BBC Three’s Upstaged certainly has some weird and wonderful acts performing in Bristol, but surely if these pole dancers want to be able to entertain people for six solid hours, they need to be able to actually stay on the pole?
Upstaged
Upstaged: Barry The Badger
March 9, 2008 – 10:55 pm
The grown man in the picture is Hal. Hal spends a disturbing amount of his time dressed up as Barry The Badger. And he is - by far - the most disturbing Upstaged contestant that I met. Maybe it’s the badger head he wears makes things a little impersonal…
On our first meeting, Barry tells me that the badger came about because he received a stuffed badger from his grandfather as a child. And for some reason he wasn’t able to explain, Barry Hal took it away and wrapped it in cling-film. Kinky.
Upstaged: Chris Cohen
March 9, 2008 – 10:24 pm
Chris Cohen has a unique talent - he can improvise full songs on the spot. Not only that, but the songs are absolutely hilarious.
Like many of the acts featured on Upstaged, Chris rose to prominence on YouTube with sharp songs about sports. His song about Steve McClaren got over 250,000 views on YouTube, and attracted the attention of sports programmes in the UK.
When we met, Chris told me that he’d managed to get a lot of TV work on the back of that song. He’s done performances for Setanta Sports, and was asked to do one song per week for Channel 5. He’s teamed up with another guitarist, Marek Homola and they’re both about to release an album of songs they’ve written.
Upstaged: Terry The Odd Job Man
March 7, 2008 – 4:57 pm
This vacant looking fella is Terry The Odd Job Man. He’s from Bristol, but he’s really ambitious, so he moved to London to seek his fortune.
“What’s new about that?” you ask, as you stand in the queue for Britain’s Got Talent auditions. Well, Terry’s ambition is to be…an odd job man. He says it’s his lifelong dream to earn more than £8,000 a year and to have his own DIY show. But he’s not going to be Britain’s answer to Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor without working his way up the ladder first (sorry, couldn’t resist!)
Scott Mills’ Hawaii Chair Goes Nuts
March 7, 2008 – 4:43 pm
Hey! Wanna see Scott Mills being taken for a ride by his latest gadget, the Hawaii Chair? I heard about this one during the week and just saw the video up on YouTube - you need to see this!
Somehow in the grand scheme of ergonomic office furniture, I can’t see the Hawaii Chair satisfying most people’s health & safety requirements!
Now, back to our regularly scheduled reality TV programming…
Upstaged: The YouStage Vloggers
March 7, 2008 – 12:48 am
Back when I visited the Upstaged set a couple of weeks ago, I had an excellent opportunity to meet some of the huge gang of video bloggers (or Vloggers) who are participating in the contest. They’re through to the final, by the way, so you’re going to see them on TV. And they’re very popular, so they might actually win the contest!
I got to interview the three vloggers at the front of the picture above: Dave from Blue Skies, Els (with the pink hair) and Davey the comedian.
My Visit To The Upstaged Set In Bristol
February 20, 2008 – 11:07 pm
I don’t know if you’ve heard about the latest Endemol/BBC Three venture, Upstaged. I certainly hadn’t whenever I arrived in Bristol city centre on a Baltic Friday morning last week.
First, can I say that as a blogger, it’s refreshing to be invited along to the set of any reality-type show and allowed to wander around and talk to the contestants. I was able to explore the set first hand and talk to some of the people behind and in front of the stage. The only downer was that Scott Mills, who’ll be hosting the show when it airs, wasn’t available for the day. But I can live with that.
Innovative Stuff
BBC Three are working hard to bridge the gap between on-air and online. It’s not as easy as it looks. The more Internet-savvy the audience, the more cynical they are about anything that looks like a big marketing ploy. Put it this way, ITV couldn’t get away with this.
However, with Upstaged, the Beeb have managed to attract some talented and high profile members of social networking sites like MySpace and YouTube. Some of these people are musicians, others are comedians and vloggers* who’ve made a name for themselves on YouTube.
Anyway, here’s where having a huge online following comes in handy - each of the acts has to be voted into the performance boxes. So the more people voting, the merrier. And anyone can potentially be a contestant - which gives the public the ultimate say over who gets to perform.
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