Student Blogs

I know we’ve been slow recently at updating the site, but we’ve been busy with work and various social events so I shall give an update on all these things.

Last week for our days off we had two days of not skiing as the snow was pretty poor and I (Matt) was ill (sore throat, not drinking related!), so we had two days of getting things sorted like a hair cut (at long last), shopping and some idea hunting for a costume (more on that later!). The two days were very relaxing and definitely made us feel more relaxed.

On Thursday last week it was my birthday! So for that we went to Merlin’s with people from work for a $5 burger and our staff $1 beers - they do treat us well don’t they! It was a really fun night and my supervisor joined us for the burger and beer, he even told me I could come into work late the next day so that I could get extra time to relax at home - something I appreciated very much.Now on to the costume… well, last night was our staff party! The theme was “anything but clothes”. We had no ideas at first, but then we came up with the idea of going as Whistler and Blackcomb (me as Blackcomb as it’s taller) and dressing in a sheet on which we would draw the trail map with lifts, mountain restaurants and runs. It worked really well and we even had the peak-to-peak gondola on it - a string with two gondolas on it running from my outfit to Helen’s. It was really good in the end and went down very well! We almost won the prize for best costume ($100), but sadly lost to someone who had made a whole Scottish outfit out of duck tape and plastic sheet! We did get told by one of the WhistlerBlackcomb directors that he wanted to use us for publicity for the peak-to-peak gondola though!!!

All in all it’s been a very hectic but fun past week or so with lots going on. There’ll be lots of leaving parties coming up as various groups of people are starting to head home - very sad :-(.

Anyway, hopefully we’ll update sooner this time! To end, here is a picture of us in our costume - I’ll try to post a better one when we get one from someone else.

We caught up with Anthony Butler, Talent Representative for Off the Kerb, who are working with Paramount Comedy on the Funniest Student competition.

We asked him about the competition, how things went last year and thoughts on the 2008 edition.

What is the Funniest Student competition?
The Funniest Student competition is designed to promote and provide a platform for new comedy talent from the UK’s student community. It’s part of Magners Paramount Comedy On Tap, which is a network of more than 150 university comedy shows at numerous student venues across the UK, and is produced by ourselves at Off The Kerb Productions in association with Paramount Comedy.

Where did the idea of the competition come from?
Comedy On Tap started back in 2002 and as the network started to establish itself we began to look at ways we could expand on the regular shows in a way which could bring the wider student community together. Open Mic nights have long been popular with students and one thing that both Off The Kerb & Paramount Comedy have always been keen to do is encourage new comedy talent, so taking that a step further and launching a contest of this kind seemed a natural progression.

You held your first nationwide competition last year, how did that go?
It went really well. The final itself featured 5 very strong contestants; I think myself and the other judges - Kathleen Hutchison, Paramount Comedy’s Head Of New Comedy, and comedian Robin Ince - were surprised at how high the standard was. What was great about the competition too is that it seems to have provided a starting point for the finalist’s careers; particularly last years winner Hannah George who has since begun to create a name for herself on the stand-up circuit.

So you’re looking forward to this year’s competition then?
Yeah. We’ve had a good response from applicants this year, but the deadline isn’t until 25th February, so anyone who wants to enter has until then to do so. This year’s final should be great too – Patrick Monahan is once again booked in to host proceedings, whilst If.Comedy (formally the Perrier Award) winner Brendon Burns will be doing a headline set for us. I’m looking forward to what I’m sure will be a fantastic night.


Applications for Magners Paramount Comedy On Tap Funniest Student 2008 will be accepted until Monday 25th February. For more information or to apply please visit www.paramountcomedy.com

The final will take place on Monday 10th March at The Comedy Store, London. To apply for guest list tickets please e-mail press@paramountcomedy.com

To read more about Hannah's reaction to winning last year's Paramount Funniest Student Competition click here.

I cant actually be bothered to go through them all one by one so im just gonna tell a little about my favourites.

Enchanted was absolutly fantastic, it was funny and sweet and thoroughly entertaining. It is a complete spoof of a typical disney, done by Disney. Well worth watching. Not just for kids either!

