You May Not Have Heard Of... Laura Carr!

Not only is she one of the funniest, most likeable stand-ups on the circuit at the moment, but Laura Carr is also super pretty (yes, I'm shallow). She's on Twitter @lauracarrface and makes me smile at least once in a while with her tweets. Check her out below, performing at the Bracknell Drama Club's Stand-Up Evening. I think I love her.

You May Not Have Heard Of... Alex Horne!

Here's Alex Horne performing at The Comedy Store. A master of quiet chuckles... His World Record Attempt to become the world's oldest man is also a feat of endurance few of us would ever dare to attempt.

You May Not Have Heard Of... Josie Long!

Another stand-up great! Here's Josie Long, from her show Trying Is Good, talking about Fancy Dress... I have to say I have bit of a crush on her!

You May Not Have Heard Of... Daniel Kitson!

Here's one of the finest stand-ups ever, Daniel Kitson, at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala 2003 - hope you enjoy him! If you get a chance to see him live you should do. 

Stewart Lee - St David's Hall, Cardiff. March 4th 2011

You know before I begin that this little review will be biased and enthusiastic. You know full well that Stewart Lee is one of my "heroes". You also know, if you know who Stew is and what he does, that he's not everybody's cup of tea...

I went to see his latest show, Vegetable Stew, with two friends; one older than me and one younger. Neither really enjoyed the show very much, as far as I can tell. I, however, believed it to be hilarious. The show is a "work in progress" for a show which, due to the postponement of the show show in October, has already been filmed for BBC2. 

Tackling charity and government in his trademark repetitive, plodding, pause-filled, rhythmic style Stew once again takes pot shots at some of the most unusual victims. His cynical views on Russell Howard's agenda behind his charity work take the audience on a giggle-some guilt-ride which much of the room, including me, found side-splitting. A Stewart Lee audience is a wonderfully interesting thing - it has pockets of different types of people. Stew is the embodiment of the saying "you can't please all of the people all of the time". But Stew doesn't want to! He wants to leave people behind and have them feel as though they need to catch up.

As with most of Stew's shows he loses the audience with some very dangerous material about the IRA, a wonderful story about his days at Oxford where he became David Cameron's friend "for a few weeks" and crisps. Lots of crisps. It's a method that Stew - and only Stew - can really pull off. Losing and audience and winning them back is what makes Stewart Lee such a unique performer. There is nobody quite like him out there, even now, even after his twenty-odd years in the business. I laughed all night - I smiled inwardly at just how much respect I have for this man. He really is an inspiration. He's my Ted Chippington. 

But he's not everyone's idea of what a comedian should be. Michael McIntyre he is not. He is, you could say, the antidote to the comedy we have thrust upon us now. Stewart Lee's material is comedy as cooked by Heston Blumenthal - he's an artist. He deconstructs each and every nuance of his own routine, informing the audience in advance that he has few jokes and much of his material simply doesn't work! But it does. So well. 

The show was incredible. And, as usual, Stew hung about after the show to meet the crowd and sign books and DVDs. They say you should never meet your heroes. Well, I'm so happy that I did!

"I Noticed This Hilarious Occurrence The Other Day..."

Comedy is evolving. Racism and Mother-In-Law jokes are out - unless you're a cretin. It seems that the "character comedy" of the late '80s/early '90s is also out. Observational comedy has been the front-runner of Live Stadium Comedy for a while now. It's not a bad thing, in itself. But that while is dragging a bit, for me.

The King of Observational Comedy today, it seems, is Michael McIntyre. Now, I don't like McIntyre. I have nothing against him, as a person. I've even found myself chuckling at his "observations" on the odd occasion. But I wouldn't pay money to see him live, mainly because everything he has ever done happened first on Live At The Apollo on BBC1, about a year before it was toured.

And last night, on BBC1, Michael McIntyre: Hello Wembley! was on. Now, as far as I know, he hasn't released a Live DVD this year. Hello Wembley! is the most recent one. It was released last Autumn. I know people who have bought this DVD for their relatives for Christmas this year. 

How disappointed would you be, as a present-buyer, to find out your Auntie (for whom you have bought Hello Wembley! this Christmas, since she saw his Live and Laughing show on Paramount recently) has watched her soon-to-be Christmas Gift just three weeks and a day before you give it to her. I'd want to cry!! She's your Aunt, for heaven's sake! She only ever watches DVDs at Christmas, when there's a special Corrie on later than usual! That's a waste of £15 right there! I guarantee that DVD will remain in its plastic wrapper until September, when your Aunt sees his NEW show (which you've bloody bought her for Christmas that year) broadcast on BBC1 and remembers she likes him.

It spoils Christmas for lazy present-buyers. Michael McIntyre spoils family Christmastime the country over! The problem, I've decided, with Mick (as I feel I can call him, since he spoiled my Christmas) is that he's too successful. He's too "on TV". But he's quite funny, to give him credit. His bit about condiments made me giggle. Oh, God! What am I becoming?

I ♥ Josie Long

The old saying, by idiots, goes that there are no funny women. Which is bollocks. There are loads of funny women and there has been for years. But, for me, the cleverest and funniest of all is from right now. Her name is Josie Long. 

