Bruce Clap

[Rorschachs_Journal]

Hope nobody minds this bit of shameless plugging...

Bruce Clap is the main character in a Youtube series some friends and I are working on. Bruce is a delusional talent agent. He claims to be the man behind such acts as Phil Collins and the Chuckle Brothers. Add to the mix his equally odd bodyguard Oscar (aka Andy) and it's really a case of the blind leading the blind. The finished series will be in the style of a mocumentary following Bruce and Oscar's misadventures.

We've uploaded some test footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFanUVjF4wg&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsp3En7p6X4&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp8ho9ffT3s&feature=relmfu

The third one seems to have gone down the best. Also, if this sort of thing is your cup of tea then please "like" the facebook page! www.facebook.com/bruceclap

Cheers guys!

[Frank]

Are you sure you want to make a mocumentary? That particular hole's been fucked slack in the last decade, and the format's the default option for pedestrian shite like 2012 and Come Fly With Me.

The use of improv's a corollary of that format, and a useful tool to get around the problem of the mannered comedy performance, but the funniest stuff in your clips would work just as well in a structured comedy. Character moments like Andy's application of military terminology to mundane situations, Bruce's extended paedophilia metaphor, and observational stuff like waking up to DVD title-loop music are great; but there are significant longeurs, even in those short clips. The Thick Of It edits between scripted and improvised material to achieve naturalistic dialogue, without trying the viewers' patience.

The clip which works best does so because of the formal innovation of cutting between Andy's narration of events and the scene itself. That seems a good way to present the best moments you find through improvisation without forcing the audience to nervously wonder where the next laugh is coming from. Alexander Payne's Election (1999) layers and intercuts images, dialogue and narration that undermine each other in a way that's very smart and makes the viewer do a lot of the interpretive work that creates the humour.

"Of course I didn't shit in the box ... I shat in a bag" is a funny line. Seeing the bag (more than once), and certainly holding it up to camera, isn't so funny. Thinking about how you present your shit, and exactly how much of your shit you want the viewer to see, will only make your shit funnier. That was a metaphor.

[TordelBack]

That particular hole's been fucked slack in the last decade...

You owe me a new keyboard. 

[Rorschachs_Journal]

Thanks for the feedback bikini. Some good points you make.

I think the reason we're going with mocumentary style is because when we created these characters (around 5 or 6 years ago) we portrayed them as real people on the likes of myspace/bebo to coincide with our earlier Youtube material and we built up a small following that has stayed with us. Now we use Facebook and we've continued the charade. I assume most people know full well that these guys are far too ridiculous to be real, but we've never broken character and I think people enjoy the characters more because there's that illusion of them being real. If we were real actors people would look at us and say "There's that guy from that thing." etc. And you 100% know you're watching fiction. But with a bit of suspension of disbelief, these guys could be real.

While I do agree that the mocumentary route is a bit of a well pumped fanny these days, I don't see why it can't be an acceptable comedy format if done well. Come Fly With Me, for example is quite predictable as it's essentially a sketch show dressed up as a documentary, so it's usually the same joke every week changed up ever so slightly.
Human Remains on the other hand was a mocumentary series that got it right. Even That Peter Kay Thing was a really great example of a good mocumentary. (Although I think we have Neil Fitzmaurice and Dave Spikey to thank for that. While Peter Kay can sometimes be a good comedy actor, he's since proven to be a bit of a shit writer - see Britians Got the Pop Factor...) and then of course there's also the ultimate mocumentary This Is Spinal Tap.

It can be done.


But again, thanks for the helpful feedback. It is hugely appreciated and has all been taken onboard. Also thanks for taking the time to watch the footage in the first place!

[Rorschachs_Journal]

Bruce Clap weighs in on the recent news about John Travolta...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU65UksldUs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[Frank]

Bruce Clap weighs in on the recent news about John Travolta...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU65UksldUs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The white board had me in stitches. Good stuff.

[Rorschachs_Journal]

Haha, cheers Bikini!