The Rough Guide to British Cult Comedy

290 Pages·2006·6.73 MB·English

by  Julian Hall

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(cid:75) Homing in on the last three decades, The Rough Guide to British (cid:75)
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(cid:62) Cult Comedy covers the gamut of UK comedy talent, showcasing (cid:62)
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(cid:75) the cultiest comedians and the most side-splitting shows. (cid:75)
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(cid:73) It covers: (cid:73)
The story: From the rise of alternative comedy to surrealist sketches and
Having a the triumph of reality comedies such as The Office
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laugh? No? . . . Cult heroes: 50 stars of live and TV comedy, from 1980s legend Harry (cid:104)
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Enfield to current headliner Ross Noble, as well as circuit stalwarts and
then you need (cid:106)
underappreciated heroes of hilarity (cid:95)
this book (cid:105)
Cult TV: 50 sitcoms, sketch shows and mockumentaries that broke the (cid:94)
mould, among them The Royle Family and The Fast Show (cid:22)
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The transatlantic connection: American influences on British comedy, (cid:107)
from Richard Pryor to Bill Hicks and Cheers to Curb Your Enthusiasm (cid:98)
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Comedy Cornucopia: Best comedy venues, recommended DVDs and CDs, (cid:57)
tips of the trade (how to deal with hecklers) and much, much more
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The Rough guide To
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Julian Hall is comedy critic of The Independent newspaper. British Cult
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Comedy
Other Rough Guides include:
Cover photo: Ricky Gervais at the
Make Trade Fair live concert,
2004 © Corbis
Published by Rough Guides Julian hall
Distributed by The Penguin Group
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The Rough guide To
British Cult
Comedy
www.roughguides.com
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Credits
The Rough Guide to British Cult Comedy Rough Guides Reference
Editors: Paul Simpson, Andrew Lockett Series editor: Mark Ellingham
Layout: Jessica Subramanian, Tracy Hopkins, Ruth Tidball Editors: Peter Buckley, Duncan Clark,
Picture research: Andrew Lockett Tracy Hopkins, Sean Mahoney,
Proofreading: David Price Matthew Milton, Joe Staines, Ruth Tidball
Indexing: Tracy Hopkins, Ruth Tidball Director: Andrew Lockett
Production: Aimee Hampson
Publishing Information
This first edition published October 2006 by The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure
Rough Guides Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL the accuracy and currency of all information in The Rough
345 Hudson St, 4th Floor, New York 10014, USA Guide To British Cult Comedy; however, they can accept no
Email: [email protected] responsibility for any loss or inconvenience sustained by any
reader as a result of its information or advice.
Distributed by the Penguin Group:
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without
Penguin Putnam, Inc., 375 Hudson Street, NY 10014, USA permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, passages in reviews.
Victoria 3124, Australia
© Julian Hall
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 190 Eglinton Avenue East, Toronto,
288 pages; includes index
Ontario, M4P 2YE, Canada
Penguin Group (New Zealand), 67 Apollo Drive, Mairongi Bay, A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Auckland 1310, New Zealand Library
Printed in Italy by LegoPrint S.p.A ISBN 13: 978-1-84353-618-5
ISBN 10: 1-84353-618-8
Typeset in Bembo and Helvetica Neue to an original design by
Henry Iles 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
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The Rough guide To
British Cult
Comedy
by
Julian Hall
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Contents
Introduction vi
The Comedy Story:
an alternative history 1
The Icons:
the faces of comedy 21
Keith Allen 24 Rhod Gilbert 51
Bill Bailey 25 Dave Gorman 54
Adam Bloom 27 Boothby Graffoe 55
Arnold Brown 29 Malcolm Hardee 56
Brendon Burns 31 Hattie Hayridge 59
Ed Byrne 32 John Hegley 60
Alan Carr 34 Harry Hill 62
Julian Clary 36 Sean Hughes 65
Ian Cognito 38 Reginald D. Hunter 66
Omid Djalili 40 Lee Hurst 68
Jenny Eclair 41 Eddie Izzard 70
Ben Elton 44 Milton Jones 71
Harry Enfield 46 Phil Kay 72
Lee Evans 48 Daniel Kitson 74
Graham Fellows (John Shuttleworth) 49 Mark Lamarr 75
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contents
Gary Le Strange 76 Hovis Presley 92
Stewart Lee 78 Reeves and Mortimer 94
Andrew Maxwell 79 Jerry Sadowitz 95
Paul Merton 80 Alexei Sayle 97
The Mighty Boosh 82 Arthur Smith 98
Dylan Moran 84 Jim Tavare 100
Simon Munnery 85 Johnny Vegas 102
Al Murray 87 Tim Vine 103
Robert Newman 89 Mark Watson 105
Ross Noble 91 Nick Wilty 106
The Canon:
50 essential comedy shows 109
Funny Business:
the craft of comedy 161
Atlantic Crossings:
the American influence 181
Geography Lessons:
comedy around Britain 215
A Comedy Store:
the information 245
picture credits 257
index 259

