Curated for Ad's Sake #12: Jack Druce
A bonanza of extreme improvisation and extreme self-confidence
Great people in and around advertising have great taste in art.
I wanted to know what turns them on, so I asked them about their artistic fascinations and inspirations.
🧑🎨 You’re welcome.
Jack Druce is a Melbourne-based stand-up comedian and writer. He’s headlined shows and played comedy festivals over Australia, done audience warm up on ABC1’s QnA and he’ss written for Channel 10’s ‘The Project.’
Lately he’s been working with ad agencies to help make comedic scripts the best they can be. “If you need to make something as funny as possible, what do you have to lose by getting input from someone with years of experience doing exactly that?” No argument here, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Jack and he’s a great addition to any creative journey.
And like all contributors to this newsletter, you’ll find he has great taste.
Let’s get it 🏎️
🎤 Rory Scovel.
I often get asked who my favourite comedians are. People seem let down when I say Rory Scovel because they have no idea who that is.
In stand-up, and in all art forms, people encounter this mid-career obstacle, where they find themselves with just enough success that losing it becomes unthinkable. The instinct is to stiffen and produce work that feels similar enough to things that have gone well for you in the past, to preserve the status you have, approaching art the same way an algorithm would, ignoring the fact that it was risk and a desire to entertain yourself that got you that status to begin with.
Rory is the antithesis of this. He'll do whole sets in a German accent because he feels like it. He used his Late Night with Conan O'Brien appearances (His biggest opportunity at that time) to do odd experimental scenes like the duelling comedian:
No part of Rory feels a need to do comedy 'properly' or that 'success' matters much, and because of that, he makes me laugh the way my buddies can rather than a comedian desperately trying to make it in show business.
He made this stand-up special, which is also a documentary about him attempting to do a week of shows without doing any material, just getting on stage and seeing what happens. It's the best stand-up special I've ever seen.
Big laughs from the shows. But also genuine second-hand anxiety from the terrifying thing he's chosen to do. It's as if the guy from Free Solo started making jokes halfway through the climb.
🌊 This live recording of 'Love really hurts without you'
This is worth watching for two reasons:
1) It's just a great song.
2) The contrast between what the audience is giving him and how much he puts into the performance.
I don't know what this show is or what the audience expected, but they were so bored and uninterested. His confidence and talent are indifferent to how he is received.
It's easy to say, 'I don't care what people think of me' but it's almost always not true. So much creative work has been left undone out of worrying what people might think of it. This is such a nice example of someone putting 100% passion into doing exactly the thing they intended to do in the face of people who do not like it at all.
Performing with this passion and flair to an audience of your greatest fans would be awesome. Doing it to people who don't like it at all is far more impressive.
🤠 Bonanas for Bonanza.
This is my favourite podcast.
It's by Andy Daly, an American actor and improviser. He's a genius when it comes to creating comedy characters. This show is him playing Dalton Wilcox, a cowboy Poet obsessed with hunting and killing vampires, werewolves, and other monsters.
Dalton has started his own rewatch podcast, going through all 431 episodes of Bonanza, which aired from 1959 to 1973.
In a world where shows have to tick so many boxes to get made, I get so excited when talented people choose to do projects that are, at their core, baffling and unsellable.
Even my friends start looking at me funny when I explain the premise. The internet has had a negative effect on comedy for many reasons. Still, it is great to live in a time when people can make and broadcast the wildest comedy imaginable without anyone's permission.
[And now, because Jack is far too modest to share his own work. Here’s a couple of picks from me]
🐀 His full stand-up special Rat Paradise.
🏀 Lebron vs MJ.
🦀 Important books to read.
Thanks Jack 😘
Who would you like to see curate one of these? Don’t be ashamed to suggest yourself…
DMs are open! 💌
Follow along on Instagram 💅
Open tabs. Close tabs. Save tabs. Lose tabs. The cosmic ballet goes on.
🤡 The Chet Hanks psyop.
🎼 Goodamn gorgeous beautiful podcast.
🚪 How to open a door.
🥗I did an interview with Little Black Book.
📽️ Slut.
🛹 Queeblo (lowkey the catchiest tune eveer).
Thanks for reading!
Like, share, comment subscribe etc.
😘 Jonathan