FOR THE TERM OF HIS NATURAL LIES – THE GENESIS
For The Term Of His Natural Lies is an (unexpectedly!) ambitious film/live show hybrid I created, that premiered at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2025.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always LOVED comedy redubs of cheesy old movies and TV shows, from What’s Up, Tiger Lily? and J-Men Forever! to Bargearse and The Olden Days. So in 2024, I thought I’d have a go at creating my own. After a lot of research and consultation, (and a very time-consuming false start) I decided that rather than just redubbing one film or TV show, I’d give myself a broader canvas by selecting FIFTEEN movies that were 70 years old or older (and, as such, DEFINITELY out of copyright – I want to make that perfectly clear)…
I worked my way through all the (colour) films I’d chosen, watching them all with the sound down, always thinking “What else could this scene be about? What else could this scene be about? What else could this scene be about?” and making copious notes. After that, I watched them all again with the sound up, through the same lens, again making copious notes. By doing this, I arrived at a bunch of scenes that – when revoiced with the lines I’d written – would function pretty well as standalone comedy sketches. But I had no coherent story that tied them all together.
Oh, did I mention that I’d already registered the show in the 2025 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and – no matter what – my first preview would be on Monday 7th April, 2025?
Nothing like a deadline to throw the mind into sharp focus, eh?
But the unifying story for the thing continued to elude me and elude me and elude me… How on earth could I bring together a bunch of standalone sketches that were variously set in the 20th century, in the 19th century, in biblical times, in a cartoon fairy tale, and in a world where the entire population consisted of trained birds?
I kept cycling through the movies, redubbing scene after scene as the ideas occurred to me. There were some strokes of serendipity; because I’d chosen 1950s B-movies (which often featured the same actors) there were a couple of actors who were in more than one of the films I’d chosen. In the final story of For The Term Of His Natural Lies, I made use of this by having one of those actors ‘go undercover’. I used footage of him in one of the movies, having him say “And then I went undercover as…” and then dissolving to the same actor in a different costume in a different movie for the next scene.
And yes, sure – I realise that’s a bit confusing to read.
Imagine how I feel!
Anyway, in the end, after faithfully writing standalone sketch after standalone sketch for months, and just TRUSTING that a story would emerge… one finally did.
And you can read just what the final story turned out to be (and see some clips from it!) right below the show’s poster…
FOR THE TERM OF HIS NATURAL LIES – THE STORY
A man claiming to be 2,187 years old has been imprisoned in a dungeon on charges of Suspiciously Unreliable Narration. Here, he recounts various episodes from his life, some of which he says took place hundreds of years ago.
Sharing the dungeon with him is this man, who does his own fair share of reminiscing, too…
But, hey – For The Term Of His Natural Lies isn’t all just long and unlikely stories told in flashback – it also features… COMMERCIALS!
FOR THE TERM OF HIS NATURAL LIES – THE RESPONSE
The show was favourably reviewed at artshub.com.au, and just might be returning in June 2026, to a venue near you, so…
WATCH THIS SPACE FOR DETAILS!