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THE COMPLETE PACKAGE
He’s young, good looking, very funny and a hit with the ladies. Suffice to say, Tommy Little has got it going on, writes Kate Kingsmill.
Tommy Little is everything I normally dislike in a comedian,” says Adam “Andd yett Ad Hills. Hill “A I like him as well.” It seems Tommy Little’s status as a triple threat – youthful, handsome and hilarious – is
enough to intimidate even the most successful of Australian comedians. We catch up with Little in the middle of a writing session (“It involves a lot of staring at a computer and asking yourself, which word is funnier, arse or bum?”) who sets the story straight. “Here’s the secret – I just slipped him twenty bucks,” Little says. Who knew Hills came so cheap! “Yeah, his career is really on the rocks,” he adds with a sly chuckle. “Sure, he’s got TV shows and international success, but woah, behind the curtains, he needs money.” So does Tommy Little have plans up his sleeve to take over Adam Hills’ position in the world as the most likeable and popular comic in Australia? “I would love that, he’s having an amazing career. I think any comedian in the country would anything close to love to have anyth Hillsy’s had. the success that H crossed, if I can keep So fingers crossed bribing people, all the way.“
ambiguous, that’s what I’m going for. No, I mean, I think, like a lot of things, the fun is in the middle area with everything. Like right is always pretty boring and wrong is always pretty boring. But a little bit of right and wrong, that crawl space in the middle, is very funny.” Suggest to Little that from his material it seems as though he spends a lot of his time drunk, he pisses himself laughing. “I love that that is the initial perception! And you know what, it’s probably fair. I think it’s towing that fine line of, sure, drinking hacks into your working week, but it also provides a lot of funny stories. I don’t know if you’d call it a fine balance. I think you’d call it just a seesaw gone wrong.”
doesn’t have to Truth is, Little does Because Little is bribe anyone. Bec He’s also just really, really funny. fu self-deprecation. “I’m a master of self-de because I suck only in comedy be at everything else. If I could do would do it. The anything else I wo working conditions and the pay that if this is your are so horrible tha insane.” So is he choice, you’re insa a bit insane? “Uh… no…” he sighs, and then, ppissing himself adds, “What a laughing again add reassuring tone!” Do his friends think he’s insane? “My friends are ffunny. I’I’m lucky l k ddoing comedy that a lot of people that are funnier aren’t doing comedy.”
And since he’s currently writing material, alone at his computer, asking himself life’s big questions, how does he know what’s funny? “I find out that night at the gig when instead of laughter, the room is filled with silence and someone winding up their arm to throw a bottle at me! That’s generally a fair indicator.” He prepares a lot of his material but really enjoys audience interaction. “I sincerely find people very interesting, so actually a lot of my material will originate from chatting with the crowd that then turns into bigger chunks of material down the track. I always know where I’m going to start and where I’m going to finish and the stuff in the middle is kind of up to the gods – the comedy gods – that sometimes decide to shit all over me and give me nothing.“
Little finds ambiguity interesting. “Ethnically and sexually
WHAT: Tommy Little’s A Fistful Of Apologies (Madman)
MR FIX IT Ever feel like no matter how much you try and fix things they just get worse? This is one of the premises behind new Disney feature Wreck-It Ralph. Guy Davis checks in with animation man Rich Moore. Rich Moore is no slouch in the world of animation – after all, he did direct Jurassic Bark, the classic Futurama episode scientifically proven to be the saddest half-hour of television ever made, not to mention many episodes of The Simpsons. One can’t help but think that among modern animators working in Hollywood, there’s a goal to which they all aspire: working for Disney, especially now that the venerable studio has merged with the seemingly unsinkable Pixar. Citing It’s A Wonderful Life, Moore says he always had “these George Bailey-like reasons not to leave Bedford Falls” when offers came from Pixar, where friends and colleagues who’d founded the studio presented him with a standing offer to come and work there anytime. But when a call came from Disney via Pixar head honcho John Lasseter to talk about developing a few big-screen projects, Moore decided it might be time to try his hand in the big league.
