Sketch Show

Filming of my new sketch show has begun and the past week has been absolutely mental.

To fill you in, I met some peeps at a party. We started talking. They showed me a sketch show they had previously wrote and directed. It was utterly insane, slightly perverse and in-your-face enough for me to love it. Thus they brought me in to help write, direct and act in what is now known as "Starving In Hollywood". Thus begins the story.

Today was day three of shooting at a crazy house deep in the San Fernando Valley where many, many debauched things have occurred (not least, several porno shoots - in the past, of course). In those three days I have been in a bikini, been a German professor, been a news reporter, been a big, black, dildo, been a sock puppet, eaten dirt and probably anything else you could imagine.

Suffice to say it has been fun, as I always expected it to be. However what's been the most pleasant aspect of shooting this show has been working with a wonderful group talented, lovely people who are game for anything. It has been the absolute antithesis of everything "Hollywood" and, as a result, an absolute breath of fresh air. It feels so nice to be amongst this merry bunch of misfits creating hilarious stuff (one hopes, anyway) and despite how close to the bone the subject matter is - and trust me, some of it pretty fecking close - people have just mucked in and gone all-out. It's been hot, extremely cramped, and a lot of hard bloody work, however it has been a joy to be behind and in front of the camera again. Indeed doing projects like this reminds me of exactly why I love doing what I do.

The other element of this project I have found thoroughly satisfying has been taking the piss out of everything I dislike about mainstream culture. It somehow feels cathartic to get these things off one's chest. Skewering celebrities, politicians, musicians, reality shows, or just the industry in general has been nothing short of delightful fun. Ultimately, of course, this sort of behaviour is akin to throwing stones at a vast cliff face but, metaphorically speaking, it's good exercise.

Hopefully I'll have some footage to post here soon and all in all, although knackered and massively sunburned, consider this big-headed human happy.


Peace and poo-jokes,


John.