As a true testament to the loyalty and dedication of Adam and Joe's fans, they were prepared to register at the bloomin' Loaded website in order to vote the Podcast Princes into award winning position this week at the Laftas. As far as I can tell, neither of them went to collect the award because their lives are too exiting to waste in some Cuckoo Club, patting themselves on their beautiful backs. Joe kindly took the time out to make a blog post at 6Music for us though, proving beyond any doubt that he knows the exact areas in which to deploy his precise talents.
Most of the other links are about Adam. As previously noted, he is maintaining a gloriously high public profile. He did the Director's Cut version of BUG 17 to the usual great acclaim and Derren Brown seemed to enjoy it too. Adam also did his stand-up at Bar FM which the Twitterati attended.
Next week, he takes BUG back home to Norwich which has spawned two pages at the Norwich Evening News. The blurb here seems to just be extracts from this interview.
In order to maintain a little more balance in this post, I'm going to quote this part of the interview before going back to a couple more items from Adam.
Then, of course, there's the radio show which he presents on BBC 6Music with Joe, which is currently on hiatus, but will return later this year. Following much the same formula as their TV show, a mix of home-made songs and pop culture banter, it's one of the funniest programmes on the radio. And such is their following that the news they were going off air for a while was greeted by outpourings of grief on internet message boards. But Adam promises they'll be back.
“We did the last show just before new year and we are taking a bit of a break. Joe's gone off to direct a film, called Attack the Block, so he's going to be away for a few months while he does that and we'll come back later in the year,” Adam explains. “I'm really missing it, I can't wait to get back to it,” he says.
In between he's got a few projects on the go.
“I'm doing bits and pieces of writing and I'm making videos for my own amusement to show at things like Bug and I'm doing the odd live gig. I'm doing the odd pilot show here and there and seeing how it goes.”
Is there any chance of a role in Joe's film? “I've been hinting. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I'm not optimistic,” he laughs.
Happily, the BBC have embraced Adam's beautifully produced and cleverly judged response to all the flack from The Persuasionists by posting it in his section at the BBC Comedy Blog. Adam has also put it on his blog.
Adam Buxton Talks Film is something that popped up from a Twitter feed and it's a lot of fun.
Don't forget the very entertaining Andrew Collins and Richard Herring are storming the ramparts and holding the fort for the next five weeks in Adam and Joe's BBC 6Music slot on a Saturday morning & were even allowed to wander onto the blog this week.
I'm just going to repeat this quote for obvious reasons.
And such is their following that the news they were going off air for a while was greeted by outpourings of grief on internet message boards. But Adam promises they'll be back.
Really empathising with the frustration Hobbsy must be feeling over his server problems. If you can't get onto AdamAndJoe.com please keep returning to try it. It's a wonderful site, resource and forum.
Finally, I'm going to indulge in a little pat on my own back. I saw that Adam's brilliant Australia Song was getting into landmark figures and I wanted to tip it over the edge, so I encouraged tweeps to get their followers clicking. As I write this, it's just a few hits away from the 100,000 mark. Of course, this is entirely due to Adam's amazing talent but I'm just saying it's had more than 70 hits since lunch time.
Tomorrow night brings episode one of The Persuasionists on BBC2 at 10pm. A few of the papers have run short pieces. The Mail, The Californa Chronicle (don't ask me!) but the jewel in the promotional crown must be this interview with Adam from Saturday's Times.
The BBC got their microsite up and running a few days ago where you can even find a clip from the first episode. I'm not sure if I've linked this before but for some time now, there has been a fan site for the show.
There was a lot of Twitter chatter last week when Jonathan Ross announced that he was not going to renew his contract in July. The names of Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish, both individually and as a duo, lit up the search engines with their pining fans trying to be the first to suggest how amply they could fill the various poncy boots that Mr Ross would leave littered around the place. I raked over some old press clips and was amused by Joe's thoughts on Radio2 at the end of this article. I'm not sure he would feel exactly the same today but what do I know?