If you've never heard of Josie then here are the basics. Born in 1982, Josie grew up in Orpington in London. She first came to prominence when she won a BBC New Comedy Award aged just seventeen - she'd been performing Stand-Up since she was fourteen years old. She studied English Language and Literature at Oxford and while there she set up and ran experimental comedy clubs. While she was studying, says Wikipedia, she gave up Stand-Up to concentrate on her degree.

She clearly keeps wonderful company, too, as she presents a wonderful podcast called Utter Shambles (linked in the sidebar), with comedian-supreme Robin Ince. She also supported Stewart Lee on his 2005 tour. She's also a proper brainy clever clogs who may only be second to Prof Brian Cox in terms of enthusiasm when talking about science and the universe. Her Radio4 show All The Planets' Wonders (I'm not really sure where to put the apostrophe in that one, but I'm sure Josie would) is one of the most beautiful series I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. The shows are on Youtube, but you'll have to search for them yourselves.

Since 2006, Josie has toured a live show almost every year, covering most countries of the world who would actually be able to understand English. And her shows are incredible. I've seen her once before, on her Trying Is Good tour in 2008. I plan to see her whenever she gets to Cardiff again. She recently had to cancel a few shows around my area following a nasty car accident in which she "almost died", so says her on Twitter. OH, yeah. She's on Twitter too... Here she is.

I would urge you all to dig out as many bits of Josie Long stuff you can, be it her on The Bubble, her on You Have Been Watching or her incredible appearance with Stephen Fry on Never Mind The Buzzcocks. And especially see her live if you get the chance. She really is a wonderful, funny, warm and razor-sharp comic. I heart her.

"TV, Man, How Low Is It Gonna Sink?"

So asks Frankie Boyle, while talking about The Jeremy Kyle Show on 'Tramadol Nights', the new stand-up/sketch show from Scotland's most ignorant prick. The answer, Frankie, is "not much lower than your piece of shit show". 

It seems that there's an audience for this shit, though. Look at the cretins laughing at the homophobia, racism, paedophilia, ignorance, offence, uncalled-for crudity and general tasteless tripe, those sitting in the audience. I hope they all burn to death in an electrical fire. Not really, obviously. But I don't see how the same old jokes (with little more than the names of the victim changed) performed on a set almost as unattractive as the content can last very long.

Where are the idiots who complain about Jerry Springer: The Opera, EastEnders and the like when there's something actually worth complaining about? It seemed to be a string of insults (they couldn't even be called jokes) interlaced with "sketches" about gays, gays, black people, gays, ugly people, mentally ill people and gays, all of which were so derogatory that even I, someone who lets lots go when it comes to comedy causing offence, was left gawping at the screen with the question "where do I complain?" sitting on my tongue. There is no doubt in my mind this will make headlines. And for all the wrong reasons Boyle will be shot into the spotlight again. For a man who has built a career around being abusive for the sake of it, complaints will only be good publicity for this show. And the thousands who are out there, like frightened school-kids smoking in the park when they should be in Maths class - an audience of people laughing at their nerve and at their "bravery" at being un-PC in today's delicate TV climate than at the shit they allow to pass as comedy, will flock.

It isn't even an original format that unfortunately oversteps the mark. As Boyd Hilton so perfectly put it on Twitter "It's as if Frankie Boyle watched Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle and thought "I can do this, but turn it into a crime against humanity". 

The stand-up/sketch show has been done so well in recent years (Stewart Lee being the classiest and Russell Watson's Good News being the most heart-felt) that it seems illogical that Boyle's show even got off the starting blocks. There seemed to be no through-line to the episode, no reason for one sketch to follow another or for the interspersed stand-up segments to be where they were, or about what they were about - other than "ha ha they're bumming!". It was a big, steaming sack of comedy shit. Boyle went all out on the gratuitous offensive content in episode one, presumably because he also thinks this won't be around long enough to spread the load. I remember when Frankie Boyle was "the one who went too far" on Mock The Week; he was almost bearable then. It was sort of refreshing to have someone say something they shouldn't. But now the joke is old. It's worn out. There is no humour in his arrogant, vicious abuse any longer. 

I could go on and on slating this piece of shit all night long. But I won't. I'll leave you with Frankie's parting words to the audience of his new show, a show that will need all the support it can possible get. "Goodbye, Father-Fuckers!"

Nice.

Comedy And Sharing - A Laid-Back Look?

DISCLAIMER: Before I start, I'm not accusing anyone of anything, here. I'm not saying anyone stole anything or that anyone's material is better/more worth stealing than anyone else's. There are no accusations or any kind of blame being applied here. The following is simply an observation, or series of observations, in support of a comedian of whom I am massive fan (yawn, sorry). The following is not very well structured, or very eloquently worded, but here we go:

In the words of Stewart Lee, "there has always been a tradition of, sort of, main stream acts stealing our jokes and passing them off as their own" which I suppose, is something that just happens. 

