barrypilling.co.uk

Here’s a solid, undeniable fact… people do not express themselves using barbershop often enough.

I actually used to despair in that fact, until I met Barbershopera. These guys are talented. Like, really talented. If I was in charge of Radio 4, 5 Live… actually any radio station where people could speak, I’d get these guys on. Thanks to producer Ben Walker (who co-produced our Doc Brown comedy vids) we collaborated and made a spoof music video in time for the royal wedding. It’s called I Could Have Married Kate and features four dejected people and one horse who thought they had a shot with Kate Middleton… but in the end it just didn’t work out.

The video was featured in The Sun, ICanHasCheezburger CBC Canada, WhatsOnStage, Chortle UK, Chortle Australia, Comedy.co.uk, CurrentTV, Euronews, AsiaOne, Kontraband, Prankies, The Poke, 3 News New Zealand, Stuff New Zealand, KateMiddleton.com, local news in Bolton, Derbyshire, Birmingham, Amersham and Brockley and was played on Australian breakfast TV where they showed the bit with Prince William with a cock and balls on his head LOLZ.

It was a great project, we turned it around really quickly and I can’t wait to do more music video and comedy projects now I’m freelancing full time. The whole thing fell together easily and I’m really proud of what we’ve created.

If you know anyone who needs a director… call me.

This week I began producing a new online campaign forAlison Jackson, the artist who first became famous in 1999 for creating voyeuristic photos using celebrity lookalikes. She went on to win a BAFTA for her mock-documentary show Doubletake in 2002 and is now promoting a new book and website around William and Kate’s marriage. Alison’s brilliant new work uses her trademark style of stealthily-shot paparazzi photos combined with her unique and shocking sense of humour to give the public an insight into the private side of the royal wedding.

Using Twitter we’re going to amplify this work with a new campaign, bringing the personalities of the celebs to life and allowing a global audience to interact with Wills, Kate, Harry, The Queen, Charles & Camilla, Carole Middleton, Posh & Becks, and The Archbishop of Canterbury. It’s a crucial time for the royals and their friends, and bringing eight characters to life allows users to follow a whole family who had, until now, been untouchable.

Throughout the coming weeks our royal wedding party will react to scandalous celeb stories released on Alison’s Daily Mail-inspired website, including the Queen at the bookies, Simon Cowell getting an ‘intimate’ wax and Charlie Sheen’s viagra-assisted night of passion. As they do so our royals will be cracking jokes, bickering, LOLing and a whole host of other shockingly common behaviour.

It’s modern, it’s interactive and its going to be a lot of fun so make sure you follow the key players…

PRINCE WILLIAM
@Wills_Uncut

KATE MIDDLETON
@Kate_Uncut

THE QUEEN
@Queenie_Uncut

PRINCE HARRY
@Harry Uncut

CHARLES & CAMILLA
@Charmilla_Uncut

CAROLE MIDDLETON
@KatesMum_Uncut

THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
@Bishop_Uncut

DAVID & VICTORIA BECKHAM
@PoshBecks_Uncut

This project is being run through the new company I’m co-creating (more on that in due course) and the tweets are written by myself and the very funny David Levin.

“Bring on the dancing girls!” *clap clap*

…I’ve heard this phrase said in so many Sinbad the Sailor-esque movies but I never thought I’d be lucky enough to say it myself. That is until we shot a rap video in a stretched Hummer with champagne, bling and grinding beyatches in bikinis (that’s rap speak, not my words).

I can safely say this is something I can now tick off my ‘list of things I might one day shoot if I’m VERY lucky’. Things left on the list include…
- filming a dinosaur
- filming a laser war in space
- filming a fight between a whale and a giant squid
- filming the discovery of the lost city of Atlantis
- filming a talking penguin
- filming a stunt man attempting to break a world record but it all goes wrong and he has a horrendous accident and technically dies for a few minutes but then he comes back to life and gets up, insisting that he does the stunt again, breaking the record by more than double and bringing everyone to tears with his bravery and awesomeness.

