R.I.P. Humph

Humphrey Lyttelton: Jazz great, master of the double entendre, a man who worked almost til the day he died. If I can die half as active as him I'll die a happy man.

It's all about me

Normally I wouldn't approve of blatant whoring for comments, but sod it, it's my birthday, so tell me how great I am. I'm off to the seaside. Here's a video including George Formby's little known version of Subterranean Homesick Blues, in celebration of the fact that I got a ukulele*:





*Although as any fule kno, George Formby didn't play the uke, he played the banjolele.

Separated at birth?

Send in the clowns

It's every coulrophobic's least favourite day, Red Nose Day. One of those occasions where we fill ourselves with that squirming, embarrassed, enforced jollity so peculiar to the British. A day of desperately unfunny "humour", all because apparently we can't be relied upon to help out worthy causes unless gurning celebrities tell us to.

The thing is, the charities that benefit from it are all Good Things and worthy of support. I just can't help thinking, why can't we just, you know, give the money? Then we'd be both helping those who need it, and sparing ourselves hours of light entertainment hell.

Anyway, to prove I'm not a heartless curmudgeon (even though I clearly am), I shall suggest that you buy this book, all the profits of which go to Comic Relief.

Stewart Lee - 90s Comedian

Once upon a time, we lived in the 90s. it was a fairly nondescript time - the Pixies had split up, and I'd left university and gone on the dole. Fortunately there were one or two things to cheer us up, one of which was Lee and Herring's Fist of Fun, which began on Radio 1, then transferred to BBC 2, then was inexplicably taken off air. It was superceded by This Morning With Richard Not Judy, another slice of comic genius from Rich and Stew that ran for 2 series on Sunday mornings before also being inexplicably removed from our screens.

Stewart Lee's profile plummeted for a few years, before he re-emerged as librettist and director for Jerry Springer - The Opera, which began in a tiny theatre in East London, and ended up a high profile West End hit, and the focus for raving fundamentalist Christians. Some of these experiences formed the basis for Lee's last stand-up show, which has just come out on DVD. I went to see this show in London in December 2005, and it was absolutely brilliant, although also uncomfortable, which was due to the provocative nature of the last part of the set especially, but also to the fact that at the time I was sat next to my Catholic sister in law. (I also managed, through a combination of trying to say too many things at once and being pissed, to make an utter arse of myself in front of Stew after the show, but that's another story.) Suffice to say the finale to the show is a story involving Jesus that is unlikely to find favour with those of a devoutly Christian bent.

"But what could this tale possibly be, that is so controversial?" I hear you ask. Well, you can find out by buying the DVD. Buy it. It's a masterful and thought-provoking piece of stand-up, with some important points to make about censorship, freedom of speech and the right to offend. And it's only a tenner. Go on, buy it.