Comedy Musician Jazz Emu has announced the release of Ego Death, a genre-straddling thirty-minute comedy music video which will accompany his upcoming album.
The ten interconnected music videos - each complementing a song from the album - were written over 2024, and shot over the course of October in various UK locations. The film, financed by a Kickstarter campaign and fully-funded by donations from online fans in less than 48 hours, will premiere at The Rio Cinema, Dalston on 23rd January 2025 (tickets on sale here). It will then be available to buy online from 24th January 2025 (it is available to pre-order now here).
There will be an additional screening at GRUB, Manchester on 8th February 2025 (tickets on sale here).
The film was directed by Hunter Allen and produced by Alex Cartlidge for Country Mile Productions, and follows the “true story” of self-described “Musicological Phenomenon” Jazz Emu. When his Frankenstein-esque quest to create the perfect New Thing goes horribly wrong, Jazz is forced to watch the monstrous results of his hubris. Ego Death follows the story of this dark creation through parodies of horror, surreal thrillers, and glossy high-fashion parodies, to its potentially fatal conclusion...
The cast includes an exciting range of big-hitter names and some of the best up-and-coming comic talent, such as... Archie Henderson, Harry Enfield (pictured), Alex Horne, Al Roberts, Charly Clive, Ellen Robertson, Phil Dunning, Will Hislop, Ed Jones, Rory Marshall, Eliza Nelson, Joel Stern, Ninette Finch & more.
“How did I come to add this Work to my Oeuvre?” says Jazz Emu, “Fantastic question. Whilst meditating in East Asia earlier this year, I suddenly realised I’d undergone a canonical Ego Death, and was now completely without ego. In fact, the monks who were there actually said it was the best Ego Death they’d ever seen; they’d never seen a more impressively or indeed aesthetically dead ego.”
Ego Death is an ambitious low-budget comedy film-making which seeks to take likes of Beyoncé’s Lemonade, Prince’s Purple Rain, and The Lonely Island’s The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience, and push the parody-ripe field of self-indulgent Concept Albums into newer, weirder places.
Jazz Emu is the creation of writer and comedian Archie Henderson, who writes “glistening up-tempo pop for the emotionally stunted”. His music has racked up millions of streams, been featured on the official Spotify ‘Fresh Finds’ playlist and played on BBC Radio 1 Breakfast with Greg James. In 2023 he won two Chortle Awards, in the social Social Media and Best Variety Act categories. In 2025 he will be undergoing his first ever UK tour.
Hunter Allen is a comedy director who has been directing Jazz Emu’s videos from the very start. He has edited on the last five seasons of Taskmaster, Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back, Ogmios School of Zen Motoring, Rhod Gilbert’s Growing Pains and many more. As well as Jazz Emu’s music videos, he has recently directed the short film, ‘Roger’ starring Charly Clive, a taster with Jordan Gray and some second unit shoots for the next season of Am I Being Unreasonable.
Alex Cartlidge is Co-Director and Founder of Country Mile Productions, a multimedia, Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated production company established in 2016. Alongside producing live shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, they have also produced the upcoming comedy Christmas album ‘A Very Sheeps Christmas’ from sketch group Sheeps, featuring Jamie Demetriou, Lolly Adefope, Rose Matafeo, Charlotte Ritchie and Emma Sidi. Their live shows include Liz Kingsman's smash hit 'One-Woman Show', Ania Magliano’s award-nominated ‘I Can’t Believe You’ve Done This’, Lorna Rose Treen’s award-winning ‘Skin Pigeon’, Jazz Emu’s critically-acclaimed ‘Knight Fever’, and many more.