Other than taking the material-thief to task over such instances there's an element of "deal with it" about the whole thing. Quite recently, on Twitter, Keith Chegwin was accused of stealing other comics' material and passing it off as "either his own work, or traditional gags minted by long-dead comics". Citing the age-old "intellectual property ownership blind-spot" argument. Indeed, I've heard jokes on TV or at stand-up shows and retold them without crediting the source myself. I do not, however, have armies of "fans" who give me a virtual back-pat for my wonderful sense of humour. Recently, I've noticed a number of different instances of jokes that would normally not be heard by mainstream audiences, written by some of the most influential comics, retold credit-free on Live At The Apollo and the like.

I'm going to use Stewart Lee (surprise, surprise) as an example of how easy it is for a joke to be seen as stolen and/or misused. Now, Stew is revered among his peers as "the comedian's comedian" - and rightly so! He has written for the most unlikely of now-mainstream acts. 

Lee, in fact, directed The Mighty Boosh's Noel Fielding and Julian Barrett in their first major stage show, Arctic Boosh, which has remained the basis for their entire chemistry as an act. The point; they aren't strangers to each other. I was watching Live At The Apollo a while back, the one Noel Fielding was on as a solo performer, and he said something that stopped me enjoying his routine, since it distracted me so much. I forget exactly what the material was, but that isn't really relevant. What's relevant is, when one of his jokes was laughed at before the punchline arrived, he used a like something like "now you're making your own jokes, it's like psychic comedy! I can come out and you can make the jokes yourselves in your heads. That way, if you didn't like the show it's your fault for being shit". A clever and funny line, no doubt ad-libbed. 

It would have been funnier if the ad-lib was Noel's. If you know your Stewart Lee, then you'll all know of the bit he does about the possibility of watching a split-screen broadcast of Charles and Camilla's Wedding/The Pope's Funeral where he delivers a feed-line, which the audience use to guess the punchline. 

Stew uses the same line as Noel, some years before that episode of Live At The Apollo, about the audience being responsible for not enjoying the show if they are making their own punchlines up before he delivers them. It's a great - and, more importantly, written - line that belongs to Stew! Now, it's not as structured as many jokes out there, and the way in which it was used was slightly different. But it is, essentially, the same line. 

Again, when watching Dara O'Briain's latest stand-up DVD he focusses on an audience member who is illegally recording the gig on his mobile phone in plain sight. He says to the kid filming, "there are 8 cameras in this room, it's being recorded for a DVD". Not a joke. Just a line. However, in Stew's new DVD, filmed before Dara's, he also has a run-in with a fella recording the gig. Stew, too, uses the line, "there are 6 cameras here, mate, it's being recorded for a DVD!" - similar, but not exactly the same. Again, not a joke. Just a line. It's very difficult to apply ownership to a line like that... it's not FUNNY in itself, it's all in the delivery. Also, from the same show - but again, in a completely different context - both comics explore the social relationship and power-structure between fairytale favourites, The Three Bears. It's not theft. It's very unlikely that either comedian is even aware of the others' material* or if they are, are not looking at it as being the same in any way. 

But it's not the first time that Stewart Lee has (allegedly) had material "borrowed and adapted" for mainstream audiences. This link offers a very interesting discussion on the similarities between Stew's work and other comics - comics who are better than this - like Gervais, Patrick Kielty and Jack Whitehall. The latter - and I swear this is true! - was on some show a while ago making jokes about being accused of material theft; he made some funny remarks, all his own! Then, with no degree of irony AT ALL, he spewed out a joke that is definitely a Frank Skinner gag! 

I can't remember the actual gag, I'm afraid, which I'm aware makes my argument less than credible. But my point is, even when caught mainstream comics "borrow" material, deliberately or not - it must be difficult to remember if you've had an idea yourself, (especially when they happen as fast as they must do in the mind of Jack Whitehall☨). It happens. It will always happen and it's reached a point where it is now largely ignored. I like Dara. I like Noel. I like Gervais. I also like Stewart Lee, I don't know if I've ever mentioned that... 

But, you know what? Even Stew uses jokes that aren't his. Even Stew puts jokes in his shows that he didn't write. In fact, the very first TWO jokes in the very first episode of Comedy Vehicle are not his. But what Stew does, as anyone should, is credit the people who wrote the gags openly. The end-credits of said episode feature the credits "Two Book Jokes by Simon Munnery" and, in a later episode, Stew even credits his own wife with providing a joke he uses. That is how to use others' material. As a Gentleman should. 

Nothing I write will change any of this, of course. But hopefully one day more and more people will take notice of the comics who don't necessarily reach wide, TV audiences. Comics like Stew, Richard Herring, Josie Long, Robin Ince, Milton Jones and countless others who, if you know your stuff, you will see having jokes borrowed left, right and centre by the more "mainstream" names. If we all go to see one of these acts live then the next time we hear one of their jokes repeated on The Royal Variety Performance or something, then we'll think "sorry mate, we've heard it done before, better, by the fella who wrote it originally!".

* Although, they both frequent the same venues and "comedy festivals" so probably are aware of the stuff.
☨ This IS irony! This IS a Stewart Lee joke (originally concerning Joe Pasquale). Clever, aren't I?