Monday, March 24, 2008

Wee Little Me

Here are some pics from the show I did on St. Patrick's day with Tongo Hiti at Trader Vic's in downtown Atlanta. I was "Lord of the Limericks". Throughout the night, I would dance onto the stage as the band played my theme song, make a couple quick jokes and then read two dirty limericks.

It went really well, it's hard to say exactly how well it went over because that place isn't really set up for comedy bits. I did write some pretty funny material that seemed to get laughs. Plus I looked like a complete idiot and got to talk in a horrible Irish accent all night.




The best thing about performing with a Tiki themed cover band, is that they have hot hulu girls.



The lead singer, Mike, also does several acts and is involved in production of a monthly Burlesque show called The Dames Aflame. Nancy, my brother in law Ron, and I all went to the show this past Friday. It was a ton of fun and the show was great. Unfortunately, or fortunately, they do a bit in the middle of the show where they pull a "birthday boy" from the audience. The host sings to them and then shoves a cup cake covered in whipped cream in their face. Apparently that night it was my birthday. I was unknowingly set up by Mike. I had to go on stage and get man handled by the host. It was fun, but I still have whip cream in my nose.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Nickey's Tiki


A lot of people have been asking to see an update on my screened in porch/tiki bar. OK just my mom has been asking to see it. At any rate that is what this blog is about, so suck on it.

Below are various pictures of the porch.

Yeah, that's right, there's a baby Hawaiian shirt on the wall, and it was a bitch finding a baby Hawaiian to steal it from.


Here is possibly the best thrift shop find ever, a working Billy the Bass. I haven't, nor will I ever, turn it on, but trust me that son of a bitch will sing until the carps come home.









Here is my awesome upside birdcage chandelier, complete with upside down bird.

You can practically taste the Mai Tai's. The weather's getting nice, so it's the perfect time to come visit us in Atlanta and have a couple fruity drinks in the tiki bar.

Last week me and Nancy went to the botanical gardens by our house with our friends Keith and Joann. This picture was Joann's idea, but I'm going to take credit because it's awesome. Not to ruin the illusion, but those are Nancy's legs.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Done!

I hesitated to say anything to anyone about what I have been doing for over a month now, because I'm extremely superstitious when it comes to talking about projects that haven't happened yet. Now that I'm done I can tell all you guys that for the past 5 weeks I've been working for Matt Maiellaro, one of the creators of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, at the actual studio that animates the show. I'm a huge Aqua Teen fan, so this was a dream come true.

I met with the guys that run the studio 6 weeks ago just for a meet and greet type thing. They were/are super nice, very talented, and a lot of fun. They watched some of my pieces while I was there and really seemed to like them. They said there was no work for me right now, but they would definitely keep me in mind for future projects. That was on a Tuesday. That Friday they called me on speaker phone with Matt M. and asked me if I could animate an entire music video in a month. I said sure, not really sure if I could or not. The following Monday Matt gave me a page of typed stuff that he wanted to happen in the video, I sat down in front of a cintiq and started animating using just Photoshop and Final Cut Pro. They have Flash and After Effects at the studio, but I never bothered learning those programs.

I worked 9 hours a day 6 days a week for 5 weeks on the 3 minute and 40 second piece. Matt M. and Craig, one of the owners of the studio, would peek at it from time to time and give me encouragement. I can't stress enough how great these guys are and how welcome they have made me feel.

I finally finished the music video this week. I'm not sure when I'll be able to post it in my blog, but I will as soon as I can. It turned out pretty good. My drawing skills leave a lot to be desired, but even with my crappy art, the video looks pretty nice. I haven't seriously drawn for a really long time, so when this project popped up I was really freaked out. On one hand it was for a studio and person that I would kill to work for, and on the other if I did a bad job I could ruin any chance to work with these guys on future projects. All is good and they really liked the final product. Matt said the band loves it, so at the end of the day that is really all that matters.

I'll post pictures of the St. Patty's day thing when I get them. Happy Easter to all the rabbits that read my blog.

PS
I farted today and it sounded like an oboe playing a perfect C note.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Happy St. Pattys Day

I'm playing an Irish character tonight in a St. Patrick's Day show inside a tiki bar. Doesn't make any since to me either, but it should be super fun. I'm dressing up completely ridiculously in a top hat and other various Irishy looking adornments. I'm supposed to be the Lord of the Limerick and I'll be occasionally reading limericks throughout the night. I'm part of a show being put on by the band that performs at Trader Vic's in downtown Atlanta every Thursday night. The band's called Tongo Hiti and they do tiki themed music as well as covers of pop songs done tiki style. The leader of the band, Mike, is hilarious and puts on a great show. If you come to visit me in the ATL, make sure you include a Thursday night so we can go drink 4 dollar Mai Tai's and watch the Tiki show.

I don't think anyone I know that reads this blog lives in Atlanta, but if you do come out to Trader Vic's tonight. This guy will probably be there:

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Totally Famous Eh

Hi guys, sorry it's been a while, but I got a contract job (not killing someone, unfortunately) and I've been working 10 hour days, 6 days a week for the past 3 weeks. I'll tell you all about it next week.

Just wanted to share an interview I taped for this Canadian show called "Torrent". It's on the Canadian version of the channel G4. They contacted me about 3 weeks before we moved to Atlanta for an interview about my You Tube videos. I taped myself answering all the questions they sent, put the DVD in a package, faced north, and threw the package as hard as I could toward Canada.

After about 3 months they finally posted it online, and here it is:

http://www.torrenttv.ca/episode20.php

They aren't on the web version, but I taped a bunch of intros and outros for the show and they used like 5 of them during the live broadcast.

Hope you guys are doing well, I have to get back to work. Should be done with this project this Saturday, hopefully.