In Translation

"The book was better." How many times has this been uttered by literati, hipsters and other assorted snobs? Long the fodder for jokes and oh-so-ironic T-shirts such as those provayed on the website for the library-themed web-comic Unshelved, this bit of conventional wisdom has what looks like an army of evidence supporting it. Every film adaptation of a book has been a cynical cash-grab or so say the nay-sayers. The only problem with this assured certainty is that it is demonstrably wrong. First of all, the assertion is based on a limited and vague definition. How is the book better? In what ways? According to whose definition? How is the film worse? How is it cynical? Is this really provable in an objective sense? If one is referring to the variance and depth of narrative devices, it is true that literature has more available. Though this has more to do with an inherent differences in the two forms. This is not to suggest that films or television cannot do this and do it well it is just more difficult and cannot be done in the same ways as literature. Many fans of the original works will complain that the film adaptation ruined the story or at the very least did not follow the original closely enough. Despite the fact that to do so would be a near impossibility in terms of novel to film adaptations given the limits of time and space put on feature films as opposed to novels. Though this is not to say that page to screen adaptations cannot be done and done very well. Two of the best, most accurate and most well received screen adaptations of written works are the feature film Secret Window adopted from the Stephen King short story Secret Window, Secret Garden from the collection Four Past Midnight and the adaptation of the Douglas Coupland novel J-Pod into a television mini-series. This is also the case with every murder mystery series produced in Britain. All based on novels, each episode is actually closer to a T.V. movie, running between an hour and a half and two hours, with three to six episodes per "series", or season in North America. The Brits are also known for their adaptations of Fantasy novels such as the Harry Potter series which few seem to have much bad to say about and adaptations of the works of Terry Pratchett. Mostly animated, a live-action version being very costly, there is at least one case in which the expense was risked. The 2006 live-action adaptation of the Christmas themed novel The Hogfather. A similar case is the production of The Lord of the Rings headed by Peter Jackson. Notorious for its three parts and interminable runtime the trilogy was a hit with fans who tend to be enthusiastic, vocal and inter-generational.

Sometimes the fans have a point in complaining about changes, such as when producers decided to change the character of John Constantine from a free-wheeling, morally ambiguous London based Occultist into a surly, reluctantly heroic Los Angeles-based Exorcists.  As well as the notorious changing of Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for the U.S. market, it being assumed that Americans were unlikely to know what a philosopher is. A lesser known controversy is when, for marketing purposes, the name of Stieg Larsson crime 
novel Men Who Hate Women was changed to The Girl With The 
Dragon Tattoo for the North American market, open references to misogyny, while a major part of the narrative, being considered a bit too distasteful for non-European readers. Which only goes to show that the literary world is also not immune from egregious changes.

Not all changes are for the worse either. Generally, authors know what they are doing when composing their narratives though, as mentioned, literature in the modern context is fairly open, not only in terns of length and depth of narrative but the sort of topics covered and how they end. Anything really goes in terms of novels and largely comics, both of them having let go of the notion of the Happy Ending as the only real option. Films, for the most part, have not. There are, of course, exceptions such as American Beauty, Leaving Las Vegas and just about everything Alexander Payne has ever done. Though such films tend to be seen as "downers" and while usually critically acclaimed don’t tend to play as well with audience, who tend to be looking for something a littlemore upbeat. As demonstrated by film such as 28 Days Later, Taxi Diver and the Troma Studios classic Tromeo and Juliet which had their original endings changed because either producers or test audiences thought they were too dark. There are also cases, particularly in terms of comic-book to film adaptations, such as Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2 and The Losers the changes that were made are the things that the film audiences liked the most, making the film versions better over all. And not all changes are nessicarly bad or unneeded even if fans if the original work do not like them. Such as in the the case of Watchmen. Assumed for years to be “un-flimable” by many, including and especially original author Alan Moore, despite rumors of a film adaptation beginning soon after the original release of the books in the late 1980’s, the results astoundingly good and faithful to the source material. Despite this, there was still much discontent among fans of the comics because of a slight change to the ending. One which makes perfect sense in the context of the narrative, is in no way an ex-machina, has no real impact on the overall message of the narrative, was clearly done for budgetary reasons and was not something that someone who has not the books would even notice.

