That is where the Baby Killers come in.

What sounds vulgar and unthinkable, however, just happens to be these men’s jobs. In this documentary you can learn about the truth behind Baby Killing and the men who are forced into it.

‘Revealed’ was a series that had beginnings in my own Sociology classes. Based on a conversation I had with someone about how to go about reducing the crime committed by single teenage moms, the outcome was turned into this play.

Other episodes in the series – The Truth about Chauvinism, The Truth about Wookies etc – were a little more light-hearted, but filled with the same sort of jokes.

The Truth About Baby Killing

———-

Mat Growcott: Pumpenmeyer

Matty Hayes: Mr PjBj

Jamie Summers: Narrator

Instead, the bulk of this episode takes place in New York. Expect transvestite TV presenters, bad musicals and Irish policemen.

At 21 minutes long, this pushed the series over an hour in length, and it’s more than worth an hour of your time to listen. The cast for this was amazing, not a single loose thread. Because of the production value and such I often think that this was one of my last plays but, in fact, these came far before Welcome to the D.o.D and PopeMan Chronicles.

Listening to the ending and knowing that there will never be any more Big Ape (Although I may publish bits of the sequel script at some point)  is a little upsetting because I’m immensely proud of this body of work.

As a side note, the end to this is completely different from the end that went out with the script. I went for the sadder, more serious ending. Find below the alternate ending and a blooper reel, which has very bad language thanks to Mr Joe Nunn.

The Big Ape Episode 3: New York!

———–

Joe Nunn as Bruce Jackson
Brianna Moran as Emma Childes
Jacob Barrens as Junior Kong
Mat Growcott as Ahmed el Kabir, “David the Policeman”, Barnaby, Nigel.
Sonny Swinhart as Joseph Proctor
Ryan Stockton as Tim the Pirate
Michelle Walters as The Crew

(Several of the above cast did Minor voices also.)

Written, Directed and Produced by Mat Growcott

Set entirely on Skull Island, episode 2 mainly deals with the relationship between Junior and Emma and on Bruce, Ahmed and David dealing with the natives.

There’s very little I remember about the production of this episode. Mainly because it all blended into one long trek. The one thing I regret is that the Mosquito joke at the end doesn’t quite come off as well as I’d hoped. The idea is that the aeroplanes ARE the mosquitos.

The Big Ape Episode 2: Skull Island

———-

Joe Nunn as Bruce Jackson
Brianna Moran as Emma Childes
Jacob Barrens as Junior Kong and Saywathappins
Mat Growcott as Ahmed el Kabir, David the Policeman, Barnaby, Dontbangbars, American Narrator and Naymdatchoon
Sonny Swinhart as Joseph Proctor
Ryan Stockton as Tim the Pirate
Dylan Collins as Chief Dodisfing
Michelle Walters as Cookdatfood

Written, produced and Directed by Mat Growcott

Nobody told me that the game doesn’t really follow the plot of the film, but then again it doesn’t matter. This is the sequel to King Kong that will never happen.

There were a few interesting things to note about Big Ape. Firstly it was my only parody series outside of Bored of the Rings, but I did it in a much more intelligent way. There were 3 episodes that were written and recorded all at the same time. Then, over the period of 3 weeks I mixed and released one a week.

So, basically, it had an iota of organisation. From what I remember, it worked, although I haven’t been interested in such a thing ever since.

Secondly, and slightly more annoyingly for anyone who listens at this point and enjoys it, there was a hour-30 minute sequel planned, cast and semi-recorded that never happened when the voice actor for Junior wasn’t interested in returning.

Lastly, back when I spent my time doing this sort of thing, I wrote a pilot to submit to the BBC about Tim the Pirate and his band of…other pirates. The first episode ‘Health and Safety’ had a health and safety inspector come aboard the ship to try to teach the pirates why scratching themselves with blood-stained knives is a bad idea.

Instead, I submitted ‘The Goldman Agency’ which I later wrote a series of short stories based upon. Suffice to say, it didn’t get accepted.

