see what Google suggests for you.)
Okay, I just spelled "will" "whil" so I need to slaep... slep... sleep now.

RIP Don

One of the professors at UW-L has passed away from pneumonia. I never had Don LaCoss as a teacher, but I tried really hard to get into his class because everyone said he was their favorite but I never could because it was always the first section to get booked up. He was married to one of my English professors, so he'd come to our English Club socials like kickball. Here's his blog.

The above photo is the only one I can find on my harddrive, but I have hundreds of English Club photos. I've always liked this photo because Butterfield is sitting nonchalantly in the background holding a plastic pitchfork (It's Halloween.) The boy is Don's son.

Other people's videos

So...I was kind of far back at the Josh Ritter concert and totally didn't realize that the other guy on stage was John Krasinski. I wish I'd known that when I was actually there. I thought he was brilliant in "Away We Go." But it's okay. Someone has taken video of the entire segment where Rainn Wilson is talking (so it includes the part where he reads the new lyrics to the next Josh Ritter song!) and then John Krasinski comes out on stage briefly:



I found what the song was supposed to sound like when Scott was less drunk from their performance in Boston the night before. Here's that video.

Here's from the NY performance, the whole "The Curse"

Here are two videos someone did of David Mayfield at the Josh Joplin Concert: I Just Might Pray (you can hear the person with the camera singing along).





This one actually is my video. Someone has asked for the rest of this song, so I posted it. It's more of the drunk singer from the Josh Ritter concert.

Podcast Sneak Peek

Josh Ritter Concert

It's the weekend of Josh concerts. Josh Ritter performed at Terminal 5, which is this huge room, standing room only, with a couple of balconies. Very different from yesterday's tiny coffee shop/bar sitdown concert yesterday. Plus there were several thousand people there rather than the 30 or so at the 92Y in Tribeca.

The opener was Scott Hutchison from the band Frightened Rabbit. More on him in a minute. Guess who came out and introduced Josh Ritter. Rainn Wilson from The Office. How random is that? You can watch part of his speech in the video below. He used a computer to predict the lyrics of the next Josh Ritter song.

I'd seen Josh Ritter once at City Hall, which is a sit-down theatre and I was in the last row in the balcony. This was a very different experience. They played a lot of the same songs, but were just as cool. The band is still awesome, but the one dude in the mustache didn't get a solo verse, which is unfortunate because he blew everyone away last time. The show was high energy and it was all very well-rehearsed. They even turned on the discoball for one song.

Twice, Josh read some things that people had sent to him to read out as a Valentines Day statement. They were mostly things like "Thanks for being the best person in the whole world" and "I love you even though you don't close your dresser drawers" and "I want to ride with you in a boat and feed dolphins." But one of them was an actual proposal--Yikes! I didn't know where they were, but I hope she said yes for awkwardness sake.

They did most of my favorites: The Curse, Girl in the War, Harrisburg, but they did not play Another New World. I heard some that I haven't heard before (I do not have all his albums) but the ones I didn't hear before were all so good, now I want to get those. That's what happened last time I saw him in concert: I went home and bought the songs I liked.

Okay, I have to tell you about the funny part now. So at the very end, there was supposed to be this big deal song where Josh calls out Scott, the opener, and they sing together, but for some reason, Scott isn't coming out. Josh is calling for him, and it's getting awkward, so he sings a different song. When he finishes, Scott comes out on stage and they sing their song. What we all notice part way through the first verse is that Scott is hammered. I don't mean just a little tipsy. Totally plastered, and it was the funniest thing. You can see Josh trying not to lose his composure. I'm 95% sure this wasn't faked. If you want to see a clip, it's at the end of the video below. And then when Josh and the band are doing the big encore song, Scott runs out on stage part way through, grabs a drumstick and starts hitting a symbol. The drummer and the other band members had to hold up their hands to stop him from hitting it when he wasn't supposed to. It was pretty hilarious.

Here is some footage I shot. Please watch. It starts with Rainn and ends with Scott.

Josh Joplin Concert

He's still got it. I honestly think this is the best Josh Joplin concert I've seen yet. I was skeptical because the venue is low-energy--a sit down at tables kind of venue, but the show definitely did not lack energy, even without a band backing him up.

What I liked most was the selection. The show started with two new songs I've never heard before, moved to some old Josh Joplin hits, one Among the Oak and Ash song, and then a REALLY old song. I simply could not believe that he played Talkin' Folksinger's Blues. I only ever heard that song on his Early Years CD.