In all, whether or not the book is "better" than the film adaptation really depends upon on what one is looking for from the narrative. Though really, if all you want is a story that is just like the source material you would really be better off just reading the book and not bothering with any of the adaptions that might come about.

Merry Melodies

The idea of humorous so “novelty” songs is a fairly old one. Not too surprising considering the important role both music and humor have played in human culture since time immemorial. Rather than being seen as stupid or inferior, musical comedy stylists like Alfred “Weird Al” Yankovic, are doing something both interesting and difficult. Combining melody and humor in a hybrid that works on both levels. As with many things, there are different ways to go about this combination of hilarity and harmony. Many choose the route of Parody, creating works that mimic and poke fun at existing culture. Others go for over laughs, often using irony such as The Arrogant Worms. Tracks such as "The Mounted Animal Nature Trail", "Canada Is Really Big", "History Is Made By Stupid People" and "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate" being far too overtly silly to ever be taken seriously. Others like to be more subtle about it such as Tom Lehrer. A Mathematician by training, Lehrer is also an accomplished pianist and song-writer, most famous for ditties like "We’ll All Go Together We Go", the must upbeat song about nuclear annihilation aside from "99 Red Balloons", as well as pre-dating it by a good twenty years. While most people don’t recognize him as such, the Hippie-Era Troubadour, and thorn in Bob Dylan’s side, Phil Ochs could be very droll indeed. Many of his songs featured the "peace and love" themes of his contemporaries, though in slightly inverted, ironic forms. A prime example of this is "Love Me I’m A Liberal", a vicious attack on the complacency and hypocrisy among so-called "Liberals" of the era. Choice lines include: "I cried when they shot Medgar Evers/Tears ran down my spine/And I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy, as though I’d lost a father of mind/But Malcolm X got what was coming, he got what he asked for this time/So love me, love me, love me, I’m a Liberal."

In the modern context, musical comedy performers tends to combine these elements and adding their own twist to them. 
An example of the old-style parody is Australian funny-man Tim Minchin. Known for his well crafted, funny songs, Minchin is a bit subtler than some, the main joke of his act being Minchin’s persona himself, riffing on the image of the over the top rock star.
Something epitomized by tracks such as "Dark Side" which pokes fun at "intense" bands like Korn, "Cheese" which is an epic Rock Anthem about lactose intolerance and "Canvas Bags", a clever and spot-on parody of "issue" songs for which the likes of Bob Geldof an Bono are infamous. He is also not afraid to make fun of himself, as in songs such as "Three Mintue Song" and  "Rock & Roll Nerd", the thin veil coming down when he says near the end: “he writes in third-person/In an attempt to sound more Rock & Roll but he suspects it’s not workin’”. He also changes it up, tracks such as "Perfect", "Fat Children" and "The Fence", while somewhat funny also carrying some heartfelt messages.

Somewhat less heartfelt is the output of the British band Half Man Half Biscuit. Founded in 1984 by Nigel Blackwell, HMHB are one of the longest lasting novelty acts going. True to their name, the band’s songs tend towards the goofy but not in the way one might think. Supremely talented for a band of their type, the band have shown great versatility over their 20-plus year career, veering form what they call “Death Folk” to straight Punk to a fascinating hybrid of Rock & Roll that sounds half way between the Beatles and The Smiths. The secret of their humor lies in the song titles and lyrics, not in terms of obvious jocularity but in seeming randomness. Song titles include "Mr. Cave’s A Window Cleaner Now", "Joy Division Oven Gloves", "Tending the Wrong Grave For 23 Years" and "Irk the Purists". There have also been adventures into the deep dark with songs like "The Coroner’s Footnote" and "RSVP". Though they have also been known to go into the realms of the surreal with tracks such as "Fix it so she dreams of me" and "What Is Chatteris". "Fix It So She Dreams of Me" comes across as a sort of fever dream, involving Fantasy and British History. The very first lines are: "There’s a girl I know who rolls her eyes, at the Gak-Won Acolytes/Underneath her bed their lies, a collection of Amorites/She lives somewhere you wouldn’t wanna get stuck/It can’t be found in the Doomsday Book/Cromwell’s troops never billeted there/Dick Turpin never had Bess shoed where, this girl I know rolls her eyes at the Gak-Won Acolytes". A bit more earth-bound, "What is Chatteris" combines a heart-broken, anti-love song and a sort of promotion brochure for the real-life market town of Chatteris England. The second verse expresses this most clearly: "Car crime’s low, gun-crime’s lower, the Town Hall band C.D. it’s a grower/You never hear of folk gettin’ knocked on the bonce, though there was a drive-by shouting once/But there’s a brass band everywhere and I don’t drive so I don’t care, as the nightingale sang in Barkley Square, what is Chatteris if you’re not there?"

