Chicago-based Actor / Violinist

Jimmy Slonina’s Fun With Lip Syncing

UPDATED: Vote for Golddigger at Funny or Die→

I met Jimmy Slonina in 2003 when we worked together in The Taming of the Shrew at Chicago Shakespeare. He currently performs as a lead clown for Cirque du Soleil’s KOOZA. Jim is an absolutely first rate physical artist and one of the funniest people I’ve known.

Several months back, I ran across his fantastic little series of Fun With Lip Syncing videos. My favorite: Tom Jones’ I Who Have Nothing:

I asked Jim what the inspiration was for these, and for some technical details on how he made them:

All the songs I chose are ones that I really love, and that I thought would be emotionally charged and fun to be watched. The idea originally came with the Golddigger song. When it first came out, a friend of mine in Vegas wanted me and him to do a video of it. He wanted to sing the Jamie Fox/Ray Charles part and we could both dance all silly or something. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to lipsync the Kanye part. The story in the song is hilarious and I felt I could do a fair job syncing it. We kinda let the idea slip and never got around to it, but how it eventually turned out is very close to how I thought about it originally.

About three years later, I got bored one night when my wife was out of town and I watched this and got inspired.

I had since acquired Final Cut Studio and had taken film classes, and I was getting itchy because I hadn’t done anything film-wise in a while. It just popped into my head how I could do BOTH parts and splice them together AND have this fast-forward look while the song played in real-time. So I slowed the song down 75% and realized it also made the lipsyncing WAY easier. Then when I sped everything back up to normal in Final Cut, it didn’t have that ‘sped up’ look, so I thought I’d just put it up like this. My wife has a portable black screen and 2 clamp lamps that we have with us on the road, so I used that as my backdrop and light setup.

It was a hit on Facebook, and people were asking for more. So a week later, I did Hong Kong Phooey. When I first heard that song in like ’97, I couldn’t listen to it enough, I thought it was hilarious. It was my introduction to Ska, so I knew the song really well for more than 10 years. I also employed the slow-down method here too.

Then my wife found this and loved it. I was talking about it to folks at work and Cirque happened to announce that day that they were organizing a private cabaret in the big top for the cast and crew, and asked who would like to participate.

I had a discussion with another performer who didn’t want to participate in the cabaret because it was too big of a playing space for only 100 people. But I thought, you have to USE the grandness of the big top rather than think of it as a limitation. And then it hit me all at once, Total Eclipse, the whole big top, even the fabrics, the whole thing came to me within a span of 30 minutes. I bought the song on iTunes on my iPhone right then and planned it all out. I went to Joann Fabrics, memorized the song, and in a few weeks performed it with one tech rehearsal a few days before.

There were four cameras set up: One on an ez jib, one on a tripod with a fluid head (though ‘fluid’ was the last thing on the stoned camera op’s mind), one stationary tripod up in the set tower behind me, and my wife shooting handheld on a homemade fig rig. There are two parts where I mess up the words, and I thank god I had all that coverage to edit over.

The last one is probably my favorite Tom Jones song. And I just like the idea of this big band playing and him singing with such intense emotion, and then to shove my face way into close up to project that emotion into my head. And yes, I even slowed this song down as well.

That’s all probably more info than you bargained for, but I got kind of excited when I started typing, so I just gave you the full, stream of consciousness version.

I just love these. He’s such a beautiful, patient performer, and he’s entirely at home in this space between respect and spoof.

Just for fun, here’s the real Tom Jones version:

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Wintek strike settled in China with no impact on Apple products

As Tim O’Brien put it, “This is what it takes to make our beloved phones: 300 riot police, toxic hexane.”

Employees went on strike after they said four employees died after exposure to hexane, a toxic chemical used to clean touchscreen panels. Hexane can cause nervous system failure in humans. … The Wintek factory is a component supplier for Apple’s iPhone, and this week was pegged as a potential supplier of touch panels for the company’s forthcoming touchscreen tablet.

