Understanding My-Self(Tape)

The next, and probably final, step for my SNL UK journey

Last time… on “Two Television Things”…. I submitted a Writer’s Packet to SNL UK.

This week, it’s the Casting Self-Tape…

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I opted not to mention this possibility last week, in case I chickened out, but all of us involved in Story Platform were also given the chance to submit a self-tape for casting to SNL UK too.

I haven’t chickened out, because it’s a deadline and motivation to film some performances, and remind myself that I love doing it. I’ve already pulled my Zoom H5 audio recorder and old Canon digital camera down from the loft¹, got my Gorillapod tripod back to working order with a phone mount², and downloaded some new free video editing software, DaVinci Resolve³.

As I type right now, I’ve collated feedback on my first full take from a selection of comedy connoisseurs. Just to fully pull back the curtain, that “first take” involved

• Snatched moments of scribbled notes in my Lego Notebook⁴

• Two evenings, and one and a half weekend days of writing gifted to me by my in-laws via childcare

• 40 mins of first-attempt filming during lunchtime from my day job on Monday, where I could barely get the words out to make sense. At this point, I could not imagine sharing any of what I’d made with anyone.

• 2.5hrs of recording on Monday night from 8pm to get two full takes, the first of which lacked energy as it had all gone into remembering the words. The second is what I sent out.

The feedback version is almost two minutes too long, and the script is going to be honed for re-recording tomorrow. So we’re currently mid-process people!

It is very clear how much more volatile my emotions are when sharing video content compared to scripts, jokes or short stories. They are all much more able to be taken on and elevated by the audience, whereas a video is pretty finished when it arrives with someone. You’ll laugh or not with both, but it’s so much more like I’m presenting a final version I’m happy with when it comes to a video⁵. My face, hands and body are out there, giving a performance that’s the best I can do in my current circumstances. So it is even more prone to the ups and downs of “this is amazing” to “I've no idea why I even thought this was funny”. It’s also harder to accept the performance failing to meet my idealised expectations.

Good to see a consistently insane closing of the eyes through every take

I used to need complete privacy for working up performances and that was never a problem as a layabout Games Master or 17th century tour guide, but these days it has to slot into quiet times after everyone is in bed, or lunchtimes when I also have to switch from professional coder to nonsense sillyman. That does bring focus. And I also seem to have gotten a lot better at looking at my performance and noticing what I need to improve and do better. I've grown perspective.

I’m currently on a high of lovely feedback, tempered with the knowledge there is work to do and I’ve got to do it all again tomorrow, just faster and better.

I love making funny things, and doing all this has made me very happy.

This Week’s Notebook

[NB This is a fairly censored version of the notebook I built up before doing my first recordings, given it is a submission I can’t share too much about, and the video, or elements of it, might have a future life as part of my own work regardless of what happens with the self-tape.]

The brief was for a self-tape of up to 5 minutes that shows off your unique selling points. SIMPLES.

I used the SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night episode “Five Minutes”, all about cast (and some non-cast!) experiences of the US audition process, as a guide to what they might be looking for.

I went neither full Andy Samberg, nor full Bill Hader, i.e. a stuffed bag of props vs nothing at all⁶. Most of my characters had one piece of costume, and that was it.

1. Best Mix

   1. Few lines of my strongest stand-up material to show off me as myself⁷

   2. Characters

      1. DECIDE ORDER AFTER PERFORMANCE Accents and characters (one of them should die, then use “He’s only fictional. It’s like dead, but less permanent”⁸)

Notes from First Full Attempt

• Cut “REDACTED JOKE”⁹

• Lock down accents through practice, and probably a small costume/prop¹⁰

• Have REDACTED CHARACTER as a runner?¹¹

• REDACTED CHARACTER

  • Watch the accent on e.g. “family”

  • Go bigger on the animal sounds.

  • Good punchline.

• REDACTED CHARACTER

  • More mad, more offbeat accent with wavering.

  • Need a better punchline¹².

• REDACTED CHARACTER

  • More physicality, drop the shoulders.

  • Nasal?

  • Rewrite to tie it together

• REDACTED CHARACTER

  • Get a bit more Matthew McConnaughey? Laid back demeanour, sunglasses?

