I Blogged Myself

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Welcome to the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational blog since Kermit left just a little bit of the swamp in his pants.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Thank The Lord For Your Presence

I wanted to let you know my thoughts about the new comedy show that premiered on Australian TV last Wednesday night, after weeks and weeks of build-up. It was made by members of the Working Dog team (and a few of their mates), and it's called Thank God You're Here. It's hosted by a well-known Australian comedian who is new to Working Dog Productions, called Shane Bourne.




If you like, you can read an article about it here, which was written before the first episode aired. Or, if you prefer, there's this one. Don't say I don't spoil you for choice.

The point of the show is that a celebrity (usually someone with a sense of humour) is dressed up in a costume, then instructed to walk through a blue door into a scene already underway involving other actors, props, and an entire set. The celebrity has no idea who they are, what the scene's about, or what they're supposed to be doing. But they take their cues from the other actors, and try their best to keep things moving along. Mix all ingredients, allow to boil on maximum heat, and stir. Hilarity ensues.




The premise rings of Theatresports to me, but only one particular game thereof. And as Tom Gleisner is quick to point out in one of the articles linked above, it's kind of the opposite end of the spectrum to Theatresports because the celebrity in this instance is the only one who doesn't know what's going on.

For this week's premiere episode, the guests the show featured as its victims (there's really no better way to describe it) were writer/actor Angus Sampson, radio drive shift co-host Fifi Box, stand-up comedian Frank Woodley and actor/comedian Peter Rowsthorn.

Due to his wacky behaviour (known by the audience from the way he carries on in his stand-up comedy duo Lano & Woodley's act), Frank Woodley was the most amusing (and he won). Of course, this was largely due to his tendancy to stray wildly from the scene presented to him, and to 'bend' the rules (putting it politely) in order to get the biggest laughs.

But that's the point of the show, after all - to be funny.

Despite Tom Gleisner's strained and forced attempts at humour when giving scores to each celebrity's performance (and I love all members of Working Dog - as well as the other original members of The D-Generation - but Tom has never seemed terribly comfortable in front of the camera ... he has a problem with both his pacing and his movement), I found myself really enjoying the show.

Frankly, I thought Angus mightn't prove to be very funny, and that poor Fifi would just embarrass herself, but I was pleasantly surprised by the efforts both of them put in - they each got big laughs. The pre-recorded bits of them pretending to be commentators during an equestrian event, real estate agents showing a couple through a house, and spruikers in a shopping centre selling a terrible vegetable slicer they'd never seen before) were also a highlight.

I didn't mind Bourne's work as host (such as it is), and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series (which is only eight episodes, apparently). From the ads they've used, it's easy to work out that Santo Cilauro and Robyn Butler will be featured as 'victims' in upcoming episodes, but who else they're going to get on the show in future weeks is a mystery. But I'll be watching to see who it is, and how they go.

A few suggestions: This guy, this guy, both of these guys, this guy, (and because it's Network Ten) this woman and (hey - why not) some of the Neighbours cast.

But pleeeeeeease! Not this woman.


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In other news, I'm desperately trying to find out what gaming platform to get myself, as per Wifey's promise at Christmas that I could get myself one. It's either going to be an X-Box or a PS2; I'm not spending money on the new X-Box 360 'cos that's just silly.

The pre-requisite is this: I really want the following games. Both of these, and this one. But I fear that all three aren't available on the same platform. Does anyone out there know if this is the case or not? Methinks I'm stuffed. It looks like the third one is only available on PS2, while one of the first two is only available on X-Box (the other one looks like it's available on both ... now why couldn't one of the others be ambidextrous as well, to make things easier?!!). If anyone knows of any facts to the contrary, please let me know.

8 Comments:

At Monday, April 10, 2006 1:52:00 pm, Blogger Spankk said...

I know the Playstation site (http://au.playstation.com) has a complete list of games on it, and no doubt the Xbox site does too - so, they should be able to tell you, as well as the good folks at your local EB Games at Eastie.
Why didn't I know that show already started - they don't give us enough warning in the country!

 
At Monday, April 10, 2006 2:50:00 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm one of those silly people who bought an xbox 360 ($$$) recently (the baby can go without gifts or food for the first few years surely!). And the beauty of it is that many of the old xbox games are backward compatible with it including, BTVS: Chaos Bleeds, and in many cases the games look better. But to answer your question, I don't think 24 was ever created for the xbox. When chosing between the PS2 and original xbox (Phff, old generation systems ;-)) the main difference is the game titles you want to play. I hope this has been of something vaguely resembling help.

 
At Monday, April 10, 2006 3:39:00 pm, Blogger sublime-ation said...

I love The Late Show...but I've been terrified of Jude ever since I somehow ended up at a party of hers in Clifton Hill when I was about 17. She came storming out of a room yelling 'Who fucking pissed on my carpet? Was it you?'. I ran for my life.

 
At Monday, April 10, 2006 4:06:00 pm, Blogger Jeremy said...

XBOX

Pluses - more powerful system; games available on both systems generally look better on XBOX; 20GB hard drive for save games, so no fiddling around with stupid 8MB memory card on PS2; support for four-players out of the box.

