Anthony Irvine aka The Iceman recently had a book Melt It! published about him – crafted by multi-tasker Robert Wringham. I posted a blog about it.
Now the book has inspired a forthcoming movie Melt It! The Film of The Iceman.
The selling line is: “In the 1980s and 1990s, Anthony Irvine was a comedian and cabaret performer. His act was a little unusual. As the Iceman, he went on stage – to melt ice. But what happened next and where did he go?”
The documentary is co-produced by Robert Wringham and director Mark Cartwright.
I talked to Robert and Anthony via Zoom… Mark was elsewhere, possibly in Wolverhampton.
JOHN (TO ROBERT): Did you approach Mark or he you?
ROBERT: I was trying to promote the book and Mark has a YouTube channel where he interviews comedians and musicians. His interviews are very intelligent.
JOHN: Oh dear.
ROBERT: He likes fringe comedy so I thought maybe he’d like to interview the Iceman. And it turned out he had been looking for appropriate subject matter to direct a documentary. Someone from the fringe pockets of comedy. The book made him realise there could be a film in the Iceman.
JOHN: So what’s next? A Disney animation? You’re already doing a film of the book of the act. Disney could do an animation of the film of the book of the act, then do a live-action version of the animation of the film of the book of the act.
ROBERT: We do have dreams of getting our film in cinemas. We’ve just signed up Michael Cumming to be the executive producer. He directed Brass Eye, Snuff Box, the Toast projects – Toast of London, Toast of Tinseltown etc. His current project is Oxide Ghosts, where he shows cutting room floor material from Brass Eye and does Q&As. He’s very familiar with the whole indie cinema circuit.
JOHN: In the film’s Kickstarter appeal for funds, the selling line is: “How much permanence and success can we assure for this man whose entire act was about impermanence and failure? Back the film and be among the first to find out”… Isn’t there an irony about trying to be successful with a film about failure?
ROBERT: (LAUGHS) I’m aware of that and I’m actually concerned it will spoil the true legacy of the Iceman!
JOHN (to the ICEMAN): Is that a real moustache you have on there?
ICEMAN: Yes. Traditionally, I put on a moustache for all Zoom meetings.
JOHN: I hate Zoom. What is that thing you have?
The Iceman (bottom) with rubber duck, Tapwater Award and irrelevant pot…
ICEMAN: It’s a Tapwater Award which I won at the Edinburgh Fringe.
JOHN: The alternative to the Perrier Award…
ICEMAN: It has been touched by Malcolm Hardee and Charlie Chuck.
JOHN: Without mentioning ice once, why are you doing this film?
ICEMAN: It’s going to be a sophiceticated film. In the production team, there is quality and creativity and a seri-iceness of purpice. I think it’s an adventure that will give coherence and professionaliceism to the Iceman concept. So, late in the day, The Iceman is going to be distanced from the incoherence and chaos of the original act…
JOHN: (SILENCE)
ICEMAN: The core of it is based on the Melt It! book. So a lot of it is talking. But there will be an element of Battleship Potemkin, Luis Buñuel, Stanley Kubrick. There will be a lot of art involved and interviews with people saying they remember the so-called legend that was the Iceman. And the whole concept of the ice blocks living on will be part of it.
The question is: Will The Iceman outlive the blocks or will the blocks outlive The Iceman?.. Having a film might suggest the blocks will outlive The Iceman.
There will be touches of Federico Fellini and…
JOHN: Sam Peckinpah? It needs conflict.
ICEMAN: There’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Have you seen that? It’s about a painter painting a portrait of a model who didn’t want to be painted.
JOHN: Is there a car chase in it? You have to have a chase sequence. You could chase someone round the block. The ice block.
ICEMAN: (SILENCE)
The Iceman with duck, block of ice and a Melt It! movie poster
JOHN: When is it going to be finished?
ICEMAN: Well, due to public demand, I have been invited back to the famous art gallery in Stalbridge, Dorset – Guggleton Farm Arts – for an exhibition of my paintings – from 15th July to 14th August this year. I think the idea is we have a finale there where we film the public filing in to look at my pictures… and buying them… in cash.
ROBERT: There are strands. Old footage of Anthony doing the Iceman stuff. Interviews hopefully with comedians and artists. And it’s all going to come together with where Anthony is today, which is that he has been accepted into the Art world. The Guggleton Arts event will be a kind of a denouement.
