numbersix

2004-04-07T21:16:00.000+08:00

SIGNING OFF... (for now)

nothing to see here.

move along.

nothing to see here.

go away.

if youre interested in keeping in touch with me and hearing about what im up to (i DO send out fairly regular updates via email) then send to patrickspicer@optusnet.com.au

this site is over.

2004-02-15T10:56:00.000+08:00

DREAMS

sometimes i wonder whats going on in my head. i mean REALLY going on.
perhaps its the added evertyday pressure from the show or something, i dont know what, but when im luring guy sebastian out onto a faraway tropical island, promising him the best gospel choir in the world is out there, just so i can hack him up into little pieces with my car (?) in some bizarre "christine" type way, hearing him scream for mercy and i wake up in the middle of the night with my heart racing, thinking im on the run from the cops, i really have to wonder what my subconcious is up to.

sometimes i scare even myself.

2004-02-12T09:05:00.000+08:00

HEY HEY HEY!

wow, i finally, in between doing an interview this morning and organising AV equipment for AVSCITW, had some time to BLOG! i see the salacious mr watson is making fun of my warhammer habit and simon wants to kill himself due to his many projects, so the status quo has been maintained.

wondering if people come by here anymore (i havent exactly been a frequent blogger since the crash, but thats my excuse and im sticking to it), but i shall blog away anyawy.

AVSCITW goes up next week, which is exciting in that AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH kind of way. for the first time, i stepped down as publicist for vagabond and let someone else do it. which freaks me out at times when i think "OH MY GOD! I HAVENT CALLED THE WEST! WHAT THE HELL AM I GONNA DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?" and then i remember its S.E.P.

even tho its a luxury and i shouldnt worry, its hard for me to get used to.

i especially get tingles all over when i remember that the last time i tackled this role, it left me exhausted and sore almost every night. and guess what? now, thats how i feel almost every DAY!
YAY!!!!! WOOPEEEEEEEE!

but its all good. its going well, and im sure when that good old adrenalin kicks in on the night, all will be fluffy white clouds.

ANGRY fluffy white clouds.

2004-01-20T11:27:00.000+08:00

ANGRY TIME AGAIN...

Vagabond Theatre Presents
The Angriest Video Store Clerk In The World 2: You Only Rent Twice

Following the smash - hit success of its 2 seasons in 2003, The Angriest Video Store Clerk In The World returns in a brand – new adventure “You Only Rent Twice”.

Having escaped the island prison and the shackles of his evil captors in the last episode, the Clerk returns to his position at the Video Store. He slips back into his old life of throwing cassettes and threatening customers without a care in the world, but doesn’t know what’s about to hit him when Eve, the Nicest Video Store Clerk In The World, sets up shop right across the road!

Who is this mysterious Eve? Where is she from? Why is she here? What’s that funny smell? Why does she look so… familiar?

The Clerk finds himself yet again the unwilling hero in a new highly – derivative tale of intrigue, suspense, and murder as the fate of the entire world (and the production of Starship Troopers 2) hangs in the balance!

Starring Sonia Marcon, Dean McAskil, Grant Watson, Talei Howell – Price, Nathan Tetlaw, and Patrick Spicer as The Clerk.

Strictly Limited Season runs from 17th – 28th February 2004, 8.00pm, at the Rechabites Hall 224 William Street Northbridge.

Tickets: $15 Full / $10 Concession

Bookings through BOCS 9484 1133

thats all i can be bothered doing at the moment. :)

2003-12-22T20:28:00.000+08:00

I LIKE THE WAY YOU WALK...

this morning, i watched my beloved take her first shaky walking steps since the crash. this makes me extremely happy, let alone the effect on jo. she was told this morning she could start walking, and 3 hours later, she was on her feet. 7 metres in one direction, 7 in the other to start with. rock.
shes back in hospital (she had another op) and will remain there till xmas eve. to quote the doc - "we want her walking by christmas day". as you can imagine, we're on top of the world today. and to top it off, a friend in en-ger-land sent me a darkness t-shirt.
my life is almost complete.

so today is a good day NOT to die.

