I came across this shot in a postcard that we got made up to send out as a mailshot. I think that the year that it was taken was in 2002. The trick that we were doing was the Fountain (dont ask!) and we were working at the Killarney Summerfest, although i am not sure whether we were working for the Summerfest or were we just busking. I seem to remember that we all really had a good time putting out this show.
In this shot you can see something of the progression that we had achieved in our levels since our last nostalgia post. Our costumes were much better from the last shot consisting of red spangly sparkly waistcoats although in what has become something like the story of my life i found that my waistcoat never fit properly and you can see in this shot that it is unbuttoned, you can also see that at this time i wore a wig for performing in, dont ask me why it just seemed like a good idea at the time. You can also see in this shot that Ronaldo was at this time going through his Dickensian costume as evidenced by the fact that his collar is pulled up in the manner of an Eric Cantona figure (again dont ask)
We were much tighter as a show by this time with an idea about building a show, we had a load of gags to throw around, although then as now the bits of the show that i always preferred were the unplanned bits of interaction that you have with members of the audience or each other that open up new avenues of making people laugh. I also remember that we performed this show in the round at the traffic light crossing in Killarney. I dont really remember what the running order of the show would have been back then, we may have been doing a unicycle section, i think that there was a diabolo section in that show and we may have even popped a cigar from the mouth of a volunteer and our finale may have been a pass from shoulders.
Anyway nice shot. I sorta like the black and white level to it. Nice audience.

Going all retro on you for this one. Well it was only last year. These are some shots that we recently got from the lovely people in Drunshanbo who run the Tostal there. Its a long story how we got into the phonebox which i may have explained in a previous entry so i wont bore you.



This picture shows you what we are really like during our downtime between shows when we are just being ourselves. Your probably wondering how normal people put up with us suffice to say that both our ladies and our families are all collectively up for early beatification like Bono, only with a sense of humour.

This year we were lucky enough to be invited to perform at the Drogheda Arts Festival. We had worked in one of the venues before (Millmount) and had always enjoyed peroforming for the audiences in Drogheda who tend to be warm and welcoming.

We were also looking forward to this as it was to be the first time that we perform our new show in front of a audience outside of a theatre in tralee, we were interested to see how it would go. In the meantime we had invested in some pyrotechnic effects to give the finale of the show a little oomph!
The weekend was to be a mixture of both of our shows both the cannonball show our deathwish show and a bit of character based walkabout. Busy weekend but we were also looking forward to catching some of the acts that were due to appear across the weekend.
For this festival we were being housed in the sumptous D hotel which is modern spacious comfortable and manages also to combine this with a really relaxed feel and a funky cocktail bar. I probably sound like an ad for the bloody place but its all true.
As for the festival itself the organisation was first class with an excelent support team in place to ensure that everything ran smoothly. It just makes your job easier when the people that you work with know what they are at and go about their job in a pro manner. The support crews dont get a whole lot of creidt and tend to work behind the scenes but that are a vital part in how an event runs.

The first day we did our deathwish show in a little theathre space for an audience of about 75 we had lights, music and our own winning personalities and we put out a really good deathwish show. At one stage it looked as if it could go off the rails as the age profile of the audience was youngish and we were caning it with the emphasis on the danger and possibility of loss of life. We realised and we pulled back from the brink on that one early enough.
The next day they had us performing our brand new show deathwish on the hill in Drogheda called millmount. Very historic place Millmount basically a fortified hill with a fort on top of it which affords one with fantastic views of drogheda and its surrounds. However also very windy. We hadnt copped it yet but we had one major/minor design flaw with our new set, and that is that basicallly what we have designed is a sail which is perfect for catching the wind. We realised this midway through setting it up when the wind caught it and tried to knock it over. Who knew? Who could guess that the wind blowing at a large area of canvas would have this effect? Oh well.
Anyway a major panic ensued on our part and the only solution of which was to move the enitre set (approx 1 hour set up time) up the hill to a more sheltered spot.





This was accomplished with much help from the support crew. So our set up recommenced. Then they came to us and said that there were concerns that it would rain and we were asked to re rig our set inside in a marquee which we did with pleasure cos it meant that we would be safe from the vagaries of the climate.
Ronaldo almost came to blows alright at one stage when a ratchet based allen key that he was using to assemble the set started messing him about and it was flung away in a rage as Ronaldo went off to sulk for hours in his dressing room, while i soildered on with the set up. We actually ended up putting out two really nice shows in the marquee and we were really pleased with the response that we recieved. Ronaldo figured that it was our first time proper performing the new show which i know sounds strange but which i understand. There was also a really cool historical tie in here as the venue that we were doing our new cannonball show in (millmount) had been a garrison of sorts which would have had cannons in it. On the day that we were performing they actually had a cannon a real functioning cannon that some deranged historical society had made and they planned to fire this cannon three times throughout the day. The first one caught me be surprise and words can not describe the deep booming report from this cannon only to say it was scary, definitely a highlight.
There were also some other highlights of a more musical nature we got to see some amazing and i mean amazing music. The undoubted highlight for me anyway was the funeral band which was a band that had formed for the recent funeral of the noted musician Liam O Floinn, it contained Liam óg Floinn, Noel Eccles, Sean Davy, Rita Connolly, Sean Keane, our own Séamus Begley and probably some others that is am forgetting. To call them a trad supergroup would be an understatement and the music that they put out was astonishingly good. The memory of the rendition of Sé Mo Laoch that i heard this evening will stay with me forever. The setting also added to the ambiance as the concert was performed in a Presbeterian church it could just as easily have been church of ireland, i dont know from churches.
The other musical highlight was Super Extra Bonus Party who we saw in a small venue in the town. I guess that Super Extra Bonus Party could best be described as electronic punk/funk rock. Full of energy. They grabbed the entire venue by the ears and thrashed us around till the place was jumping. They produced a really great sound. Shades of Mogwai, a hint of Tortise and a bit of the Aphex Twin. It was also obvious that they band just really enjoyed playing together and were into the music which i suppose always helps.
We hope that we bring the same and enthusaism to our work in every show we do after all as Roy Keane said ................