The Big Ape Episode 1: To the Lair of the Big Ape

As well as the Trailer for the series that ran about a week before the first episode.

The Big Ape Trailer

———-

Joe Nunn as Bruce Jackson
Brianna Moran as Emma Childes
Mat Growcott as Ahmed el Kabir and David the Policeman.
Sonny Swinhart as Joseph Proctor
Ryan Stockton as Tim the Pirate
Michelle Walters as Cindy, Mindy, Mandy

Written, Directed and Produced by Mat Growcott
Music from the King Kong soundtrack.

So we slipped in the Girl-eating-shark reference and had a story set in the present, keeping the action in two different time-lines not entirely unlike Godfather 2.

This had a couple of advantages. One, I could fill half the play without having to reference the first Popeman very much, handy because sadly I only saw Jamie occasionally and he’d all but given up on recording. The second advantage was that I could bring the two seperate plots together at the end — Spoilers — by bringing Tomoto back as a potential villain for PopeMan 3, but given that it never got past the planning stages (In part due to that awesome brick wall known as casting) I don’t suppose that really mattered in the end.

What ‘Welcome to the D.o.D’ had in terms of simplicity, PopeMan had in terms of production value. Nothing was spared and the whole team deserved a massive pat on the back. From the humble beginnings of Vatican City to Tomoto to the Pope Signal this play has it all.

And a little bit extra.

Ryan Stockton was an amazing editor when it came to looking over what i’d written and he always managed to make that one step further than I would. It’s nice to have someone to check over your work.

As I mentioned in Welcome to the D.o.D, writing for this was difficult and was few and far between. It seemed that the ideas that I’d had that night while watching Batman Begins hadn’t gelled into a full play and nothing wanted to fill the gaps. What was going to be a 50 minute episode was shortened to around 30 and all the other stuff I’d planned was to come later.

It never did.

PopeMan Chronicles

The answer is yes, yes I did. Not on purpose, but I doubt you’ll believe me.

I wrote Welcome to the D.o.D because PopeMan Chronicles wasn’t working. I’d wrote, rewrote, sent to Ryan Stockton to make funny and then rewrote again and my vision for it just didn’t want to come out on paper.

So, one Sunday afternoon, I sat at my computer and started typing away a completely different play about life, death, sex and good bone care called ‘Welcome to the D.o.D’, a play that felt finished within about 15 minutes of me beginning it. I casted – this has a fantastic cast, by the way – and someone pointed out to me that they loved the references to Grim Fandango, a game I hadn’t played for years but had seemed to seep out into the script.

I instantly found the soundtrack to spice up the action and Welcome to the D.o.D talk form.

I love the ending of this play unconditionally.

Welcome to the D.o.D

This also released with a nice bonus: a teaser for PopeMan Chronicles, which would release shortly afterwords.

PopeMan Chronicles Teaser

———————-

Mat Growcott – Marty Conners, several minor characters.
imsuchawatergirl – Dani
The Jester – Johnny
Venomous prime – Doctor, Angel, priest.
RedTear – Mcgee, Old Woman
Masaka – Nurse

The PopeMan Teaser starred Mat Growcott and Ryan Stockton.

Full of references to the camp age of Superheroes and the secret identity of the Pope, I received a death threat for this. I loved it.

But mixing was tough. It was a real back-to-basics job after Bored of the Rings 3, with very few sound effects and barely any music. This was going to be turned into a comic by an out-of-work comic book artist who promptly got hired after we had worked out the script. Bad luck.

I loved the cast, I loved the play and I worked damn hard to get it out. It’s more than worth a listen to. Although PopeMan wouldn’t get that truly epic Mat Growcott feel until PopeMan Chronicles came out a year later.

PopeMan!

And for the people that only want the theme tune.

