David M. Green: Purveyor of fine humour

Category: sketch

  • Two suits, two cameras and a garage

    Hello there!

    This was an odd spur of the moment project championed by fellow RMIT journalism student, TV’s Lachlan Cowlishaw: “Hey, let’s set up a talk show set in my garage and just goof around!” I agreed on one condition: that we’d include cameras in that equation. A sensible decision.

    So that’s the gist of it. Lachlan dressed his garage with a sheet, a couple of deck chairs and a set of bed-side table drawers as a desk. And last Wednesday I caught the 207 bus out to Doncaster in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, wearing my only suit. I arrived at Lachlan’s house, we spent maybe 15 minutes jotting down some ideas. Came up with the name of the show and character names on the day, set the cameras rolling and just ad-libbed for an hour.

    I play host Gerald Field-Mann, a failed has-been TV personality, which in all respects is essentially who I am anyway. Lachlan plays Kevin Callahan: producer, sidekick and garage owner. We also take turns playing other guest characters too.

    Probably the most basic TV show set-up in history. No crew. No lighting. No white balance. No camera operators. No script. Just the two of us making it up as we go along. It was a lot of fun and I think you can see that coming through when you watch the clips.

    We’ve uploaded the first clip to a new YouTube account. Feel free to subscribe.

    Lachlan is handling the editing, and more segments will be going online soon. This really was his idea. I’m just along for the ride. Although, this may end up being our “Televisionman” project. Organising to make a REAL television show is pretty tedious. At least this way we’re in control and can do whatever we want.

    So please enjoy the first of many TANGS segments: What’s ticking off Matthew Newton?

    Kind regards,
    David M. Green
    Is bad comedy the new good comedy?

  • Fans of radio sketch comedy, David M. Green is on SYN!

    Are you as crazy about David M. Green as these people:

    If you answered “yes” the police are already on their way to your home and/or office to “help you”.

    But enough of that… Hello!

    Yes, I’m David M. Green and I’m making radio sketches again! If you’re in the Melbourne area, tune into SYN 90.7FM Sunday evenings 7pm-8pm. There’s a show on called “In Joke”.

    Unlike my other radio shows back in Adelaide, I didn’t “invent” this show (I don’t quite have the time to commit to that just at the moment). In Joke has been running for some length of time, I’m not really sure exactly. I don’t have the details, because it’s not my show! Some other guys host it. But they’re light on pre-recorded material. That’s where I come in. They’ve provided me with an outlet for my love of making radio sketch comedy. Find out more about the show itself here or join the Facebook fan page.

    I must stress, I’m just the sketch guy. This isn’t my show. However, you can hear my sketches right here. These ones aired tonight…

    I will create a “SYN” page for the permanent collection, like I’ve done with my previous regular radio appearances.

    Great to get back into it. And please, enjoy!

    Kind regards,
    David M. Green
    Doe he like to talk about himself in the 3rd person? HE SURE DOES!

  • Televisionman: Comedy Megaproject!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=632EtPMRvKE

    Hello!

    I’m David M. Green. Well… see ya!

    Oh, right sorry… Behold the sketches above and below! This marks the debut of my latest and Melbourne-based sketch comedy videos I’m creating with TV’s Lachlan Cowlishaw, under the codename “Televisionman”. Hopefully by the end of the year there will be enough to put together some sort of collection…

    At the top of the page is “The Novel Advertising Sketch”, which I wrote last year, originally for Radio’s Sam Mac, but we never got around to making it. It did require a bit of organising. The more people involved the harder it becomes. The stuff in the library with Lachlan was quite easy to shoot, but that meeting room scene took a bit more effort. After a “once-over lightly” version in a hidden-away group study room at the RMIT library that turned out to be too long and poorly shot, we enlisted the help of TV’s Antonio Cafasso as director, and I managed to get permission to film in one of the swish new PhD student meeting rooms in Building 9. Much better. Definitely worth the extra stuffing around. In the sketch, a struggling publishing firm finds an unconventional solution to their cash flow problem… I could continue, or you could just watch it. Up to you.

