Special Offer on Vigilantelope T-Shirts until the 30th!

Dear Friends of the Vigilantelope.

This week – for the next five days – there is a special promotion on Vigilantelope T-Shirts sold through RedBubble;

http://www.redbubble.com/people/scruffian/clothing/1760753-5-vigilantelope

Order now and you will receive completely free shipping! If you are in Melbourne, this is about $6 off the overall cost, making your total outlay a very reasonable $35.70.

For this, you not only get to pat yourself on the back for supporting local independent comic artists, but you get to do so in a very fashionable, well made, well designed and well intentioned American Apparel Vigilantelope T-Shirt. And of course, you still get to choose the style, colour and size that will most become you.

All proceeds go towards putting on Vigilantelope's show for the 2009 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Looming costs for us include the $450 registration fee, which would be covered by a mere 30 T-Shirt sales. Pick one up today, get a special deal, and make a real difference.

The promotional code for the free shipping is '100000masterpieces' – just type it into the promotion box on the sales page. The offer will finish at 23:59 on Thursday the 30th of October (GMT), so get cracking!

If you don't like T-Shirts (who ARE you?), you can still help out by clicking on the 'Donate' button at the top of this page, which will allow you to transfer funds from your pocket to ours via your credit card or PayPal account.

If you own a business, and are interested in corporate sponsorship, please drop us an email at contact@vigilantelope.com, and we'll shoot back a sponsorship pack and more info.

The Vigilantelope thanks you for your kind and generous support.

Yours,

Vigilantelope

Vigilantelope Potentially Cures Cancer

This week Vigilantelope ran rehearsal in a medical trial. Despite the drips, constant blood-tests and incessant monitoring of bowel movements, it was a fruitful session. We are now well on the way to not only curing terminal illness, but also to putting on a ripper show for the 2009 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

"This will all be worth it one day."

The Vigilantelope Tshirt
by
Scruffian

Winged Cap
by
Oakleigh Lions Club Op Shop (Represent)

Modeled by
Vachel Spirason

Vigilantelope at SYN

Vigilantelope are currently in the process of recording a radio play for SYN (90.7 FM). The play will premiere on The Crunch - 3-4.30 on Friday.
For your viewing pleasure, here are some snaps from the pre-record session:

Vigilantelope Fundraising T Shirts

Show your support for Vigilantelope by picking up a Vigilantelope T today!
They are available in a whole range of sizes, colours and styles. Designed by The Scruffian (Steph, from Vigilantelope), the Vigilantelope logo is printed on quality American Apparel stock by the good people at RedBubble.
Get one for you, one for your mum, and one for your grandma. All proceeds (around $10 a shirt) will go to the Vigilantelope 2009 Comedy Festival Show. Click on the Ts below to view pricing, colours etc.

Vigilantelope Crunch Radio!

Several members of Vigilantelope will be hitting the airwaves starting next week from 3pm until 4:30pm every Friday on 90.7 SYN FM.

Tune in for some gags and tunes!

PS It's free.

Mooseheads now open

For all those comedically inclined, we encourage you to check out http://www.comedy.com.au/moosehead/ and apply. The Mooseheads are a fantastic initiative that have been behind some amazing acts at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

They were established in memory of Brian McCarthy, a young comedian. To plagarise from the Moosehead website:

"The Moosehead Awards started in 1987 as a way of remembering Brian McCarthy, a comedian, actor and fringe comedy producer who was tragically killed at the age of twenty-three in a car accident."

Our friend Sammy J was successful in applying this year. It is a fantastic opportunity and we encourage all to apply. For more info check out the website.

Vigilantelope in Mavis Calling

We first stumbled across the idea for "Mavis Calling" after abducting a greenpeace door-knocker and forcing him to sit strapped to a chair and listen as we outlined the benefits of subscribing to the Save the Vigilantelope Foundation. That day we explained clearly, but with a good deal of charm, and in some cases with musical accompaniment, that all donations were tax deductible. All funds raised, we explained through the simultaneous and complimentary mediums of interpretive dance and shouting, would be put towards Vigilantelope Sanctuaries where these misunderstood beasts would be fed and watered by professionally trained and appropriately armed keepers.

"What do vigilantelopes eat?" The Greenpeace door-knocker asked at one stage. At least we assume that’s what he was trying to say through a gagged, but eager cake hole. "Potato Gems, Mostly" we replied.

While most of us found this incident comical and inspiring, some of us (the doorknocker) insisted on racking off with our favourite chair, and Daniel’s favourite gag, just when we were getting to the good bit.

It all ended well, however, as it gave us the idea of performing door-to-door in what has been dubbed by some as ‘invasive comedy’. We think it’s much better than the elective kind, and that it makes preventative comedy look like a downright joke.

