This is what happens when Jess and I get together…. magic.
We did this in one day (can’t you tell?), I wrote the lyrics, she sang the song (thanks to this awesome apple app that makes you sound professional, Molly shot us on the oval dancing, Anonymous male shot us at home, and the rest is ‘istry as they say….
So, a month on and here ’tis. My video of my American experience.
on a completely different subject, uni started back last week. We’re planning some pretty awesome stuff, so watch this space
And rolling in the 2012 red carpet…
I have recently been on a whirlwind tour of the American West. And oh, how the west was fun! 4 weeks and a lot of states (names escape me at this time), lots of food, lots of booze (cheap, so cheap), lots of laughs.
While on tour, I heard what I believe to be the funniest story I have ever heard in the entire world, including Canberra. It was for me, like discovering the holy grail; My mate Leah and our new South African friend, ‘South Africa’ (real name Lorraine) were eating a fancy 5 course meal restaurant in New Orleans, after a bender on Bourbon St. the night before, just talking and eating and eating. South Africa decides to tell us this story that always makes her laugh. With her broken English and fits of giggles, she told us this story of something her friend did once, and honestly, I could not stop laughing for the next twenty minutes. It was one of those attacks.
Perhaps one day I will tell it to you.
In the meantime, I will post a little video I did of me in the States soon.
Right before the States actually, me and Jess (of Val and Val fame) did a stand up gig at the Corner Hotel in Richmond. We tore the roof down (in my head at least). We did our characters Val and Val, and g-string older lady nappies, bad wigs, and bad fashion were the joke du jour. According to my very supportive boyfriend, we did get quite a lot of laughs.So we will be busy doing more stand ups this year I think.
that’s all, vid to come.
ps, visit the states, America is great.
And this is me at an all American diner. That’s American diner food in my Mouth.
This is a clip of us workshopping characters. Seeing as we are lazy and strapped for time, improv is how we get material for scenes, characters, dialogue ideas etc.
‘Smokers Mouth’ happened one day when Jess, Molly and myself were bored in the library ‘studying’ (ie, eating), I’m not too sure how we came about the characters but it involved a tic-tac and a fisherman’s friend on a tram.
Molly is starting to post clips like these on our youtube channel Unavailable Jam if your interested.
This is raw footage, relatively unedited and without professional sound stuff- you may have to turn your hearing aid up and fast forward through some bits, Jess and I have a problem with verbal and tangent diarrhea.
I visited Paris on the weekend, and sang a sad song.
if you want to see the real Adele film clip, click here. Mine is obviously better. More professional
or watch below- or watch these two at the same time. You get the full effect that way. But mainly focus on me.
It’s more politically correct this way you see. High tides and greetings, yeast offendethly.
Happy Birthday Jesus.
This last week I got my fill of comedy at the Palais Theatre in St Kilda. I saw Eddie Izzard’s ‘Stripped‘. I’ve not seen his work before; for such an iconic British gentlelady, and my penchant for Britain, Britain, achoo, you’d think I would but no.
He took us through the history of the world, from day dot, to the dinosaurs and the Ice Age, the Stone Age, the Other Ages etc etc etc etc until Today Age. As my memory is a memory and not a very good one, I can only remember that it was funny. SO here’s someone else’s review of the show, from the LA Times “Performance Review: Eddie Izzard“. My most memorable moments of Ms Izzard was “Bok Choy. What a depressing little vegetable that is”, and Jazz Chickens and good writing. He kind of reminded me of Russell Brand, if he had class.
Good news! Absolutely Fabulous of which I am VERY familiar, is doing a 2011 Christmas Special! (what is it with Brits and Xmas Specials?!) Check out the sneak peek from The Grahame Norton Show;
Excited?! I AM
As for me I will be doing a Christmas Special of my own. Probably.
We’ve been productive today. Meet our newest characters, Jess and Mike.
Amanda
x
Just while we’re waiting for actual footage of our show, I thought I’d recap-
There once was a girl named Amanda
Who was in love with self propaganda
her own biggest fan
she loved how she sang
and shot anyone she felt would slander.
her.
ok?
Jess, Molly and myself are working on a series of sketches that we aim to have completed in the early new year. At this early stage, we are nutting out characters, treatment, and subsequent plot points for each sketch. Molly has the thankless task of finding our tech feet. 
We all come from an improv background (taught by the marvellous Lliam Amor of Impro Melbourne), which is a grand excuse to not do character prep or write scripts. We are just lazy, really. Plus my good friend and collaborator Kate Holleman has a masters in scriptwriting, is a master at scriptwriting- so I’m going to force her to do it for me. I think we’ll end up using our improvised scenes as rehearsal, and use the good bits to format the completed sketch with our fancy new camera equipment.
This last week however, was quite a productive one. We worked on ’Chastity and Vatican’, our schoolgirl characters. Despite minor drawbacks (me falling off the deck, legs akimbo in a slutty school uniform, our camerawoman laughing too hard our footage turned into The Blair Witch does Degrassi High) we managed to get a scene down and do work! Which is more than we did last week.
Which wasn’t hard. We did nothing last week.
Lol. ROFL, that's totes cute, Luke.
I will post updates as they come, some behind the scenes footage and developments.
In the meantime, to get a feel for what we’re trying to achieve, imagine;
French and Saunders meet Magda Szubanski meet Chris Lilley meet Gina Riley meet Miranda.
Add them together, extract professionalism, replace with hard-boiled egg determination and you get…
a very soggy lunchbox that smells like Rotorua on curry.
yep, that’s us!
getting made-up. Halfway to looking like a 50 year, 2 pack-a-day smoker
Amanda.
x
Please be aware that I am ridiculously famous. Far too famous for my own good. This is why, of course, you see my name pop up in Famous, right beside a picture of me falling out of a limo, fanny first on a weekly basis.
Things you must know about me;
a) I am a girl, have hair, two ears, functioning limbs etc. Can move eyes in separate directions.
b) I am at my fourth University and on my second degree. DRA’MAA, dahling. This is where I have met future Magda’s, Sonia’s, Cate’s and those that will serve them food in years to come. I am trying to eat food, not serve it.
c) It is uni break and me and my friends are filming for our very own little comedy show.
d) I love comedy, you see.
This is a picture of me. Of course I look good, because if you don’t look good airbrushed, blasted by harsh light and in black and white, then you’ve got problems.
This is me in real life, smiling and sneezing at the same time
I have actually done stuff, which I will post soon, so stop hassling me.
‘Never stop being you’
(like you could be anyone else)
Amanda. Or sometimes Janice.
x