“The timing of this call from Disney and John was just so perfect, and the fact that it was at Disney after Disney and Pixar had merged – it struck me that I would be coming into a place that would be very, very interesting,” says Moore. “A studio that after some years of trying to redefine itself in this new age of animation felt scrappy and hungry to show the world what it could do. This wasn’t Disney resting on its laurels; this was a Disney that wanted to shine again. And that made it a wonderful environment for an artist to come into.” For between 15 and 20 years, Disney’s animation department had been batting around the idea of a video-game movie. And this was a notion that appealed to Moore. But he decided to ignore the previous incarnations of the idea and instead focus on, “What it was like to be a character in a video game. What is their life like? What is it like behind the scenes in one of these games or many of these games? That was
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the genesis – going inside this world we only know from the outside.” The result is Wreck-It Ralph, an ingenious, imaginative, moving and just plain fun romp through the video game universe as seen through the eyes of Ralph (voiced by John C Reilly), the destructive ‘bad guy’ of old-school game Fix-It Felix Jr. Eager to move beyond his one-note role in life, Ralph leaves his own game behind and embarks on a voyage of discovery and adventure throughout a variety of other games in the arcade. It’s great fun for kids but surprisingly resonant for grown-ups, who may see themselves in Ralph’s desire to break free from his humdrum existence and be recognised for something more. It’s certainly something Moore can relate to, although he was careful to ensure that Wreck-It Ralph said just as much to its younger viewers. “I had moments in my professional life when I felt, ‘Well, I worked on
The Simpsons, on Futurama, two great shows that come along maybe once in a lifetime... What now?’” he recalls. “The world was feeling small for me at that point. It seemed like it was all it was going to be. I liked the notion that just when you think the world is one size, something cracks a wall open and you discover that it’s four times bigger than you ever thought. Adults can definitely relate to that. It’s kids who may find it hard to relate on that level but they see Ralph as someone who’s always breaking things, and that’s how I felt as a kid. I’d invariably rush around and break things, and people would be all ‘You’re so destructive!’ And I think kids get that aspect of Ralph, this guy who means well and wants the best but is labelled this one thing, this one type of person. I remember feeling that way, and I think it’s a foothold kids can dig into when it comes to this story.” WHAT: Wreck-It Ralph WHEN & WHERE: In cinemas Wednesday 26 December
C U LT U R A L
CRINGE
WITH REBECCA COOK Now if you’re like me and would rather be run over by a tram and empty your purse into the gutter on Smith St than go within cooee of a shopping centre (and if like me, you haven’t been a smart arse and already purchased your presents online from an anti-Gerry-Harvey-global-GST-free store) then read carefully because I’ve done this before. And I guarantee you’ll look better than using the drive-through bottle shop on the way to lunch as your Christmas shopping – those sparkly bags are fooling no one. For the cashed-up last-minute shopper, subscriptions are an absolute winner, as there’s such variety your gift can look truly well-thought-out. Most major to medium-sized artistic companies offer them, from the MSO and Victorian Opera to the Mand Malthouse Theatre through to your Red Stitch. For those on a tighter budget, tickets to one of the many outdoor cinemas or perhaps the stalwart Shakespeare Under The Stars in the Botanical Gardens (this year it’s particularly romantic – Romeo & Juliet) could get you out of a tight spot. Or if being outdoors is tantamount to being eaten alive one tiny bite at a time, and upping your recipient’s quinine to blood alcohol ratio isn’t on the cards, then how about an old-fashioned indoor movie. Argo, Life Of Pi, Zero Dark Thirty,
TRAILER
Lincoln and Django Unchained have all just been announced as Golden Globe-nominees for best film. Scored a music aficionado in the family KK and want to mix it up a bit? Try Perfect Tripod, where Eddie Perfect and Tripod join forces to re-imagine iconic Australian hits. The promo materials tell us to expect “the Crawl, the Chisel, the Budgie and the Voice. Perfect Tripod found its genesis in the smoke and feathers of the Famous Spiegeltent, where Eddie and Tripod first performed Paul Kelly’s Meet Me In The Middle Of The Air to a rapt cabaret audience for a one-off show. They’ve now expanded their repertoire and added three nights at the Arts Centre in mid-January. For those on a shoestring budget, for just $3.50 you can purchase the debut novel of local Aboriginal author CJ Duggan. The Boys Of Summer. For those who have everything, how about adopting a writer for Christmas. It’s not as weird as it sounds. You don’t have to have a Betty Page lookalike clutching an iPad sitting next to grandma at the dinner table. Instead you can become a Pen Pal of the Emerging Writers Festival and sponsor the appearance fee of one writer at the 2013 Fest. Unfortunately they don’t have them all lined with photos and bios like an orang-utan, but I guess that gives the spokenword artists more chance of finding a place under the Christmas tree this year. On that note, Merry Christmas!