2003-12-16T12:35:00.000+08:00

LESS THAN MEETS THE EYE

as a bit of relief from the doldrums that have plagued my little board for the last few weeks, i don't mind telling you that i did my first bit of work the other day. in a department store. dressed, you guessed it, as santa claus.

now before some of you dive for your phones to call the police, let it be known that my parole officer already knows.... :)

and the following, without exaggeration or embellishment, is an actual account of a small incident that occurred during that time.

(me in full santa gear. kid is sitting on my knee, mum standing by, watching with big smile on her face)

ME: HO HO HO!!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! and what's your name???

KID: taylor...

ME: and how old are YOU, taylor????

KID: six...

ME: and what would you like for CHRISTMAS, taylor???

KID: .... transformers...

ME: TRANSFORMERS? wow, that's so cool... i mean HO HO HO! that's great! and which one is your favourite?

KID: .... megatron...

ME: MEGATRON??? wow, he's my favourite too!!!... i mean HO HO HO! yes, megatron is fantastic isn't he? and he looks great when he transforms into a gun...

KID: WHAT?

ME: ... huh?

KID: he's NOT a gun!

ME: (long pause, then softly, in his ear) what are you talking about?

KID: he's not a GUN he's a TANK!!!!!

ME: no he's not he's a GUN!

KID: he's a TANK!

ME: GUN!

KID: TANK!

ME: GUN!

KID: TANK!

ME: now listen HERE...

KID: and sometimes he's a PLANE!

ME: SEE? YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT HE IS! im telling you, kid, he's a walther p.38 GUN! i used to own him! i collected the comic! ive got the whole first series on DVD! (pulling him close, very quietly in his ear) he's... a... guuuuun.

KID: YOU'RE STUPID, SANTA! MUM, SANTA'S STUPID!

MUM: (leaning in, a bit miffed at this exchange) well, i think HE would know?!?!?!?!?!

ME: (deflated and defeated) ... oh ok... im just trying to set him straight about it. its not going to do him any good walking around his whole life thinking megatron's a tank when he's a gun...

KID: TANK!

ME: fair enough. merry christmas. see you later.

MUM: does he get a lolly?

ME: if he has to.......

2003-12-11T23:39:00.000+08:00

WELL...

lets just say that the 10th didnt go quite as planned. or hoped. god fucking damn it.

2003-12-09T01:41:00.000+08:00

WAITING

the 10th is looming upon jo and i, and this is both a good thing and a bad thing. good thing coz we find out how the bones have been knitting and and bad coz we just want to get it over with. to say we're going nuts over here is the understatement of the last two millennia. its not odd for crying fits, spells of depression and episodes of rage to occur in out household - in fact its par for the course. its been escalating coz of the 10th and we just try to keep that in mind and wait it out.

ive had to knock back a fair whack of work due to both my injuries and the appearance of some of my appendages. this does not make me happy at all. my agent tells me the other day that i was asked to have a shot at another tv ad, but she didnt let me go as it was a car crash ad, and she was concerned (for whats left of) my mental well-being. which is fair enough and very nice of her, but i just wanna get back out there, you know? its my bloody job, for christ's sake.

so i havent been working at all for the last two months, and FTI funding for Pullhard and Orville fell thru, which puts yet more of us out of a job. not that its FTI's fault. its the snot-nosed little pricks that were on the panel, thats whos fault it is. but jokes aside, dean and i will try to look elsewhere sometime in the future, but im more than a little disappointed about the whole thing.

it came to my attention recently that in the fiasco of the crash, i seem to have forgotten to make my mother's tombstone. imagine my horror when i also realise that she died in august this year, and i still havent got around to it yet. i guess i have somewhat of an excuse, but all the same, i gotta get onto it, and its hard when you have trouble getting around, as i do now. i have to go see someone at karrakatta about it. ill try to get down there this week sometime.

considering how well this year started out, this is a really fucked way of finishing it. christmas is looking pretty much like a no-show for us, among other things. its not like we havent had the offers, theyve been flowing in (i guess theres something about being an orphan on christmas day) and its so lovely of those people to extend their hospitality (and their family) to us, its just that we cant get anywhere. but im sure we'll manage with what we have. god knows thats what we've been doing anyway.

its just that when i think of where jo and i should be right now, as opposed to where we are, i get a bit sad. then again, my mum should still be alive as well, so if youre ever thinking your life sucks a bit, just remember - it could always be worse. i found that out pretty quick.

sorry about the dark post guys, its just where im at at the moment, and it kind of helps to (at least) type it out once in a while.

