Seanie's Comedy SODcast - A cynical, bitter and twisted look at the London Stand-up comedy scene? or is it?

YES! I'm doing a regular podcast!

Well it's more of a SODcast really, a satirical take on the hot topics and political bickerings that matter most to the puppeteers and the players on the London stand-up comedy scene

What? a SODCAST?

Yes, it's just like a PODcast, well actually it's lampooning all the proper PODcasts, but it's like them, except it doesn't take itself too seriously

Why a podcast you sod?

Well, bizarrely enough, podcasts seem to have been proliferating in the past year or so amongst comedians on the London open-mic scene

Really? surely they're soooo 2006?

Another Comedy Podcast

Yeah I know right! Looking at my Jellycast account stats, I set it up in 2007 when Ricky Gervais was pioneering the medium, SIX YEARS AGO! in fact I was such an early adopter I managed to get the Jellycast user name SEAN

So podcasting is something you tried 6 years ago when it was "The next big thing" and then quickly shit-canned?

Yep, and actually I was so pioneering that I was doing VIDEO podcasts back then, I was one of a few people I know wealthy enough to splash nearly £300 on the first ever "iPod Video" I remember being remarkably unimpressed at the time, video content was sparse and watching videos on such a tiny screen was a real bore

Why are you taking the piss out of comedy?

Well the simplest answer to that is "Because it's what I do" in the last 4 years I've been searching, exploring, attempting to find my voice in the world of comedy, I've explored many aspects of the art form and studied Stand-up, Sketch, Improv, Clown and Bouffon under some of the best, award winning teachers available, ROLL CALL Harry Denford & Chris Head for Stand-up, Chris Head again for Sketch comedy where I formed my own little collective www.sketchy.co.uk Dave Bourne, Steve Roe, Luisa Omeilan & Cariad Lloyd for Improv where I founded the Impro Punks and "Made Up Stand-Up". Mick Barnfather, Phil Burgers (Dr. Brown) Ana Esmith, Lucy Hopkins & Cal McCrystal for Clown and finally Eric Davis (Red Bastard) for Bouffon

What I've learned is really what I knew deep down all along, I'm fundamentally a mimic, I copy peoples voices, mannerisms & behaviour, exaggerating them sometimes for comedic effect, I lampoon them as a character comic, I like to observe things, get my head around stuff, understand the mechanics of what makes things work, then I parody those things in a satirical way, usually to expose the hypocrisy, the idiocy or the folly I've discovered within them

The stand-up and the clown and needy, they need your love and validation, they need to please you in order to please themselves, that neediness and the constant validation of your laughter is what drives them to carry on performing night after night, they're addicted to your love, your laughter is their highly addictive drug and they cannot live without it for long, like all addicts they are volatile and fragile

The Satirist is different, he sees that the Emperor is naked when everyone else is foolishly admiring the Emperors new clothes, he studies humanity and understands all its weaknesses and failings, its bigotry, stupidity and hypocrisy, he wants to mirror that back to you, to take the piss out of you, to lampoon you, to show you how stupid your firmly held beliefs are, to make you understand your imperfections and the folly of your own egos, he's not malicious, he doesn't want to hurt you, he feels sorry for you, ultimately he wants to help you by enlightening you

The 2 day Bouffon workshop I did with Eric Davis this year was an eye opener for me, it provided the Eureka moment when I realised that taking the piss out of things in a benevolent way is what I've always really done

Bouffon Red Bastard - AKA Eric Davis

The Bouffon are grotesquely ugly, deformed "freaks" who were believed, like all imperfect things a few centuries ago, to come from the devil, as such they were banished to live outside of the city walls, all year round they would observe the "good" people of the city from cracks in the walls, they would use ladders and mirrors to spy on people, see inside their homes, they saw all the bigotry the hypocrisy and stupidity in society and they felt bad for the poor "beautiful people" who were blind to their own folly

Each year on "all fools day" the grotesque Bouffon were allowed into the city to entertain the "good" people, using the knowledge they'd gathered observing the citizens all year round they would lampoon the elders, mock the hypocrites and cause great hilarity by satirising all the ills of society, they helped the citizens by showing them the error of their ways, they were the outsiders who were supposed to be pitied yet they showed pity by helping the "good" people

The court jester in merry old England was another form of fool, a very powerful fool in many instances as none of the kings advisors had the balls to tell him home truths, the jester could show a king his folly by sending him up and be appreciated for his audacity, satire and parody have always been of great value to society, it is only evil and totalitarian regimes that have ever silenced them, Nazis, Bolshevist's etc

So back to the SODcast, am I ripping the piss out of the London comedy scene? YES! am i doing it out of spite, jealousy or bitterness ? NO! I hope to be the freak who lives outside the city walls, and once a fortnight gets allowed in to mock, ridicule and debase the fuckwittery that's so prevalent on the circuit, in order of course to help it

ENJOY!


Where can I subscribe to the Seanie Comedy SODcast?

