Nige resurrects a comic monster... The other day I found my mind turning to the Lancastrian comedian Frank Randle. I've been uneasily fascinated with this monster of comedy ever since reading King Twist: A Portrait of Frank Randle by - of all people - Jeff Nuttall, whose Bomb Culture was on ... Read More...
Comedy
Well-loved DJ and fundraiser Kenny Bovril passed away peacefully in his sleep last year. However, a private document, discovered only after his death, has fallen into the hands of Noseybonk. It reveals a dark secret hidden for decades… Pamela Smethwick, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my ... Read More...
To Portsmouth, birthplace of Charles Dickens, Christopher Hitchens and runner Roger Black. Also Isembard Kingdom Brunel, Peter Sellers and Hollyoaks actor Marcus Patric. Also, me. We moved away from Southsea when I was eleven but naturally roots remain because I was a happy child there. Roaming around my formative haunts ... Read More...
Nige recommends the 'autobiography' of one of our greatest thespians... 'Acting is the supreme test of physical and mental courage. It is like climbing Everest single-handed in the dark. It is like painting the Sistine Chapel with a shark on your back. It is like being asleep on a helter-skelter with ... Read More...
Ever thought you could have a go at stand-up comedy? Well this guy (who wishes to remain anonymous) actually went ahead and did it. Here he explains why he decided to brave the audiences of Cardiff - and describes the ecstatic highs and excruciating lows he was already experienced in his fledging ... Read More...
Nige pays tribute to a nearly-forgotten comic whose work seems remarkably contemporary... Under Mahlerman's Sunday post on Unserious Music, Worm mentions the once very famous and popular Gerard Hoffnung. That name took me right back to my boyhood. One of my uncles had a recording of Hoffnung's legendary stand-up (and sway ... Read More...
Brit watches "an exercise in petty catharsis by an embarrassed left-liberal media establishment" and asks why satire isn't funny any more... The recent 50th birthday of Private Eye, Britain's leading satirical magazine, was marked by an avalanche of glowing media tributes. But for Christopher Booker, its first editor and still an ... Read More...
From a vantage point in today's Russia, Scottish-born Daniel Kalder reflects on the butts of jokes, past and present. Although I am still in my mid-thirties I am often struck by how much the world has changed in my lifetime. For instance, I remember when it was acceptable to make jokes about ... Read More...
Our friends at Slightly Foxed (the real readers' quarterly - buy a subscription now!) have once again kindly allowed The Dabbler to dip into its rich archives. We have handpicked this gem for you from the Autumn 09 edition, in which author Andrew Martin looks at the 'Upmanship' books of Stephen Potter... I first encountered ... Read More...
For years hence there will be gnarled Geordies huddled over schooners of broon and Red Bull, claiming they were there in the auditorium when Sid Waddell uttered the immortal phrase: His eyes are bulging like the belly of a hungry chaffinch.* And their wide-eyed children’s children will be perched on their ... Read More...
