8pus, Work In Progress, (tour) life imitating (absurdist) art

WARNING: This is an early assembly of a few minutes from Act 1 of the tour mockumentary we started working on. More to edit, more stuff to film. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY!

A couple of years ago, I had decided to do a bus tour of North America around the release of The Floor Kids video game.  We thought it would be fun to document the tour in some way. 

Instead of doing a "band on the road" doc, we decided to use the down time on tour to create an absurdist tour mockumentary of 2 conjoined Octopus DJ twins. Their names are 5 and 3. Later in the film, due to "artistic musical differences", the brothers decide to separate from one another... and after a surgery gone wrong, one of them gets 5 tentacles while the other (the smarter one) is left with only 3. A bunch of heartfelt satirical silliness ensues as they begin to launch into their own solo careers. 

In order to get the most authentic night club/dance floor shots, we gave them a moment during the actual live set. It soon became one of my favorite moments in the Vinyl Vaudeville show. We did a quick set change and they played their "hit" track "Club Sandwich". To all those of you were on that tour who agreed to rock/play along with us thank you for your cameos!  

It was filmed by Dave Lawrence (FUBAR) and AJ Korkidakis (Nufonia Must Fall Live) and stars Adira Amram, Jessi Colon, and Maresa D'Amore Morrison from the mighty act Adira Amram and The Experience (who were the support act on the tour as well as the dancers/animators during the Vinyl Vaudeville show.)  Octopus puppetry was done by Tyson Houseman and Kyla Gilbert who were also puppeteers on Nufonia Must Fall Live. All the music was done by yours truly in an attempt to channel EDM cephalopod creatures. 

Adira, Dave and I are further developing the script for Acts 2 and 3 with screenwriter Immanuela Lawrence (FUBAR).  I do know how it ends, we're just trying to find the funniest path to get there.  

I didn't know we would be in a pandemic a few years later, but back in 2018 I did know this was going to be one of the last bus tours I would be doing for a while (as we were about to start full-time production on The Storyville Mosquito).  In hindsight, I'm glad we got a chance to put this crew together for that run. I think we got a lot of rad shots on that tour. 

FYI, this movie is years away from completion, but I wanted to show you some of the stuff we caught on those dates and give you an idea of how it's cutting together.  

A little slice of tour life imitating absurdist documentary art. 

Hopefully it makes you smile a little!

E