News/posts

This week we had Juha Valkeapää to talk about his production 2341 AD, and Malin Gustavsson who explained a bit about her work as a diversity consultant. We also channeled the spirit of a country and western supergroup, phoned John's parents, and met the Pope Urban VII of Mad House Helsinki. As always, it couldn't happen without Justin Tyler Tate (world's best hype...

We started the new season of Serious Introspection last week at Mad House, and we came back strong (I hope). Guests were standup comedienne/anthropologist Marianna Keisalo, Kosminen and Khaos Publishing's Helen Korpak and Iina Esko, and Brasilian artist Paola de Ramos. We debuted some new segments, enjoyed the strange glow of a 4:3 aspect ratio projector, and enjoyed seeing...

We're back for a second season of Serious Introspection, which will now take place on Wednesdays, a bit later. The show is planned to start roughly at 21:00, but may occasionally run a bit earlier or later depending on the Mad House programme on each particular night. We start next week and run until 13 April, but with no shows on 17.2 or 9.3. The full schedule can be seen on the...

Here's the last episode of Serious Introspection, which was by far the best one (from my perspective, at least). We had a large and hungry audience and great guests and a real spirit of absurdity. Guests were Nikos Doulous and some of the Mad House working group (Heidi Backström, Mirva Pulkkinen and Annika Tudeer); also included were statistical analysis, Minor Threat karaoke, and...

Here is this week's episode, with Tero Nauha, Milla Koistinen, Salka Gudmundsdóttir and impromptu guest Tuukka Asplund. We passed out feedback forms to the audience, and you can fill this out online here. Even if you have never attended a live episode and only watched these, we appreciate your feedback!

We were without a sound man for the third consecutive week but did not have...

Episode six brought together Jaakko Blomberg of Yhteismaa and Ossi Koskelainen, Ilpo Heikkinen & Emmi Venna of the Post-MJ Era Institute of Consciousness. We discussed legacy, openness, social boundaries, memories, divorce, and shark costumes. I unsuccessfully tried to get rid of a Gertrude Stein book, played Michael Jackson trivia, and saw St. Elmo's Fire spitting ions in the ether.

...

Those of you who saw Matthew Goulish on my show last week (or on the video here) know how much I admire his writing and approach to art and performance. I wanted to talk further with him (and with Lin Hixson, who didn't come on stage during episode 5) while they were in Helsinki, so we recorded a conversation which is presented here in podcast format. We'll try to put...

It's the TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES episode! With our trusted sound man in Estonia we had to figure it out ourselves, mainly, 'where do they store the microphones?' and thus we started a half-hour late, and I was agitated throughout. It's also the AMERICA episode! With guests Megan Snowe (USA), Ernest Truely (USA), Matthew Goulish (USA) and myself and Justin as always. Special...

Here's the hastily edited video from this week's episode of Serious Introspection with John W. Fail, which was a good one - featuring Hanne Ivars, Synes Elischka and Harriina Räinä as well as hype man Justin Tyler Tate. We talked about Bruce Conner films, interactivity in art, and how to make fake blood. And we played a game based on my life. There was a camera...

Here is episode 3, from last week at Ihana Baari. Guests were Kristinsson & Fredriksson, and we attempted a subjective 'trivia' game which flopped due to low audience participation. Thanks to Justin Tyler Tate as always for being a great hype man, and to Lotta Blomberg for taking care of the videographing and editing.

Tonight is episode 4, featuring Hanne Ivars (talking about her...

Here's (season 1,) episode 2 of Serious Introspection with John W. Fail, my weekly live/talk show at Mad House Helsinki. This week I talked with Annika Tudeer, Andrew Paterson, and Kimmo Modig. It was a significantly more lively show than last time, and I felt way better about it. I apologise for the audio being terrible - it makes this quite hard to listen to, but next week we...

I am hosting a weekly live/talk show called Serious Introspection with John W. Fail on Tuesdays until the end of November. The show takes place at the Ihana Bar as part of Mad House Helsinki's second season.

Each week I will bring up some friends and other random people, and interview people who are going to be performing at Mad House in the coming week. I hope to create something...