On Comedy

Just a few Sunday Morning thoughts on the nature of comedy. One of the problems I sort of see for a comedian is that once a joke is told it's out there, it's done, so sometimes you will see the great comedians who actually tell stories, to which there may or may not be a punchline , but the journey provides the fun.

I am lucky enough to be casually acquainted with some truly great comedians John Scott , Gavin Webster , Louise Young , Rahul Kohli and Simon Donald.

All these people can talk , but obviously put a lot of work into what they say and I have seen and chatted with all of them at The Stand and various places in Newcastle.

Sometimes comedy can only work as the written word such as the Jerry Saltz one which you can see to the right. I've tried verbalising this and it just doesn't work , and the really good thing about this is that it makes your mind think. 

When a comedian is live they have to keep this up all the way through , otherwise they die on stage.

But on writing this I am thinking that once you hear a joke then that's it , but it isn't. A good comedian you can watch tell the same jokes over and over , but really the jokes and one liners provide a framework for the act to be delivered.

Though not the same it's like going to see a band who's songs you like. They will play the same songs but maybe in a different order, embellish the style or strip it down to give you a different experience.

With TV Comedy I can watch "Black Books" , "Father Ted" and "The IT Crowd" over and over, "Fawlty Towers" I find more difficult but it is still dunny and always loved the rearrangement to to hotel name at the start of each episode. Again it's a pleasure for me and the characters being total enjoyment.

So while I could take an excerpt from a TV show or one of the acts I listed, I will just link through and their names and share the wonderful "Comedy" by Shack with you , because it is a great song.

Early To Bed

Just a short post to say how good it is to go to bed early and actually sleep well. That sort of happened last night night and I've woken up to bright sunshine and blue skies, so even though it's Monday and I have to go to work and I have a hospital appointment for some cardio scan, although I think this is just due to the fact that I mentioned that sometimes when walk up inclines I get a bit of tightness in my chest. It's not anything that I consider being a problem but doctors know better than me mostly.

Chris Hawkins has the entertaining Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy (they did the theme to 'Father Ted' among other things)  talking about Dublin as well as playing songs from the new album "Office Politics".

Though I slept well I did wake from some complex dreaming and very often if that happens and I decide to have ten more minutes I fal back into the dream often to find out what happens, which is actually irrelevant  because most of my dreams make no sense at all.


This is post 1957 and 1957 is the year in which I was born, so I found Lonnie Donegan performing two of hits hits from that year "Cumberland Gap" and "Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O" which is always a good way to start a Monday.

Have a good one.