Logo for Masters of Song Fu #5. It's right up there. No, Really, it is.
I know you’re thinking… What is this Masters of Song Fu, and why do I need to judge it?
Short answer – Cool people wrote some songs to compete in a fun contest. No cash prizes, just to further their craft as artists. You can check it out here, and vote for the top 5 you like. There are 34 entries this round.
Longer answer: Song Fu is a contest for songwriters and musicians, challenging them to create a song within certain rules and guidelines. Some are more free form, and some are much more constricted. The latest contest is one of the more constricting. You have a week to write, produce and uploaded an MP3 of your song to go with all the other groups, then be judged on originality, content, and how well you fit the spirit of the theme. Quite a challenge.
I stumbled upon this when Mike Lombardo randomly followed the BYD on Twitter. He had entered a song for Contest #4, and it looked like a fun project to join in on. Due to a mix up, I’m not in the competition for #5, but I’ll try and work on one for the non voting ’shadow’ contest.
More after the break, and my long list on impressions of all the songs this round. - but go and check it out now – the voting ends this weekend, and there’s almost 2 hours worth of original music to listen to – all at no cost.
The Reluctant Waiter, Luigi’s Restaurant and Speculation Theater ‘What If Early Man Had Cable Television’
I remember we were going to attempt to do a stage version of the ”BU skit”, but many technical problems would have cropped up, (we needed a flaming arrow shooting thru a working window, a provost desk, and a full set of china for tea) which had us move on to the Reluctant Waiter skit.
Mark knocked it out of the park.
A few behind the scenes notes – I’m a lousy memorizer – in fact for half the skits, I found a prop or some other way to conceal the script in the scene. Here, it’s in the menu. I also somehow saved the plant I hit from falling down at the last second.
Next – Luigi’s – This was one of our radio bits, in fact the audio is straight from that skit. We shot the video in a bathroom in Needham MA, and edited it at Newhouse the day before the show, so the finished product was a surprise until right before airtime. Mark was game to be the corpse, and we made a toe tag from a file label. A few scrubs and sheets grabbed from the local hospital, a can of cat food, a saw and a jack from the car later, and we had a passable autopsy room. The audience reaction was miked for this during the live show, and it really sold the bit.
And last – Speculation Theater. We did this one just so Andrew could have the punch line – we kept cracking up just hearing his voice say it. Look close and you’ll see we’re all actually wearing toilet bowl covers from K-Mart. Anything to sell the skit… that’s dedication. Enjoy.
Bill and Kat did this bit on the nobility of starving to death and filicide. Yes, upbeat, fun stuff! At least in their deft comedy hands.
But I digress, Here’s what fellow thespian and troubadour, Mark Haskins noted as his favorites when reviewing this fine video after 20 years…
“1) Bill covering the ears of the statue when he thinks there’s blasphemy about.
2) Bill’s delivery of the line “It’s all I’ve got, you know.” I don’t know why it always makes me laugh, but it does.
3) Kathy McKitty. She’s a friggin’ genius, and I wish we’d started working with her at some point before we were about to graduate.
I also love the bumper at the end of the sketch. What are Ernie and Bert saying to Bill in the hallways of Newhouse II? We are denied an answer, but I bet it was filthy…”
From examining the contents of this oven, I can only conclude...
I love Alfred Hitchcock. He reminds me of Tom Lehrer – an innocent gentleman, but when you listen to what he actually says, there’s a dark an twisted mind in there. But the style gets me everytime because it’s not what is said… it’s the realization of what must have happened because of what’s left out.
We must have created over 40 bits with Alfred sharing his version of tips on holidays and social gatherings. This one was the first, and one of my favorites. I’ll have to put some Christmas tips up next month, but for now, sit back and listen to Al’s unique viewpoint. He does have a point.
First, a Pat update – Just got a text from him on the set of One Tree Hill – looks like he’s an extra in a scene today – fun stuff! Pat, drink one up with Daphne for us! She was great as the princess in Spaceballs..