  • Punchline¹³.

• REDACTED CHARACTER

  • Really distinct physicality, red glasses

  • Higher pitched voice, pursed lips

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Televigion Update

Watching

• Doctor Who S2 E5: The Story and the Engine (iPlayer) - The Doctor and Belinda head to a barber shop in Lagos, Nigeria and I’m very much on board with the fresh perspective that first time Who-writer Inua Ellams brings. My thoughts align very closely with my good friend Mark Donaldson’s review here, and as I said when I shared this review on Bluesky, this episode is solid proof that we need someone who is not an old white man in charge of the show as soon as possible.

• Louis Theroux, The Settlers: (iPlayer) - I made sure that this didn’t continue to slip from my To-Watch list, and was a great contrast to my brain being so focussed on making comedy for myself all week. This documentary on religious-nationalist Israelis who have settled in the occupied West Bank was clear and educational. It highlights a little more of an ignored and often misunderstood situation for a mainstream audience (me). Louis Theroux is a real hero of mine, and I’ll follow him to any subject, but when he is making work like this, he should be on everyone’s screens.

• Man Like Mobeen Season 5: (iPlayer) - Do you know what I love about this show? That even though the world it is set in is not my experience at all, and some lines and jokes pass me by as too culturally specific to a culture not my own, it is also just relentlessly filled with characters you can care about, and silliness for everyone. It is a true gem.

• The Last of Us S2 Ep4: Day One (Sky/NowTV) - After being a little unsure last week, I’m more on board after this episode. I was speaking to a friend about it, and I think I have too much “writer’s brain” when I watch a show like this. I can usually tell exactly where the episode is going, e.g. that this situation where they’re being chased is only going to be resolved by an Infected attack, so that is inevitable and not surprising when it happens, so it doesn’t matter how well shot it ends up being, I’ll not care as much. But I liked the introduction of Jeffrey Wright’s character, and the development of Ellie and Dina’s relationship. What I’d love is for something truly surprising to happen.

Intending to Consume

• Poker Face (Sky/NowTV) - Season 2 has arrived. I wrote about how much I loved season 1 here, and it will be an easy watch with the Televigion Wife, once we’re not filming self-tapes and prepping for a weekend of Open Studio.

• Horrible Science (iPlayer) - I know, and vaguely know¹⁴, quite a few people who have written sketches for this new children’s sketch show, an offshoot of the brilliant Horrible Histories. If the whole SNL UK thing doesn’t work out as the fresh, new springboard for comedy talent in the UK, this might just do the same, a little more under the radar.

• The Four Seasons (Netflix) - I stumbled across this new Tiny Fey series on Netflix and completely forgot to mention it last week, but the brilliant

  Wendy Varley
  (subscribe now, you won’t regret it) reminded me in a comment!

  

Questions/Prompts

What are we going to do next?

Footnotes

1. Though they are both unused for this project, given how amazing phones are these days, the old school kit will probably be part of my equipment for the forthcoming Fancy Falls Sketch Podcast.

2. The original phone mount is lost to the mists of moving boxes, and was last seen helping my wife make a wonderful stop motion film about a penguin during the pandemic.

3. This software was selected after the briefest of research sprees post-filming on Monday night, to be able to edit and output a video to share for feedback from my closest comedy allies. I liked what I could do with it quickly, and haven’t been too put off by the node-based editing I briefly read about.

4. One of my birthday presents from The Lego House, the pen with a Lego brick end keeps the notebook closed. It’s even more magic than the Grinch notebook for DMs are Open.

5. Or indeed, audio.

6. https://www.vulture.com/2012/08/bill-hader-discusses-how-he-and-andy-samberg-unknowingly-intimidated-each-other-at-their-snl-audition.html

7. This is all from 10-15 years ago, but I still liked what I used to say. I think this is a good thing.

8. I didn’t use this line, as the time-limit meant I had to flow character to character pretty swiftly.

9. I did cut it. Also, the joke is actually redacted for future use, it’s not a joke about redaction.

10. As mentioned above, a small costume piece helped a lot.

11. I did! And I think it works to add structure.

12. The comedian’s constant note.

13. Told you. Also, I don’t think I ever did find a good one…

14. Separate people covered in the two clauses.