2003-11-29T14:29:00.000+08:00

OW.

im back! yay!
well, i can sort of type now, so it looks like i better blog. god, i look at the last post here, and i cant believe how simple life was back then. in the time between these two posts, i have experienced one of the most horrific things i have ever gone through in my life. as you all know by now, jo and i had a major car accident. let me just say i have never NEVER experienced pain like that in my LIFE. im still reeling from it. most days my torso feels like its filled with broken glass. my knee keeps cracking and popping whenever i try to walk and i get sharp pains in my head like someone stuck a red-hot poker thru it. ive been going to hand therapy (sounds ominous, i know) for a few weeks now and we hope to get the movement back in my hand to 100% someday. considering i was going to tear my my finger off at the crash site coz it looked like it was just hanging off my hand, i guess im lucky to have it at all.

jo, however, is more a day-by-day case. she was hurt so badly in the crash. two broken legs, a broken left arm, punctured lung and some of her forehead got torn off. theyve sewn it back on now and shes given up smoking coz of the lung, which i guess is a good thing.

the fucker is that this all takes time to heal. its been so long now (at least it feels that way) and its going to take even longer for her to bet better, so not much is happening here at home. i have become jo's full time carer now, so i dont leave the house much at all as im just too busy looking after her. its awful for her to not even be able to walk. and anyone that knows her knows that shes the type that just cant sit still, so its very frustrating for her. and me. i have to organise someone to be here even if i just leave for a few hours to do simple things like shopping, so i basically stocked up on video games and dvd's a while back, so i wouldnt get too bored. and thats basically all i do at the moment. a far cry from where i was in september.

a far cry from anytime in my life.

we have an appointment on the 10th where they assess jo and see how the bones are knitting back together. if theyre going ok, then we work on getting her to walk again. if not... i dont even want to think about it.

sometimes i go crazy sitting here at home all the time, but hey, ive sort of learned how to cook more than just 2-min noodles, so its not all bad, right? right.

still, having said all that, vagabond has been making plans for video store clerk 2 (grant, script?) and it seems we have 50 bookings already! so heres to me being able to stand without falling over by february! (tho falling over a lot would be funny in itself, would it sustain itself for an hour?)

and heres to being alive.

2003-10-01T12:36:00.000+08:00

BACK TO WORK

so my blissful time of solitude and drinking expensive beer at waterfront bars has come to a bit of an end. my agent handed me a job and i took it. not exactly acting, but i now work for nokia, which should be interesting. seems they have a new phone/games console coming out call the n-gage, which they hope to sell trillions of, and my job is to promote it.
got all my briefing notes today, tried to read them, but the lure of that new iron maiden album (dance of death) in the cd player had a louder voice, so i did that instead.

its funny where the profession of 'being an actor' will take you. ive done all sorts of strange and wonderful things, the best of them so far was when i worked for pioneer technologies, and got all-expenses-paid trips over east to attend seminars and meet other actors from all over the country and drink wine all night. that was cool. and i made lots of good contacts through that stuff, so it was all good.

so i hope this nokia job works out. its not like i really need the money, i just need to get on OPS again, (OPS being Other People's Shit) as vagabond wont really be cranking up again till next year, and i might go (even more) insane.

been thinking about buying a boat. i love boats. nothing makes me happier than going out on the water with a bunch of hooligans dressed as pirates (as we did last year), and vagabond has cast parties on our friends boat whenever we can, but id really like my own, you know?

guess i better get that car paid off.

on another note, ive been keeping an eye on the music charts recently. not because i do that kind of thing, but ive been noticing the return of rock to the mainstream. 'permission to land' by the darkness hit number one in the uk, and the new iron maiden album 'dance of death' has hit number two.

this is the sort of thing ive been forecasting for years. the turning of the tide. i think (i hope) the record companies will finally learn one day that people are sick and tired of the CRAP they process and pump out there at us. the darkness are living proof that people are sick of the bland, boring, miserable state that (rock) music is in and went and bought quite a few million copies of their debut album. 'PTL' was originally slated for a mid-2004 release in the states, but now 'permission' has been RUSHED there. NOW.

so maybe this pre-packaged, manufactured BULLSHIT theyve been making me suffer since the 90's AINT ALL THAT GREAT, HUH?

and look, im not talking about any one genre when i say crap. some pop is good. i lean more towards the heavier side of things. but i cant stand limp bizkit or any of that nu-metal poo. they can bite my bum.

