Say what you will about the state of this sorry world, but YouTube is pretty smegging awesome. So for your edification and delight, I present to you a small but noble sample of clips that make me happy. I’d call it my top five, but sadly my two favouritest of favourite YouTube clips have been taken down for copyright violation. (Or so I assume; it’s possible they succumbed to typhus and genteelly withered away, but let’s not be naive, here, people. It’s a dog-eat-YouTube-clip world out there.) For the record, the ill-fated clips were a Spuffy video set to “Accidentally in Love” and a Tenth/Rose one set to “Follow Me”. You see that beneath this callous exterior lies a heart of moosh? It’s always useful to bear little facts like that in mind, in case you need to kill me one day. A keen observer would also note that I have a tendency to monologue, which should make your job just that much easier.
Anyhoo. Clip the first. Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenowith singing “For Good” during Kristin’s final performance of Wicked on Broadway. Hence all the weeping. Great song, great show, great performance, it’ll melt your face. Of course, when I say “great show” I mean “great show as far as I can tell from the soundtrack and a bunch of cobbled-together YouTube clips”, never having actually seen it. Lack of Broadway musicals in New Zealand is a significant issue in my life, but they say suffering is good for the soul.
Did you weep? You should have. I hear it’s rapidly becoming the funeral song of choice, sort of a “Wind Beneath My Wings” for death, or the thinking corpse’s “My Heart Will Go On”. Tell your friends… the sick ones.
Clip the second, you’ll be pleased to hear, is much more cheery. This is just pure talent with a dollop of genius. It also calms the snortlepig right down when she’s bellowing at the indignity of being put to bed. Helpdesk Man’s method is to take the snortlepig under one arm, his laptop under the other, deposit both on the bed, place a firm hand on the middle of the snortlepig to prevent her getting up again and play this song (or alternatively Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours”, which she also likes) over and over again until she falls asleep. It is a sight to behold, I tell ye.
Oose, no? Moving right along to clip the third - Lea Salonga’s audition for Miss Saigon. I love the young Lea - she’s like a Filipino Audrey Hepburn. For those who don’t know her, she sang Mulan and Jasmine for Disney (there’s another pretty cool video of her singing Jasmine here - first run-through!) and has done a bunch of other stuff, but is arguably most famous for creating the role of Kim in Miss Saigon. She was seventeen, although she looks about twelve in the clip. Anyway, if you’re interested in Miss Saigon or singing or the audition process or simply watching people who are superb at their jobs, you’ll like this clip. The way she picks up the song instantly and not only sings it with technical perfection, but captures the essence of Kim without apparent effort, is stunning. Unfortunately I watched too much Lea-as-Kim before I went to see the show in Sydney, and as a result it was kind of a letdown. You have been warned.
Right. This next one contains naughty words. Sorry. I’m not sure why it tickles me, as I’m not really a fan of Eddie Izzard (or come to that, Lego; I’ve trodden on too many minifigs in my time). But it does, and when I showed it to Helpdesk Man he laughed so hard humours spurted out of his ears. Did I mention it has naughty words?
And finally… Trogdor the Burninator.
Yup.
