Fake Dog Loves #5: Richard Pryor
Written 38 days ago by Paul
I am enjoying the discussion of Stand Up Comedy currently on the Boards of Rage, Stand Up is one of my favourite mediums. It’s always good to throw on a Stand Up DVD if you’re down, a great way to cheer yourself up.
One comedian who hasn’t been mentioned on the thread is Richard Pryor. Gun to my head, he’s probably the comedian I’d pick as my favourite. He’s very funny. Before I discovered his Stand Up Comedy, I would have grown up seeing him in movies like Superman III and films with Gene Wilder (another comedy gem) like See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Stir Crazy.
He had an amazing stage presence, and seemed to be instantly likeable. Although he started out as a comparatively middlebrow comic, it was only in the late Sixties that he developed his ‘fearless’ brand of comedy. He took subjects like racism, drug abuse and sex and made them incredibly funny. No subject seemed to be off limits, talking about getting arrested for shooting at his wifes car and setting himself on fire.
He definitely didn’t have an exemplary lifestyle, he married 7 times and had a long battle with drink and drugs. In fact, I must admit when he died in late 2005, I was surprised, I thought he had already died. A documentary on his life entiltled Richard Pryor: I Ain’t Dead Yet, Motherfucker! was made in 2003.
He is often cited as the major influence on Black Comedians in America such as Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle, but you can see his influence on any comedian who takes on touchy subjects and endeavors to make them funny, from Bill Hicks to Tommy Tiernan.
— Paul
Fitness.
Written 122 days ago by PaulWhat with all the recent talk of working out and dieting with regard to the Fake Dog Ab Competition, I thought I’d share some thoughts on the phenomenom of health and fitness. You can’t get away from it, every time you turn on the telly they’re selling healthier living, which is a good thing I think. We’re constantly getting leaflets in our door for gyms, Crunch this and Curve that.
Normally Fake Dog would ignore this, but because I’m taking this ab wager seriously I decided to join a gym, so I took up the offer of free trials with various gyms in the city. A word to the wise – if you’re going to do this, don’t give them your real number as they’ll keep texting you and ringing you to join – ‘hi Paul, haven’t seen you in a while, juts letting you know we have a new offer bla bla bla…’ It’s kind of like that episode of Friends where Chandler tries to leave the gym, but he can’t because tof he lovely ladies. Anyway, I obviously went for the gym that was closest to my house. When I was getting my fitness programme done, the gym man kept talking about working on my glutials and tendonoids etc… needless to say, I didn’t know what he was talking about and said ‘no, no, no just tell me how to get abs’.
Gyms are funny places, filled with big, intimidating machines and people trying to figure aout how to use them .There are two types of gyms, the ones that people go to get escape for a while and just cook in a sauna for a few hours and gyms where people go to work out and get buff, these people take it very seriously altogether. It’s a good atmosphere for the ab training. My gym has a variety of classes including Stability Ball training, Boxercize and Spinning. I haven’t tried any of these yet, I’ve only been to Abs Blast and Extreme Abs but after I win the competition, I may try some of the other classes like Pilates
What I’ve learned is that there are loads of reasons to eat better and work out more, and there are no end of ways of getting fit and healthy with new gyms, diets and WAGs workout dvds. popping up all the time. However, I found the best motivation for a healthier lifestyle is spite and personal competition, and it seems to be working for me. Maybe Fake Dog should do a workout dvd…
— Paul
Fake Dog Loves #4: Peep Show
Written 185 days ago by Paul
Peep Show is very popular among The Fake Dog Boys, and for good reason. It is a comedy series on Channel 4 that is currently airing in its fifth series. It’s very funny and is probably one of our most quoted shows (apart from our own stuff).
It centers around the two main characters of Mark and Jeremy played by David Mitchell and Robert Webb who share a flat together in South London. Mark is a loan manager for JLB credit, he loves his history and politics, but is very uncomfortable in his own skin. Jeremy is his more laid back lodger, a so far unsuccessfull musician and a bit of a freeloader.
What sets the show apart is the way its shot. It is all taken from one of the characters point of view and with the help of voice over we hear what our two main characters are thinking which almost always conflicts with what they are saying. In doing this, I think it’s easier and cheaper to shoot, allowing to keep making more series which is good for us.
