Rob Newman - C/D

the stills look great, too.

Utterly Classic.

classic

oh wait i thought this said randy newman. nm

Very sexy in the flesh too.

classic

he's classic. a god amongst men. "the fountain at the centre of the world" is staggering.

this new BBC4 show ... not so much. flashes of genius, but on the whole: it's just not an idea that hangs together. at least, not for me: i spent too much of it thinking about the timeline (and going "eh? that's not right ... surely that wouldn't happen like that") to enjoy it, and then when i tried to let go of that and just laugh at the jokes, i began to think a) i shouldn't be having to actively suppress thought processes during a rob newman programme, and b) hang on, there aren't enough jokes here.

the trailer for next week's makes it look a bit better, mind.

did anybody see that documentary where he spent five years writing a book about globalisation, which nobody bought?

a book about globalisation, which nobody bought

or, as those of us who did buy it -- and there are at least three of us, namely me, my dad and the girl i harangued at one of his 2005 edinburgh festival gigs -- prefer to call it, "the fountain at the centre of the world".

yeah, he sacrificed a lot to finish it so i hope it was good!

it's staggering, yes.

Didn't you have a thread about Mr Newman's novels before? Fountain is the best one by a long way, there's another one on the way too. I can't watch the new show yet as I've got council telly, but it looks a lot less complex than his recent political stand up. I think he missed dressing up... Has it really been 14 years since the MWE?

He tried to pull a friend of mine at one of his shows. She said she was tempted, but her bf (now husband) wouldn't have been v happy.

was this back in the day? I don't think he ever went short of attention at those shows...

This was maybe 4 years ago or so?

*cough* you would though... like... if you were free...

i'm not sure if i've ever discussed newman and novels on here ... mind, i've talked so much shite on here since 2004 that anything's possible.

the last time i saw him live was 2005 and it was a magnificent show (based, perhaps unsurprisingly, on iraq and oil): thing is, the complexity there was in the substance, not the form, which is where i can't help feeling "history of the world backwards" goes awry. i mean, i'd far rather have a simple set-up (bloke on stage, talking) and a complex subject (why we're all fucked) than an overly clever-clever set-up (so ... er, progress is going backwards, sort of, but time is still going forwards ... or something) and some frankly weak jokes (ho ho, the bloke with the last remaining electricity is dancing to disco records).

I seem to remember he had the germ of the idea in the stand up show.. and it might be a case of them wearing it out for telly. (Was that the Bongo Club run?) When I saw the first of his overtly political stand-up shows it was like a revelation - it was what he should have been doing all along - it was politics and protest and it was stll funny. I think it only works for a (at least vaguely) politically aware audience though... if you want to make a point more broadly then the humour arguably has to be broader.
But then, as I said I can't see the new series at the moment as I've not got digital...
We can discuss the books again - I think Fountain... is miles ahead of the others. They had bit of his stand-up act in them and you could never divorce the authorial voice from the stand-up persona and in Fountain... bits of him are there but it's all diegetic.

Was that the Bongo Club run?

yes. i reacted ... strangely after that gig. stet and byebyepride will remember, no doubt ;)

actually, i think it was more a reaction to a month of solid bammery and drinking, and perhaps getting hammered and going to see rob newman was more than my mind could really cope with at the time. still. "revelatory" is just about the right word. and yes, i think you're right: there was some vague touching on the idea. i wish you could see the show (torrenting?) because i'd be very keen to know what you think.

it's a while since i read "fountain" but i remember being blown away by it: not just the story itself but the basic conceit of the thing ... like you say, you can't divorce the narrative of the story from newman's own, and with that in mind it becomes almost overwhelming: i got the impression that every ounce of his soul had gone into that book, and he really did hope it might actually CHANGE THE WORLD. in some way.

it changed mine, anyway ;)

The show's really just one joke stretched out over a series, isn't it? The only time I actually lol'd was when Freud goes "aahhhh!". I love the one joke, though. Even just for "Mandela goes into prison a quiet Spice Girls fan and comes out 20 years later a raging revolutionary".

Grimly... yeah completely agree with you.. I have a mate who had promised to video it for me.. so I will get to see it eventually.. I'm not very up on all this torrenting and such.

The MWE was such a big part of my adolescence that I was sort of proud of him for doing what he'd done with the Caliban to The Taliban show.. but it's like with the old TV show- He can't help but put in the easier laughs as well.. (like when he'd keep on doing Jarvis the Perv even when the rest of the set was completely different - but that was a few years before during his "Fat Mexican Taxi Driver wilderness years").
I think this new show is probably that bit of the set (if you see what I mean)
And yeah it does seem like he put EVERYTHING into the book.

Caliban to The Taliban

that was it! was trying to remember that.

(and i'd love to see that documentary again; the one mentioned above)

I've got it on disk here

?

I've got Scribling on VHS (am a bit of a luddite)

got it from a torrent

ho! rock.

