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thirdnibble-blog · 8 years ago

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Goodnight Mr Tebbs

On the morning of Friday 19th of March 2017 my good friend Kris Tebbs passed away after a brief but hard fought battle with illness. Until now I’ve struggled to get my head around losing someone so dear to me, however I hope that by putting my thoughts down in writing I will gain some clarity and also share some of my favourite memories of Kris with anyone who cares to read on.

The measure of the man is clear for all to see through the huge outpouring of emotion and superlatives seen in the wake of his death. There have been no exaggerations when describing Kris, he genuinely was the funniest, most thoughtful, kind soul you could ever hope to meet. Sadly, for all who loved Kris it would seem the brightest candles burn the quickest.

I met Kris at Canterbury Christ Church University where we studied the same ‘Radio, Film & Television’ course and it was apparent from the very first day that he had a razor sharp wit and strong opinion about him. I remember thinking that he looked like a member of a brit-pop band with his mop of hair, thick rimmed glasses and confident swagger. His personality was magnetic and he had a wonderful patter to the way he spoke, something that I would find myself emulating whenever I was around him. We bonded over our love of film, music, football, comedy, food and drinking, and when I say bonded I of course mean argued, over everything. Kris was passionate and stubborn about the things he loved and if he didn’t agree with your opinion he wouldn’t think twice to tell you exactly what he thought.

Our friendship grew and after sounding out each other’s cultural groundings we worked on our first short film ‘When Cops Attack’, a mockumentary following an overzealous American police officer who had been sent to Britain to clean up the blood stained cobbled streets of Canterbury. Inspired by The Beastie Boys, Serpico and a whole heap of awful American police dramas, I still watch it and laugh.

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After University and a short hiatus living at home we were reunited working at Cellcast, a newly formed broadcasting company that specialised in the very worst TV imaginable. A combination of soft core pornography, rigged digital gambling, virtual horse racing and TV psychics. We weren’t complaining though, Cellcast was a leg up in the industry and I’ll always be thankful of our mutual friend Drew who single handedly recruited every Canterbury alumni possible. Kris worked in the operations team which kept the place running, always on hand to clear up the tsunami of shit that the production team would create. He was always calm under pressure and technically minded which helped him solve any and all of the numerous problems that arise with live broadcasting smut to the masses.

Around this time Kris was getting more and more into writing and performing his own music and I was honoured to be among a group of people he trusted to play it to. His musical influences flowed through him and whilst his music career never took off I listened to his tracks regularly and would often hassle him to write more. Click this link to listen to a playlist of Kris’ music

Amongst the virtual horse racing and naked women a group of like-minded Cellcast employees came together, we were fed up with only making hateful TV and realised that the company owned a lot of airtime but didn’t have much content to fill it with so we decided to make a TV show of our own. In 2006 Kris, Drew Stearne, Joel French, Matt Humphrey and myself formed Shortcutters a show designed to air and critique short films sent in by viewers. We begged, borrowed and stole equipment and studio time in order to make the show happen and despite it having a nonexistent budget managed to put out 34 episodes. The majority of those shows was us being sarcastic arseholes, insulting each other and the filmmakers who we were supposed to be critiquing but Kris was in his element. He was so easy in front of camera always finding new ways to leave us all in tears of laughter.

We were in our mid-twenties with little responsibility and when we weren’t making dubious television we were drinking the nights away, on one such night Kris and I decided it would be a good idea to try our hand at drinking a tea made of cactus grown in Peru, the idea behind it was that it would give us an out of body experience akin to the Shaman of South America. In reality it tasted vile and didn’t seem to do anything other than make us feel sick. After an hour of nothing much happening we went to the pub, a couple of pints in and the hallucinogenic properties of the cactus kicked in. Suddenly we were seeing crazy visuals, stumbling over ourselves and laughing like lunatics, we were clearly making a scene but we didn't care. It was a time of our lives where very little mattered and we lived it to the fullest.

When Kris first started dating Lina he introduced her to us on a night out at 93 Feet East, Lina was cool, beautiful, funny and had a great taste in music. Obviously our first question to Kris was ‘What is she doing with you?’. It seems the closer you are as a friend to someone the more of a bastard you need to be to them. In all honesty though they were a perfect fit and Kris had never seemed happier. Eventually we all drifted away from Cellcast but the following years were a blur of amazing nights out together, gigs, weddings, poker nights and celebrations.

Kris always seemed to be one step ahead of me with knowing what was ‘cool’ he often shared with me new music I should be listening to, new films I should watch and in later years what stand-up comedians I should check out. It was Kris who introduced me to Louis CK, someone who I now cannot watch without thinking of him. Around this time Kris started writing and performing his own comedy, he was utterly fearless and again showed his talent and determination to try his hand at something. I was only able to see him perform once but his willingness to give things a go will forever be an inspiration to me.

Kris and Lina’s wedding was another example of how perfect their unison was. From the string quartet that played the Cantina Song from Star Wars to the wedding cake made entirely of cheese. They were a couple who were beautifully in sync and totally in love, it radiated from them. I was honoured to be trusted with filming the key moments and took great pleasure piecing together the wedding video, Richard Williams performing perhaps the funniest best man’s speech I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing and touching speeches from both Kris and Lina’s dads, Leslie and Igor. It was testimony to the couple how highly people thought of them.

A few weeks prior we had celebrated the impending wedding by heading to Amsterdam on a stag do that should be used as a blueprint for all stags. It had everything from good food and laughter to drinking and debauchery. The wonderful company with which Kris kept again reflected the sort of guy he was. I remember hazily our flawed efforts to drink the Heineken factory dry on the tour we took that day and the regrettable aftermath of those efforts.

As a couple Kris & Lina were awesome to hang out with, you always knew you would have a good time when seeing them, whether it was watching a gig in Hyde park, heading to a wedding, going to the pub or simply paying a visit to each other’s homes for dinner. Kathryn and I always felt like they were the best times. In recent years we weren’t able to see each other as much and that will perhaps be my biggest regret, but life is a busy complicated thing. We both started families at a similar time and whilst I didn’t see Kris as often in person, we were still in regular contact. Through his photos and his words on social media, it was obvious even from afar how besotted he was with Lina, Mila and Harley and they are who my thoughts are with now.

Kris was my friend, my partner in crime, my brother. It is impossible to think that we won’t have any more adventures together. I don’t think I will ever be able to let him go. He will live on in our memories and through Mila, who I hope one day asks me what kind of man her father was so that I can share with her the story of Kris. Sleep well Mr Tebbs, I love you buddy.

#Kris

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