But let me back up and tell you about the opener, David Mayfield (pictured: the guy with the beard) (click here for music video). Again, I was skeptical because I thought it would be too country. I like folk, but I really don't like country. However, he was teriffic. Crazy-good guitar skills! I have never seen anyone play a guitar by changing the tuning pegs instead of putting down fingers on the frets. He also put on this extremely awkward persona, so even though he'd 'let down his hair' while he was playing, when it was time for him to talk, he was hilariously awkward. For his last song, he starts singing "The sandy...no, that's not it." (Which, if you're not familiar with Josh Joplin's music, his most famous song "Camera One" starts with "The sandy haired son of Hollywood...")

David Mayfield played with Josh on pretty much all the songs--they're good friends as well as fellow musicians. They did a more rocking version of One Becomes Two. He hit pretty much all the favorites: Camera One, Dutch Wonderland, Gravity, Here I Am, I've Changed. His Cowboy was very cool: "You've got a hip hop thing happening there," David Mayfield said.

We also got the backstory on some of these songs. Nine years of listening to some of this music, I'm not sure I wanted to know that Cowboy was written while watching Baywatch. But the story about how Josh tried to wrestle his brother when he was little by diving off the bunk bed and breaking "lots" of ribs was priceless.

There were some people in the audience who responded to some of Josh's comments loudly, and Josh kept turning to David and going "Uh oh, it's getting interactive again." Also, it was funny that there was a very slow wardrobe change throughout the show. If you look through all my photos, you'll see that Josh starts with glasses, a hat, and scarf. And piece by piece, he would lose items one way or another until he had none of them left.

It sounds like there's a forthcoming Among the Oak and Ash CD, and maybe even a Josh Joplin CD, so I look forward to those.

Here is some footage I shot of the event. There are several excerpts. Please watch!

Podcasting and Music and STUFF

Lindsey and I recorded our very first interview for our podcast. Considering I'd spent the morning in a panic because my computer decided to just stop talking to the wireless router for the first time on the morning of our first recorded Skype interview, I thought the interview went really well. Lee Camp had some great stories about cliff diving and giant spiders and more, but you'll just have to wait until the episode comes out. I think Lindsey and I will become better hosts/interviewers as time goes on. We're recording the second half of the episode, with Luke and Nicole, later this month. We're still looking for some more drawers and animators, though I do have three other people contributing now. I also did a call out to any musicians who want to submit theme song, ending credit song, segment jingles, and background music.

Other podcast news:
Lindsey is setting up our Kickstarter page, so soon you will be able to donate money to us and get "fabulous" prizes. If you have suggestions of fun things we could give away to our donors, please let me know. We're still brainstorming!

I downloaded an MP4 converter, which means we should be able to get our show on iTunes for only $15/month (this is why we need donors, by the way). You do not know how thrilled I am that we do not have to upload gigantic AVI files and pay a fortune.

T-shirts and stuff. A variety of Plain Ketchup STUFF is available for purchase on our CafePress site. However, Lindsey and I are looking into cheaper alternatives to order stuff in bulk so we can give our donors, volunteers, and special guests fun things like t-shirts. I have just ordered one from Vistaprint, and I will assess the quality when it arrives.

Widescreen. Podcast is goin' widescreen, my friends. This means a small retooling of the website since I didn't design it to be wide enough to fit widescreen videos. But this does mean that we can make a full magazine spread in a 720x405 screensize. Being a MagCast, this is important.

I am also creating a drawing tutorial for anyone who wishes to submit artwork to us. Watch the progress here.

If you visit our Bios page on the website (plainketchuppodcast.com), you will see that I've cut our character intro (auditions) animation into parts to serve as cast bios.

We are also looking into both Google Adsense and Google Adwords.

Also, it's pretty much agreed I have the coolest family ever:

Auditions and Speech

Brand new animation! I would post it here, but YouTube has a new embedding code called an iFrame and everytime I try to post it here, the internet browser shuts down. Sooooo....you'll just have to go to the link.







Also, I saw the King's Speech finally. I was skeptical because of all the hype, and I'd be the first to tell you if it wasn't worth all the buzz, but I actually really liked it. Whether it's the best picture of th year, I don't know, but the cinematography was BRILLIANT. It's such a beautiful movie, totally worth seeing in the theatre. Also, the acting was great. I don't have anything against Helen Bonham Carter, I've always liked Colin Firth's roles, and I simply love Geoffrey Rush in all his movies. Oscars all around. Speaking of Oscars, if this film wins best picture, that's two years in a row for Guy Pearce, isn't it?