What a man. (What a woman!) A brilliant brand of knowing, deadpan humour.
The joke of his that comes immediately to my mind is from the first UK outing of Edna Everage, a very long time before the Damehood; in confident cultural-tourist-housewife mode, reporting back to her suburban friends. She's standing in Parliament Square with St Stephen's Tower looming in the background:
"And here's me with one of those big clocks they have here"
Right up there in the Peter Cook category of someone that (almost) everyone loved and admired, despite the sharp edges. We need them. RIP
ND
13 comments:
Oh yes indeed. Reminds me of when comedians were funny. Seems a long time back. Lils pointed me to this interview with KD Lang...
"When did you first realise you were Canadian?..." :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW7HLqOgM20
We saw his last one man show. He'd become a sweet man; we had been hoping to go to the next. Vale.
@Elby: thank you, what a wonderful clip, another brilliant price of BH tightrope walking !
I'll second that. Thank you, Elby; I'm waiting to (try to) get an emergency appointment with my dentist and that video was the first laugh I've had in two days. God bless Barry Humphries.
Who have you seen live, possums? Dame Edna? Frankie Howerd? Billy Connolly? Ken Dodd? Friends of ours said that Dodd was so funny that people were in pain from laughing - including them.
I think the funniest I've seen live were (i) the Pythons, and (ii) Rowan Atkinson: lovely stuff but not a challenge to the delicious Dame.
Many years ago I went on an office outing (late seventies I think). The star turn was Stan Boardman, famous from the standup comedy shows on TV for his stuff about "the Geeeermans" I went thinking (basically) ohh shit, I don't need this. He's not funny. Within two minutes of his coming on stage I was completely helpless laughing; within 10, I had tears streaming down my face and my intercostal muscles were cramping.
I'm sure it must be a state similar to mass hysteria, but I was exhausted from laughing my the time his set ended. Couple of years later went to another "do" where the turn was Tom O'Connor. Similar result.
Never saw Connolly, but I had a load of the LPs (as they were then).
The Barry McKenzie cartoon strip and two feature films were amazingly incorrect even for the early 1970s.
Elby - was KD Lang wearing a fat suit for the interview, or is she really that shape?
Modern 'comedians' leave me cold, but there was always something to laugh at with Dame Edna.
Barry started the Melbourne Comedy Festival with the top award being a "Barry". In 2018 they changed the name of the award due to his "transphobia". His crime? To stick up for JK Rowling.
Extraordinarily funny man.
Never saw him. But I'm liking him already.
Trailer for the first film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQDCnrtYmQs
Bazza holds his own
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlMuAuZ6DS8
I dunno.
A straight man doing a parody of a trans ?
Leaves a sour taste.
(sarc)
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