TRASH
WITH GUY DAVIS It’s the time of year when people start making lists and checking them twice, selecting the movies they consider the finest and the most foul. Now, I’m not one to suggest a certain amount of groupthink occurs among the critical community – I’m sure the people who select films like Argo, The Master, A Separation, Beasts Of The Southern Wild or Holy Motors for their ten-best lists legitimately appreciated and admired them – but I will say that it can get a little wearying seeing the same titles again and again. For the record, I too dug most of the movies listed above... I haven’t seen Holy Motors yet but I intend to catch it before the end of the year. Here at Trailer Trash, though, we do things slightly differently. We dabble in the disreputable. And so as 2012 draws to a close I’ve taken it upon myself to spring to the defence of a handful of titles that may have received, well, a bad rap. Maybe expectations were too high. Maybe expectations were rock-bottom to begin with. Maybe they were never given a chance to connect with a wider audience for whatever reason. But I’ll tell you something: I found them worthwhile. Maybe not from beginning to end or top to bottom; maybe there were only a few sparkling diamond-inthe-rough moments that, however briefly, glittered so brightly that the whole enterprise went up a notch or two. So maybe reapproach the following films with an open mind. Or call me a philistine with dubious taste and stunted development. Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance: The only way was up after Mark Steven Johnson botched the fuck out of the flame-skulled, chopper-riding Marvel Comics anti-hero with that made-in-Melbourne mediocrity that was inadvertently responsible for unleashing Rebel Wilson onto the world stage (remember she was in it?). Its lack of quality aside, it made enough bank to ensure a sequel... but everyone behind the scenes realised they never again wanted to be associated with something so lacklustre. So they rebooted, keeping only Nicolas Cage as the titular demon but adding some much-needed spice behind the camera in the form of Crank
crazies Neveldine/Taylor. The result? A tricked-out, hotted-up B-movie full of groovy visuals, self-aware humour and awesome scenery chewers, with Cage leading the parade. Seriously, it was worth the price of admission to see him freak out a bad guy by screeching that his evil alter ego was “SCRAPIN’ AT THE DOOOOOR! SCRAPIN’ AT THE DOOOOOR!” Safe: Everyone’s favourite soccer hooligan, Jason Statham, had a great moment in the generally lacking Expendables 2 when his wicked grin sold the shit out of, “I now pronounce you... man and knife.” (He then, you know, knifed a man.) But for pure, uncut Statham, may I recommend the marvellously pulpy Safe, in which he played the baddest motherfucker alive. Of course, he displayed his softer side by coming to the rescue of a little girl in possession of info that could take down crooked cops, corrupt politicians and at least two crime syndicates. But he also kicked the shit out of a lot of people in the process. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter: At first glance, this appeared to take itself too seriously for a movie with such a title and concept. But on second viewing I realised that was its masterstroke. This movie is utterly absurd – I mean utterly – but it plays it all so straight that it achieves a kind of deadpan-comedy genius. (I was reminded of Highlander, another movie that deftly combined nuttiness with sincerity.) Of course, I was super-stoned at the time, so you may wish to take this opinion with a grain of salt or a gram of marijuana. Get The Gringo: Mel Gibson is a troubled, troubling individual, and it seems as if all the poison inside him is starting to manifest itself externally. Or that could just be the natural toll of time. I’m not a scientist, but the ravages of age have also transformed him from awfully handsome to craggily interesting, and to his credit he’s embracing that. In the sweaty, grimy B-movie Get The Gringo – which energetically plays like the bottom half of a drive-in double feature circa 1976 – he has the rough-edged appeal of a latter-day Robert Mitchum. And for better or worse, Gibson doesn’t give a fuck about being in anyone’s good books anymore. He may be a mess in all kinds of ways but he’s beholden to no one. It’s as fascinating as only the finest trainwrecks can be.