Producing and Marketing Esoteric Felt Puppetry

I've been making @beavercanuck puppet videos for awhile - attacking the #cpc and @pmharper over being asshats. Yeah, they're a little partisan - and VERY esoteric.

So having put another bunch of hours into another video



that is only understandable to #cdnpoli geeks…and even then at a stretch assuming the 'humour' works at all - I have to ask myself am I willfully making videos so obscure that they cannot possibly reach a wide audience?

and I think the truth of it is is that I'm somewhat obsessive over Canadian politics on twitter, so I've got real blinkers on what even the average Canadian knows about…and I've got a hate on for Stephen Harper and feel the need to do something to mock him.

As a 'business' strategy it's not really working - but it is keeping me motivated enough to keep producing. Which is probably as important as whether anyone watches.

Having spent years kind of producing my own 'stuff' very sporadically, we're kind of at a sweet point technologically where it's easier than ever to produce material, and personally I'm both sufficiently desperate to put out 'something' and proficient enough with the software to churn stuff out relatively quickly.

Now - I know some of the corners I'm cutting - the worst being the writing. In my rush to 'do something' I either don't script or only lightly script my videos, and then put much more time into producing and editing them - the result being that the jokes aren't exactly screamers, and they still take a long time to get out there. In the past I've gotten discouraged by the lack of audience feedback and stopped.

But I'm also of the opinion that I need to embarrass my way forward - I'm experimenting, and the costs of each video, in time, likely needs to be incurred no matter what my approach.

I don't just want to write and rewrite jokes - I want to put stuff out in front of an audience, no matter how small.

I'm trying different approaches - My Thomas Mulcair runs a stop sign



was basically improv'ed straight into my (new) microphone - and was a lot more spontaneous and 'fun' than other stuff I've written and then 'performed'…

the sweet spot I'm really looking for is a balance between fast and cheap and worthwhile - I'd written a five page script for what became Elizabeth May Pants John Baird and Stephen Harper dodges questions - which I may append to the end of this…and wanted the video to be much faster with more elements - a whole section mocking Pauline Marois for her Quebec soccer federation turban ban position 'I am Sikh of this…' 'Quoi?' 'Le hasch est muet…' 'Hash?' - anyhow - hilarious TO ME…

Now pretty much any book on startups, and this likely applies to anyone building a brand or band or whatever, is that you need to spend twice the time marketing, and figuring out how to get paid, for your product or ideas as you do working on your ideas…

so I go as far as tweeting links, and have started posting to reddit (thanks @aimeedavison)…a pinterest, etc…

But this falls into the dilemma so many people have that people don't 'want' to promote themselves - they want to be 'creative' etc…which, at 42, reeks of bullshit. NO ONE DESERVES TO GET RICH SCREWING AROUND WITH FELT PUPPETS! - or playing indie emo drivel, or whatever your 'thing' is…if people are going to give you money - which is essentially give you some of their life force, because money is generally earned with time, which is all we have and not much of it, then you better be worth it.

For the moment my level of creative anxiety is manageable - I'm supposed to be starting a job so 'have some time' and am enjoying the process. Each time I hit a beat - like getting Elizabeth May's biplane to shoot with the propeller spinning, or putting Stephen Harper in a crown…it's pretty amusing…and if 'This Hour has 22 Minutes' or 'Rick Mercer' or whoever happens to fall upon this stuff - well, I'd love to take your money for it.

Have I reached out to them? Not yet. I want to get better first…could you, dear reader, help by sharing and favoritting and subscribing? Yes - that is exactly WHAT I WANT FROM YOU.

It's google juice - how things get momentum. But I have to earn it. And keep asking.

So please SUBSCRIBE.




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The Wheels on the Conservative Bus Ran over Tom Flanagan

Well at least that didn't take long. The Conservatives finally ditch Tom Flanagan for, well, being Tom Flanagan...




But it's not like he just became Tom Flanagan today...this is your Conservative Party of Canada...not all evil, but certainly rotten at the top.

Tom Flanagan seems to support people's "right" to consume child pornography

While this has been a great week for seeing Stephen Harper's conservatives true colours (Senators, Porter, etc. links to follow) - essentially petty little hustlers desperately trying to dress up greed as some ideological higher calling...(“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
― John Kenneth Galbraith) there's darker stuff behind or beneath it all.

Tom Flanagan, Harper's so called ideological mentor and an incredible asshat in his own right, is so wrapped up in himself and what passes for a 'philosophy' of personal liberty etc. that he just seems incapable of realizing that child pornography IS child abuse. (and I'm talking about actual photos etc here, not drawings etc.)

Now whether eventually something entirely dark comes out about Flanagan personally, or as I guess I hope he's just stupid - that he really believes that his ideas concerning personal liberty excuse consumers of child porn from responsibility for child porn production, who knows? But here is the thing.

You have conservatives calling for mandatory minimums and all sorts of tough on crime initiatives for drug dealers and consumers etc, but then 'I'm not sure we should be putting people in prison because of the pictures they're looking at'.

I hope I'm missing some subtlety here - but I kind of doubt it. I think these conservatives (not all conservatives because there are plenty of excellent conservative ideas) THESE conservatives, are venal, selfish idiots - gusting close if not four sails to the wind of being evil.

Here you go...

Do conservatives just not care?

Compassionate conservatism - what does that mean? Wearing gloves to keep the blood off when they kick you to the curb?

Here is the thing - some people, you, the conservatives - feel that everyone should look after themselves. Perhaps you weren't cuddled, perhaps its genetic - who cares why? It's just an awful lonely way to live. We get it, we're not going to change you, but we're also not going to let you lower the tone for the rest of us, who, guess what? Actually enjoy helping each other. Actually find life better when others share our good fortune.

