August 5 - An “August” Night For Comedy with FREE RAMP SWAG!
July 29, 2008
I always get grief for posting about upcoming live events too late for people to make plans - but not this time. You have a full week to make detailed arrangements to join us (and those
Imponderables guys) for their August 5th instalment of the monthly Imponderables & Aquaintances show as part of the Sketch Lounge series at Toronto’s venerable Rivoli. 9pm.
A truly inconsequential $5 will net you a bucket of comedy with the effervescent Laurie Elliott hosting, Ron Sparks doing that “newsdesk” thing that all the cool kids are talking about, opening act My First Crush - and of course a headline set from the titular Imponderables containing videos from some guy named Rocking Spade Internet Videos or something.
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL
If you bother to just show up you’ll receive, absolutely free, some crazy Rocket Ace bling - thanks to the fine folks at Crucial Pins and the letter Q! It’ll just be sitting there on your table for you to take and put on clothes… or pierce your nipples… whatever you kids are doing with buttons these days. What more do you want from us?!
As per usual the RAMP gang will be around, track us down and flash cryptic high-speed gang signs at us and we’ll give you MORE FREE BUTTONS or STICKERS or HIGH FIVES. Unless we forget all about this post, in which case we’ll probably give you our wallets or beg you not to beat us up or something… YOU WIN EITHER WAY!
“Attack of the Show” calls out “Basement Accident” on Lightsaber Physics? Fight! Fight! Fight!
July 29, 2008
Normally we have nothing but nice things to say for the folks at G4’s Attack of the Show. They feature our videos all the time on “Around the Net”, they once called us “almost” as cool as this (high praise indeed), and Olivia Munn Playing Mushmouth was quite possibly RocketAce’s finest (and sexiest) hour ever on US Television.
BUT
It has come to our attention that on the July 9th episode of AoTS, Kevin and Olivia gave us an “EPIC FAIL”, segment - complaining about the lightsaber physics used in The Basement Accident
Liam Dynes (a fan of The Imponderables from Thunder Bay, Ontario) wrote us to say:
Yous was the “Epic Fail” tonight, for the basement mishap, though purely for
geek science reasons. Lightsabers cauterize, there should be no blood
on the lens. Though both hosts Kevin and Olivia admitted that it was a
really hard video to fail, but being the nerd-central they are, they
had to abide nerd law. You goofed Star Wars science, they had to do it.
However, no sooner had the “verdict” come down, than THE INTERNET came charging to our defence! As “CaptainC83″ laid down the geek-gauntlet on the G4 Forums:
…BUT my geekness has been set off and I had to point out that when Obi-Wan chopped that guy’s arm from Mos Eisly, THERE WAS BLOOD!
FAIL THAT!!
While the resulting flame-war did an admirable job of protecting our geek-street-cred we decided to go straight to the source - the massive crack team of SFX artists who toiled for months on that particular segment (ie: we asked Brad what he thought):
I’m not sure where everyone’s getting blood from. The spatter on the camera is clearly ash as it’s a solid dissipation pattern, not a liquid one. While Matt has some red stuff on his face post-strike there was a lot of cooked meat flying around at the point of impact, and lightsabers clearly have a very limited range for the aforementioned “cauterizing effect” (when Han slices the Tauntaun open on Hoth he doesn’t cook all of the entrails throughout, just the area immediately surrounding his incision). It’s pretty clear to me the effect of the strike is completely within cannon of the original trilogy - the one exception is the shower of sparks from Eric’s groin which is due to the fact that he’s actually half-droid. I explained the backstory for this in my series of “Eric’s Mom/2-1B” stories available at your nearest slashfic repository.
In conclusion. You want to start a geek-off with us G4? Bring. It. On.
The Violator: Behind the Scenes
July 29, 2008
We’ve been wanting to share a little “behind the scenes” peek into the making of “The Violator” for weeks now, but got all caught up with awards fever, and live shows, and “The Dark Knight“… and other matters of extreme importance. But we’ve gotten around to it now.
The photos are full of interesting fun-facts on the shoot itself, but for interested technophiles - what we did once we had the footage was turn the 3,500 source photos into a single 5-minute, 12 fps video clip with a unique “photo number” burned on each frame. We could then cut the scene in our regular editing system and then go back and “conform” a high resolution version using the master photographs in Adobe AfterEffects so we could re-size and crop each shot (and AfterEffects has very good tweening to smooth out the motion evenly).
If that sounds like incredibly dull and time consuming work… you’re right! See how much we love you? Check out the photos (or our Flickr photostream) for lots more details of the crazy three-day shoot itself - and let us know if you like these “behind the scenes” peaks, and it might be something we do more of in the future!
Canadian Comedy Award Voting FAQ
July 25, 2008
[Updated - Now with 2009 Voting Information!]
- Information on our 2008 awards nominations can be found on this post
- Information on our most recent nominations can be found on this post
Here’s a quick FAQ to clear up some of the most common questions we recieve about public voting for the Canadian Comedy Awards - we will update this page to keep it current throughout the voting period:
1. Who Can Vote?
The “Pretty Funny Web Video”, “Pretty Funny Radio Clip”, and “Canadian Comedy Personality of the Year” awards are open to public voting - that means anyone who is a Canadian citizen can vote.
Please note - if you are not a Canadian citizen please don’t vote. You’re just making more work for the CCA staff who examine and filter all the voting logs.
2. How do I register to vote?
Go to the CCAVoting.com registration page to sign up for a public account (any information you provide is only used to verify you are a Canadian voter). When you’re done click the “submit” button. If you voted for us in previous years you can use the same username and password to login - you don’t have to re-register!
3. How do I vote once I’ve registered?
You’ll be e-mailed a user name and password you can use to log in at CCAVoting.com.