Caliban to the Taliban, then Apocalypso Now.. the History of Oil thing he did for E4 (was it?) and a few other things are on his website and I think it's on youtube as well. That didn't really work as comedy because he tries to hard to cram so many facts in.

great concept that automatically has some v funny jokes/ideas

v v badly realised

this is a series of how many eps? probably could have been condensed into a v funny one off rather than however many eps of 6 mins really good and 24 lingering far too long on unfunny sketches

probably could have been condensed into a v funny one off

yes, absolutely.

but then not all of this -- the way it's being done -- will be newman's fault; not by a long chalk.

think he did choose to have himself w/ some glasses on holding a tin of weedkiller turning his head v slowly for 8 secs to look at another man for and then having that other man take 5 secs to turn back to his book and then letting us see the two of them for another 4 secs. that's 1% of the total ep. add on the actual content of that rubbish sketch and it makes it even more boring

Also 45 seconds of watching pong

i was laughing during the pong bit, though.

ach saw it coming too far away and then it kept going, and going, and going.

yeah the pong was obvious but funny but dragged outttt. that's the prog I guess

I find myself agreeing completely with RJG here. A very clever idea, which could be done really well, but is let down very badly by the execution.

Worse even than the linger on Pong, or the weedkiller, was the monk putting the flower in his buttonhole and dragging the trellis.

great concept that automatically has some v funny jokes/ideas
v v badly realised

That's harsh. There were enough funny bits to make me want to watch it again next week.

...and there were enough funny bits this week to make me want to watch it next week....

Really? I didn't bother with it this week, could probably grab a torrent though if y'all think I missed out.

Yeah, some good stuff again. The suffragettes campaigning to be relieved of the need to vote. African countries trying to 'outsource' their government by persuading the British to come in and take over. Erm, Freud selling vegetables again.

See, I feel like you've already told me enough for me to reconstruct the whole episode in my head, smile weakly a couple of times, and then decide not to bother next week.

this is a failure, this series. the timeline thing doesn't work. there aren't enough jokes. large parts of tonight's involved him dancing about.

YET ...

i'm still absolutely fascinated by it. it's such a grand conceit, and the occasional flashes of brilliance are so good that it's worth watching just for them.

here's something interesting for you. it's <a href="http://www.robnewman.com/";>rob newman's website</a>. look at the panel down the left. see how it goes from "biography" to "multimedia"?

hark! <a href="http://www.robnewman.com/history.html";>what's this?</a>

(also worth reading: his notes on the stills from the show. an admission, for instance, that the john lydon thing was just a way of "crowbarring in" his impression of him. which shows. also an admission that large amounts of it don't seem to contain any comedy. also shows. WHY, THEN, DO I LIKE IT SO MUCH?)

genius, despite everything.

oh FFS BBcode. you'd think i'd remember to click the convert thing by now, eh?

the first link

and the one that disappeared ...

Grimly.. I still haven't seen it but am assured that I have people taping/ burning it for me so I might see it by christmas...
Re the history link from his site.. i *think* he did attempt to perform a bit of it live (tricycle theatre possibly) this was last year after the end of the last tour... I may be talking out of my hat though.

From what the friend who has seen it was saying, they pretty much agree with you.. it's very patchy. But I still want to see it!

you should: he's still one of the most interesting and thought-provoking "comedy" commentators we've got.

i can't help feeling that -- as i think i said above -- a lot of what's wrong with this series is the pressure to conform it to the ideals of a BBC digital comedy series: ie the bite-size chunks, the repeated characters etc. but then what other choice does he have?

Grimly... I've finally got my hands on a copy of the series...
So far I'm troubled by the inconsistancies and lack of funny gags... i get the feeling if it was still bbc 2 there would have been a bit more editing of the script.. maybe the whole thing would have been reverse chronological.
Much as I love Rob and his freaking dancing, I'm not sure this works - it's a bit too chaotic to make enough sense to concentrate on.
I do hope he pulled whichever woman he was trying to impress! (that's my theory anyway - or indeed impress his ex who does the music)
and I really hope he does some more live stuff.
I'll stick with it for the "flashes of brilliance" because i know from experience that they will be there.
BTW you're in Glasgow right? FAP?

yes, too right! always up for a pint (as, indeed, are many other glaswegian ilx0rs). e-mail me -- the webmail thing from here works fine.

i think you're absolutely right about the editing (although, as an editor -- albeit print rather than broadcast -- i would say that, wouldn't i?) ... i dunno, i've worked on projects myself where you can feel it slipping away from you, but you know there's just enough there to keep it hanging -- almost -- together. what you need is the dude with the blue pencil to whizz through it and take out the stuff that's broke.

that's the main problem with it, i suppose: if you've got this convoluted, complex peg involving temporality, you can't let it slip. which, sadly, this series did, repeatedly.

but yes, stick with it, because when it works it works so well it'll make you weep.

I've just watched the first two.. the enola gay joke was the best thing so far!

trying the email now

Interesting now only because you can occasionally catch a glimpse of his former self in his swivilling, truely mentalist eyes.

Or do I mean Tony Slattery?

Ah, same diff.

I watched one these and thought it dragged appallingly. A pity, cos I really like Newman in theory.