You know, the usual.

The whole video is about how the term ‘pimp’ is used in rap songs as though it’s something good, when in reality the life of a pimp is just plain nasty. We had great fun dirtying Doc up with used condoms and pizza stains on his shirt, and Doc was especially proud of his yellow shoes and tracksuit bottoms combo. Fact attack: those shoes were worn by a member of Finley Quaye’s band to the Brit Awards. That’s true, swear down.

Finally, a big thank you to Emma for putting up with being a comedy lady of the night for two days. Also to Richard, the man who can pull the funniest faces in television, as I’m sure you’ll agree when you see the bank manager scenes…

The wonderful chaps and chapettes at BBC Comedy recently published our new Doc Brown films on their website and I’m ecstatic. This first one is called Grandpa Dave and is about wishing a celebrity was your relative. I directed and edited this one and we shot in two great locations…

The first was the famous Maida Vale studios, a place so steeped in history that someone as un-musical as me had no right to set foot in. Little fact for you quiz fans, we shot the piano scenes in same studio as Bing Crosby made his last recording before he died in 1977. Pay attention, there will be a test at the end.

The other location was the Horniman Museum in South London. This is a cracking place created in 1901 by a tea trader called Frederick John Horniman. What he traded it for I don’t know (biscuits?) but his business became the biggest tea company in the world.

What a guy John was, travelling the world picking up interesting stuff, e.g. an actual walrus, and bringing it home to display in his house. And when his house got too big he built a museum. And when he died he gave that museum and the surrounding land away to the people of London… forever!

When I grow up I want to be just like him.

Anyway, fact attack over with, the test is cancelled. I hope you enjoy the comedy rapping talents of Mr Doc Brown and I’ll blog with the other videos soon…

We’re filming the latest of our Doc Brown vids for BBC Comedy today. This one is a rap video about about a pimp and how his ‘big pimpin’ dream actually doesn’t match up with the reality, which is more about cleaning stains than private planes.

So for the first time ever I will be filming a rap video in a limo with dancing girls. ZOMG! One more thing I can tick off Barry’s Big List of Awesome Things I Need to Do Before I Die. I’m seeing it as my job to make every shot look as ridiculously over the top as possible. After all, the main point of reference for this will be the Lollipop video by Lil Wayne, which could itself be a spoof… he actually plays guitar on the roof of the limo as it drives through Las Vegas. RAP-TASTIC!

Fingers crossed it all goes to plan. Three more days of filming after this one…

By some massive stroke of awesomeness, I got to film with the Big Dawg himself – TIM WESTWOOD – on Thursday night… one of my favourite celebrities of all time.

Now Westwood is one of those people it’s easy to underestimate. Yes, he’s over 50, white, the son of a Bishop, and is from the less-than-sexy town of Lowestoft – all things that aren’t considered very street. But for 25 years he’s been the best hip hop DJ in the country, and he’s very, very funny. I saw him with my mate Tom in 2003 and it was, and always will be, the best DJ set I’ve ever seen.

So Thursday came and it was time to direct him in one of our new Doc Brown comedy vids we’re shooting for the beeb. In the film Doc tries to convince Tim that he’s the best rapper in the world because he has the most elaborate hand gestures. Cue Tim, throwing himself into it with full gusto – “WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT YOU, SON!?… SECURITY! GET THIS CLOWN OUTTA HERE!”

It. Was. Awesome.

Soon we had the pair playing a game of rock, paper, scissors, which turns into a slappy bitch fight and ends with Westwood putting Doc in a headlock and really teaching him a lesson. I’ll be honest, Westwood thought we were mental, but still threw himself into it. Then there was just time for the final scene, as Westwood sums up what he thinks of Doc’s new song…

“THAT WAS RUBBISH!”

Hopefully that’s not what everyone will say when the films are finished… *gulp*

PS – I was directing on behalf of Trev who couldn’t be there… check out his blog, he’s funny.