On the more traditional side is Comedian and Musician Bill Bailey. A classically trained musician with perfect-pitch as well as a renowned Comedy actor best known for his roles as book store employee Manny Bianco in Black Books and comic-book store manager Bilbo in Spaced, he regularly combines the two both on his cancelled-too-soon series Is It Bill Bailey? and his critically acclaimed stage-shows such as Part Troll, Dandelion Mind and Tinselworm. While his shows are chest-achingly funny, Bailey maintains that he does not really tell jokes, going so far as to claim at one show that there were only three jokes in the entire thing. Technically this is true, as a "joke" is a fairly specific mode of humor. It is perfectly possible to be funny without actually telling a joke in the strictest sense. Andy Kaufman would be so proud.

(North) American Gothic

While they can be useful in matters of organization and general understanding, genre classifications also have pitfalls. Near the top of the list is the question of scope. No matter how broadly they might apply or how specific they might get, see Heavy Metal for an example of how numerous sub-sets can be, there is always something that lays outside the recognized definition. One of the oldest genres of music, what is now called "Country" is also one of the least understood and most derided. This is largely due to genre confusion. What most people now think of when they hear the term "Country" is actually what is known as "New Country". Devised in the early-1990’s and propagated by the likes of Shania Twain and Garth Brooks, New Country is an unholy alliance of traditional Country and Rock & Roll, hence the pyrotechnics. While traditional Country, now called "Old Country", has its own conventions that may or may not be enjoyed by all, there is also more than one way of interpreting them. Bluegrass is technically under the Country banner and generally more well liked than its twangy, hurtin’, cheatin’ brethren. There have also been cases of the form being applied to Metal as in the case of Hank Williams III (who actually is Hank Sr.’s grandson) and even Anarcho-Punk in bands such as Blackbird Raum. Another counter-intuitive combination, that none the less exists, is the blending of Country with elements of the spooky. While there have been elements of the macabre in roots music going back to the beginning,  the form has seen something of a renaissance in the 21st century. Starting out slow with songs such as the title track of  Neko Case’s breakout 2000 album Furnace Room Lullaby, the style has gotten more popular up as things have gotten worse.  

One of the most famous acts to use the style in recent years is The
Pierces. Comprised primarily of sisters Allison and Catherine
Pierce, with help from a rotating roster of back-up musicians, the
duo started performing in 2000. Loved but undefined, the sisters
have had all manner of terms applied to their sound including
Psychedelic Rock, Psychedelic Pop, Folk Rock and Indie Pop. While, to be fair, their has been a change in sound between their studio albums to date, their third, Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge, really only has one term that encompasses it. It is an old, evocative term once used to apply to art. "American Gothic". While they vary, sometimes greatly, in terms of tempo and tone there is one factor that remains, which is the combination of Americana and the darker parts of American history and culture, particularly in the South. There is a reason that True Blood was set below the Mason-Dixon. It is also telling that the Pierce sisters hail from Birmingham Alabama. While some might refer to the track "Secret" as the best example of this, there is a stronger case to be made for "Sticks & Stones". 

"Secret" is creepy to be sure and has overtones of familial deceit and murder. "Sticks & Stones" on the other hand, evokes a deeper, more visceral fear of a power greater than one’s self. The first whispers "betray me and I will kill you". The second shouts "there is nowhere to run!". An overall sense of the otherworldly that 
permeates the entire album. Including, arguably, the gentlest track "Three Wishes". Far more on the love side of things, the track has dreamlike quality and an overwhelming sense that everything will be okay. 