Next up is Mr Magoriums wonder emporium - this was better than Enchanted, Dustin Hoffman was fabulous.

P.S I love you - This was a comedy about grief, which by principal really shouldnt work but it is in fact both very funny and incredibly sad. Paul didnt enjoy it, pretty much certainly a chick flick, but a good one.

This got very poor reviews, with only one star from Empire. This annoyed me, because they gave Fred Claus two stars. Hitman could not be considered a work of genius, but the action was fun and reasonably exciting. Fred Claus could be described as crap, with the cast it had it should have been funny, it wasnt. I cant really remember seeing Hitman but i do remember that i enjoyed it enough to think empire was crazy. Which is rare. Fred Claus was 1 star Hitman was was

2 1/2 popcorns

There have been a lot of very good, and reasonably good, and awful films since i last posted, i am going to go over those that i remember the best! Hopefully i will get better at keeping this up to date now. This year looks like it should be fantastic for films with several more comic book films, most of which look like they should be pretty good. I, have to say that I personally am most looking forward to the new Batman, the Dark Knight (which comes out on my sisters birthday while i am on honeymoon, most inconvenient) It should be fantastic with what looks like it could be the best performance of Heath Ledgers career as the Joker. Hopefully a fitting epitaph for an amazing actor.

Well, no update for a while, but that’s because we’ve been really busy at work and having fun! We did a couple of days of snowboarding lessons on our days off which was really good fun. We’re not exactly pros now, but we can turn and get down a very shallow slope - it’s really odd being back to beginner though!

Work has been busy too. This weekend is an American holiday weekend so there’s lots of people up from the US, including loads of college students so they’re drinking lots of beer at the bar as the drinking age is 19 instead of 21 where they are! All good for Glacier Creek though.

We watched the fire & ice show last Sunday which was really good. It’s a show where they build a huge jump at the bottom of Whistler and then snowboarders and skiers jump through fire and do amazing tricks.

Other than all that, life is amazing in Whistler! It’s so fun being able to ski every day and just generally live IN the snow! It’s amazing!

And finally ... from Adrian MacKinder

I am a regular on the stand up circuit and I agree this is a really good idea. I recommend anyone who thinks they're funny to enter. It's such a competitive business, these competitons are a really rewarding way of getting your talent noticed by the industry. This one is worth entering as Paramount is so high profile and the panel of judges are also of a high calibre, last year they had Jonathan Ross agent among the judges!

I went along to watch the last final and apart from the fucking brilliant opportunity to play at the Comedy Store in London, the winners got the chance to develop ideas for Paramount as well as high profile gigs set up. Last year's winner, Hannah George has become a very good friend of mine and she'll no doubt agree with me when I say that it really helped her get stuck in to the comedy circuit - and I'm not even getting paid by her to say this! Here's the link to enter this year's competition: http://www.paramountcomedy.com/live-gigs/comedy_on_tap/funny.aspx

Second testimonial on the facebook group, this time from Richard Bond. BTW - Yes Rich, you can enter again!!

Greetings all! i hope this generic message finds y'all well!

just to say that the paramount competition is awesome, it's like a dream come true for any young comedian and i heartily reccommend it.

Here's a question though, i entered it 2007 and made it through to the final (Hannah won, she deserved it, i love her, hasn't she got lovely hair, and an honest smile...and a very trustable chin...) can someone who is in my position enter again?

good to have a comedy group like this though...we're all in it together...

Rich
Xxx

The facebook group Student Comedians has been getting a few testimonials on the Paramount Comedy Funniest Student competition. So, here's what they're saying.

1) From Hannah George!

Hello one and all,

Just thought I'd start a little thread to suggest entering this years Paramount Comedy Student Comedian of the Year Comp. I won it last year and it was fooking wonderful. I would seriously advise anyone to enter (so long as you're a student and have about five minutes of material!), pop over to the paramount comedy website to find out more; www.paramountcomedy.com. I entered on a whim last year and it gave me such a fantastic boost! Getting to play at the comedy store on my 10th gig was bloody marvelous....People bought me drinks all night....I think I gave myself alcohol poisoning...I got home...laughed for a bit...then promptly passed out. It was a very romantic evening.

Enter it. xx