ICEMAN: Because, as we all know, The Iceman is now a contemporary visual artist known as AIM. Hopefully we can get famous comedians to say: “Yes.. He was a legend.”
JOHN: “Was?” In the past tense. In order for that to work, you would have to die.
(LONG SILENCE)
ICEMAN: I’m painting a picture at the moment called Riced in Pice.
JOHN: Riced in Pice?… Ah!… Rest in Peace? Why?
ICEMAN: Because I’m thinking very much about mortality and Will the melting blocks outlive me? So I’m confronting death in this picture. It’s basically me at my own funeral. I’m not being morbid. I’m just toying with the idea of…a church made of ice blocks and… that sort of thing. Do the blocks live on in some form? They must.
The Melt It! Iceman movie poster
This is a serious film. I notice when you write these blogs with me, it’s always completely confusing conversations. I am going to answer every question seriously from now on.
JOHN: Why do boxers not have hair on their chests?
(SILENCE)
JOHN: You have developed from performance art into Art art. Are you now going to get more into movie making?
ICEMAN: I am going to stick to oil painting. But film is a visual medium and it’s quite exciting to see me slightly objectified. The film will include reference to the painting. I’m quite happy to have this parallel artistic life.
I’m quite interested in filming a block of ice melt for the entire duration of the film. Like Andy Warhol’s film of the Empire State Building. It maybe sound a bit naive, but I think there could be quite a lot of interest. It obviously couldn’t be TOO big a block or it might take 400 days. But, if you had maybe a day’s melt, I think there’s a film there.
JOHN: Surely, to become successful, all artists have to become bullshit artists? You have to say: “This is a representation of global warming. It is Art”, Then Tate Modern and the Museum of Modern Art in America will beat a path to your door and you’ll make a fortune.
ICEMAN: Well, I WAS the first green artist.
JOHN: Eh?
ROBERT: The idea that the ice is melting anyway. Once Man is involved, it accelerates.
ICEMAN: Ah!
JOHN: Ah!
ROBERT: Ah!
Anthony demonstrates the effect of Man on a melting ice cap
JOHN: Have you seen the movie The Iceman about a real-life killer who had that nickname?
ICEMAN: Yes, that’s rather unfortunate. I’m a bit worried that, when you Google “Iceman” this murderer comes up. I want my film to overtake his film.
ROBERT: Is he still alive? Maybe we could interview him in prison.
JOHN: It’s all coming together now. The ideal way to promote your film is for you to be dead. The Iceman kills The Iceman to promote The Iceman movie.
ICEMAN: I ‘received’ the title Iceman. I didn’t make it up: it was given to me.
JOHN: By whom?
ICEMAN: By all the other comedians of the time.
JOHN: What were you billed as before? Just Anthony Irvine?
ICEMAN: Yes. The film, in a way, is a tribute to the performance artist who disappeared and then returned as an artist. I think it’s going to be professional, which is in contradiction to my actual live performances. But, as you know, I’ve always had a very serious side. I have a feeling the film is going to highlight my metaphysical thoughts.
Have you heard the pop song Melt It?
JOHN: No, I’ve not heard it. But you should record some songs to promote the movie when it comes out.
ICEMAN: I’m quite a heartfelt singer but I can only sing if I’m trying to be funny.
JOHN: As a defence mechanism in case people think you can’t sing properly?
ICEMAN: Possibly. I don’t know what the psychological reasons are. I can only sing to satirise the song I’m singing. That way it becomes quite moving and funny at the same time. Which is what a German woman picked-up on in Edinburgh. She stayed behind to say: “I loft yor singeen” and I knew she meant it, because I looked in her eyes.
I think what we’re hoping for from you is a serious blog. Is it an art film or a documentary film? I suppose it’s both.
ROBERT: I agree.
ICEMAN: I think the whole concept of the blocks disappearing and changing is quite deep. And that’s why some audiences follow me round going: “Deep!… Deep!”
I might even say something like: “Well, I have to go now,” and people will go: “Deep! Deep!”
JOHN: Anthony, why have you actually got a block of ice with you on this Zoom call? You are not about to do a performance. Why have you a block of ice?
ICEMAN: Well, this is a…
(AT THIS POINT, THE ZOOM CALL CUT OFF…)
SO IT GOES - John Fleming's blog 