1 Like
I know we’ve a fair few people on this forum that are big fans of this collection of talent.
Ianucci, Coogan, Morris, Baynham, Schneider, Front, McKeegan, Marber, Lee and Herring.
All started here, including Alan Partridge’s first appearances. They’ve re-used bits of this in other shows they’ve done. This is comedy genius from the first sentence.
5 Likes
A Sotonians fave, is done up big style by Johnny Vegas doing a Northern @saintbletch . Stay on board until the end 
3 Likes
I remember listening to this. It’s pretty much a template now for modern comedy. Armando Ianucci is probably the driving force behind all the talent.
Blimey, this guy just gets more and more abstruse.
My youngest son came home yesterday and announced he’d had sausages for lunch. this prompted me to remark…
3 Likes
I’ve been watching two comics almost exclusively in the last three weeks. The first is a Sotonians favourite, the inestimable Stewart Lee. His evolution into the comic he is now is pretty impressive, but easily explainable. His new comic creation, which he insists is a separate character, just doesn’t give a fuck about being liked. His younger incarnation, whether it was him or not, did a bit. One of the only performers still following the Lenny Bruce writer auteur model (even Frankie Boyle uses writers, according to him), his shows are excellent. I also really like his side gig as an interviewer. His chats with Alexei Sayle and Alan Moore are well worth checking out.
The other chap would be Doug Stanhope, someone my best mate (sorry @fatso ) put me onto because he knew I loved Bill Hicks. We went to see him live on the day Leicester came back to draw 2-2 at St. Marys. Both my best mate and Doug himself said that he was nearing the end of his career, and that he wasn’t as hardcore as he was before. He was good when we saw him. His early stuff is bloody excellent though, raw, angry, drunken genius. Charlie Brooker had him on his shows.
I think Hicks would have loved the pair of them.
I’m having difficulty thinking of a better video which reconciles 70s and 90s comedy quite so nicely.
Peter Cook and Chris Morris, ladies and gentlemen.
1 Like
3 Likes
My love for Bob grows each time I listen to him.
Peter Beardsley from Athletico Mince
Early version…voice not as good as more recent stuff but the story is something else
Better voice…Peter tells jokes
Peter explain the racist bullying
4 Likes
Peter’s wife is brutal
3 Likes
Just started listening to Athletico Mince. It’s funny as fuck. I love Bob’s tumbleweed jokes and Andy’s reaction to them
Started cracking up in the office today while listening to an episode. Bob said he was selling his vacuum cleaner because it was just picking up dust.
Seeing Mark Thomas tonight at a charity gig he has set up with Robin Ince, Bridgit Christie and Daniel Kitson . Should be good.
Saw Bill Bailey last week and Ed Byrne both very good
Oh - hello by the way , thought I’d pop back 
8 Likes
Pop back? Pop back!! WhereTF have you been lad…tarry a while. 
1 Like
Sounds like a great gig.
Good to have back, hope you stick around.
2 Likes
I saw him in 2015 at The Lowry in Manchester. I went with my best mate (sorry @fatso . for both mentioning a best mate and creating a culture where people can call others best mates) , swerving that Leicester game where we drew 2-2 after being 2-0 up. My mate had an app on his phone which beeped every time a goal in the game went in. “Comeback kings”, I remarked. He’s not forgiven me for that remark to this day.
Anyways, Stanhope. When we saw him, the best mate and Doug himself both told me that he was on the way out, that this was a money raising tour, a bit of a Greatest Hits.
In the time since, I’ve come to see him as one of the two spiritual successors to Bill Hicks, whether they like it or not. The other is Stewart Lee. Stanhope is much much closer, having that American and almost eternally drunken persona, but Lee has that same questioning eye. He just focuses it in on much much smaller areas, and delivers. Both expect their audiences to dislike what they’re saying, both have material pre-worked in anticipation of the controversy they’re going to cause, of which Lee is the undoubted master.
For me, comedy genius has always been about being able to present a different point of view, say something true, impart a couple of values and make people laugh at the same time. Hicks was better physically and politically, Stanhope is probably the best observational comedian I’ve seen (largely because people forget that he is one) while Lee can plough the minutiae of any little thing while expressing utter contempt.
2 Likes