Peter Serafinowicz at the Soho Theatre 18th -20th May

[Small Man Big Horse]

I was just looking at the Soho Theatre website as I've a couple of free Saturdays this month, and noticed that Serafinowicz is doing three work in progress shows: https://sohotheatre.com/shows/peter-serafinowicz-presents-the-elvis-2023-comeback-special-work-in-progress/

This is the PR Blurb from that page:

PETER SERAFINOWICZ PRESENTS THE ELVIS 2023 COMEBACK SPECIAL (WORK IN PROGRESS)

Experience the magic of Elvis like never before with Peter Serafinowicz's groundbreaking work-in-progress show.

Using deep fake technology, Serafinowicz brings the King back to life on stage, channelling his iconic voice and larger-than-life persona. With his signature brand of humour and impeccable timing, Serafinowicz creates a show that's both hilarious and heartfelt, paying tribute to one of the greatest entertainers of all time.

I'm on their mailing list and they haven't sent out anything about it, which feels odd, but I've got tickets for the saturday night and am really looking forwards to it.

[Pink Gregory]

Wanna get stoooned

With my homies

[Ron Superior]

I saw Peter at some comedy night years ago appearing as Paul McCartney and he was great.

He's well in to his deep fake stuff, isn't he. Not sure how this would work live but would definitely be tempted to see this if I was anywhere near London on those dates.

[Twilkes]

Is that blurb genuinely going to be the show, or just some distraction bollocks to cover for the hotch potch of material he'll actually end up doing? Don't even think I've ever heard of him doing live shows to be honest, although the post above rings true. Guy's an enigma. :)

[Cold Meat Platter]

He tweeted asking if anyone would like a Butterfield live show a few weeks ago.

[notjosh]

Thanks for the heads up! Have booked for the Friday. Always intrigued by any new Serafinowicz project.

[Kelvin]

I have a list of 15,000 characters I'd like to see Serafinowicz playing for a full show, and Elvis is not on it.

[DrGreggles]

Yes, going on the Saturday

[Malcy]

He tweeted asking if anyone would like a Butterfield live show a few weeks ago.

I'd crawl through broken glass for that!

[Sean Ymphs]

He's just posted this little teaser video:

https://twitter.com/serafinowicz/status/1654478548864827392

Really intrigued what this is going to end up being

[Small Man Big Horse]

Hmmmmmmmm, well this is was an odd one. The whole show is Elvis supposedly trying out new songs for a forthcoming "proper show", and Serafinowicz stays in character throughout, bar one moment when he goes off stage and comes back to do a 30 second Mr Bean impression. The video projection largely worked, with Serafinowicz using the deep fake technology to look like Elvis, and though facially it was spot on, the hair (with Seraginowicz already wearing a wig) didn't look quite right, and often became a bit of a blur. The impression alone was very impressive though and so I found myself looking at Peter the majority of the time, only glancing up at the deep fake every once in a while, and there are some very funny moments (

Spoiler alert

the one which got the biggest reaction was the old Walls ice cream advert "Just One Cornetto", though a take on the Spice Girls wannabe was very funny too

[close]

) and his in show patter was very amusing, I just wish there was more of it. The odd song was slightly dull (a medley of Elvis songs was unneeded, and his Tainted Love didn't do much for me), but otherwise it was a show I really liked, even though I think a huge part of that is down to Serafinowicz's charisma, and this is another one of those shows that despite my liking it, I could really understand if others were unimpressed. 4/5

[notjosh]

It certainly was odd! I saw the Friday night show (thanks for bringing it to my attention by the way). When he first came out I was actually quite taken aback by how good the deepfake looked. Was bizarre to see such a semi-realistic Elvis in this context. Unlike you, I spent about 90% of the time watching the screen. Even when he started getting all blobby I was staring at it, willing it to work again. If they perfect the technology for this sort of thing, I can actually imagine it being quite moving.

The content of the show was largely as you describe, with a few small differences. He actually pulled someone out of the audience to try the Mr Bean (+ Sly Stallone & Keanu Reeves) deepfake. A lot of the (modern) songs I didn't really recognise, and some dragged a bit, but were rescued by some lovely Elvis-y mannerisms.