While little known outside their native soil, the Canadian band Hank & Lily, the genre does have a tendency for duos, are one of the best and original acts going. Comprised of Hank Pine and Lily 
Fawn, the band take a D.I.Y. approach, releasing all their material themselves. They also tour extensively though rarely get past the Rocky Mountains. Despite their geographical specificity, they really do something special. In addition to music Pine and Fawn also appear in a comic book series, often sold as a package with their albums, which are written and illustrated by Pine himself. The story is complex, sordid and funny, casting Fawn as a part human, part deer creature and Pine as a member of a cult known as the Acolytes of the Second Sun (A.S.S.) and potentially a serial killer. Fawn first meets him while he is hitchhiking on the highway with the corpse of his beloved, whom he may or may not have killed, after evading the authorities following a massacre at the trailer park where he lived, which he may or may not have committed. The later comics tell their continuing story as they go on tour and try to build a new life, constantly blurring the lines between fantasy reality and posing the question as to whether Pine and Fawn are supposed to be a band with a comic book tie-in or real-life versions of comic book characters who are in a band. Their music carries on this sense of dark surrealism, adding elements such as cello, singing saw and even choirs to the standard guitar and drums. Particularly on their album North America. Song titles include "Alligator Boy", "Humans" and "Lucifer". The last of which actually starts with the lines: "Everyone I know is going to burn, in Hell, oh well/But if Lucifer were here, he’d tell you why, oh why, he Fell". Which might explain why they do not tend to play gigs in the Bible Belt. 

Uno

The notion of performing on a stage is one of the first good ideas humans had. Particularly given the context of this innovation. As such it has continued to this day, more or less unscathed by the changes in century and technology. For much of the time, or so the records would suggest, treater has been a collaborative endeavour. This spirit of co-operation and community is, after all, the main factor that lured T.S. Eliot away from poetry, however briefly, and gave the world the thoroughly depressing play The Cocktail Party. Yet, despite its inherently collaborative nature, theater has had a long tradition of performers eschewing the more traditional, ensemble piece and going it alone. At least in terms of presence on stage. As has been established by years of stagecraft, without the work of the crew for the vital work of lighting, costuming, sound and the like, any actor would be left shouting naked in the dark. It is difficult to know exactly when first one-person show was staged. Just like no one knows the name of the inventor of the fedora hat, as this title belongs to the costume designer on the 1882 play, Fedora, by French author Victorien Sardou. One thing that is certain is that the form started being used quite a bit in the 1960s, particularly as part of that century’s performance art craze. The popularity of solo theater has only grown since then, coming to hold its own, if not rival, ensemble works, particularly in the independent and festival circuit, one-person shows being much cheaper to put on. Among the first to really hit with solo theater in America was Eric Bogosian. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in the late-80's, Bogosian is best known for his play Talk Radio, which was adapted into a film by Oliver Stone in 1988. Though a full half of his six produced plays were one-man shows. Most notably Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, which was recorded and in 1991. Around at the same Spalding Gray was making the scene, the first film adaptation of one of his already successful stage monologues, Swimming to Cambodia, directed by Jonathan Demme no less, being released in 1987. This would be followed in 1991 with the 
adaptation of Monster in a Box, directed by Nick Broomfield. Not 
only did both films get a theatrical release, they continue to enjoy a cult following on video, being two of the works that were largely responsible for putting solo theater into the public consciousness. To the point that Gray has been referenced on The Simpsons and lovingly lampooned by younger performers such as Lian Amaris in her performance art piece Swimming to Spalding. An effort reenforced, if not expanded, by Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues in 1996. While a bit harder to take than much of Gray’s work, Ensler’s episodic narrative became a cultural phenomenon, with a film adaptation and productions still being produced to this day. In an ironic twist, what started out Ensler by herself on a stage, has grown and morphed, some might argue mutated, into amassice ensemble piece featuring celebrities. Those who an e taken to the stage to recite Ensler’s sometimes funny, sometimes troubling words include, Kate Blanchett, Melissa Joan Hart, Kate Winslett, Oprah Winfrey and Viola Davis.