2003-09-29T13:45:00.000+08:00

WHAT?

speaking of mishearing song lyrics, i was on my way to "work" this morning at the royal show (and no i will NOT tell you what it is i do there), when i decided to turn on the radio in the car on the way up.

now, is it just me, or do the words to the old 80's classic 'dance hall days' make absolutely NO BLOODY SENSE?

i mean, 'take your baby by the heel'????

and if that's not bad enough - 'take your baby by the wrist - and in her mouth and amethyst'???????

WHAT?????????

please explain.

2003-09-26T20:00:00.000+08:00

RIGHT THEN!!!

now that that's out of the way...
holidays are good, they are the only thing I look forward to half the time when I'm working.
rehearsal schedules, timetables, shooting schedules, production schedules, it all piles up and can at times really get to me. like when I'm working on a (vagabond) show and I realise I've just spent 9 hours inside on the phone to people while the sun is shining like a big happy ball of fun in the sky. that gets to me. spending 12 hours a day in a dark room while the rest of the universe is living it up, THAT gets to me.
so all I wanna do is relax a little, do some hideous amounts of video gaming, reading comics, reading books, doing my ritualistic 'prisoner marathon', going out drinking in the middle of the day at a bar near the beach, all that malarkey.

the thing is, once this is all done (or at least half of it), I get a bit tired of doing nothing much and need to start work again. ideas come blasting out of me like the wave motion gun in starblazers, I start inventing all these great characters, thinking of all these great situations to put them in, and just when I'm about to go ahead and start something, I need to go on holidays again.

*laughing to myself* what a great joke, patrick...

no, its not really that bad, its just a funny little thing of mine. its like I always want to see what's going on on the other side of the fence, which is fine as long as I don't forget to tend to my garden of life.

this post is conclusive proof that I should NOT be allowed to sit at home by myself on a friday night with no company except this computer and my gamecube...

I WANNA GO OUT!!!!!!!!!!!

2003-09-24T17:41:00.000+08:00

OUCH
(warning - depressing post)

hungover and depressed today.

its been about 5 (maybe six) weeks since mum died. am i doing any better? not really. in fact, the whole damn thing fucks me off.
its strange tho, sometimes ill zone out, time will take a backseat, and i'll just stare at something, and my mind will delve into it and see every single beautiful thing about it. i notice things that i wouldnt normally, and for a short while i feel absolutely in awe of it.

then i start thinking about my life, and what beauty i can see in it. i start thinking maybe its time i renovated the house, or had kids, or just tried to be happy - live the picket-fence life and just let this stupid lump of crap i have in my chest people call a heart to just heal.

then i remember who i am.

and i get mad again.

and everthing's A'OK.

2003-09-21T10:52:00.000+08:00

ITS OVER!!!! ITS OVER!!!!

well, its sunday morning and i cant believe it - noises off is finally over. my god, just when we all thought we couldnt possibly do it again, we didnt have to.

the noises off experience has been a mixed one for me. while hugely successful and all that pat-on-the-back crap, it came along during one of the most difficult times of my life, so i cant say i loved the experience.

it served a purpose tho. it gave me something to do, something else to think about. but now its all over, and i can just kick back and live it up a bit.

hello holidays.

