Crap Elviski - Crap Elvis in St Petersburg, Russia

With the local language skills of a 3 year old, we arrived in St Petersburg, Russia after some strange visa delay (I think my occupation category was confusing). An unbelievable feeling of helplessness took over when emerging out of the airport, I couldn't even read, let alone speak any word on any sign. We had to resort to matching the shapes in the words.
Trying to be hardcore/cheaparse travellers, we finally boarded a local marshrutka (ford transit crazy van), then the metro (to correct the wrong direction we'd gone in the marshrutka), then another marshrutka, then a little walk to the hostel. All in all, the 25minute trip from the airport took us 2 hours.

Church On The Spilled Blood - (the vote for "Church where something vaguely unpleasant happened" was clearly beaten).





St Petersburg's Palace Square - the tourists go crazy for it. Sorry, the tourist go crazy for it.

This just in: World still crazy

Just packing for Russia (oh yes, that should be interesting!), and thought I'd just pop up these couple of newsy bits. Unfortunately for the USA's National Examiner, world changing political situations still aren't as sensational as aliens landing on someone's face...or some stupid bloke in a cheap Elvis suit. I think this article published recently in the National Examiner proves that although they may be ready for a black President, it still may be generations before they accept the French.





Also, thanks to a friend who sent me this from the London Lite. And if you read the words underneath, yep, still getting mistaken for a fan of Elvis!

Crap Elvis v The Beatles: Crap Elvis in Liverpool and Blackpool

Yes..I know...am still slacking with just whacking photos up. Of course...words to follow soon!

Liverpool:













Blackpool:

Crap Elvis in the Czech Republic

Full wordy bits to follow in next few days...

Prague:


..and when in Prague...



Prague peace wall. Ooh, the serenity....


An important message for us all


On closer inspection, I was disappointed to find that the town wasn't actually made from cardboard cutouts

Ich bin ein Crap Elviser: Crap Elvis in Germany

Ooh look, lots of pictures. Words to follow in next few days!

Oktoberfest





Berlin: A right charlie at Checkpoint Charlie


The Wall: Serious face collection




Serious face collection aborted:


Oh, hang on...serious face back again.






Cologne:

St George is cross: Crap Elvis goes to Wembley

With a ticket in hand (well you try finding a pocket in that suit) to see England play a world cup qualifying match at the new Wembley Stadium in London, I chanced my luck at using Harry Potter's platform of choice at Kings Cross station. Got stuck half way, and ended up looking like a bit of a nob. Again.
I'm beginning to think that the Potter series isn't a documentary after all.




Ooooh, can you feel the tension in the air. That's what happens when England go up against one of the powerhouses of world football - Kazakhstan. And what was the hottest topic of debate about the game. Was it "Is captain John Terry going to play?". Was it "Will Beckham be left on the bench?" Errr. No. It was "I can't believe the police are banning people from wearing Borat-style mankinis to the game on the grounds of public decency." These are the issues people. (check out the Sun newspaper's response to the ban here)


Stupidly they left a loophole open in the ban that allowed people to quite openly walk around in a bad Elvis suit.


Little chat with the BBC.


Wozz, Chaz, Kaz, Gazz...and Ez.


Wem-ber-ley! 5-1 (the result, but coincidentally the ratio of Borat to football references at the game)



Stupid kid - never seen a dodgy Elvis sitting on an oversize furniture setting by the Thames before.

Crap Elvis and a run of good news!

Couple of very nice things just happened...

Just got word from Australia that on Saturday night, I won the 2008 comedy award in the Australian Radio Awards for a very surreal phone call I made in my pre-$30-suit days working for a breakfast radio show in Western Australia.
You should be able to see the audio player below, and it's the first track on the player "the ant and the phone engineer".
Track number 3 (cake message) is also another call that I made which won the 2007 award (ooh, is that the sound of one's own trumpet being blown!).





Also, have just confirmed with organisers that I will return to the Parkes Elvis Festival , near Sydney, Australia in January 2009. Earlier this year (Jan), it was the first stop on this ridiculous round the world trip, where I reached my goals of last placing at the sound a like and lookalike competitions.
However, this is where things get strange....next January I will be performing a half hour set on the main stage during the festival, with my new updated lyrics on various Elvis tunes. I'll apologise now.
If you need reminding of what happened last time, click here.


And now an update on the Pick Me Up magazine article mentioned in the last post. In the cheesiest article yet about Crap Elvis, this one is part of their "Behind the man" series and focusses on my girlfriend. Being such a hardhitting article, it's headline on the front cover reads "My smelly Elvis made us famous," and is presented as if my girlfriend has written it (she didn't, but was interviewed for it). And as if we live in a bad 70s sitcom. Lovin' it!!!!...




And finally some more media updates:
Weekly radio chats continue with Jeff Burzacott on 5AA
A nice Crap Elvis photo gallery spotted on radio station Nova's website in Perth