Neil Cicierega

Neil Cicierega
Neil Cicierega speaking at XOXO in September 2016
Born Neil Stephen Cicierega
(1986-08-23) August 23, 1986
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Residence Somerville, Massachusetts, United States
Other names Deporitaz
Lemon Demon
Trapezoid
Trapezzoid
Occupation Internet artist, comedian, actor, filmmaker, puppeteer, singer, musician, animator
Known for Animutation, flash animation, making Mashups
Spouse(s)
Ming Doyle (m. 2015)
Website eviltrailmix.com
neilcic.com

Neil Stephen Cicierega[1] (/ˌsɪsɪˈriːɡə/ SISS-i-REE-gə; born August 23, 1986) is an American Internet artist, comedian, actor, filmmaker, puppeteer, singer, musician, and animator. He is the creator of the genre of Flash animation known as "Animutation", and has released several albums as a musician under the name of "Lemon Demon" and has more recently released a series of mashup albums under his own name.

Early life

Cicierega was born in Boston, Massachusetts.[2] Cicierega's father was a programmer, so Cicierega was surrounded by computers growing up. At a young age, Cicierega began using a program named Klik & Play, a simplistic game developing program. By the fourth grade, Cicierega's parents began homeschooling him along with his brother and sister. Cicierega continued making amateur games and even began creating digital music to feature in his games. Soon, Cicierega began sharing his music on the Internet through the music sharing website MP3.com under the name Trapezoid.[3]

Career

Animutation

Cicierega is known for a series of dadaist or surrealist Flash animations he termed "Animutation".[4] Animutations feature arbitrary, nonsensical scenes and pop culture imagery and are typically set to novelty or foreign music, often from the Japanese version of Pokémon. One of his earliest works entitled Hyakugojyuuichi was published on the web, and was described as a "hit" in 2001 by Salon magazine.[4]

Potter Puppet Pals

Cicierega's Potter Puppet Pals is a comedy series which parodies Harry Potter. It originated as a pair of Flash animations on Newgrounds in 2003, and later resurfaced in the form of a series of live action puppet shows released onto YouTube and PotterPuppetPals.com, starting in 2006 and continuing to the present. The central characters of the Harry Potter series are portrayed simply by puppets. The most successful Potter Puppet Pals video, The Mysterious Ticking Noise, currently has over 180,000,000 views (as of August 2018). Cicierega has done puppetry live at Harry Potter-themed events.

Lemon Demon

Lemon Demon performing in 2006.

Since 2003, Cicierega has released 9 full-length albums under his musical project Lemon Demon.[5] In 2005, he and animator Shawn Vulliez released a Flash animated music video "Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" on Newgrounds. This reached over 12 million views on Newgrounds as well as topping the "Funny Five" on The Dr. Demento Show for several weeks and becoming the No. 1 Request for 2006. The song was later included in the 2006 album Dinosaurchestra. An updated recording of the song was released to the Rock Band Network in 2010.[6]

In April 2009, Cicierega released his first four albums as free downloads on his site "neilcic.com", however they are now currently hosted on "lemondemon.com".

In January 2016, Cicierega announced Spirit Phone, a full-length Lemon Demon album released on February 29, 2016.[7] On July 10th, 2018, it was announced that copies of the album on CD, cassette tape and vinyl would be sold through Needlejuice Records. These are expected to ship near Halloween.

Mashup albums

Cicierega has also created mashup music under his own name. He released two mashup albums, Mouth Sounds and Mouth Silence, as free downloads in 2014, and a third, Mouth Moods, in 2017. These albums often include Smash Mouth's "All Star", or in the case of Mouth Silence, Third Eye Blind's "Semi Charmed Life"

Windows 95 Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks

Cicierega created the darkly satirical "Windows 95 Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks" blog, located at http://windows95tips.com. In the blog's telling, Windows 95 is a brooding, evil presence bent on dominating humanity. Most of the posts are faked error messages, with disturbing messages like "Windows needs a lock of your hair to continue," but presented in the exact graphical style of Windows 95. The blog has received favorable press attention.

Video games

On February 26, 2015, Cicierega announced his first point-and-click adventure game, Icon Architect 1.0.[8]

Personal life

On August 8, 2015, Cicierega married illustrator Ming Doyle. He currently lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.[9] She is currently working on DuckTales.

Discography

  • Outsmart (2000) – Deporitaz
  • Microwave This CD (2001) – Deporitaz
  • Dimes (2002) – Deporitaz
  • Clown Circus (2003) – Lemon Demon
  • Live From The Haunted Candle Shop (2003) – Lemon Demon
  • Hip To The Javabean (2004) – Lemon Demon
  • Damn Skippy (2005) – Lemon Demon
  • Dinosaurchestra (2006) – Lemon Demon
  • Circa 2000 (2007) – Deporitaz
  • View-Monster (2008) – Lemon Demon
  • Almanac 2009 (2009) – Lemon Demon
  • Live (Only Not) (2011) – Lemon Demon
  • "BRODYQUEST" (2011) – Neil Cicierega
  • I Am Become Christmas EP (2012) – Lemon Demon
  • Nature Tapes EP (2014) – Lemon Demon
  • Mouth Sounds (2014) – Neil Cicierega
  • Mouth Silence (2014) – Neil Cicierega
  • Spirit Phone (2016) – Lemon Demon
  • Mouth Moods (2017) – Neil Cicierega

    References

    1. ↑ Jarboe, Greg (October 7, 2011). YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day. John Wiley & Sons. p. 139. ISBN 9781118203811.
    2. ↑ "Neil Cicierega". IMDb.
    3. ↑ "Neil Cicierega, Internet Person – XOXO Festival (2016)". XOXO Festival. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
    4. 1 2 Mieszkowski, Katharine; Standen, Amy (April 26, 2001). "All hail Neil Cicierega". Salon.com.
    5. ↑ Emily Sweeney (June 22, 2006). "He's a hit with Internet set". Boston Globe.
    6. ↑ "Lemon Demon on Rock Band Network". Archived from the original on 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2011-05-12.
    7. ↑ "Neil Cicierega Tumblr. | NEW LEMON DEMON ALBUM "SPIRIT PHONE" CALLING..." neilblr.com. Retrieved 2016-01-21.
    8. ↑ "Icon Architect 1.0". twitter.com. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
    9. ↑ "Soos and the Real Girl marks my first episode storyboarding for Gravity Falls!". gravi-teamfalls.tumblr.com. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
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