2003-09-17T14:07:00.000+08:00

AAAAAACEEEEEESSSSSS HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!

i have just recieved a copy of Visions Of The Beast: The Complete Video History by Iron Maiden on DVD.
my god, how sweet it is. theres like 31 songs on two discs, with animated bits all over the place, including interactive menus with eddie headbutting the screen and flipping the bird....
between the darkness and this new addition to my ever-increasing collection of metal, all i have to do is figure out how to convince the local supermarket and bottle shop to deliver, and i'll never have to leave the house again.

except when i want to do a show.... hmmmm... ok thats not going to work, but the point is that it ROCKS, ok?

and the other thing is - all my thoughts go out to cav and his family right now. his dad died suddenly yesterday afternoon. i dont think they know how yet, but i know a little bit about how the guy feels, and its not a good place to be.

if you have his number, call him. hed appreciate it.

2003-09-15T16:38:00.000+08:00

OHHHH YEAH!!!!!

everybody in the whole damn world should go out right now and buy a copy of 'permission to land' by The Darkness.
this is one of the most incredible bands ive heard in years, and i cant figure out why.

youre listening to it, and youre saying 'i shouldnt like this', but let me tell you its irresistible.

see if you can wipe the smile off your face after you listen to it. its that good.

i have spoken.

2003-09-11T01:32:00.000+08:00

I HATE BLOGGER!!!!

i just spent the last hour typing some really good stuff here into my 'beloved' blog, and instead of hitting the 'post&publish' button, i hit the 'template' button. it asked me to save, and i said yes, but now i cant find it. its gone forever.

GODDDAAAAAAAAAMIT!

this ever happen to anyone else?

2003-09-09T12:34:00.000+08:00

HOUSEKEEPING

updated the page a bit today. more yummy links to the right.
i should be going over my lines right now, but for some reason dicking around with the blog seems more... fun.
my new show (well, its not really mine, im just in it) called 'Noises Off' goes up tomorrow night. its at the dolphin theatre in uwa for the next two weeks. some shows are easier to put on than others. this is one of the hard ones.
usually when you do a play you go ahead and build the set, get some props and away you go, but not this time. oh no.
we had to build a ROTATING SET, didnt we? yes a rotating set, of a two-storey house, so at half time, we turn the WHOLE DAMN THING around and perform the second act of the play from the BACKSTAGE point of view.

the injury list on the part of the cast is quite large, and not from building the thing, from performing on it.

that and the fact we seem to be using a REAL AXE as well. WHAT???? i hear you cry? a REAL AXE?
yes, a REAL AXE.

im worried that the audience are going to be more terrified than amused when we start running and jumping around on this thing, but hey, like i said, its not my show.

so if youre bored this week, and want to see a something scarier than j-lo's acting, come and see Noises Off.

2003-09-08T15:31:00.000+08:00

ROBOPERTH

im greatly disturbed by an article on the news today. apparently the cops are going on strike tonight at 6 o'clock pm. this really fucks me off. i mean, bus drivers can go on strike, construction workers can go on strike, but when the cops go on strike, instantly lives are put at risk.
it may not seem like much to the average suburbanite who finishes work at 5pm, gets home at 6 and eats dinner to the audiovisuals of australian idol, but i think for people who work in the arts and have to be at places late at night like northbridge, it can be a terrifying prospect.

northbridge is bad enough as it is. always has been. actually thats not entirely true, i remember a time when it wasnt that bad, back say in the early 90's. then the gangs moved it, and it all went to hell.

ive seen some pretty heavy stuff go down in northbridge, so im a tad worried about the fact that the cops are striking tonight, and jo is directing a playreading in there tonight, and im at noises off rehearsal, so i can even be there. to make it even worse, ill be there till about 11.00. with the car.

ive been wanting a second car for a while now, and i think as soon as the money lands in my hands, im gonna do it. its not worth the damn worry.

this reminds me of when the cops went on strike in robocop, and the city was rent asunder. not saying that will happen here, but im sure some more 'creative' people will be able to make the most out of it.

2003-09-06T12:09:00.000+08:00

DOCKERS V ESSENDON

so i go out last night with my good 'friend' nathan to the albion to drink vodka and watch the dockers game. the joy of the match was sort-lived, obviously, so we paid less attention to the game and more attention to hitting each other. anyway, to cut a long story short, nathan punched me in the face. hear that? PUNCHED ME IN THE FACE!

the funny thing is i didnt even feel it at the time. i had my super-destructo-2000 suit of vodka armor on, and didnt feel a thing, but i woke up this morning and COULDNT MOVE MY FUCKING JAW.
its like waking up on top of a mount everest of pain.

i hope you read this tetlaw, and feel bad. you should. i think youre just trying to destroy my career. ive got a HUGE rehearsal tomorrow. 12 hours. and today i cant even talk.

i guess what i SHOULD point out is that it was an accident. i guess i WAS punching him in the ribs while i had him in a headlock....... but anyway....

you bastard. im gonna get you.