    Below is a shorter sketch simply called “The Library Sketch”. It was a simple idea I came up with when we were filming the library part of the Novel Ad sketch. We were there. So we did it. Apologies to the people actually trying to study in that part of the library.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgfEAG7bXIs&feature=related

    Things that I would talk about if I were doing an audio commentary on these sketches…

    Think production value. With a budget of $0.00, a sketch can look pretty crappy. However, assuming access to decent equipment isn’t an issue, it’s often inexpensive little things that can add big production value, giving the illusion of money. Girls are great for that.

    Girls add production value. In our case, it was the vocal talents of Radio’s Lisa Pellegrino, whom I previously worked with at Radio Adelaide 101.5FM and who now does breakfast radio on Mix 104.9 in Darwin. She recorded a line for the “Little Women” ad and emailed it down to me here in Melbourne. Without her the sketch would still work, but it’d be a bit of a “sausage fest” if you know what I mean.

    Those 3 novels. Funny story. The RMIT city library didn’t have all 3 of them. They just had Moby Dick. I actually had to get Little Women sent from the Bundoora campus and Breakfast of Champions from their other library in Brunswick! Production value: Gold. And essential to the sketch (One of the joys of being the default producer… all that painstaking pre-production to organise…).

    You’ll also notice a few subtle props. Lachlan, in executive mode, is wearing a pair of reading glasses circa 1995. Hilarious. I’m also smoking a fake cigar. $2 off eBay. On-screen value… priceless! I love that fake cigar. I’ve thought of a couple more sketches to use it in too!

    Oh yes, and I love that opening shot of Melbourne Central Tower. Certainly the most evil-looking building I know of. Great production value. And hey, when in Melbourne…

    So, in conclusion, I do hope you enjoy these sketches. They were a joy to make and very rewarding. Thank you to everyone who helped us out. Full credits accompany each video on YouTube. If you haven’t already, feel free to subscribe to me on YouTube by clicking here.

    Kind regards,
    David M. Green
    (The) Televisionman

  • Forgotten sketches from a Damaged Brain…

    Hello!

    I was browsing my old Radio Adelaide folders in a dusty corner of my external hard drive (I have a serious dust problem in my bedroom at the moment… gotta stop shedding all this skin…) and I came across some old radio sketches from a show I did back in 2007 called Brain Damage. And I couldn’t believe that for some reason or another, I hadn’t uploaded these ones. I think because Radio’s Nathan Sharrad edited these particular sketches, and I didn’t initially have them on my computer when I created the Brain Damage page coming up on 3 years ago. In any case, it slipped my mind.

    Enough time has passed for me to completely forget these, and so it was like listening to them all for the first time. I’m very happy they still crack me up; One of the advantages of not doing topical humour. Nice foresight, past me! Actually it was more Nick Godfrey and Nathan Sharrad – I believe they wrote and or edited these ones. However, you can hear the competent vocal performances of all three of us, as well as the resplendent Matty B. They’ve been added to the Brain Damage page, but for your convenience, here they are right here. It’s four young guys having a hell of a lot of fun! Enjoy.

    Stay tuned for more original David M. Green radio sketches. I’m switching back into production mode on Melbourne’s SYN 90.7FM!

    Kind regards,
    David M. Green
    (Radio’s)

  • Pull up a chair!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lbvWvtaP14

    Hello!

    David M. Green here (who else? It’s my freaking website…). You may recall back in December I mentioned meeting up with Radio’s Sam Mac and Alex “Shooter” Williamson to film a musical-chairs-themed sketch? You don’t. Okay. Well, completely ignoring you and continuing on, finally, it’s hot off the editing room floor (I warned them against the hot coals but you know what artists are like…) and on the Internet for all to see!

    I’m quite proud of this one, and it was a lot of fun to film. Thanks very much again to Mr Mac for gracing us with his presence and thanks to Shooter for an excellent editing job. And thanks to the Battista family for hanging onto that musical chairs footage for the last 17 years! (Yes! That’s REAL footage of me from 1993!)

    Anyway, if you haven’t seen it already, check it out. It’s 3 minutes and 50 seconds you won’t get back!

    Kind regards,
    David M. Green
    Actually, that’s true – I don’t live there any more.