In other Adam Buxton news, the BBC Comedy Blog continued to post Adam's Alone In The Shed segments with deliciously silly notes from the beardy one himself. Even if you watched this when it was on telly, take a moment to read what Adam has to say as it's typically funny stuff. If you're struggling to watch these clips because you're a member of Exotic Squadron, the BBC have also popped them into their YouTube channel which is very thoughtful of them.
On Friday, we had a welcome surprise from James at the 6Music Blog with the news that Commander Cornballs would rescue Black Squadron from their disparate wanderings with a command during Danny Wallace's Saturday sitting-in-for show. The fruits of the Squadron's work were swiftly posted by Lovely Lucy. Remember, you can still submit photos until next Saturday, 16th January.
In the absence of any real news from Joe, I'm going to throw a curve ball and link to a couple of pages at Edgar Wright's blog.
A clever fellow called Joel Vallie has grabbed all of Edgar's photo-a-day snaps from 2009, warmed them in his hands like so much plasticine and fashioned a beautiful video from them. If you're paying attention, you'll see Joe's happy face more than once. While we're in the Wright place, he's put his 30 Tracks of 2009 together complete with Spotify playlist.
Not sure if I've linked this before but I can't stop watching this made-on-a-shoestring delight from Hammer and Tongs (video removed - search for it Cousins by Vampire Weekend)If you are foolish enough to miss The Persuasionists tomorrow, many regions are repeating it at the weekend, The microsite will give details for where you are. You might feel moved to join and post your thoughts at this fan forum. I'm sure I've missed something but I'll come back for a fiddle later on.
BBC In Vision vacancies gave Joe's Song Wars clip as an example of the shows new recruits might work on. Sadly, they mean Antiques Roadshow, no the Adam and Joe Show.
Adam's departure from Twitter was mentioned in this Times article and Adam answered a few questions in The Metro today.
6 Music's very own Lauren Lavern asked listeners to send snowy photos and this one came in as a charming tribute to Adam and Joe. There's Adam's beard and Joe is even sporting his new, slightly strange, short-around-the-ears hair cut. I'm also enjoying the Commander's torpedo, cleverly disguised as a broomstick. Lucy has put it on the Adam and Joe blog too.
I forgot to link this in my end of year post but it's worth a mention that Miranda Sawyer had some nice things to say about our favourite doctors and finally, a doctor of a completely different kind is clearly missing the show and he felt moved to shout "Text The Nation" on prime time telly.
Edited: I've taken down the YouTube version of Alone in the Shed because it seems it will be trickle fed via the Comedy Blog(please read Adam's waffle) & I have too much respect for the guy to queer his patch. However, since this is a Flash file, you won't be able to see it on your iPhone.
I started with the idea of posting a soundbyte-a-day on my Posterous area but I'm thinking that might be a bit lame. I'm just keen to keep things alive while they're away but Buckules seems to have that taken care of, love 'im.
A blog entry on the final day of the year carries some kind of stupid, extra bulk wherein appraisals and roundups are expected. This is all over and above the weight of my own heavy heart as I lament the passing of the last live utterance in who knows how long.
I'll post this in the middle of the evening, when all the young people are getting shit-faced and all the interesting people are having heated discussions over the canapes. I'm not going to upset myself by looking back over the last year with Viscount Buckules and Commander Cornballs. Maybe in two or three weeks, it won't hurt so much to remember all the fun we've had but right now, the memories are just too raw ....... and I'm probably just be a bit too lazy.
Furthermore, this amuse-bouche was posted on the lovely Adam and Joe BBC 6Music Blog, so there it is, job done. Now move on.
BBC 6Music did us proud throughout the festive season. We had a Best-of show on Christmas Eve and if you can find a copy of the full show somewhere(as opposed to the podcast version) it has some exclusive intros, jingles and stings, a couple of which didn't pop up in any other shows or podcasts unless I'm mistaken. ETA: It was repeated at 1am on New Year's Day so the window of iPlayer opportunity has expanded for your enjoyment.
