Life in General band - Jerry Chapman and Jason LeVasseur

I got a nice phone call from Jason LeVasseur from the band Life in General. He was on tour out in the MidWest and heard my song “My Virtual Girlfriend” on Sirius Blue Collar Radio while flipping the dial.

Life in General is Jason LeVasseur and Jerry Chapman. They played, sung, and helped produce my album “Looking for Fun.” If I remember correctly, I met them sometime around 1995 in an elevator in Anaheim, CA. It turns out that Jason was a fan of my comedy group Selected Hilarity. He went to school at Wake Forest University in Winston Salem and I believe had been to one of our shows in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Jason invited us to a party back at he and Jerry’s hotel and we’ve been friends ever since.

I’ve seen countless Life in General shows through the years. They have opened shows for Ben Folds Five, The Wallflowers, Bryan Adams, Barenaked Ladies and the Dave Matthews Band. They’ve toured Australia. Jerry has jammed on stage with Eddie Vedder. They were picked by Musician Magazine as one of the top 100 unsigned bands in the country. And they are a three-time winner of the Campus Entertainment Award for Contemporary Music Artist of the Year.

I was honored to have them help produce “Looking for Fun.” They played all the instruments, did all the backup singing, and helped with lyric writing and arrangements. After the CD release, we performed several shows together, including one where they supported me as a headline act. Those are memories to last a lifetime.

I owe thanks to a lot of people who have helped me out through the years. Today’s post goes out to Jerry and Jason from Life in General. Get to know them – the whole world soon will…

[I recommend the double live CD No Need to be Lonely to get you started.]

MySpace Featured Video

A few days ago I blogged about converting some old Selected Hilarity VHS videos to DVD to YouTube. Two of those videos, The Floor and The Sign Language Gorilla are featured on the HOMEPAGE of MySpace.com today. I'll post more later on how this affected our page's popularity, and how we were able to capitalize on it (if we can). Until now, go enjoy the videos and the hilarious comments...

Blue Collar Radio: Comedians on Sirius 103

I'd like to thank the folks at Blue Collar Radio on Sirius Satellite Channel 103 for playing my CD "Looking for Fun." The album has been in pretty regular rotation on , typically with at least three tracks played per day. Some of the funny songs played include:

• Ghost in the Trailer
• State Fair Woman
• My Virtual Girlfriend
• The UnHappy Meal
• South of the Border
  

They're also playing the commercial parodies off the CD, including:

• Hip Hop Hoedown
• Escape from Alimony
• Maximum Cliche
• Hardcore Weather Channel

I've been getting phone calls and emails from people around the country saying they heard me on the radio - including some old friends that I'd lost touch with. Thanks again to Sirius Blue Collar Radio for their support. If you haven't picked up the CD yet, you can get it at iTunes, Amazon, or my website here: Looking For Fun.

Blue Collar Comedy Tour 3-Pack

Converting VHS to DVD to YouTube

Throughout the mid-1990's, I toured across America with sketch and improvisational comedy group Selected Hilarity. We became friends largely through Student Television (STV) at the University of North Carolina before forming the group and hitting the road. Between our collective years at STV, our 500+ shows in 35 states, and various behind-the-scenes projects, we amassed a large collections of videotape - specifically VHS tapes. I've started the process of converting the tapes to DVD then on to YouTube. It goes something like this:

• Convert VHS to DVD (real time)
  
• Import DVD into Adobe Premiere (real time)
  
• Convert Premiere clip into MPEG (slow)
  
• Convert MPEG to FLV (surprisingly fast using Riva Flash encoder)
• Post FLV to YouTube (slow)
  

Is there a better way? If so, please post your ideas in the comments section. In the meantime, enjoy the fruits of my labor here: http://www.youtube.com/user/selectedhilarity