I’m also reminded of last year’s excellent Fake Steve post following the death of a Foxconn employee.

{ via @tobrien }

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Daring Fireball: NYT on The Tablet and Apple’s Relationship With Content Publishers

The print publishing industry should be so lucky to have iTunes do for them what it’s done for music.

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Victor Yampolsky talks about Leonard Bernstein

Victor Yampolsky has been Director of Orchestras at Northwestern University since 1986. As a student, I was pretty terrified of him, but always loved playing under him. He’s one of the finest conductors I’ve ever worked with.

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Someone named Susan Boyle appeared with me on Oprah

I had the fantastic pleasure of playing on Oprah last week along with 14 of my violinist compadres. We were backing up Britain’s Got Talent phenom Susan Boyle in a song from her album.

Watch it right here on Oprah’s site. Just look for the shaved head, second row, in the middle.

We had a rehearsal on Tuesday the 12th, with just us and the choir. Then a short run-through with Boyle before we taped it on Wednesday the 13th. Boyle was very nice, but other than saying hello when she first arrived on stage, we didn’t have any interaction with her. Though she is really singing, the violins weren’t mic’d, so you’re actually hearing the track. That’s pretty common with this sort of thing, as it limits the possibility of mistakes. It also means they only had to tape the segment once. In a way, I’m surprised they didn’t tape it twice, just to have some coverage.

A producer warmed up the audience beforehand and gave several women the opportunity to demonstrate their singing talents. I’m a sucker for people having their dreams fulfilled, so it was great to see that the show gives its audience a little taste of that. The producer also asked the audience a lot of questions, which I imagine is a way to find people who Oprah might want to chat with during the show.

For me, though, the most amazing part of the show is also something you won’t see on the air: Oprah’s entrance. Bonkers. Not “throwing chairs, ripping off clothing, forswearing oxygen” bonkers, just pure adulation and love. Now, the studio seats maybe 150 at the most, so we’re not talking about a lot of people, but it sounds like a train passing overhead. And Oprah simply stands there, regally. After a bit, she moves through the audience shaking hands and hugging people and they’re crying and she just accepts it and laughs with them and they laugh with her. Eventually things calm down and it’s all about the show, but she really takes the time to let her audience have that moment with her. Cool.

Oprah talked to a couple audience members while Boyle came on stage and waited behind the “chiffon reveals” (what the crew called the curtains). I wondered what it was like for Boyle to hear the audience talking about how their lives had been changed by her story. And I thought back to last spring when MT made me watch The YouTube video (dammit what an amazing moment). And I thought about how a year ago, no one had heard of Susan Boyle, and now here she is on one of the most popular television shows in the world.

I’m mighty cynical about shows like American Idol and Britain’s Got Talent. For the most part, it’s pure exploitation. And to be sure, Boyle is being exploited right this very minute. But her story manages to surpass it. She forces all of us to confront our prejudice and fear, and she gives inspiration to countless dreamers.

Right. So, Oprah introduced Susan Boyle and we performed and the platform on which we sat moved up and down and there was a lot of glitter which remains stuck in my shoes. Then Oprah came up on stage and said “thanks guys” and we were gone.

I couldn’t snag photos of the taping since our phones/cameras were confiscated when we entered the building. But I did manage to take a few grainy shots during rehearsal the day before.

My thanks to Arnie Roth and everyone at AWR Music for the gig!

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Musician’s Dice

A creative tool that can be used in any number of ways: they bring the element of chance into the musical process. They can be used in composing Aleatory and 12 tone-music, or as a basis for improvisation; they’re fun in a jam session. They also make an effective study tool: they can be used as “musical flash cards” when learning harmony, and their randomness makes for fresh and challenging exercise in sight-singing and ear training.

{ via my Brother }

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    I'm an actor and violinist. I live in Chicago. If you find this gripping, then you might want to read some more…

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