2003-09-05T12:38:00.000+08:00

no new posts here for a while, and i apologise. some bad shit went down in my world recently, and getting on here was the last thing i thought of doing. my mum died. three weeks ago yesterday. the only solace i have is that shes not suffering anymore. i was able to be with her when she went, which is all i wanted.

anyway, on a lighter note, you will see i have added GASP! a discussion board!!!!! YAY! well, grant and simon have them, and i wanted to be just as cool, so viola. feel free to post any stupid crap you like, and pass it around.

regular ranting should take place soon.

2003-08-04T16:12:00.000+08:00

HAPPY REUNION

had a happy reunion last night. id forgotten about my old friend scotch. oh, and it was my friend sonia's birthday too....

i stumbled across the subtle joy of a beverage named 'the godfather' last night, it being a shooter consisting of scotch and amaretto. mindblowing. you just keep coming back for more.
and i did.

i think they had to actually peel sonia and i off the bar, as im sure we could have kept that gig going all night...

i have to say Dave Cake is one of the funniest people ive ever seen when he's had a few. he kept me rolling in the aisles all night long. im sure there is a wealth of comedy gold in that guy, he just needs a grant to develop it. his handling of the situation of being cut off at the bar was astounding. it was like he was covered in a zen-like glowing aura of patience when he tried to explain to the bar staff that he wasnt staggering to the bar because he was drunk, he was staggering for 'comic effect'.....
GOLD.

damn. out of cigarettes. now i have to go to the shop again. its damn cold today, and the fact i have the shakes doesnt help at all.

NOW HERE'S THE BITCH
there's a very nice beer out there called Rochefort 10(sp?). they serve it at a belgian beer house in town.
this stuff isnt for the frail of heart, its a realy boozy doozy. 11.3% alc/vol and about 14 bucks a bottle. so it aint cheap, but its kind of worth it.

now, at this belgian joint they have some fuckarse policy about how they serve the beer - it always has to be served in a 'specific glass' (in other words just a glass with the name of the beer on it), or they're not allowed to give it to you.

the problem arises when you got to the bar and ask for the beer god made for himself and they tell you that they've only got one glass for it, and it hasn't come back, and therefore they cant give it to you. WHAT?
i mean, not only did they lose out on my 14 bucks last night, they lost out on my REGULAR PATRONAGE. YOU HEAR THAT, YOU WANKERS? WHAT THE HELL WAS WRONG WITH JUST GIVING IT TO ME IN A REGULAR PINT GLASS????? IT'S OK, I WOULD HAVE BEEN FINE, IVE DRUNK OUT OF THEM BEFORE IM ACTUALLY QUITE GOOD AT IT YOU PRICKS!

*pant pant*

rant over.

gotta script to read.

2003-08-02T19:10:00.000+08:00

ow. the pain. it hurts, momma.....
while the play didnt exactly rock my world, the bar across the road certainly did.
mmm... beer with vodka chasers all night....
which basically culminated in me trying to have a conversation with my girlfriends mother and passing out on my feet landing on the kitchen floor right in front of her.

my head wasnt exactly overjoyed with me this morning, but i didnt give it a chance to fully register its displeasure with me as it got another hammering at the Oxford Hotel today.

mixing business with pleasure, i turned up for the 150th episode celebration of a TV show i do a segment on called Flicktease. its a show on channel 31 every tuesday night at 8 (plug) and its a good bit of fun.
so it was a few pints of carlton draught and a little bit of filming (you know, those sort of "Happy Birthday, guys!!!" stuff that looks even better when you and your co-presenter pretend to be taking a piss in the beer garden while you do it....)
we've got the more formal celebrations tomorrow morning (????) so i hope the others dont hit it too hard. but i know they will. oh, i know they will.