Daphne and someone who isn't Pat on a set.
but I digress…
Peyote Man – I’m trying to remember how we came up with the superhero who communed with the elk spirit by communing with the Peyote spirit. We probably had some Necco wafers and thought it would be funny to do a skit around them as psilocybin. I also liked the Evil doctor’s name being very drab as ‘Sheldon’.
Jungle Combat has Mark at his smarmy yet boyish best, and Bill, Tom, and Renee as ‘Betsy Sue’. Any NYC fans of WPIX will recognize the ‘pix, pix, pix’ shout out – the way kids shot for the TV-PIXX game. Enjoy.
The only time we did this skit in front of a live audience was during the BYD & Friends show in Syracuse – it was on Dr. Demento, and an audio tape, but for some reason never made it on any of the compilations or BENT! episodes. Pat still does a killer Elvis.
I think we did actually almost run out of ‘nanas for this segment. The King really likes his finger-shaped fruits. The fact he used a minor chord for ‘one ripe nana’ in his song showed how deep love for the food truly was.
You gotta love those old Sci-Fi movies. they used to have a great Saturday Afternoon series on Channel 3 in Syracuse when I was a kid. The kind where the sports guy plays Dracula, but you only see his hand, and ‘Igor’ is the weather guy with a basketball under his smock. Have someone hit a sheet of metal while turning the lighting on and off, and you have a scary host intro to your movie!
I liked Mark and Bill’s version of this parody – lots of intentional continuity errors, cheap effects, and hammy acting. It was used as one of the segments for the BYD and Friends show, with Stephanie, Tom and I believe Jeremy Bill’s brother John helping out in the acting. I know I couldn’t have kept a straight face when Steph went ‘Gasp!’. Enjoy.
Boffo Yux Dudes & Friends Pt. 2 – ‘Tommy G Used Cars’ and ‘Morris Weiderman Day’
I remember picking Mark Haskins up late one night and driving him somewhere -
I think it was NH to write a skit or go to the studio – and having a ball doing my impression of Pat doing a Tennessee and Chumley skit. Not because I knew the bit was funny, but because I had him in conniptions in the passenger seat, and I had to pause every few sentences so he could catch his breath.
Mark knows funny, and has a great laugh – and it felt good knowing if my lame impression of Pat had this reaction, the finished version would probably send him into intensive care.
Mark wrote the 2nd skit in this video ‘ Morris Weiderman Day’. I loved the way this one built up – you have no clue where it’s going, but you knew is was going to be a classic. I’d say it’s SNL material, but it didn’t have their ‘voice’ – SNL couldn’t pull this off. It’s more a Jackie Gleason style that’s Read the rest of this entry »
The first part of the BYD and Friends show, live from Syracuse University in 1989. Pat does ‘Elvis Says’ with the help of house band ‘Yosemite Quick’.
I grew up in Syracuse, NY and ended up going to Syracuse University for a TV Management and Psychology degree. In ‘85 I headed out to New England for Radio and TV work, and ended up creating BYD with Pat and Scott. 4 years later, 2 of Scott’s friends at SU, Renee and Joyce, fresh from working on Null and Void at UUTV, asked us back to do a collaborative show at the Newhouse school – sort of a fun homecoming in between gigs and projects. We jumped at the chance to work with these folks. Bill and Mark made us laugh on a bunch of skits, and it also gave us a chance to do some of our radio bits for TV on a larger scale than the one camera bits for BENT!
One of the most searing memories of that week was the Ernie and Bert puppets. Pat put them on in the car on the way out, and I swear, Read the rest of this entry »
Doing a skit with Daniels & Webster at ROCK 107, Wilkes-Barre, PA.- late 1980's
I remember the Reverend Billy C. Wirtz talking to us while we were at Rock 107 at some early hour in the morning and he gave us a great compliment – we had just finished a live version of ‘The Scotsman’s Bag’, and he had heard it on the way over to the studio in the hotel van.
He said he literally choked on his breakfast he was laughing so hard.