There are also loads great supporting characters, two of my favourite being The Johnson. and Super Hans.
The first three series are excellent. Based on dvd sales two more series were commissioned and although the fourth series wasn’t quite as good, it was still very funny. I’ve only seen one episode of the new series but it seems, they’ve still got it. I’ll definitely be getting it when it comes out on dvd. Rumour has it that one of the producers of Curb Your Enthusiasm is planning on making an american version, although there already was a pilot that didn’t do too well.
— Paul
Weblog 4 : Fake Dog Loves / Beef Of The Week
Written 241 days ago by PaulHello there,
This week I’m doing both a “Fake Dog Loves” and a “Beef of the Week” as they are related.
Fake Dog loves good telly. Over the years we’ve all watched a lot of TV. There’s no shame in it. As you know Fake Dog loves good comedy like Father Ted, Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place, Peep Show, the aforementioned IT Crowd, Alan Partridge, Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares (it is funny), Black Books etc… It’s all solid gold.
We’ve also imported loads of good telly from America over the years. Lots of good telly like The Sopranos (a minor obsession of mine), Old Simpsons (it really has gone downhill in the last few years, it’s just annoying now), The A – Team. The list goes on, but unfortunately it leads me to my beef of the week.
We are also subject to alot of what can only be described as crap telly flooding in from the states. Real rubbish like The Simple Life – what a load of nonsense, The Osbornes – a load of people swearing. That’s supposed to be good is it?
All these shows like Beauty and the Geek – truly horrible shows. And don’t get me started on MTV. Play some bloody music. Kerry Katona – crazy in love – I don’t like to be mean about people, but who thought it would be a good idea to give this horrible person a whole show to her self, she doesn’t seem to have anything nice about her. Super Sweet 16 also known as the AL Qaeda recruitment tapes. This show is dangerous. Horrible, spoiled brats going mental over having the wrong colour dress or whatever. Feck off.
Also I was flicking through one day and found 2 really nasty women doing a lot of what David Mitchell describes as tit grabbing and telling women that they’re ugly and they can’t dress properly. Also feck off! There’s so many of these shows because there’s so many channels with too much time to fill up. These shows are cheap and easy to make, and so we are bombarded by them.
Sorry, I got a little bit carried away there. If you’ve got this far, thanks for listening to my rant and let me know if you agree.
— Paul
Web Log 3
Written 262 days ago by PaulHello,
I love Gearóid’s idea of ‘Fake Dog Loves’, but I’m going to wait until I think of something especially worthy of such an accolade.
Last week was very interesting for me, I was working at the Ted Fest, a week of events and drinking around Ireland entirely devoted to Ireland’s favourite (and only real) sit com – Father Ted.
It was quite bizarre, every one was dressed as a priest or a nun, or some character from the show. There was lot’s of Father Ted themed fun, including a lovely girls competition and a Parade with the original milk float from the show. I got to meet to two writers of the show Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews, and of course I plugged Fake Dog to them.
Myself and Dara even got dressed as priests fot the black and white ball in Galway. We will add photos of this shortly.
Unfotunately I could not go to the events on the Aran Islands as I was djing at The Galway Comedy Festival launch, but I did get to meet Tommy Tiernan and Manny from The Stone Roses.
I told you it was an interesting week.
— Paul
Web Log 2: Fake Dog gets itself connected
Written 290 days ago by PaulHello,
You may not know this, but we have not had the internet for the last few months, in the new Fake Dog House or Kennel if you will. It’s been a bit of a nightmare for various boring reasons, but now we are now tuned in to the world wide web, and it feels good.
For the last few months we have been scabbing broadband from our friends ( I’d like to take this chance to thank them for their patience), drinking in pubs and cafes that are “hotspots” and going back to our respective homes where there broadband is a plenty.
That’s what’s hot this week. What’s not hot is Galway Weather. It’s crazy wet and making my errands very difficult to do.
I am looking forward to the Fake Dog Party, which is on this thursday, holy moly that’s the day after tomorrow. I better go get on that.
-p
— Paul