From this ground-work of the late-80’s and early-90’s was built an appreciation for the solo form that has seen in take up much of the space at international theater festivals such as Fringe as well as having entire festivals dedicated to it such as the Uno Festival in Western Canada. It has been the starting point for many a career and there are also those content to do it as a form unto itself. For evidence of this go to the Playwrights NYC blog and see how many of the postings either call for or allow ‘solo plays’. Among the best known of the modern solo performers is Canadian Charles Ross. If you do not know his name, chances are that you are familiar with his work. Particularly the "Trilogy Trilogy". A tongue-in-cheek name for his plays The One Man Star Wars Trilogy, The One Man Lord of the Rings and The Dark Knight Trilogy: A Batman Parody. Notable not only for Ross’s frenetic performance as he managed to play all the characters in, slightly abridged, versions of classic trilogies but also because the Star Wars incarnation is "official". As in it has been approved by, the infamously litigious, George Lucas himself. One of the few independent productions ever to manage this. Not only limited to trilogies, Ross also has several originalworks to his name such as Sev, about his adolescent job at a 7-11.

Ryan Gladstone, a contemporary of Ross, while less frantic, as well as less famous, is no less impressive in terms of what he manages to pull off on stage. Most notably, the piece he did at 2009’s Uno Festival in Victoria. Titled Napoleon’s Secret Diary, the play has none of the politics, intrigue or scandal one might expect. 
Instead, Gladstone manages to pull off a version of the Great Dictator’s early years that is empathetic, funny and even, occasionally, cute. Then of course, there is there is the elephant trumpeting in the corner of the room, absolutely begging for attention. That is actor/writer/director extraordinaire, just ask him, T.J. Dawe. Based in that glittering center of all Canadian culture - aside from Toronto and Montreal - Vancouver, Dawe has turned out some of the most complete and best conceived, except when it is not, solo theater in decades. Some of it works of course. Pieces such as Slipknot and Labrador are near genius. Other such as Maxim and Cosmo and Totem Figures are much further away. A situation which epitomizes one of the downsides to the lottery system of selection used by many of the independent theater festivals such as Fringe, where Dawe has become something of a fixture over the years. You never know what you are going to get.

Against the Grain

As long as there have been genres there have been genre tropes. An enduring set of elements  passively expected to be there. To the point that if they are absent the core audience is not satisfied. As much as others might point out how very cliché a particular genre has gotten. Horror is an example of this, particularly in the case of "Slasher Flicks". As is Science Fiction, despite demonstrable variance over the years, particularly in literature. Even in the case of film, who would easily think that something like Plan 9 and Serenity are in the same genre? And yet they are. Another genre that tends to be loved by fans and mocked by others is the Action film. Even if they have not watched many, most people recognize at least some of the most common Action tropes, like larger than life villains, at least one scene in which the hero suits up with more weapons than a paramilitary group and, of course, those cheesy, cheesy one-liners. As with any rule there are also exceptions and there have been at least some Action films that manage to walk the like be fan acceptance and general popularity by recognizing the tropes while also subverting them.

One of the first to do this was the 1993 Sylvester Stallone vehicle Demolition Man. Named after a song by The Police and taking a page from both John Stuart Mill and Emmanuel Kant when it comes to philosophy, Demolition Man does things that few have even attempted. Things like being genuinely clever with its plot and not really having a ‘bad guy’ per se. There is a villain, more than 
one in fact but neither of the philosophies presented, one advocating peace and security at the cost of personal freedom for the good of the whole, the other supporting the idea of personal freedom of choice, are assumed to be ‘wrong’. They both have their pros and cons and the trick is to try and balance them. There is also a healthy bit of fairly spot-on social satire such as having the peace and order part of society having banned everything considered ‘bad for you’ from murder to sex and spicy food. Basically the world according to BuzzFeed. This even extends to the character names, the two mains played by Stallone and Wesley Snipes carrying the monikers of John Spartan and Simon Phoenix. On the surface these might seem like typical, clichéd character names common on in the genre but there is both an element of foreshadowing and criticism. Such as the fact that both characters are cryogenically frozen, only to be resurrected in the future where one of them, three guesses who, is seen as a barbaric throwback to a militaristic culture. Then, of course, there is the "Mystery of the Three Sea Shells". An unexplained, seemingly throwaway joke still generating memes to this day.