After the best part of two years work we finally put our new show on the stage. We decided to present this new work to audiences at this years Samhlaiocht in the Siamsa Tire theatre in Tralee . We really enjoyed the process of building this show over the last while and a one would expect we really enjoyed the thrill of putting on new work for our audience. Our only worry in coming up with the show was in wondering, if the ideas that we thought of as funny would work in the outside world. But judging by the reaction of the audiences at our first shows, the whole thing seems to work. We are also really pleased with the look of the show.
As with all shows it is a creative process that is engaged in as a collaborative effort that owes as much to the so it owes as much to our propmakers (John Jane and Felix) as it does to as it does to the Directors that we worked with (Fraizer and John) to our graphics genei ( Michael and ailbhe) who helped to give the show its look for publicity and all the way to the arts council who assisted us in making the ideas we had come alive.
And as with all shows having an live audiences will in its own way changes the show subtly and it is something that will in time mature and evolve, maybe even mutate.
It had been my intention to chart and doccument the development of the new show and to present this process as a series of photos taken during the entire two year process however an unfortunate crashing related hard drive incident this planned approach so most of the photos come from the latter stages of the development of the show.






More importantly than reading any of this or even looking at the photos make sure that you get along and actuallly come and see the show we would love to see you! We hope you enjoy it!

Hey there nostalgia fans i found this recently when digging through the archives so i thought that i would share it with you as it represents our humble beginnings. This photo shows one of the first ever performances by the collection of individuals performing together who would go on to become known as the Fanzini Brothers. We were never really crusty jugglers who would juggle on the side of the street for a couple of cans of cider (partly cos i was too posh) and we always aspired to take it more seriously than that, we wanted to put it out there as a proper performance so even back then when we had no real performance skills or even proper costumes we were out there keeping it real. The shot also features our original line up and you can also see our good friend Ruan standing off to the right casually watching the show little did he know the behemoth of variety entertainment that we would become.
As i remember this gig was at the time the biggest thing that we had ever done and took place at a scouting event that happened in Farranfore. We were green as hell and if you look closely you will see that we were even wearing face paints which was something that we quickly grew out of. I also remember that we got to this gig in the first place by being driven to the venue by my life partner(sic) Kathleen who had a car at the time. Not really much of an audience in evidence either. I dont even remamber how much we got paid for this gig but it wasnt much i am willing to bet. Who care we got the gig and they hired us when no one else in their right minds would have and started us on our way.

This was truly an epic one partly due to the remoteness of the venue for this gig namely Tory Island which is off the coast of Donegal by about several miles.
We left in fair weather and light winds and took off on the roads of the west coast up through the towns of Sligo and Galway. This trip was also the first outing for the fanzini brothers new iphones one each our new toys. I am firmly convinced that the iphone is the pinnacle of technology in the modern age why? because it has everything internet, gps, text, phone, music palyer and all manner of accesories that you can download for this device.


We waited for the boat to pull in and proceeded to load our stuff onto the boat for the journey out to the island. Now the weather was fairly lively and there began the fanzini brothers tory island sponsored vomit watch. Now due to the roughness of the crossing there were several winners in this competition but the overall prize had to go the the members of the (as we later found out) members of the Celtic Rock band Face the West who organised a band retch with several members of the band failing to find their sea legs.
On arriaval on the island we were met by the Tory dolphin Dougie and the king of the island who met us and indeed greets everybody of the boat.
Tory is a beautiful but very remote place population 200 during the summer and down to 140 ish in the winter. I imagine that the island could indeed be a bleak spot during the winter but when we saw the place it was majestically beautiful. During our stay Ronaldo and i took a walk from one end of the island to the other and unfortunatly for us while at the latter end of the island it started to rain and a rainy rain it did rain.


Lacking shelter we got soaked and but we still had a lovely time exploring all that the island had to offer much of this was related in one way or another to the stories of Balor. The island is also home to a thriving colony of corncrakes and i was privelaged to hear this bird craking while on the island. We were also hosted on the island in the local guest house which provided warmth and shelter in ample amounts. To sum the trip up. Lovely spot. Great people. Lunatics. And would go back in a flash.