Tonally I think it worked quite well that it was semi-shambolic. Had that kind of rough around the edges feel of some of the Vegas shows where Elvis was just bored and fucking about on stage.

I do think he missed a trick though in not doing some kind of Q&A, or a reading of something. Would have been nice to see the camera just settled on the face for a while. And I think he could build out this Elvis 'character' a bit more.

Really interesting experiment though, and fascinated to see how far he pursues it.

[IsavedLatin]

Yes indeed, thanks @Small Man Big Horse for the heads-up that this was happening.

It was ... an odd show. I liked the shambolic energy of it and felt it was in keeping with the subject, but I found the content somewhat repetitive. I felt it peaked pretty early with "West End Girls", where he mined a great deal of humour between the almost-spoken verse lyrics and belting out the chorus in a typically Presleyan croon; after that, whether it was because his musical performances were really pretty straight or just because the choice of songs didn't land so much with me, I felt it was a bit diminishing returns. I entirely agree with @notjosh that a bit of variation, e.g. more spoken patter, would have helped a lot. This feels churlish to say, given that the deepfake technology was pretty amazing and Serafinowicz' impression, vocal and physical, was fantastic.

Still, I was absurdly happy to see him in real life.

[Small Man Big Horse]

It certainly was odd! I saw the Friday night show (thanks for bringing it to my attention by the way). When he first came out I was actually quite taken aback by how good the deepfake looked. Was bizarre to see such a semi-realistic Elvis in this context. Unlike you, I spent about 90% of the time watching the screen. Even when he started getting all blobby I was staring at it, willing it to work again. If they perfect the technology for this sort of thing, I can actually imagine it being quite moving.

The content of the show was largely as you describe, with a few small differences. He actually pulled someone out of the audience to try the Mr Bean (+ Sly Stallone & Keanu Reeves) deepfake. A lot of the (modern) songs I didn't really recognise, and some dragged a bit, but were rescued by some lovely Elvis-y mannerisms.

Tonally I think it worked quite well that it was semi-shambolic. Had that kind of rough around the edges feel of some of the Vegas shows where Elvis was just bored and fucking about on stage.

I do think he missed a trick though in not doing some kind of Q&A, or a reading of something. Would have been nice to see the camera just settled on the face for a while. And I think he could build out this Elvis 'character' a bit more.

Really interesting experiment though, and fascinated to see how far he pursues it.

I'm absolutely with you there, I would either have preferred a couple more impersonations, or as you suggested a Q&A or even just a couple of minutes every so often where we get Elvis's take on the 21st century. There were tiny bits like that (calling the video camera "Wall-E", observations on song lyrics), but I wished there'd been more. Oh yeah, and one very awkward guy in the audience was led on stage and made to look like Tom Cruise, which was a fun little moment, but I thought it would have been even better if Serafinowicz had spoken to him a little bit, joked about some of the movies he's been in, etc.

Yes indeed, thanks @Small Man Big Horse for the heads-up that this was happening.

It was ... an odd show. I liked the shambolic energy of it and felt it was in keeping with the subject, but I found the content somewhat repetitive. I felt it peaked pretty early with "West End Girls", where he mined a great deal of humour between the almost-spoken verse lyrics and belting out the chorus in a typically Presleyan croon; after that, whether it was because his musical performances were really pretty straight or just because the choice of songs didn't land so much with me, I felt it was a bit diminishing returns. I entirely agree with @notjosh that a bit of variation, e.g. more spoken patter, would have helped a lot. This feels churlish to say, given that the deepfake technology was pretty amazing and Serafinowcz' impression, vocal and physical, was fantastic.

For me the funniest song was "Just One Cornetto", and I wish the show had been a bit more playful like that, maybe a tv theme tune, or his take on Agadoo (even if it was only for 30 seconds) or some madness like that, just to mix things up a bit.

Still, I was absurdly happy to see him in real life.

I was too, and I have to admit being a little star struck (which never happens to me normally), and as my friend and I were in the middle of the front row there were a couple of times he made extended eye contact while singing with both of us, which felt bizarre, albeit in an oddly pleasant way!