They also brought us the 12 Podcasts of Christmas. These had a bit of jumbled logic for my silly, ordered mind. The annotations on iPlayer were all over the place as they randomly called more than one of them 'best of' or 'the second in the series'. Furthermore, they were all billed as being from old shows but podcasts #1 & #7 were from the last two Saturday shows, #5 was from the aforementioned Best-of, though the remainder were starting right back with the first ever podcasts (in MONO, never you mind). These retro podcasts were also broadcast as one hour shows, consecutively at midnight since 22nd December, making the podcasts available the minute the aired shows finished. The elves didn't make a downloadable podcast of the show that was aired on 26th December. Some (but not all) of the aired shows were cobbled together with music and jingles in a manner that I would perhaps describe as careless, in the unlikely event that I was being ungenerous. Since these shows were made from the podcasts that were made from original shows, it was bound to get messy at some point. They even included one with Garth. Regardless of the fact that I've probably listened to these podcasts a few times before, it was good to hear them on air. It also serves to remind us how lucky we've been with the length of the podcasts we've had this year. The Boxing Day one ran at nearly 80 minutes whereas they were loping in at just over 30 minutes in the old days.
Earlier in the month we discovered that Adam had done a little viral thingumy for a competition to California.
and within a few days of announcing this competition, we learned that Joe had won it! YES, the bombshell we have all been dreading whereupon Joe slips off to Hollywood (in California, you see) was deployed with very little warning or ceremony.
That's not true, readers. Of course, Joe's film has been looming closer and closer over the months but he'll not be shooting in Hollywood....yet. We knew he'd have to take a break from the show but I suppose some of us (that'll be me) had hoped he might just make it into the tenties for a couple of weeks. I think I posted a link a while ago to the effect that shooting begins in February for ten weeks so that takes us into April and he may have some long hours in the cutting room soon after that which is why we don't have a solid return date.
The Guardian was having a slow week before Christmas so they decided to do a bit of scare-mongering by making the suggestion that The Adam and Joe Show might be gone forever but they don't seem to have any more exclusive information about this than the rest of us. I'd prefer to link the British Comedy Guide's summation.
The tone of the goodbyes in the last couple of shows were ambiguous and a tad confusing to my tiny brain. It made me wonder if, with the best of intentions to return, they thought they might not be able to, either because of their other own commitments or indeed due to the demise of the digital channels at the BBC. They thanked Jude (who was their producer when they first joined the station) which sounded rather final and yet Joe seemed at pains to say they would return. I've already waffled too much on Twitter about this and it doesn't stand too much dwelling upon. Surely, there's a way to get through life without a couple of idiothholes invading your Saturday morning radiowaves?
The final live show featured Boggins turning up in a panto where he was despatched to a fictitious life with Toddy Pipkins or some orphaned child. I had been inspired by the original suggestion that the Adam and Joe Show had been branded Boggins, to use that in my Twitter nick but that was often confused with the now higher profiled Boggins the Dog about whom I have always been rather ambivalent. So the time has come to move on from that short-lived notion and I've grabbed a random name from the Boxing Day show to replace it.
Adam has been busy with the You Tube. He finally uploaded one of his brilliant mouth-swapping videos with Christmas messages from Lily Allen and all sorts. However, Party Poopers Incorporated took some kind of idiotic exception to him using their footage without permission, so he took it down and it seems we'll never see the likes of that again. I'm still kicking myself for not saving it at some point during the 36 hours it was up there. It was like the film he made for the Music Video Awards, if anyone saw that there or at BUG. Quick as a flash, he rushed us with another stunner here which I have also seen before somewhere, I think.
I don't need to remind anyone of the joy he brought to us with his Christmas Day film (see previous post). I realise he may have pre-posted the waffle on his blog but the timing of the YouTube upload is harder to control. He was thinking of his hungry subscribers even on the anniversary of Christ's rush into the world of hay and cow pops. What a guy.
While writing this, I've been shuffling some of my favourite clips which I have a habit of nibbling out of shows and podcasts. The show on 13th June and ensuing podcast are far and away the most gigglicious of the year but several others are fighting for second place in my non-existent chart of love.
I grabbed some of the webcam stuff at Glastonbury, and if I thought it wouldn't make the boys cringe with embarrassment, I'd post some here as a special end of year plopper but I'll have to restrain myself. Fond memories of Joe zoning out to Dizzie and making inappropriate gestures with the pretty coloured mike covers still play in my mind (and on my iPod).
