Adam Buxton

I really, really like Adam Buxton. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBtXw6CPwg4&feature=channel

This is hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_z2Jug78zw

"Cost a lot of wonga, and I hope it's not a failure."

Me too, I love him.

Best radio show around.

God I miss the Adam and Joe Show on the telly - that and Mary Whitehouse Experience and Fist of Fun really did shape my comedy leanings to this very day.

But I suppose age, mellowness and comedy maturity come to us all eventually.

Dammit! Give me angry, juvenille, sarcastic humour now!

Haha, he actually went through with the shed video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnipSseM-OI

Adam has a new panel show pilot on Radio 2 tomorrow night: https://www.comedy.co.uk/radio/im_spartacus/

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ April 8 2009, 1:29 AM BST

God I miss the Adam and Joe Show on the telly - that and Mary Whitehouse Experience and Fist of Fun really did shape my comedy leanings to this very day.

Fist of Fun (TV version) is available here: http://www.stewartlee.co.uk/oldshows.htm

I have TMWE on video but have never got around to digitising it. I expect the old videos will crumble if I put them in the machine...

Dan

TMWE is floating around online. As are all the old Adam and Joe shows and xfm podcasts.

The Adam and Joe DVD is a very good purchase - they clearly poured lots of love into it and the story of Adam and Joe is very interested.

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ April 8 2009, 1:29 AM BST

God I miss the Adam and Joe Show on the telly - that and Mary Whitehouse Experience and Fist of Fun really did shape my comedy leanings to this very day.

The sad thing is, there seems no equivalent of those shows today. :(

Some of Adam's thoughts on his failed show Meebox, and TV commissioning in general. (When I say failed, I mean failed to get a series).

I keep bumping into people at gigs who are nice enough to ask what's happening with MeeBOX, so here's the deal. BBC Three have decided against taking it further because they don't feel it caters to their 16-24 target demographic. It's disappointing news because although you might imagine that TV companies everywhere are desperate to give me millions of pounds to make programmes for them and be their king, this was in fact the closest I'd got to getting a show off the ground since the last series of The Adam & Joe Show in 2001. I've always done other things of course but making a whole show, either with Joe or solo has been the most fun.

I'm aware that left to my own devices the kind of stuff I produce is not particularly in synch with the world of Lilly Allen and Gavin & Stacey and it may never have the potential to cross over the way those chaps have but I hoped there might be room for a diversity of shows on BBC Three, especially as a series of MeeBOX would have cost less to produce than a couple of episodes of The Wall, so it could hardly be thought of as a costly risk.

Most people seemed to like the show although I heard some criticism that it didn't work as a parody of You Tube. Although that was one way I explained it to people in interviews and such, it was never meant to be the whole point of it. The vague on-line look was more just a peg on which to hang the videos. What was important to me was that each individual element was funny in some way. If it had been commissioned I guess I would have gone further with the You Tube spoof angle or perhaps pulled back from it completely but as it was a pilot I didn't get too hung up about it.

I think MeeBOX is funny, not particularly obscure and very televisual. The BBC said they agreed absolutely but it had been a case of unfortunate timing. When the pilot was commissioned BBC Three was still a place where wonderful shows like Snuff Box (more BOX based marginalia!) could co exist with the channel's more obviously teen-brained fare. Now that's apparently no longer the case and there is a 'brand' in position that needs to be consistently maintained, or some such. I guess that's the reality of life in the dirty UK multi channel world: get successful or f**k off. Well, duh! you may say, but in TV as with most other things 'successful' is by no means always the same thing as 'good'.

As you can see, it's impossible to analyse these kinds of policies without sounding like a bitter and twisted old fartcake so I'll try to resist and say instead that I hope you watched the show and if you liked it, you might find some way of letting BBC Three know. They're unlikely to reverse their decision but hey, who knows? If on the other hand you thought the show should have been called ShiteBOX, then I guess your interests are being well served.

Either way I was pleased with MeeBOX and I'm very grateful the nabobs at the Big British Castle gave me the opportunity to make it in the first place. I'm also indebted to everyone who helped on the show, especially Dougal Wilson who directed several segments, Garth Jennings who made Sausages with me, Jonny Greenwood who wrote and recorded the title music, David O'Reilly who worked tirelessly to create the title sequence and most of the graphics for the show, John Pocock who produced it, Robin Hill who edited it with me and tied it all together, Jack Cheshire who exec-produced and championed it from the start (along with Armando Iannucci) and all the actors and comedians who were kind enough to be in it. Thanks too to the rest of the crew and production team who helped it turn out exactly the way I hoped it might.

I did enjoy MeeBOX, I would have liked to have seen a series, but having seen it go out on BBC Three, it was pretty obvious it wouldn't be commisioned. I had the same feeling whilst watching the very enjoyable Lifespam go out. Those shows just don't fit with whatever it is BBC Three want to now be; which is a great pity as they're leagues ahead of 95% of the material now on that channel.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ April 8 2009, 11:00 AM BST

I did enjoy MeeBOX, I would have liked to have seen a series, but having seen it go out on BBC Three, it was pretty obvious it wouldn't be commisioned. I had the same feeling whilst watching the very enjoyable Lifespam go out. Those shows just don't fit with whatever it is BBC Three want to now be; which is a great pity as they're leagues ahead of 95% of the material now on that channel.

True - but then Admin's just been commissioned and that pilot didn't feel very BBC Three to me either. BBC2 if anything.

Who knows how the infernal, mysterious machinations of the BBC work? Not me certainly.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ April 8 2009, 11:00 AM BST

I did enjoy MeeBOX, I would have liked to have seen a series, but having seen it go out on BBC Three, it was pretty obvious it wouldn't be commisioned. I had the same feeling whilst watching the very enjoyable Lifespam go out. Those shows just don't fit with whatever it is BBC Three want to now be; which is a great pity as they're leagues ahead of 95% of the material now on that channel.

Look on the bright side, ITV are supposed to be in a bidding war for Corden and Horne, so if they snatch them it might free up some BBC Three budget. http://www.orange.co.uk/entertainment/television/5834.htm?linkfrom=%3C!--linkfromvariable--%3E&link=box_left_pos_3_2_link_1&article=entertainmenthubtelevisionsell

Quote: Lee Henman @ April 8 2009, 11:10 AM BST

True - but then Admin's just been commissioned and that pilot didn't feel very BBC Three to me either. BBC2 if anything.

There were lots of young characters in that though, wasn't there? Maybe that's enough to qualify!