2003-08-01T14:01:00.000+08:00

been while in between posts here. the main reason being ive been kinda busy. which isnt anything new, it just varies in intensity. the main thing on my brain at the moment has been the development of a TV series of The Angriest Video Store Clerk In The World, which is even more exciting than the day i figured out what my you-know-what was for.
The Clerk was created by Grant Watson as a comic-book a couple of years ago, and last year we staged a live-action version of it, with myself as The Clerk, at the Blue Room Theatre through Vagabond Theatre, a small theatre company i co-run with director Jo Marsh.
the play had a sell-out season at the theatre... TWICE. so it was a huge success.

the funny thing was the play was almost a very fond memory almost a month later when i got a call from someone who was interested in producing the concept of the Clerk into a movie or TV format.

so we had a few sessions of sitting around coming up with ideas for a 13 part TV series - which was great as i was able to down the rest of my vodka and raid grants fridge for beer. he only had one, but he let me have it, which made him even more generous. anyway, we came up with stuff we thought was funny, and it seemed to go down okay.

so at the moment, we're just playing the waiting game. as you do in this industry. id be lying if i said i didnt nearly die of heart failure evey time the damn phone rings, but ill be okay. thats what vodka's for after all.

grant also has a blogspot, and ill put the link on the site when i sober up.

also going to see Breaker Morant at the Old Mill Theatre tonight. i dont normally go out of my way to see community theatre projects, but im making the exception as there's a friend of mine in the show.

im going with my friend dean, which is a daunting prospect to say the least. dean is what i would call a drinking machine. and im not messing around. not only can he drink most people on the planet under the table, but he has an uncanny way of making everyone else around him at the time drink. even people who dont nomally drink at all would soon find themselves in the boozy grip of this titan, drunk and confused. he could make Ghandi sit down and go 12 tequila slammers with him, and then sit back and laugh as he watches him get up and start a bar fight.

gonna let loose tonight, then. ive been sitting around reading bloody scripts all week. time to raise some hell.....

2003-07-25T16:07:00.000+08:00

so i finished rehearsal last night for this new play im doing called 'Noises Off' by Michael Frayn. its basically a british comedy, complete with trousers falling down and everything, but what i like about it is that its more of a PARODY of british farce, and god knows i love my parodies... i once wrote a parody of the story of Faust, which was pretty well recieved... anyway... i digress...
so i finished rehearsal and im on my way home where i have a flash of inspiration. i call my friend on the car phone and we meet at a pub in town called the elephant and wheelbarrow. its not the best bar in town, its one of those fake, novelty british pubs that get around almost as much as fake, novelty irish pubs.

we met and discussed my plan. i have an idea for a radio show, that im pretty sure we can get on one of the community radio stations here, called 'Happy Hour', which is pretty much a show about drinking. but not just drinking, its more imaginative than that... we have assumed identities, we actually go into pubs in disguise with mini-disc recorders and interview patrons, barflies, hobos, etc. we rate the selection of beers, wines, spirits, the quality of the service - basically it would be a great platform to be a couple of 'pub gurus' and give us the opportunity to praise establishments of worth and CONDEMN those that trated us like crap.
oh, and of course, the choice of tunes is hard rock/heavy metal.

so, thats just the basic outline. it obviously needs some work. got any ideas?
please, send them to: thecommanderandcaptainirongut@hotmail.com
we'd love to hear your ideas and what you think.

2003-07-25T02:16:00.000+08:00

and here's another one. you know, SOMEWHERE along the line i hope to be entertaining and even sometimes informative. i guess one coming here can expect rants on theatre, rants on films ive seen and can be bothered talking about, rants on my favourite brand of booze (that week) and whatever band is rocking my socks off at that point in time, plus whatever drunk tirades i decide to post when im still capable of propping myself up at the computer. but for now, im going to bed, on account of its hard to type when looking at SEVERAL different monitors bobbing up and down in front of me (so much for the drunken rants)...
anyway, these are the 3 basic things you need to know about me when wading through this stuff -
im an actor,
im a tv and radio presenter,
(when i can) i drink like a fish.
so here's to it...

2003-07-25T01:26:00.000+08:00

well, this is my first post...