I've collected a few random links over the last few days. Eddie Argos was moved to make an entry about Joe's film on GeekWeek yesterday. The people at Hi8us tweeted a bit about Attack The Block casting.
The IMDB still has it showing as 'In Development' but the bigger mystery is why Big Talk are only showing the trade mag cuttings but don't list it as being 'in production' whereas the lovely Tom Hollander vehicle which is barely out of R&D (well, I might be exaggerating for dramatic effect, there) has it's own little pull-down nubbin. I am not trying to cast any doubt on the production with this comment. Quite the opposite, in fact. I think this whole project might just be so immense, so awesome, so utterly stunning, innovative and gibberingly hilarious that they have decided to protect the public and annoying worry-worts like myself from getting any spoilery outfall about it. They can't keep that up for long but I guess that means that my dreams of a Paul type blog are probably going to be dashed.
Don't forget to bumble around this awful place so you can vote for Adam and Joe in the Laftas.
If you missed your chance to snag a copy of Ultra Culture's review of 2009 your shins will be forever raw from perpetual kicking. I'd love to pop a scan of Joe's contribution here but I'm already having day-mares at the thought of the derision I'd probably have hurled at me if I asked permission. All the mail order copies have gone now but you might yet find a dog-eared version at the counter in the BFI Film Store.
If you're some kind of millionaire or something, you could catch the worth-every-bloomin'-penny BUG events in January. Don't be put off by the 'Fully Booked' thingy. The first one is always the better one & they have loads of returned tix from the freebies who don't turn up.
Adam is also listed here on Jan 27th so he's never going to be far away, is he? It's the same day as the Lafta awards and there's no way that Joe would accept one on his girly-own so I guess that'll be a no show there. Note: I loves Joe, I do. Never any offense meant.
The Persuasionists is finally starting to show up in listings so six weeks of Adam Buxton on the telly might serve to carry us through the first bit of the drought. @monastico alerted us to this early review from the Independent, and have a poke around here if you want a bit more info. I went to one of these recordings and before I forget, do check out Simon Farnaby in The Bunny And The Bull. Some podcast listeners will also remember that Daisy Haggard called Adam on his mobile and then hung up when he told her they were recording her. Joe also casually mentioned that he used to babysit for her. It's like their lives are made of magic, isn't it ?
He probably wouldn't thank me for mentioning it, but Headjam is back on Dave if you need a Joe fix.
I'm coming to the end of my waffle tether, you'll be pleased to learn - always supposing you've even made it this far.
I saved the best till almost last, though. When I say 'best' I never, ever mean to imply any kind of favouritism but in the absence of a short movie of Joe throwing his freakishly tall, directorly weight around the production office, Adam's gorgeous package, neatly quartered and plopped into Miranda Hart's end of year "Unwrapped" show surely must have been the best moment of the last 24 hours. Watch it while you can or wait for it to ping out from your telly screen again tomorrow at 12:40am - well technically that's the Day After Tomorrow. Adam did not feature in the red button bits but if you're a completist, you'll take a squint at them anyhow. IF he was looking, he must have been very heartened by the massively appreciative Twitter activity the instant he popped up.
I'll not make any promises but I'm chewing over the thought of dribbling some of my sound nibbles out of my Posterous feed to make people smile during the Period Of Drought. I don't want to get into trouble or upset the originators of these chunks of pleasure so I'll take a view later on........after a drink or two......by which time I will have probably decided to shut down this blog altogether.
So enjoy 2010 as much as you can. It'll only happen once. Keep the show alive by visiting the 6Music Blog and making idiotic comments and sharing artistic wonderment. Keep the station alive and warm by listening to it. Shower Adam's YouTube Channel with love and the occasional 'gay' comment. Don't shout 'Stephen' when you see Joe in a comic store because you know he'll go bright red and panic but most of all, get on with your lives and before you know it, Saturday mornings will be restored to their former glory and the cogs of the podmax maker will be whirring into action again and warming our cockills.
