{"id":7844,"date":"2015-06-05T05:30:37","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T09:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=7844"},"modified":"2015-10-19T13:28:25","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T13:28:25","slug":"mcqueens-pop-culture-mix-of-music-comedy-and-multimedia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2015\/06\/05\/mcqueens-pop-culture-mix-of-music-comedy-and-multimedia\/","title":{"rendered":"McQueen’s Pop Culture Mix of Music, Comedy and Multimedia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIs it comedy?\u201d asks McQueen<\/strong> rhetorically. \u201cIs it music? Is it the weird hybrid cousin of both who is 32 and still sits at the kids’ table during holidays?\u201d The answer to all of those questions is most likely yes. Live dates in cities across the eastern USA in May and June will give audiences the opportunity to decide for themselves (McQueen played Asheville NC on May 21).<\/p>\n

Performances by McQueen (Adams) draw deeply on today’s pop culture, and as a result, his humor resonates best with those who have at least a working knowledge of what’s currently popular; put another way, he probably wouldn’t play well in front of an Amish crowd in Lancaster PA. \u201cWhen I was in the UK workshopping the show I had some ups and downs the first week,\u201d he admits, with a hint of frustration. \u201cWho doesn\u2019t know who Conan O\u2019Brien<\/strong> is? So you run into things going over someone’s head.\u201d But such incidents are the exception, not the rule. \u201cWith the constant information we have access to,\u201d McQueen says, \u201caudiences are well-versed\u201d in the pop culture references at the core of his show.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>That show incorporates projected visuals, live music performance, and vocal impressions. In both concept and execution, a McQueen performance is consistent with the ethos of sampling. He takes content from a variety of disparate sources, and reprocesses them through his own sensibility, creating something new and unique yet oddly familiar in the process. McQueen describes what he does as combining \u201cparts of movies, songs, and moments [into] a soundtrack for scenarios that didn\u2019t exist and giving them life. He explains, \u201cThis show is a culmination of finding a balance of my love of music and my offbeat humor.\u201d And the friends with whom he collaborates in developing the material are \u201cmusicians, not comics,\u201d he points out.<\/p>\n

Even though it’s more or less a solo performance (\u201cI have a lot of interaction with the fox,\u201d says McQueen cryptically), the show is interactive, involving the audience. \u201cTrial and error is this show’s best friend,\u201d he admits. \u201cTechnology is a testy bitch; sometimes you are going to have mishaps, and sometimes it\u2019s spotless.\u201d Further, he notes that the audience is transfixed on the screen, \u201cso I can definitely hide out during the show\u201d if needed. The show’s elements of the unknown are an asset, not a liability. \u201cI think the ability to improvise and move on the fly is what makes this show what it is,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The limited amount of traditional storyboarding and choreography means that there is plenty of space in a McQueen show for spontaneity. \u201cIt\u2019s a constant evolution,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot like songwriting. I work on a piece and I always want to add to it.\u201d He admits that while parts of the show are loosely scripted, it’s \u201calso is heavy on improvisation.\u201d He laughs, \u201cLike a guitar solo that goes ten minutes too long.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those who still<\/em> wonder what a McQueen show is like \u2013 it’s definitely not traditional brick wall and bar stool stand-up, and it’s not exactly a concert \u2013 he offers a pop culture point of reference. \u201cIt\u2019s been compared to watching Adult Swim Live<\/em>.\u201d He says that reviews of his shows in England sometimes likened him to The Mighty Boosh<\/em>, \u201cbut I think that was out of how different the show is.\u201d McQueen has an ace in the hole for making sure that his audiences don’t get too lost among the media culture references. \u201cThat’s why I have a cat in my show: everyone knows what a cat is.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIs it comedy?\u201d asks McQueen rhetorically. \u201cIs it music? Is it the weird hybrid cousin of both who is 32 and still sits at the kids’ table during holidays?\u201d The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,41,44],"tags":[237,1444,1445],"class_list":["post-7844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedy","category-interview","category-live-shows","tag-asheville","tag-mcqueen","tag-mcqueen-adams","cat-18-id","cat-41-id","cat-44-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9023,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7844\/revisions\/9023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}