Following this line and going even further down the path is 2002’s XXX. The first and best in a series of three films from different directors, XXX, or "Triple X", breaks almost every Action trope.  The plot is basic James Bond. A group of international terrorists get a dangerous weapon that they are planning to use to destabilize world politics, you know the drill. The first stroke of genius on the part of the filmmakers is to have a very unlikely hero in the personage of an extreme sports star named Xander Cage. Recruited as part of a new government initiative to train and send convicted criminals into the field. Weird as this sounds there is some basis for it in reality. As the organizer of the program, N.S.A. agent Augustus Gibbons, played by Samuel L. Jackson, points out they are ‘expendable, programmable and they work’. All items in the Positive column of any government check-list. This allows for some of the most interesting and innovative changes to the usual Action movie pattern. For starters much of the action is actually reality-based. It is a long-standing joke that there is no way many of the stunts in Action films would actually work and anyone who tried them in real life would be dead. The film has no shortage of stunts but nothing that would be too outlandish or terribly fatal given Cage’s background in extreme sports including B.A.S.E. jumping. He is introduced with a scene in which he parachutes out of a car he has driven off a bridge. Dangerous to be sure but by no means impossible. Cage is also outfitted with typically Bond-like gadgets, though with 21st century twists, which he is quite clever in using, combining satisfying action scenes with amusing comments on typical action tropes. He also does not know how to shoot, which is a theme that comes up off and on throughout the film, often used as the basis for humor.

Humor plays a large role in the film but unlike other efforts such as Johnny English and Kingsman it is far less overt. The filmmakers give the audience enough credit to be able to recognize the tropes they are using that they do not need to make the references obvious and instead play with nuance. One of the best pokes fun at the cliché of hundreds of henchmen all shooting at the hero, none of them managing to him. There is a brilliant scene in which this is revered and Cage, along with half of the Prauge police force are facing of against one of the terrorists. One who happens to be a trained sniper. While it is true Cage is not killed, this is mostly because he is hiding behind a concrete wall, as any rational person would. The S.W.A.T. team members who are running out ahead of him, meanwhile, are getting pinged left and right. As would likely happen with a trained sniper behind elevated cover. The stand-off only ends when Cage notices that the cops have a heat-seeking missile launcher and remembers that the sniper is a chain-smoker. Not that villains are one-note, two-dimensional caricatures. Far from the cackling mad scientists, ruthless mob bosses and egocentric dictators of the past, the group, creatively named Anarchy 99, are the disillusioned surviving members of a military unit. Sort of like the A-Team if they went the other way and were Central European. The 99 refers to 1999, the year of the final battle the group served in. An experience which set them against their government and politics in general. Yep, the villains of the piece are actually half-way sympathetic and have a believable motive for their villainy. Fancy that.

MusicBox

No matter how innovative or original a culture or style might be, it is next to impossible to avoid some degree of stereotype or cliché. Few places is this truer than with the Steampunk culture. Once one of the most interesting and original genres going, particular aspects of the Steampunk style have come to define it, particularly to those outside the culture. As with the visual art of the genre there is a lot more to the music of Steampunk than it might first appear, the general view being epitomized by bands like Abney Park and The Clockwork Quartet. An electronica band with the look of Steampunk but little else and what can best be described as "Victorian nostalgia". Somewhat more representative are acts such as The Cog Is Dead. One of the more advanced groups in terms of musicianship, The Cog Is Dead has a rock ‘n’ roll attitude to go with their brass goggles and cog gears. One they augment with surprising and invigorating touches from the past. These include Big Band horns on the track ‘Burn It Down’ and well placed strings in the tragic love ballad "A Letter To Michelle".