Well-regarded Exclusive Games: Halo 1 & 2, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2, Project Gotham Racing 3; Fable

PS2
Pluses - Um. Gimmicky add-ons like Singstar microphones, Eye Toy?

Well-regarded Exclusive Games: Katamari Damacy 1 & 2, Shadow of the Colossus.

I foolishly bought a PS2 because I wanted to play the GTA games. And then a week later they were announced for Xbox, dammit. I'd probably go the Xbox- it's clearly better hardware. But the three games I've listed for PS2 are absolute corkers, so it'd be sad to miss out on those.

 
At Monday, April 10, 2006 10:10:00 pm, Blogger meghansdiscontent said...

Ummm. . . as usual, I'm completely lost here. Bevis, help us poor Americans out.

:)

 
At Tuesday, April 11, 2006 12:27:00 am, Blogger Ang said...

If you can't play; pong, astroids, space invaders, q-bert, frogger or donkey kong on them then frankly I think they are a big ol waste of money!!

 
At Tuesday, April 11, 2006 8:19:00 am, Blogger Melba said...

clokey'll know i'm sure, bevis. not sure why he hasn't already left a comment. maybe he doesn't know. but i know he's got a lot of the things with the names that you are talking about.

i don't know the answer. clearly.

but good luck hey?

 
At Saturday, April 15, 2006 1:23:00 am, Blogger BEVIS said...

Thank you, everyone, for all your (very educational) comments!

Spankk, yeah - that's where I started my search, but I was hoping there were more answers out there and that the sites possibly only listed available games. Looks like 'no'. No matter which system I go with, the options restrict me to two of my preferred three games, so I'm going to have to decide which one I want to miss out on. (There are bigger problems in the world, though, so I'll live.) Your suggestion of dropping in to EB Games is a good one. I'll do that at some point as well, thanks. As for Thank God You're Here, I can't believe you weren't inundated with the advertising like we were (but maybe you don't spend your entire life in front of the TV like me, so fair enough).

John B, only 'many' of the old games are 'backwards compatible'? I thought the idea was that all old games from the same platform would still work on any new versions they brought out (but new games would begin to be made exclusively for the new system)? Is that not the case? I think that's rotten if some games are doomed never to work on the new systems they bring out. That's a sure-fire way to lose happy customers, I'd have thought. (But what do I know. Answer: Nothing.)

Sublime-ation, that's an hysterical story, and so true to how I'd imagine her to be in real life. As I said in the post, I'm a massive fan of Rob, Santo, Tom, Jane, Mick, Tony, Jason, John, Nicholas, Geoff and others from Fast Forward and The Comedy Company as well (not that I think those two shows are where they got their start; it's okay), such as Glenn, Marg, Peter M, Peter R, Michael, Magda, Jane, Gina and so on ... but Frontline would have to be my absolute favourite of the bunch. It's just so clever! Anyway, I also adored The Late Show, and even though it's probably not true (and I might fall into Ms Fits' bad books for saying it; I don't know) I blame Judith Lucy for the show's demise.

MrLefty, those are certainly some convincing statistics! Thank you very much for the break-down; the X-Box looks a lot better when you put it like that! I think I know what I'll be doing, then ... :) Thanks also for letting me know the better games out there. I'm completely in the dark about that at this stage (apart from the three I mentioned, which obviously spawn from my TV loves), so I'll be keeping your list handy. Cheers!

MeghansDiscontent, I'm not sure what it is I've lost you on. It can't be the gaming stuff (PS2 and X-Box are both American, surely!), so you must mean the show and all the people's faces I linked to. Fair enough. But I kind of explained it all in the post itself, didn't I? Not who the people were, I guess. Well, you'll probably just have to take my word for it when I say that they're all very funny. Except for the last person, who was Judith Lucy (see my above comment to Sublime-ation). Judith Lucy is a disgrace to humourists everywhere and painful to watch. The concept for the show has apparently been sold to the US, so you'll be seeing it (even if under a different name) within a year or so, I should imagine. But obviously with American personalities instead of ours. (Otherwise, that'd just be silly!) I hope that helped you a little (but I suspect I only succeeded in muddying the waters even more!).

Ang, ah! Those are some classic games! They should bring out updated versions for the X-Box and PS2! *needs to check sources, because they probably already have.* It wouldn't be the same, though.

MelbourneGirl, I think Clokes has been busy with other matters of late. Have you locked him in a cage or something? He mentioned computer troubles a while ago, but you don't seem to be having any problems logging on. Different computers, presumably - I realise that, but my point is that the man has Internet access if he really wants it. I suspect he has been very busy creating another online personality and giving them their own blog. (I'm right, aren't I.) *Hmm, who's new around the traps? ...* BTW, your comment amused me greatly. I appreciate you trying to help. :)

Channy, sorry for any offense! None was intended, I assure you. I actually thought of asking you (and Spankk) in person, but I was thinking about it as put this post together, so it seemed easier at the time to ask Internet people at large. I liked the idea of the maybe option you mentioned the other night, about what mght happen if you buy yourself an X-Box 360 later in the year. I'll sit tight for that one and see what eventuates, but don't worry, I'm not placing any obligations on you. The Buffy game ain't so bad, but if you're playing it late at night on your own with the sound turned up loud and your house starts creaking as it 'settles', you might be on a hiding to nothing, yes. :)

 

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