During solitary confinement, what was the global smackdown, that has played itself out during the plandemic I had some friends who were buying into the fear portrayed in the media in ways that were crippling their sense of being. So, I decided to make the most of this strange and ridiculous situation and began to send Whatsapp messages to these friends in a character I called Horacio Bifkin, a Mexican madman who completely lost his mind, living alone for four weeks. The rants I made were downright strange, spontaneous, and to be honest, comedic genius. I don’t use those last words together lightly. Every one of the friends I sent those clips to has said the same thing. ‘I’m in bits… my God, I really needed that to make me lighten up.’
The humour at first was self-deprecating, totally spontaneous, and was a twist on the experience of being under government-enforced mass house arrest. It’s not my first foray into voiceovers, I’ve done most of the voiceover work for the book trailers for my books, but it’s my first recorded foray where I’ve gone off the deep end with a real-life situation and taken it to the extreme limits of what is considered funny, outlandish and completely gonzo. In the last episode, I did a clip where Horacio SNORTS a line of cumin powder (yes, curry powder cumin) at the behest of a friend that tells him it’s the best lockdown antidote. The result is sheer fucking lunacy, but comedy GOLD.
One of my friends in Australia has chosen to run with the ball, so to speak. He has two friends in London and New York City who have hilarious voiceover characters that they have been sending him to during the smackdown and he’s creating a podcast with all three of us each doing a segment. My friend in Australia will be animating and producing the soundtrack of the episodes and producing the podcast, and then using a platform for the podcast to be played on. The idea is to make more topical clips from all three characters, picking elements from reality that people can relate to that aren’t as off the wall as what I have been doing of late for my friends. I did a clip last night at my producer’s request (I can’t tell you more than that) and will keep myself/friends entertained with more clips of my own (to keep working the muscle of the character’s madness, and my spontaneous humour) in the meantime, and I’m excited to see where Cognitive Dissonance goes as a podcast!
