We’re quite proud of this month’s video funny-mix, with some fresh new corkers as well as a couple of favourites from the last Birmingham Popcorn. We’re also really excited about what Brian Gittins and Rob Rouse have in store, and they’ll be showing some of their own video content in the true Popcorn fashion. You can see more about them in our last post…. here.

As much as we loved The Electric last time, the upstairs of the Victoria is going to have a great buzz to it with a much more informal atmosphere where you can get a drink, walk/shuffle around or even have a meal before hand.

Doors are open at Thursday 25th March, 7-10pm. Tickets are £5 (£4 Concessions) and you can book them at popcornbrum.eventbrite.com, or on the door, but as there will be limited capacity pre-booked tickets will get dibs on seating.

See you there!

But according to Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki (an evil supervillian’s name if ever I heard one) and his ‘systematic survey’ I’m wrong! Based out of the University of Sydney in Australia, his findings, amongst many, were that ‘contrary to expectations’ navel lint appears to migrate upwards from underwear rather than downwards from shirts or tops due to frictional drag of body hair on underwear.

This sir, I will not swallow and hopefully you will join me in petitioning for the return of his 2002 Ig Nobel Prize for Interdisciplinary Research. However one of my favourite statements on the matter is this:

‘The most disturbing story to emerge from the survey concerned a woman who used her brother’s electric toothbrush to clean her exposed belly button, causing him to develop a fungal infection in his mouth. ‘

Possibly a contributing factor to why hairless women don’t get naval fluff.

I’m also quite willing to accept his theory that ‘Navel lint’s characteristic blue-gray tint is likely the averaging of the colours of fibres present in clothing; the same colour as clothes dryer lint.’

Clever guy.
So let’s compare one time-wasting, resource-hogging layabout with another. How long can one man (almost exclusively apparently) play around in their belly button? According to Graham Barker, 25 years and counting. Finally someone from the street who’s actually on the frontline of this matter!

The depth of Graham’s blog and his personal research is almost nauseating.

But even Barker admits, ‘…that there were still mysteries surrounding the origins of belly button fluff.‘ Added with the fact that his website has been garnered with ‘useless site of the week’ I persevered. A personal highlight is his ’2005-7 fluff displayed as a stereo pair’ (Best enjoyed using the 3D cross-eye method).

Actually, on even further inspection the extra-curricular activities of this obsessive, beard hording, God-fearing hospital worker is becoming increasingly amazing in my expectations.

To conclude, Graham proverbially rams the Ig Noble prize down Dr. Kruszelnicki’s throught when he states:

‘The fluff I collect is always the same colour… I almost never wear red clothing, so where does the red fluff come from?’

To learn more on this subject see Graham’s research or ask in at any well stocked haberdashers.

Rob Rouse is one of Britain’s most respected Stand-ups gathering a long list of TV credits, and is about to embark on his new show ‘My Family And The Dog That Scared Jesus‘.

Roadside cafe owner, Brain Gittins has been described by Ricky Gervais as “One of the best comedy characters of the decade”. With his style of anti-jokes you keep thinking he’s going to say or do something revolting but he constantly up-ends your expectations winningly. He can also be found out and about with fellow grease merchant, Angelos Epithemiou.

Popcorn’s Victoria debut is Thursday 25th March from 7pm. You can get your tickets for £5 (£4 Concessions) from popcornbrum.eventbrite.com

So while we start putting some videos together for you, here’s a gimpse of Rob’s stand up and Brian chewing the fat with Angelos Epithemiou.

X-Factor styley, over 100 entries have been whittled down to 12. After the development process 6 of those will be commissioned. Next week we’ll be starting off with a day of discussion and workshops with the other shortlisters and Kate Leys. The development process will go on through till March when we’ll see… If all goes well and we get the green light, we’ll be chucking up regular updates here for you to track the progression of the film.

While ‘Man In A Cat has been talked about for a while, and the tester trailer alone has got over 850,000 views, it had to stand on ice for a while as our other projects and work relationships developed. But after having the storyboards on my wall for over a year it’ll be great to get some outside input. I’m particularly excited to see how the original story changes. While I love the idea of a Man, Woman, Cat love triangle (not like that), there’s still plenty that could be done on the script.

So let’s start from the beginning shall we? Here’s where the original idea taken from my sketchbook when I was 16, which was taken from Tony Lopes’ Odd Streak strip.

Huh, will yer look at that. Message in a Bottle was on the same page. Page 32 was obviously drinking well that year.

This article has been edited without the writer‘s consent.

I challenge you to watch this one all the way through. ‘The Music Kiss’ had me frowning at full crinkle.