Good question! click here to subscribe to the series, if that does nothing for you you haven't got iTunes or you're not on a desktop click here

I want to hear individual episodes without subscribing to the series

OK here you go, needypants

http://sean.jellycast.com/files/audio/sodcast.mp3  Episode 1, with Ringo Starr

http://sean.jellycast.com/files/audio/sodcast2.mp3  Episode 2, with Bernard Manning

http://sean.jellycast.com/files/audio/sodcast3.mp3  Episode 3,  with Duncan Bannatyne

http://sean.jellycast.com/files/audio/sodcast4.mp3  Episode 4, with Michael Daley


http://sean.jellycast.com/files/audio/sodcast5.mp3  Episode 5, with Chris Baughurst


http://sean.jellycast.com/files/audio/sodcast6.mp3  Episode 6, with Narin Oz


http://www.buzzsprout.com/20844/162955  Episode 7 with Houssem Rhaeim, Chris Baughurst and Chris Duce

http://www.buzzsprout.com/20844/174119  Episode 8 with Lenny Sherman & Queenie

Hey I'd like to suggest topics and and guest star personalities for future episodes

Cool, please email me your questions and suggestions seaniesodcast@ruttledge.com

WOW Seanie, I loved your SODcast so much I want to share it and give it 5 star ratings and rave reviews, where can I do that?

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/seanies-comedy-sodcast/id785772690  iTunes

Oh and remember, sharing is caring!

Voice Reels 2014 - Sean Ruttledge UK Male Voice Artist with London based studio

Here are my brand new showreels for 2014, Firstly I have a new commercial voice reel showcasing my deep, rich and educated tones ideal for advertising high quality and luxury brands, the second voicereel is my video games voice acting show reel, my highly versatile range of character voices has won me voice actor roles in a number of video games as Narrator / Advisor and indeed several distinct character voices in the same game

Commercial Voice Reel 3 mins Medley

Video Games Character Voice Actors Reel

One Video Game, One Voice Actor, 12 Characters, can it work?

Potential video game developer clients often ask me what my voice acting USP is, (USP = unique selling point), well that's easy, my highly versatile voice allows me to play a whole host of distinct character voices in the same project, saving them valuable time and money, instead of auditioning and selecting scores of voice actors and then going through the logistical minefield of getting them all to work in harmony together they can have all their prototype voices from just one actor, me

 Couple this with my background in character acting & comedy writing and I become much more than just a voice actor, more than merely voices I am able to help games developers to create characters, give them unique personalities and truly bring the narrative of the game to life

You can download and play this awesome new game on steam early access

http://store.steampowered.com/app/224440

Have fun !

Funny voices, they're racist because society is stupid

I was interviewed for BBC News magazine after David Cameron the UK prime minister was labelled a "racist" for doing a comic impression of an Aussie accent

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15772642

Society is truly stupid if it equates comedic mimicry to the incitement of racial hatred, I guess it seems to do this only when it is politically expedient

Games Foundry: Folk Tale Blog: Storytelling In Folk Tale

Games Foundry: Folk Tale Blog: Storytelling In Folk Tale: by Simon Dean, Project Lead Folk Tale

The blog post above highlights how my voice acting of all the characters in a new video game helped to storyboard the development of this brand new, groundbreaking game and build the overall narrative during its development stages

As a business proposition for video game developers, the versatility of my wide ranging voice acting combined with my character comedy skills & background is second to none and a far more cohesive and efficient route than hiring and coordinating a team of disparate voiceover artists

For the scratch audio development I provided voice acting and character development services for ALL the games characters, including a somewhat pythonesque pepper pot female voice and anthropomorphic animal roles (a foul mouthed parrot which later became more of an owl)

Other voice actors were rightly brought in at later stage of the games development to give variety to the roles but I'm still proud to be the voice of the Narrator / advisor, principle hero character Bernard, some very street / chav goblin yoot and of course the villainous slave master Urzal in the game you can play today

In the words of Project Lead Simon Dean

"With the script signed off, I contacted Sean Ruttledge, a UK comedian with whom I'd previously worked. Sean convinced me he could bring enough variety to the voices to get the job done for a prototype. Sean's early voice development and recordings really helped flesh out the characters, and proved an essential resource for Tom our animator to work against. Scratch voice audio is definitely something we'll do going forward.

Tom set to work animating the characters against Sean's lines, doing his best to translate the voice acting into waving arms and nodding heads. Working without scenes he'd render out video clips with proposed camera angles for us to review and iterate on."

All in all a highly enjoyable process, check out my Folk Tale character voice acting showreel below, believe it or not every voice you hear in this is performed by me, even the ones having conversations with each other, and hey! if you need a single voice actor with over 9000 voices for your video game development  project I look forward to more of this kind of work in the future, call me

Folk Tale is an awesome RPG / GOD / RTS / Sandbox game now selling like hot cakes in Alpha release, but don't take my word for it, get it on steam today

http://store.steampowered.com/app/224440/