The Save the Vigilantelope Foundation agrees.

Vigilantelope Conquers the Great Pedestrian Footrace

You may have noticed that Vigilantelope has been hitting the streets of late. We’ve enjoyed all of our excursions, but our favourite was last week, when we participated in the Great Pedestrian Footrace on Swanston Street. For those unaware of the Footrace, it is an annual event (starting this year) that involves a sprint from Hungry Jacks on Swanston Street all the way down to Flinders Street station. It always begins at 5:23 pm on the dot (or at least it did this year) and, given the popularity of Swanston Street at that time, it is often a gruelling battle through probably thousands of people. To qualify for the Great Pedestrian Footrace you must both be a pedestrian and have feet. It is for this reason that many have affectionately dubbed this race “The-Modern-Common-Person’s-Olympics-Even-Though-It-Is-Only-a-Single-Event-Over-a-Short-Time-and-Distance-And-is-Not-Publicised-And-is-Widely-Unknown” or TMCPOETIIOASEOAASTADAINPAISWU, for short.

This year, Rusty, Macdog, Pat and Joel lined up for the race, with Vach running electrolyte enhanced water to the boys and Steph, Dan and Nick dealing with the press gallery that had gathered. After an early scratching of both Macdog and Joel (Hungry Jacks were showing that extreme sports video again and MacDog wanted to show Joel a guy in the video who he thought was wearing a purple jumpsuit that looked like his) many had tipped Rusty to cruise to victory. But the smart money was on Pat, who had a will to win that was far stronger than his will to lose. After a slightly delayed start (Rusty was eager and broke twice in a row), the boys took off at a cracking pace. Rusty’s long legs proved vital in getting an early lead, but Pat’s face told a determined story (he had written six chapters of the seminal literary classic “To Kill a Mockingbird” all over his cheeks). The race became a dead heat on the final stretch, when they both were forced to wait at the lights on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets. It was here that Rusty’s colour blindness proved to be his downfall, as he failed to immediately register that the lights had changed colour, which gave Pat a hefty head start (given that the sound at the pedestrian crossing was no match for the speed of the little green man, who was traveling at 299,792,458 metres per second). Pat jubilantly sprinted ahead and took the honours.

The entire Vigilantelope crew converged upon the Flinders Street stairs both to reminisce upon what had been a truly magnificent battle as well as listen to the Christian Progressive Rock that was being generously provided by the energetic buskers.

And as the sun set, Vigilantelope looked up towards the Channel Seven News sign, and in a gesture of reverence and euphoria, saluted the smiling and ever-knowing face of Anna Coren.

Vigilantelope's Christmas Gig

Contrary to popular belief, Christmas is not in July. Every year, Christmas annually falls on December 25 each year. With this is mind, Vigilantelope endeavoured to perform their annual "Christmas in July" show. Every Winter, Vigilantelope perform the customary nativity scene through the eyes of an influential member of the traditional story.

This year, the story was told of from the perspective of Stabilo Montenegro (Vachel Spirason), an inn-keeper in downtown Bethlaham (not to be confused with Bethlehem). Our story followed Stabilo's plight in struggling to provide room for weary travellers in peak season and also his attempts to come to terms with his sexuality.

Next year the show will be told from the perspective of the fourth wise man, Tony Gregoriava, whose donkey became ill with the cerebral palsy on December 24, 1 BC. Needless to say, little baby Jesus only received gold, frankincense and myrrh and never received Tony's jar of homemade cumquat marmalade.

Get your tickets soon! Bookings open on December 25.

Vigilantelope's First Show

To the disgrace of the Red Cross blood bank, much blood, sweat and tears were shed in the making of our first show, 'The Vigilante Cantelope'.

This was definitely the first time a comedy show had been not only performed entirely underwater, but to an audience of zero.

You could say that locating a suitable venue was far easier than breathing whilst on stage. Harold Holt Public swimming pool was booked for a one week and the show commenced. Whilst we initially thought the idea was rather odd, the first show certainly wet our appetite for more under water action.

Minor challenges in the first couple of shows included the drowning of two key cast members who, it seemed, became attached to the pool cleaning device that was activated automatically during act 2 of each performance. (We were given significant discount by the Pool owners for this inconvenience).

Whilst no audience feedback was received, we all thought we did a great job and decided to give comedy a real crack. And the vigilantelope was born. What we initially thought would resemble a genetically modified cantelope turned out to be a genetically modified antelope that was delivered by a genetically modified stork. We witnessed the most beautiful being (ignoring a rather dubious moustache that was apparently grown in an attempt to raise money for ‘Movember’).