The Inquisitor's VLOG

Well this one's a bit rushed but here's my latest animation 'The Inquisitor's VLOG'. I wish I had made two small script changes (and that I was a better animator!) but nevermind. The great voice acting by Chris Lumb covers up those deficiencies rather well.



Oh! And I've just found out a topical sketch that I Co-wrote is being performed at The Newsrevue stage show this week. So there was some good news after all!

Justify your Existence!

No major news this week, no celebrity names to drop or exciting developments to unveil.  Just boring WIP stuff.

I'm working on my next animation and it's going to feature this guy.  Hopefully some of you may recognise him.

I was planning to produce the animation in 3D using Blender but unfortunately my PC keeps overheating when I try to render it.  So to save my sanity I've had to revert back to 2D.

With all this technology failing on me it's about time I tried to get back to old school 3D animation and have another go at stop motion.  If any further inspiration was needed these awesome Patrick Boivin videos should provide it.

What If Pigs Could Fly?

The Piggies animation is finally here! This is my attempt at making something with a bit of a snappier pace than usual. Voiced by Chris Lumb.

Good News Part I

Part One of my good news, and the reason I was reading all those newspapers.

On Monday I was invited to a BBC comedy writing Masterclass run by Gareth Edwards and David Mitchell. It turned out to be a really useful day, very encouraging with lots of great sketch writing tips. I'm even starting to think I could enjoy writing topical comedy now. Before I considered myself too polite or easy-going to write topical material but now I'm thinking it might not be that different from normal sketch comedy.

It was held at Broadcasting house in London. There were about 15 or so writers invited from hundreds of applicants although I don't know how many people couldn't make it on such short notice.


David Mitchell was very funny and friendly. I wasn't brave enough to speak to him but I did pop-up at the end and shake his hand as he was leaving.

I do mean literally pop-up too, I think I startled him as I sprung up from behind someone who he had been talking to. I basically turned into the sneaky Butler from Mr Deeds.

At the end they asked us all to send in some more topical sketches from this weeks news. I've sent mine off and now it's just wait and see if they like them.

The unrelated Good News Part II is hopefully coming soon.

Exciting writing news....coming soon!

I've had two pieces of fantastic news this week in regards to my writing. Although I'm not going to share either of them with you today as I don't want to jinx anything. Sorry!

I've been working on writing topical sketches recently, this is partly related to my good news. That's all the hints I'm giving! So yesterday I read the Sun, The Guardian and the Daily Mail from cover to cover. Surprisingly the newspaper that I actually learned the most from was the Sun. I now know about inflation, deflation, sub-prime mortgages, quantative easing....the list goes on. I suspect though that as I become less of a current affairs dumb-ass the Guardian will be my paper of choice. Although I do like the pictures in the Sun (especially the Boobies!) and I will probably still buy it just to get a different perspective ...of the Boobies.

I've written a topical sketch this morning that I thought I'd share. It's about Michael Jackson's new UK tour. I've sent this script to the Treason show and MySpace comedy. Hopefully one of them will pick it up.

Oh, and don't think I've forgotten about animation! My Piggies animation is frustratingly close to being finished. I'll try and get my lightbox out this afternoon and do some more work on it.

Doing a George Lucas

To fill the gap until my next animation I've uploaded an old sketch from 2007 to FunnyOrDie.co.uk. It's not just a straight re-upload though! Oh no! I've spent about an hour or so revamping the animation, adding little details to help bring the characters to life. The fact that there were so many improvements I could make just goes to show how much I've improved since 2007. Either that, or it shows how much of a slacker I was in 2007!

Another Ian and Steve project is in the very early development stages. Until then enjoy!

Ian and Steve (And Lance Armstrong too!) - watch more funny videos

Oh and if anyone knows why the traffic to my Facebook page has jumped up I'd be interested to find out.