[notjosh]

Brian Butterfield will be LIVE at Bush Hall on the 5th August. Tickets on sale 10am tomorrow via this link...
https://crosstownconcerts.seetickets.com/event/brian-butterfield/bush-hall/2686682

I'll be there. Could be a mini CaB meet up?

[bgmnts]

Would give everything I had to just watch him do a one man show as Kevin Spacey for an hour.

His Spacey is transcendent.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Brian Butterfield will be LIVE at Bush Hall on the 5th August. Tickets on sale 10am tomorrow via this link...
https://crosstownconcerts.seetickets.com/event/brian-butterfield/bush-hall/2686682

I'll be there. Could be a mini CaB meet up?

I'm 100% up for that if I can get tickets. And I'm going to do my best, I don't start work till 11am tomorrow so will be on the site refreshing it over and over again until tickets are on sale - I might be being paranoid, but I have a feeling they'll go really quickly.

[Timothy]

I'm 100% up for that if I can get tickets. And I'm going to do my best, I don't start work till 11am tomorrow so will be on the site refreshing it over and over again until tickets are on sale - I might be being paranoid, but I have a feeling they'll go really quickly.

If you or anybody else here need any help, send me a PM. No work tomorrow morning so happy to be of any help.

[Oosp]

Brian Butterfield will be LIVE at Bush Hall on the 5th August. Tickets on sale 10am tomorrow via this link...
https://crosstownconcerts.seetickets.com/event/brian-butterfield/bush-hall/2686682

I'll be there. Could be a mini CaB meet up?

Holy shit

[Malcy]

I forgot i got an email earlier. Hope he takes it on tour.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I got tickets, which I'm overjoyed about! I noticed there wasn't a seating plan though, I wonder if it will be first come first served?

Thank you so much for this btw Josh, I'd never known about it if you hadn't posted.

[phantom_power]

Even that email is quality

[Small Man Big Horse]

Even that email is quality

Where did you get it out of interest, as Seragfinowicz's official site appears to be a weird online gambling thing. And is there any chance you could copy and paste it?

[phantom_power]

I think I deleted it but I signed up to a Butterfield mailing list at some point

[phantom_power]

 
 


Brian BUTTERFIELD NEWS EMAIL


Dear (insert name) Welcome BACK to the BRIAN BUTTERFIELD NEWS e-mail sent out to this e-mail mailing list!

MY BRAND NEW TOUR SHOW IN THE CAPITAL CITY OF england, LONDON, IS NOW ON SALE

I am excited to see you all at BUSH HALL
310 UXBRIDGE ROAD
SHEPHERD'S BUSH
LONDON
ENGLAND
EUROPE


Click me (this link is very (un)likely to (NOT) give you a ( bad ) headache)

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE


OR MAYBE HERE INSTEAD





IS THIS MESSAGE BEING DELIVERED TO YOUR JUNK MAIL??? PLEASE TELL ME NOW.
This is a text block.



That doesn't really do it justice as it is all about the formatting. The "This is a text block" link takes you to the Wikipedia page for Ronald J Clarke, a paleoanthropologist 



 



 



 

[Small Man Big Horse]

Thanks so much for that, have signed up for the email now so hopefully will get them in the future.

[Captain Z]

There was only ever one episode of that Brian Butterfield pod-pod-podcast a few years back. Was that part of the joke or did it just fall by the wayside due to other commitments/lack of interest?

[Led Souptin]

There was only ever one episode of that Brian Butterfield pod-pod-podcast a few years back. Was that part of the joke or did it just fall by the wayside due to other commitments/lack of interest?

i think in the little blurb you get on podcast apps, the podcast is described as "bi-millennial" so i think definitely part of the joke.

[Malcy]

Sold out in 8 minutes apparently!

[Small Man Big Horse]

Sold out in 8 minutes apparently!

One of my housemates had trouble with the site loading but got a ticket after 15 minutes, but they definitely went very quickly.

I'm sure this will just be a sort of work in progress try out gig, and I doubt he only plans to do the one date right now. I'm finding it fascinating that he's so interested in doing live comedy again though, if someone had told me at the beginning of the year that I'd see him do a show pretending to be Elvis and one as Brian Butterfield I wouldn't have believed them.