Live from Canberra

I'm sitting in a rather large corridor here at EPIC (Exhibition Precinct in Canberra) and I've finally finished five shows of The Gilbert and Marty Show, the replacement to Donny Jaffa. There's singing happening in the main hall but I need a bit of time out. It's been a rather full-on 5 days.

It's been hard. Gilbert is a puppet played by Johnny and I play Marty, and over excited, try-hard youth pastor. I don't really like Marty very much. He's not as funny as Donny. But I've had to scale Donny back this year because he's pretty good at offending people.

Since arriving it's been all go. Not having any videos edited has meant that we've been editing two videos every day.

On the first night we only got one done, and even that didn't work. The show itself was under-prepared and not very funny. We were playing to an almost packed house and we were pretty bad. Lots of them didn't come back the next night. I didn't feel to happy about that. It's hard going out in front of an audience and absolutely bombing, especially when you know lots of them are expecting you to be funny.

But in the following days we improved. Johnny is great. I've really enjoyed working with him. He's calm and supportive and honest when he thinks I've had a bad idea. Plus he's optimistic which is always helpful.

Everyday after day one we made a video with Donny Jaffa going to visit people doing projects around Canberra. That's been pretty fun. It was nice to have Donny. I realised I missed him. He may be a rather unpleasant person but I do have a soft spot for him.

Making videos during the day has meant every afternoon has been packed full of editing. I usually give the video to Sam (who's been my right hand man this week) and just tell him to edit it and then check it later after Johnny and I have gone through the show. It's great. He's been a star.

Anyway, the end result is that we have a made a show that hasn't been as funny as Donny Jaffa. But it's improved, and it's made people laugh, and they've sat down and that's been the main point. So I'm happy now. Marty won't be back now.

I think the singing might have finished, so I should go. Tim Costello is speaking tonight and I'm looking forward to that, so I should be off.