When you log in with your user information click on “Vote” (near the top of the page) and then “Web Clip” from the list of categories to the left of the page.
You’ll then be given a list of all six nominees (and the chance to watch video clips of each) and then select which one you wish to vote for.
Finally click the “Vote” button at the bottom of the page.
4. How long do I have to vote?
You can make (or change) your vote up until midnight on July 31st, 2009. But why put it off until the last minute? Vote now!
5. Which RAMP clip should I vote for?
Because we’ve been nominated multiple times, we’d prefer votes for “The Violator”. We love them all equally - but it has had the largest audience both on-line and in our live shows.
6. When are the Awards Announced?
Some time during the “Canadian Comedy Festival” in St. Johns, NB from October 1-4, 2009. We’ll be sure to post shots of us sullenly power-drinking as soon as they’re announced.
7. Are you actually going to St. Johns for the awards?
We’d love to - but haven’t sorted out our schedules just yet.
8. You Didn’t Answer My Question
Ask Away!
Just For Laughs Toronto
July 25, 2008
Very late notice, but friends-of-RAMP (and long-time video collaborators) The Imponderables are playing the Just For Laughs Festival in Toronto tonight at the venerable Second City Theatre.
I caught the first night of the show last night, and it was a very good time as the Imponderables are joined by Keilley and Roeters, The Sketchersons, The Williamson Playboys and the whole thing is hosted by the extremely charming Craig Robinson (”The Office”).
If you’re in Toronto and want to join in the fun, the Just For Laughs website has all the event and ticket info.
Brad and Matt on “The Waldo Ultimatum”
July 16, 2008
Brad and Matt were interviewed last month for the Where’s Waldo on Wordpress Blog about “The Waldo Ultimatum”, and their approach to the iconic character.
The first part of that interview has been posted and it’s a really interesting read. Given the ground they covered so far - I can’t imagine where parts 2 and 3 of this interview are going to go!
“Matthew: He’s a definite loner. He’s a very free-minded individual, which is something you don’t often see with all the community connectivity. Any guy who’s brave enough to wear a sweater to the beach is free thinking, is alright.
Brad: Wearing a toque, 24-7. In the middle of the desert, a toque.“
We’re Canadian Comedy Awards Bound!
July 14, 2008
[EDIT - We've published a FAQ on Voting - Click here for more info!]
We’re thrilled to announce that RAMP has been nominated for two 2008 Canadian Comedy Awards for “Pretty Funny Web Video” for both Cerealized and The Waldo Ultimatum.
This is a real honour to be recognized not once, but twice in the inaugural year of the “web video” category of the CCA’s. Canada has an amazing depth of comedy talent, and it’s humbling to have a chance to follow past winners such as Cathy Jones, Rick Mercer, Rick Farrell, Mary Walsh, Mike Myers, Colin Mochrie, Eugine Levy… the list goes on and on - a veritable Who’s Who of Canadian funny-people.
Even better the “Web Video” field is one of three that will allow public voting for the first time in CCA history (Pretty Funny Web Video, Pretty Funny Radio Clip, and Canadian Comedy Person of the Year). So if you want to help us out you can head over to the Canadian Comedy Awards Voting Website and Register for a free account to vote!.
Details are just starting to trickle in, but I suspect a road-trip to picturesque Regina (which, by October could easily be under twenty feet of snow… making the trip extra awesome) may be in the cards for October 2-5th for the awards gala, and to see if RAMP can’t bring home some hardware!
[Edit - Wow you guys are fast. Yes, feel free to link to our nomination badges from your own sites or blogs if you wish, I've included sample code below]
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Also there’s been some question if we have a preference which RAMP show people vote for. In all honesty, I think we collectively feel that “Waldo” is a better fit for the spirit of the “Funny Web Video” category… which is supposedly one-off comedy videos. It’s very tough to define “Cerealized” by a single episode, even though “Loops” is a favourite of all of ours as well.]
Congratulations Chad and Jenny!
July 14, 2008
I (briefly) mentioned that almost the entire regular RocketAce gang was out of the office last week. To be precise we were all crammed into a Toyota Prius barallelling around California. While the non-stop touristing and theme-parks were certainly welcome we were actually there to celebrate the wedding of Jennie Reichert and Chad Thompson. Both were critical parts of Dead End Days and huge supporters of all our internet frivolity and we can’t begin to describe how pleased we all were to be there for their big day.
Actually the event was a big Dead End Days reunion, between Brad, Matt, Erin, Jay, Brooke, Jordan, and the happy couple… that’s a lot of DED alumni to cram into a San Diego dance floor. Suffice it to say we tried to do the event justice.
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- May I present - Chad and Jenny Thompson
New Videos! Catherine the Great, Ghandi, and a horrible accident!
July 14, 2008
Hey Gang. As promised we’ve got a slew of new videos for you this week - the final two entries in the almost-educational “History’s Greatest Perv’s” series, and that horrible caught-on-tape basement
accident that made those wacky kids at Break.com so angry they called us names. Harsh names.
Somehow in the face of all this adversity, we’ll perservere. Aside from the usual haunts, all the new video goodness is up both on the main page video player and the magical YouTube playlist that you can add to you own website or blog that will auto-magically update when new videos are available.
Exciting news is a-brewing… so I’ll lay reasonable odds you might want to check back here tomorrow.
I’m just saying…
A basement accident?
July 9, 2008
Just a quick post this week as RAMP is (hand to god) on vacation.
We maybe made a video about a horrific accident, and it’s maybe stirring up all kinds of hilarious on-line ridiculousness… so if you’d like to support peeving off the entire collective internet by Digging It … that’d be cool.
We’ll add it to the player on the site here as soon as I get back on the weekend!