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Introduction
Comedian Andrew Maxwell, the triumphant vic- the major sources of laughter-making geographi-
tor of Channel 4’s reality show Kings Of Comedy, cally, introducing the comedy scene in the major
once told me he especially enjoyed performing cities and charting the places – David Brent’s
for people who had never been to a comedy club Slough, Alan Partridge’s Norwich, the Royle
before. For me, it’s hard to believe that, what family’s Manchester – that have inspired comics.
with the explosion in comedy since the 1980s, By offering various snapshots over the last
anyone over the age of 25 has not yet experi- thirty years, this book aims to inform the bud-
enced one of the UK’s many comedy nights. But ding enthusiast of the comedians and shows that
everyone has to have a first time. Hopefully, this have made each successive generation laugh.
book will help many more comedy virgins lose But no nation is a comedy island. So this book
their innocence. acknowledges the transatlantic trade in influence,
For the uninitiated, especially those in London, with Christopher Guest’s love of British comedy
there is a serious amount of choice out there, paving the way for his seminal mockumentary
though every comedy night will inevitably be a movie This Is Spinal Tap and Bill Hicks finding
mixed bag. The trick is not to be deterred by one that Britain, officially more uptight than the US,
bad experience and to forget your preconcep- welcomed his abrasive comedy.
tions. Camp comic Alan Carr, who happens to To give as rounded a picture of comedy as
be gay and has based his act on this fact, told me possible, this book explores the craft of writing
he was once introduced to a friend of a friend as and presenting stand-up and creating sketches
a comedian, only to be greeted with: “Oh I hate and sitcoms. And, because this is a book about
that Graham Norton!” To which Alan justifiably comedy, some funny stories have been thrown in
responded: “Well, come and see me first!” for good measure, the kinds of things that only
To miss out on the live circuit is to miss out happen to a comic – or someone watching a
on the origins of many of the nation’s best-loved comic.
television comedies such as The Young Ones, The In writing this book, the connections
League Of Gentlemen, Phoenix Nights, Black Books between performers have proved endlessly fas-
and The Fast Show. So at the core of this book is cinating. You could probably draw a line from
the Icons chapter, profiling the most influential each comedian every which way showing many
comedians to have emerged in Britain in the last fewer than six degrees of separation between
25 years, many of whom regularly play live. In them. This book will tell you which comic
true Rough Guides spirit, we have mapped out legends started out as impressionists, which fop-
vi
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introduction
pish film star could have been better known as and there’s more to TV comedy than Little
a live comedian (okay, you squeezed it out of Britain, funny as that can be. With a thriving
me, it was Hugh Grant) and which comic was live scene and more comics and programmes
rendered utterly helpless as he was laughed off released on DVD than ever, there’s never been
the stage by demonic hecklers. a better time to explore new ways of making
But the main aim is to increase your enjoy- yourself laugh.
ment of comedy, in person or at home. The
comedy business is full of underrated comics Julian Hall, 2006
Acknowledgements
I would first like to thank Joseph Espiner and Haynes, Robin Ince, Stewart Lee, Dave Gorman,
Daniel Thomas for their significant contributions Arthur Smith, Nick Revell, Jim Tavare, Russell
to this book, made while they were in full-time Howard, Charlie Higson, Simon Nye, Danny
employment. Thanks also to my editorial team of Robins, Chris Addison, Simon Munnery, Richard
Paul Simpson and Andrew Lockett. Herring, Alan Carr, Will Smith, Waen Shepherd,
I would also like to thank Daniel Bee, Dan Howard Read, Miles Jupp, Mike Gunn, Chris
Lloyd and Damon Middleton from Avalon for Lynam, Ivor Dembina, Marc Blake, Adam Buxton,
helping to round up a significant amount of infor- Andrew J. Lederer and John Lloyd.
mation. Thanks also to Danny Julian from Off the Naturally I would like to thank my family
Kerb, Paul Sullivan, Fiona Duff, David Burns, Mel – Janice Hall, Rex Hall, Alice Allison, Richard
Broan, Jacqui Shapiro, Richard Bucknall, Nancy and Jennifer Allison – and my friends Katie
Poole, Dr Oliver Double, Hannah Chambers, Espiner and David Palmer. Thanks are due, also, to
Melissa Hall-Smith, Peter Leone, Claire Walker, the following people who helped me write this
Fiona Muir, Andrew Foster, Louis Barfe, Toby book: Lou Campbell, Deborah Agulnik, Elisabeth
Hadoke, Iain Christie, Brenda Gleeson, Mel Froggatt (who runs The Bookshop in Southwell),
Brown and Lesley Simpson. Angela Melis, Ann Restak, Danton Hope, Anna
Thanks to all the comedians who answered Brown, Ria Ulleri, Claire Inness and Geraldine
queries and questionnaires. They include: Natalie Lambe.
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The Comedy Story:
an alternative history
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