I know I know, I might as well write that in Sanskrit - it's not registering.

But here's the thing. And we know this happens because of, well, history books. You fought, cheated and stole your way to power. In your world view the ends justify the means, and you're actually proud of being so "bold" - so manly as the incredibly stupid Tom Flanagan might say when calling for an extrajudicial assassination of someone like Julian Assange.

When you get caught you kind of smirk - shoulder deep into the cookie jaw you're kind of proud you 'took the chance' or 'seized the day' - kind of proud your goals are so awesome that the rules just don't apply.

It's not going to last. The thing is life is short and the incredible selfishness and fear of others that defines your worldview is just not worth a sweet goddamn. So leave the public sphere to people who give a shit. Go and build a compound, or a gated community, or whatever. Go away - leave us much less selfish people alone. You will never know how to trust, you are probably basically incapable of love, you're scared of the world probably because you feel the world is like you are, and, well, 50% of it probably is.

So crawl under a rock - weep, if you are capable, as those of us who enjoy life, enjoy the challenges of building collectively, go about our lives.

Or we'll make you. Make no mistake, like the Allies that trounced fascism, democrats and liberals may try and avoid a confrontation - because, hell, we know how to do the work to get along - but if you don't, if you push us too far. We'll stop you.

Oh the Harpocracy!

In which @BeaverCanuck shows you some of his favourite moments from #cdnpoli.

Taking the Nickleback

Pursuant to the rather undignified quest of seeking online attention, here is a video denouncing Nickleback for supporting Stephen Harper.



It's really just an experiment in gaming the You Tube search engine - parasitizing a popular band to drive views to the Beaver.

I don't actually care much one way or the other about Nickleback - the little I've heard doesn't do anything for me - maybe I'm too old, or grew up on Zeppelin etc. I'm just looking to see if it draws attention to the site.

My inner Kardashian I suppose. The problem then would be - the Beaver stuff would have to actually be a lot stronger to hold any attention. That's a problem for another day.

The Quest for Online Attention

Why you must never write E_ra L_ev_nt's name online but why you should definitely subscribe to the Beaver and favorite and like everything he's associated with.

In our celebrity obsessed culture fame or at least notoriety is often enough to make an income. The age of search engine optimization, where you deploy online content in a way that the automatic search 'bots of google and its competitors deem your material relevant to one or several search queries, is upon us and allows a small subset of the community of people posting material online to earn money by drawing attention to their content.

Either through advertising, merchandising, selling access to 'premium content' or whatever, this attention seeking behaviour has become a business model, not unlike 'becoming a rock star' or 'the next Andy Warhol' has led many an aspirant to eschew more traditional routes to renumeration.
The real people making money of course are the distributors - the you tubes and googles (same company) who facilitate the dream of being the next online sensation by offering a venue to host people's content for free (well it's not free because it took you time to make it and post it), and even provide kindly advice on how to make your stuff better (see You Tube Partners) all the while selling advertising around your content and keeping the bulk, if not all of the revenue.

It's a bit like during the gold rush where some people struck it rich, but where the hardware stores, banks and railroads made the real killing because in order to pursue the gold, you needed the supplies and infrastructure. Anyone who has ever taken an acting class, paid for a headshot or paid to play a rock show knows how this works -- the dreamers pay, the schemers earn. Perhaps that is as it should be. The dreamers I know aren't interested in scheming, much as they wouldn't mind a bit more money, and the schemers, looking for an angle, do actually provide platforms for the few dreamers who break through to achieve their goals, as well as fostering a lot of innovation for the toiling masses who get to pursue their dreams of glory, even if they're only likes and subscribers are immediate friends, families, and that drunk guy who's phone you scammed at the bar and subscribed to your entire online oeuvre.

Where I am going with this? Well, I'm a dreamer - so subscribe to the Beaver, follow him on twitter Follow @BeaverCanuck
and never, and I mean never, mention E_ra L_v_nt online anywhere because if you give HIM attention, it's like watering a dandelion. Just don't do it.

Peter MacKay needs Wikipedia or a BOOK!...

What better way to get the Beaver's message out that Stephen Harper and his purse dogs are ass hats than to mock Nickleback for being friendly with him? I don't know, but please tell me if you do.

So there I am, kind of painfully editing the Beaver's first rap song - and the pain is more from working with pictures of Nickleback than the Beaver's questionable rhyming...and what comes across Twitter? Well that Peter MacKay, in order to suck up to the French Ambassador, gives a speech crediting the french with fighting alongside the British in the War of 1812


Now I'll have to school up on the history, I have fetched the little puppet Pierre Berton's The Invasion of Canada and Flames across the Border The Invasion of Canada: 1812-1813

to study up, but really...it's n'importe quoi with these fellows, oh, except apparently they ALL have to knit their butt hairs into toques for the obligatory asshats...

Wanted for crimes against inanity

The Beaver ends up on Canada's Wanted War criminals list for suggesting that Jason Kenney was wearing his backside for a hat for circulating a petition in praise of himself

A little refresher on why democracy matters for Stephen Harper

Watch the Beaver, Rat and Bunny argue over tar sands development, have the discussion descend into violence, and then, through the wonders of discussion, debate and democracy, resolve their differences sufficiently to carry on.







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Production notes:

This was filmed in one take on my iphone and YES I forgot to turn off the dehumidifier. I edited on my iPad, with assistance from the microvillain. That green tarp in the background *might* one day be used for green screen. If you'd like that, feel free to buy a tshirt or just send money.