I'M NOT BRAVE ENOUGH TO DO THIS, BUT...

Happy, ah, Tuesday, everyone. 

Not much to report this week. I’m finally well into Ep 5 of Digi Level 2 – the Pirate Special - though there are still some bits and pieces to film. We’ve just not had the time, with stuff going on, as it requires another set build.

I’ve been mostly working on the first five or ten minutes, which are unlike any other ep of Digi Level 2 so far. I kind of want to tell you my idea for it, but I fear it might give it away.

But I’ll tell you one idea I did have, that I’m not going to use. Probably. I managed to find an old black & white pirate movie that has fallen out of copyright, and I had the notion to basically make the first 10 minutes of the episode the pirate movie. Just run as much of it as I felt confident enough to do.

I thought it’d be funny to really, really test the patience of the audience, and undoubtedly INFURIATE some people. But… it’s YouTube, so people will just skip forwards anyway. I’m still doing something along those lines – and ep 6 takes that further - but not so extreme.

It was inspired by a whole lot of different things – Stewart Lee for one, who has a way of really committing to a bit, and then dragging it out far, far longer than necessary. Like pretending to eat a popadom.

When we went to see On Cinema At The Cinema live some years back, they introduced the show, and announced it’d be a screening of some film… which they filmed – clearly filmed off of a TV screen, as you could see the camera person’s reflection in the screen. And people laughed for the first few minutes… then the film didn’t stop.

It went on for at least another 15-20 minutes, far past the point of being funny… and then it went on so long it got funny again… and then stopped being funny, and just at the point everyone’s patience was running out… the show started properly. It was genius, and I really admired the bravery.

And then Wonder Showzen – the spoof kids show - which did an episode on the theme of 'Patience', and then halfway through just starts replaying the first half, but in reverse. Genius. They also did an episode called Horse Apples, which – with no explanation - was a completely different show and format to the rest of the series.

Wonder Showzen was normally a dark, surreal, take on Sesame Street, but Horse Apples – still billed as an episode of Wonder Showzen – was a bizarre redneck comedy show full of rapid-fire, deliberately unfunny, jokes.

I love comedy that alienates people, or that confuses or annoys people. That’s what The Man’s Daddy, and most of classic Digi, was always aiming for. The idea that a section of the audience – probably the majority - might be irritated by it just makes me laugh. And hopefully also those people watching who understand what’s going on.

Anyhow. That’s where I’m at with it.

There should be a BYAMPOD and Let’s Play this week at some point too, and Sanja and I will try and make something exclusive for Patrons. We’ve been discussing the forthcoming relaunch of the main channel – which I think will likely be renamed Digitiser Adventures, to separate it from everything else – and might have more to say on that.

That’s it for now!

If you haven't checked out the new Community section on here yet, do so. Everyone's lovely. I'll post some clips in there from some of the weird comedy I've enjoyed.

Oh, and yes: I became a grandad for the second time over the weekend. Which is lovely!

Paul