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Perfecting Stand-Up Comedy Using Quake?

Posted by simoniker on from the not-quisp dept.

TheNomad writes "Many of you probably know about Machinima, most easily described as 'filmmaking within a real-time, 3D virtual environment', but did you realise that some people are taking it a stage further, and performing improvised Machinima comedy live, using Quake II? There's an interview with the ILL Clan on Machinima.com, talking about their live Machinima work, of which the latest part is called 'Larry & Lenny on the Campaign Trail'."

18 comments

  1. I'd hardly call this "perfection" by sinergy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The medium of comedy is of no matter. Comedy is comedy; be it written, performed, filmed, or digitized.

    --
    ...
    1. Re:I'd hardly call this "perfection" by sebi · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Very true. On the other hand the barrier to entry has been lowered considerably in the last couple of years. Whereas shitty stand-ups were confined to amateur nights in clubs and untalented writers had to photocopy their own drivel, nowadays everyone can just go on the internet.

      The editorial process has moved from a handful of people (a small audience at most) to a whole world full of them. Some might welcome this development, but think about how many collective hours man has wasted by forcing thousands to figure out that something sucks on their own.

      About the project from the article: I don't really know how you can perfect--or even improve--a stand-up routine without at least hearing the audience. Isn't that the most important metric? Hearing them laugh or stay quiet at certain parts of the performance? The audience typing some acronyms and emoticons can hardly have the same effect, can it?

      --
      Hank! White!
    2. Re:I'd hardly call this "perfection" by NedR · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's quite possible that to some comedians, not being able to hear the reaction of their audience would be a distinct advantage. Just turn loop a laugh track mpeg while they're playing, pretend it's an audience, and they get an ego booster while their audience gets . . . never mind.

  2. Does it allow replacements for rotten fruit... by Elivs · · Score: 5, Funny
    When someone sucks does the audience get the option of shooting them with the nail gun, or preferably with double barrel shotgun at close range?

    Rotten fruid at live performaces allows instant feedback to performers. Instant (and graphic) feedback can really usefull in live comedy!!

    (Guess I'm likely right now that slashdot hasn't implemented such a feature for moderators)

    Elivs

    1. Re:Does it allow replacements for rotten fruit... by M.C.+Hampster · · Score: 4, Funny

      No, it means we're going to get a bunch of second-rate comedian wannabe's making posts on Slashdot. <g>

      --
      Forget the whales - save the babies.
    2. Re:Does it allow replacements for rotten fruit... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      (Guess I'm likely right now that slashdot hasn't implemented such a feature for moderators)

      Yes, very lucky!

    3. Re:Does it allow replacements for rotten fruit... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      "going to"?!

    4. Re:Does it allow replacements for rotten fruit... by kenjay · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the elucidation. I was wondering if fruid was something from LOR.

  3. Gee... by El · · Score: 0

    Does that mean that I can perfect my FPS gaming techniques by chasing stand-up comedians around with a shotgun?

    --

    "Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney

  4. Routine Wrap-Up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    You'll know when your comedy routine is almost over when you hear... "three frags left"

  5. Massive Online Performances by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If I remember correctly there are groups of people in some Massive Multiplayer games that put on live performances as well. This doesn't seem like anything terribly new, just a bit more cracked since they're doing it specifically for the performance and not to add color to an already active online game.

  6. You still can't beat... by Radix37 · · Score: 1

    The QdQ gags. Some of them were down right silly :-p So silly in fact that I can't remember a damn one of them... it doesn't help that it's been almost 7 years egad!

    --
    Speed Demos Archive - Lots of speed runs!
  7. Why Quake? by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm usually all for using Quake* over all other games, but wouldn't it be best to use something with a higher max player per server count and ingame voicecomm? You can always force all spectators into a Ventrilo/RogerWilco/etc server, but it would be much easier if done ingame.

    --
    Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
    1. Re:Why Quake? by ILL+Clinton · · Score: 1
      Well, being that I'm one of the guys involved in this, I am uniquely qualified to answer your question.

      Perhaps you didn't have a chance to read the whole article, but the reference to live comedy doesn't involve audience members connected to the server. We actually do this in front of live audiences at film festivals and clubs in New York City.

      Only the performers are connected to the server. The "camera's" view is projected onto a large screen, comedy ensues. Everyone, including the performers are together in the theatre (or club), not connected via the internet.

      You can see excerpts from one of these live performances on our website.

      We use Quake 2 because it's Open Source, allowing us to modify it to do what we do.

      ILL Clinton

  8. RVB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Its been done before, and it is called Red vs. Blue

    1. Re:RVB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, you may wanna do your homework first. The ILL Clan have been doing this for years before RvB.

    2. Re:RVB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to mention that if you rtfa you'd see that these guys actually do it in front of a live audience. Pretty amazing actually if you watch the movies on their site, the characters respond to the audience a lot. And the characters mouths move too.