Monday, 16 August 2010
Devils in limbo
This is a play that Preverb is going to put on soon. Probably in February and probably at Camden's Etcetera theatre. The play is inspired by Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost, but doesn't re-tell the story- instead it looks at the personalities of Satan and his followers and asks what these have to say about how our society understands what it is to be a man. This weighty subject is treated in a fun way (a bit like the Wizard of Oz really) and there will be songs.
Saturday, 22 August 2009
Slow impro
Impro (distinct from IMPROV- some sort of free jazz) these days is like a fast food version of creativity, that seemingly has no place except as lightweight comedy trash (of course, some people have a taste for that).
Fast food is basically pretty bad food. In an attempt to save impro from an abysmal comedy ghetto, Preverb introduces the SLOW IMPRO MOVEMENT.
Inspired by the slow food movement, slow impro is a natural, sustainable and satisfying way of being creative; without being limited to any particular style or genre.
The principles of slow impro are:
To be creative you must be emotionally ready. If you want to create things to flatter your ego then you are not ready. Maturity does not arrive overnight.
To be creative you need to have paid attention over a long time to what creative forms already exist (you don't have to reproduce them of course; but you probably will anyway if you don't recognise them).
To be a creative performer you need to perform without any pressure to hurry. You must be prepared to allow time to pass without thinking that you should always be filling it up with yourself. You need to stop worrying about whether or not you are being entertaining.
This may all be difficult to swallow. Someone raised on junk will not appreciate good food the first time they get it. Be brave, give it a try.
Fast food is basically pretty bad food. In an attempt to save impro from an abysmal comedy ghetto, Preverb introduces the SLOW IMPRO MOVEMENT.
Inspired by the slow food movement, slow impro is a natural, sustainable and satisfying way of being creative; without being limited to any particular style or genre.
The principles of slow impro are:
To be creative you must be emotionally ready. If you want to create things to flatter your ego then you are not ready. Maturity does not arrive overnight.
To be creative you need to have paid attention over a long time to what creative forms already exist (you don't have to reproduce them of course; but you probably will anyway if you don't recognise them).
To be a creative performer you need to perform without any pressure to hurry. You must be prepared to allow time to pass without thinking that you should always be filling it up with yourself. You need to stop worrying about whether or not you are being entertaining.
This may all be difficult to swallow. Someone raised on junk will not appreciate good food the first time they get it. Be brave, give it a try.
Thursday, 4 June 2009
Sounds
Frank Zappa memorably asked whether humour has a place in music.
Although Frank made a lot of funny songs he was much more of a musician than a comedian otherwise he might have asked if music had a place in comedy.
Some people would say it hasn't. Most comedians can't sing well. Most musicians aren't funny.
I guess these people didn't like the South Park movie, or Blue Jam, or Reeves & Mortimer or the Mighty Boosh.
These are only a recent batch of examples. It used to be normal for comedians to be musical, but this became uncool for comedians who wanted to be more 'edgy' (Parker & Stone are pretty edgy though, I'd say- and so's Chris Morris).
Preverb is big on music (especially prog rock, minimalism, early 90's ambient electronica, Angelo Badlamenti, sacred music, Indian classical music, the Bonzos, etc...) and we put it on all our podcasts whether or not there's anything comic about the music.
But comedy or music alone are not as much fun as they are together. Pure audio seems an ideal medium for blending these two things because what is only heard is more flowing and open ended then what is also seen. Listening stimulates the visual imagination more freely than literal imagery; it's less linear, more dreamlike. This happens even without music if the other sounds used (voices say) are rich and interesting.
I doubt it's a coincidence that radio has been the starting point for a lot of influential British comedy (Hitchhiker's guide, League of Gentlemen, Mighty Boosh, and the Goon show of course).
What radio allows is a type of sound collage. Preverb's podcasts include compressed mixes of multiple voice/music/FX tracks.
For example,
http://preverb.co.uk/PodcastLumps!/destroy%20the%20sun%20(collage).MP3
http://preverb.co.uk/PodcastLumps!/TwentyTwelverer.MP3
These compressed sound collages are audio analogies for visual art collages (Preverb do them too). Collaging is all about unpredictably contrasting boundaries between things- which is what Preverb are all about, and this is how Preverb sets about presenting an alternative to the usual highly specialised monotony that dominates the world today.
You can see what we mean if you look at our website http://www.preverb.co.uk/
the site is itself a collage- you can play with it- you have to actually if you want to find all the content.
Give it a go. It's fun.
Although Frank made a lot of funny songs he was much more of a musician than a comedian otherwise he might have asked if music had a place in comedy.
Some people would say it hasn't. Most comedians can't sing well. Most musicians aren't funny.
I guess these people didn't like the South Park movie, or Blue Jam, or Reeves & Mortimer or the Mighty Boosh.
These are only a recent batch of examples. It used to be normal for comedians to be musical, but this became uncool for comedians who wanted to be more 'edgy' (Parker & Stone are pretty edgy though, I'd say- and so's Chris Morris).