On the slightly darker side, closer to Steampunks Goth roots than
most, are Unextraordinary Gentlemen. Comprised of vocalist
Malcolm, bassist/keyboardist Professor Mangrove and violinist J.
Frances, the band has a look - black pin-striped suits that give an
impression somewhere between a serial killer and a mortician - and 
a sound to make Bram Stoker shudder. This comes across most clearly in the tracks "Skeleton Goes to Town" and "Black Iron Road". A song that with its creepy percussion, prominent plodding bass-line and deep, crooning vocals owes as much to Bauhaus as anything. They also do not neglect the more literary aspects of the Steampunk culture, being named after the graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and their stage personas being based on a fairly elaborate fictional world. One detailed in the Unextraordinary Encyclopedia on the band’s website.

Someone else bucking the trend is Professor Elemental. More associated with the Geek-themed Chap-Hop genre, the professor does things a bit differently, adding the accoutrements of the mad scientist to the usual ‘what-ho chaps’ Chap-Hop persona. A potent mix that is both original and funny without being overly silly or mocking. One of the best examples is "Sir, You Are Being Hunted". A harrowing yet still silly tale in which the Professor and the listener have time-travelled to the future and are being hunted for sport by robotic huntsmen. A bit gentler is the heart-warming all-for-one anthem "All In Together"

While much of the Steampunk aesthetic originates in the pre-electrical era, there is still room for electric instruments in the associated music. Not only in terms of instruments like guitars and synthesizers but also digitally based music sources. While bands such as Abney Park catch flack for being electronica bands in disguise, it is not because their music is mostly electronically based but more how they use the technology. A band who has never had their loyalties questioned is Clockwork Dolls. Best described as either Neo-Classical or a Electro-Symphonic, the Dolls composer, arranger and all around mastermind Sam Lee manages to construct massive, epic, shiver-inducing symphonic compositions using only synthesizers and computer play-back. Their second album is closer to the Steampunk relative Dieselpunk, based in the Diesel-based technology of the inter-war period through to the 1950's.

Someone else using technology to great effect is Emilie Autumn
Liddell, better known to the world as Emilie Autumn. Alternately described as "Fairy Pop", "Fantasy Rock" and "Victorian
Industrial" Autumn’s music can be difficult to pin down. While the
"Fantasy Rock" monicker might be tempting, especially considering she shares a surname with the inspiration for Alice In Wonderland, "Victorian Industrial" is most accurate. Despite some nods like the track "Castle Down" Autumn is very much a hybrid. Classically trained in violin and piano Autumn mixes traditional instruments with modern programming like that found on synthesizers, samplers and drum-machines in a way that is all her own. There is seriously little chance of her ever being mistaken for Rufus Wainwright or Nine Inch Nails. The best example of this is the track "Misery Loves Company". Not only is it among the most accomplished of Autumn’s vocal performances, far from clashing the violin and harpsichord parts blend with the samples and drum-machine beats in way that not only works but seems almost natural. This is particularly true of the drum-machine, set in such a way that it mimics the thump-hiss of a piece of steam-powered machinery. Evoking the past with methods of the future and thereby embracing Steampunk’s core principles.

Laughing at the System

It is impossible to tell what is going to be funny, humor is just too objective. A fact which science has yet to fully explain and critics have yet to grasp. At least if the universal hatred of prop comedians is anything to go by. There  are, of course, particular mechanisms and means by which to get an amused reaction. As reflected in the different kinds of humor. Three of the most common are ‘Sight Gags’, including the newly invented ‘Gross-Out’ humor; ‘Observational’, in which attention is drawn to an absurd element of everyday life and ‘Surreal’ in which humor is based on an odd situation or outcome. A lesser known form of humor that has been gaining in notice in the past few years is ‘Anti-Comedy’. Despite the name, Anti-Comedy is not the same as ‘anti-humor’ and practitioners of the form do try to be funny. The ‘comedy’ in Anti-Comedy refers to the tropes and structures that make up the traditional stand-up comedy set. There are those that experimented before. Lenny Bruce did his own thing, favouring monologues and riffs over the one-liners popular at the time. Eddie Izzard has tried to add a sense of off the cuff spontaneity, though each um and stumble is masterfully timed. The humor in Anti-Comedy derives from the surprise and discomfort that comes from willfully disrupting the assumed order. The current form coming mostly from the British Alternative scene in the 1990’s, Anti-Comedy is now starting to push the boundaries of what comedy can be.