PopeMan Theme – Unplugged

——————-

Ryan Stockton: PopeMan, The Narrator.
Dylan Collins: Cardinal Boy
Jamie Summers: Satan
Michelle Walters: Clarissa
Steve Anderson: Markus, The policeman.
Mat Growcott: Jelly Belly Yelly Man, Disfigured Duck Man, Mayor Doodah, Old Sniffer, Little Boy, Different little boy, Buisnessman.
Bryan Carter: Schizophrenic man
Jessica Adnee: The prostitute

Just like an episode of the Wonder Years, mixing this will be my memory of Christmas that year more than gifts and drunkenly falling asleep into a Christmas Tree (I’d managed to not sleep at all the night before and I’d had half a glass of wine.). I remember struggling to get it done because I’d left it until a week before to begin production and hadn’t had the last of the lines until Christmas Eve AS I WAS MIXING IT.

Panic was averted though and I think the play turned out fantastically. It’s interesting to see the difference that a year makes between this and the Bored of the Rings Christmas Special which I don’t suggest listening to.

A Random Christmas Carol

——————

Matt Cowlrick As The Narrator and Mr Bankman
Austin Heriman As The Charity Worker
Mat Growcott As Mr Mat Scrooge, The Teacher and The Ghost of christmas Future
Ant Jackson As Mr Ant Scratchit.
Jamie Summers As Himself
Sammy Macgregor As Sammy Marley
Andrea Summers As The Ghost of Christmas Past
Koshiba As Little Mat and the boy outside the window.
Cefaclor As Elizabeth Bankman
The Jester As The Ghost of Christmas Present
Lizanneh As Candi Scratchit
Kerry Summers As Herself
Alana As Tiny Tim Scratchit
Alex Green as The Priest
Old Man, Richard and Foul Mouthed Youth As Themselves.

Written, Produced and Directed by Mat Growcott

Sound Effects from Sounddogs.com
Sorry to the Nebraska Brass Band, whom i have borrowed christmas songs off

Special Thanks: The cast, Everyone who auditioned, everyone involved in A Random Zombie Movie. And, of course, Mr Charles Dickens (Who is currently spinning in his grave.).

When listening you have to remember two things. Firstly, this was pre-Shaun of the Dead. Secondly, Ant was really like that. Still is.

Yup.

The idea of a short trip with some overbearing girlfriends (Who’re obsessed with Charley’s Angels) may have had some base in reality. I don’t remember.

The version you listen to below is actually a remix of kinds. The original version began production between Bored of the Rings 1 & 2, which means it pre-dates Adobe Audition. When I got Audition and re-did the website, I remastered EVERYTHING. I went back over every line and made it sound as good as I possibly could.

Sorry, it didn’t work out all that well. Sometimes the source is just unfixable.

A Random Zombie Movie

A Random Zombie Movie Commentary

While I was recording the 2 lost commentaries for Bored of the Rings episode 1 special edition, I recorded a commentary for this as well. I’m not sure how informative it was. But there were…dogs…and seagulls as far as I remember.

——————

Mat Growcott: Himself, The Master, King Zombie.
Alex Green: Himself, Big Zombie.
Ant Jackson: Himself

Cefaclor: Dazza (Al’s Girlfriend), June (Mats Girlfriend)
Lizanneh: Candi (Ant’s girlfriend)

Mike Phillips: Louise
Deuceloosely: Jack, the shopkeeper

Teggy Stover: ‘The Lady’
Matt Cowlrick : Smee

Written, Directed, Produced, mixed, Cast and fed by: Mat Growcott

Because trailers are cool.

Bored of the Rings Christmas Special

With Mat Growcott, Peter Odlaug, Ariadyne Morlock.

This came out before the original Bored of the Rings. Yeah. I know. BAD decision.

Bored of the Rings Original Trailer

With Mat Growcott, Peter Odlaug, Ariadyne Morlock

The trailer was a nice test of the show to come. Listen out for the talking ring which would have been impossible to carry past the first episode. Mainly because scary squeaky voices aren’t my forte.

‘Lord of the Rings’ Test

A test I did. The script is from one of my favourite part of the Trilogy.