Preverb is big on music (especially prog rock, minimalism, early 90's ambient electronica, Angelo Badlamenti, sacred music, Indian classical music, the Bonzos, etc...) and we put it on all our podcasts whether or not there's anything comic about the music.
But comedy or music alone are not as much fun as they are together. Pure audio seems an ideal medium for blending these two things because what is only heard is more flowing and open ended then what is also seen. Listening stimulates the visual imagination more freely than literal imagery; it's less linear, more dreamlike. This happens even without music if the other sounds used (voices say) are rich and interesting.
I doubt it's a coincidence that radio has been the starting point for a lot of influential British comedy (Hitchhiker's guide, League of Gentlemen, Mighty Boosh, and the Goon show of course).
What radio allows is a type of sound collage. Preverb's podcasts include compressed mixes of multiple voice/music/FX tracks.
For example,
http://preverb.co.uk/PodcastLumps!/destroy%20the%20sun%20(collage).MP3
http://preverb.co.uk/PodcastLumps!/TwentyTwelverer.MP3
These compressed sound collages are audio analogies for visual art collages (Preverb do them too). Collaging is all about unpredictably contrasting boundaries between things- which is what Preverb are all about, and this is how Preverb sets about presenting an alternative to the usual highly specialised monotony that dominates the world today.
You can see what we mean if you look at our website http://www.preverb.co.uk/
the site is itself a collage- you can play with it- you have to actually if you want to find all the content.
Give it a go. It's fun.
Monday, 25 May 2009
Preverb's agenda
Preverb exists to challenge two curses that blight our culture. Specialisation and monotony.
Preverb improvises, acts, writes scripts, stories, poems and music (which it performs too), makes radio sketches, films, cartoons and graphic art. We even made our own website (which is why it looks a bit odd).
Obviously this makes each thing we do a bit rough and ready.
This is a problem for most audiences. They remember not the rich diversity that preverb offers them, only its noticeable imperfections.
Being specialised enough to do one thing so fluently that no one can see the struggle you went through to do it is what audiences expect. The entertainer is supposed to have special talents. If the entertainer shows the audience he is only doing what they could do themselves if they tried, then the audience won't be satisfied with just being the audience any more.
When a stand up comic is no funnier than the audience he stands up in front of, what does the audience do? GET HIM OFF!!!
Entertainment is a business. You pay an entertainer instead of entertaining yourself just like you buy food instead of growing it yourself.
Preverb is not run on a business model. We are not looking for an audience to live off. We are looking for creative people to collaborate with. If the level of collaboration you are comfortable with for now is to watch without joining in- well, we can wait, but the plan is to inspire you rather than run off with your money.
Monotony goes hand in hand with specialisation. If you are good at just one narrowly defined thing then you do that; over and over again; until the audience is sick of it and your career is over. Let's face it, how long do most entertainment acts last? A tiny minority last a working lifetime but for the rest you get used up and go back to grim reality.
To be honest, so much of the arts and entertainment world seems so monotonous to me that I get sick of it almost immediately.
Who wants an alternative? Do you want to be part of it? Want preverb to be part of it?
Resistance is useless.
Preverb improvises, acts, writes scripts, stories, poems and music (which it performs too), makes radio sketches, films, cartoons and graphic art. We even made our own website (which is why it looks a bit odd).
Obviously this makes each thing we do a bit rough and ready.
This is a problem for most audiences. They remember not the rich diversity that preverb offers them, only its noticeable imperfections.
Being specialised enough to do one thing so fluently that no one can see the struggle you went through to do it is what audiences expect. The entertainer is supposed to have special talents. If the entertainer shows the audience he is only doing what they could do themselves if they tried, then the audience won't be satisfied with just being the audience any more.
When a stand up comic is no funnier than the audience he stands up in front of, what does the audience do? GET HIM OFF!!!
Entertainment is a business. You pay an entertainer instead of entertaining yourself just like you buy food instead of growing it yourself.
Preverb is not run on a business model. We are not looking for an audience to live off. We are looking for creative people to collaborate with. If the level of collaboration you are comfortable with for now is to watch without joining in- well, we can wait, but the plan is to inspire you rather than run off with your money.
Monotony goes hand in hand with specialisation. If you are good at just one narrowly defined thing then you do that; over and over again; until the audience is sick of it and your career is over. Let's face it, how long do most entertainment acts last? A tiny minority last a working lifetime but for the rest you get used up and go back to grim reality.
To be honest, so much of the arts and entertainment world seems so monotonous to me that I get sick of it almost immediately.
Who wants an alternative? Do you want to be part of it? Want preverb to be part of it?
Resistance is useless.
First words
This blog accompanies the website www.preverb.co.uk, which is a showcase for (largely) comedy audio/movies/written/drawn material.
There are a lot of thoughts and feelings behind this material that are easy to miss (take a look at the material and see if it all makes instant sense to you- really), and they are of far reaching significance- so this blog will give the world the chance to question and judge (and, dare I say, learn?)
There are a lot of thoughts and feelings behind this material that are easy to miss (take a look at the material and see if it all makes instant sense to you- really), and they are of far reaching significance- so this blog will give the world the chance to question and judge (and, dare I say, learn?)
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