Though he was around before the terms as invented, Andy Kaufman should be counted among the very first Anti-Comedians. This is after all, the person who came out on stage during a show and read The Great Gatsby in its entirety. He also once set up a bit in which he literally sits at a table and eats a bowl of ice cream with ‘this is the bit that got me thrown out of the Improv’. A set-up which implies a bit of filthy Blue humor in the style of Bruce or Richard Pryor. Also notable is what happened when Kaufman performed as the ‘musical guest’ on Saturday Night Live. Something that really needs to be seen to be believed.

Another early example are the comedy duo Fry & Laurie. Comprised of gleeful brain-box Stephen Fry and muttering musical genius Hugh Laurie, their short-lived sketch show, A Bit of Fry & Laurie, really is a thing to behold. Some of the sketches are fairly ordinary but others come so far out of left field that no one could see them coming. Though you never knew which one you were going to get. There are, for example, sketches with surprise endings. Then there are also sketches with no ending at all. They will literally stop in the middle of a scene and one will say to the other ‘you haven’t really thought this through have you?’

One of the first modern Anti-Comedians is the British Alternative stand-up Stewart Lee. Coming of age in the experimental 1970’s, it was not long before Lee was taking risks of his own. One of the first indications there is something different going on is Lee’s delivery. Soft but not whispered and calm but stopping short of deadpan, it is a comic delivery that makes the listener acutely  aware that it is a delivery. He also plays with language and the very meaning of words and terms. One of his more straight-forward jokes involves him making a reference to where he was on 9/11 2001, quickly clarifying that he means November 9th. More recently, Lee has gotten even more into the form not even trying to do a traditional show anymore. One of the first indications things were changing was the introduction of the ‘coffee-card joke’. In it the house lights go down, Lee is announced, the stage lights come on and Lee makes his entrance. He then starts a joke about a coffee-chain loyalty card, hitting many obstacles along the way. Eventually he walks off-stage.  Stage lights go down, house lights come up. Then the house lights go down, Lee is announced again, the stage lights come back up and Lee re-enters and does the joke all the way through without a hitch.

While it is not their primary mode there are elements in Anti-Comedy in the work of both Demitri Martin and Jim Gaffigan. On of the things setting Martin apart is that he often plays an instrument during his spoken bits. This is almost in heard of in comedy. Vast majority of musicians, whether they are primarily musical or not, either speak without an instrument or sing while playing an instrument. Martin speaks while playing an instrument. The closest thing to this in the past is when Bruce had musicians back him up on his piece ‘To Is A Preposition, Come Is A Verb’. An effect later used by Mitch Hedberg when he had a Jazz band back him up on one of his live comedy albums. Though in both these cases the music was played by separate performers and was in a distinctly Jazz style, adding an element of Beat poetry. Something that works with the style of both comedians. Martin plays an instrument while he speaks and the music is more in the Folk or Rock vein, standing  in stark opposition to what he is saying.

Gaffigan takes a similar tack to Lee, particularly in terms of his delivery, on of the most famous aspects of his style being his ‘inside’ voice. A soft, almost creepy tone Gaffigan adopts, usually in the middle of a bit that serves as a sort of inner commentary about what is going on. A sense also come up in his book Food: A Love Story. Despite the humorous title and cover image, not to mention Gaffigan’s, reputation after his publishing debut Dad Is Fat, the book is a fairly straight-forward account of Gaffigan’s life-long interest in food. An interest hinted at by the photo on the back cover of the hard-cover edition showing Gaffigan in full Hemingway mode.

It is also possible to take part in Anti-Comedy without needing to say anything at all. As demonstrated by the mysterious figure known a The Boy With Tape On His Face or simply Tape Face. Convention would dictate that there should be some sort of description of Tape Face and his act. Though, as hopefully has been demonstrated, convention is not always the best guide.