It’s a fantastically funny series. If you like Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Flight of the Conchords, Black Books, The Comic Strip Presents…, Extras, The Office, then you’ll like Green Wing.
The Quantum Physicist’s Revenge is a humorous short story written in February 2009.
It is about a quantum physicist who ‘discovers’ proof that God is dead. This annoys one particular deity very much – and He decides to do something about it. The story was first published in Writer’s Muse.
If you’d like to read The Quantum Physicist’s Revenge, then please click on the link below:
The Comic Strip is a loose-knit group of British comedians, known for their television series The Comic Strip Presents…. The core members are Peter Richardson, Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer and Jennifer Saunders, with frequent appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane, Daniel Peacock and Alexei Sayle.
Originally broadcast on Channel 4, the episodes were
Title: Broadcast Date:
Five Go Mad In Dorset
2/11/1982
War
3/1/1983
The Beat Generation
7/1/1983
Bad News Tour
24/1/1983
Summer School
31/1/1983
Five Go Mad On Mescalin
2/11/1983
Dirty Movie
7/1/1984
Susie
14/1/1984
A Fistful Of Traveller’s Cheques
21/1/1984
Gino – Full Story And Pics
28/1/1984
Eddie Monsoon – A Life?
4/2/1984
Slags
11/2/1984
The Bullshitters
3/11/1984
The Supergrass
Movie – 1985
Consuela
1/1/1986
Private Enterprise
2/1/1986
The Strike
20/2/1988
More Bad News
27/2/1988
Mr Jolly Lives Next Door
5/3/1988
The Yob
12/3/1988
Didn’t You Kill My Brother
19/3/1988
Funseekers
26/3/1988
South Atlantic Raiders
1/2/1990
South Atlantic Raiders Part 2
8/2/1990
GLC
15/2/1990
Oxford
22/2/1990
Spaghetti Hoops
1/3/1990
Les Dogs
8/3/1990
Red Nose Of Courage
9/3/1992
The Crying Game
5/5/1992
Wild Turkey
24/12/1992
Detectives On The Edge Of A Nervous Breakdown
22/4/1993
Space Virgins From The Planet Sex
29/4/1993
Queen Of The Wild Frontier
6/5/1993
Gregory – Diary Of A Nutcase
13/5/1993
Demonella
20/5/1993
Jealousy
27/5/1993
Four Men In A Car
12/4/1998
Four Men In A Plane
4/1/2000
The very first Comic Strip Presents… was Five Go Mad in Dorset, which was a parody of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books. Next was War, followed by The Beat Generation, then the classic heavy metal parody Bad News Tour and then the brilliantly observed Summer School. The first three films were written by Peter Richardson and Pete Richens. Bad News Tour was by Adrian Edmondson and Summer School was written by Dawn French.
The second series started with Five Go Mad on Mescalin. Second was Dirty Movie, a brilliant visual comedy from Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall which works well with Rod Melvin’s organ accompaniment. Susie is by Richardson and Richens. A Fistful of Travellers’ Cheques has Rik Mayall collaborating with the core writing team to create a perfect pastiche of the Leone ‘Dollars’ trilogy. Gino is a brilliant film with Keith Allen in the lead. Edmondson’s Eddie Monsoon and Jennifer Saunders Slags close the second series.
The Bullshitters is a parody of the seventies TV detectives The Professionals. Other stand alone episodes at this time were Edmondson’s Private Enterprise and Consuela, a French and Saunders parody of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca.
The next film was The Sugergrass, which was Peter Richardson’s directing debut. Then came The Strike, which was the first of many films to parody Hollywood through films within films of very English political films, in this case a sexing up of the miners’ strike. Next was More Bad News which continues in a similar vein as its predecessor.
Edmondson’s and Mayall’s Mr Jolly Lives Next Door is a prototype of the duo’s sitcom Bottom. Next is Keith Allen’s The Yob which mocks Allen’s own football yob persona and parodies David Cronenberg’s The Fly. This is followed by Alexei Sayle’s Didn’t you Kill my Brother? and Nigel Planer’s Funseekers.
The fourth series saw a move to the BBC and a return to the half hour format. The full ensemble appeared in the two-part South Atlantic Raiders. GLC was a sequel to The Strike with Robbie Coltrane playing Charles Bronson as Ken Livingstone in a story of the abolition of the Greater London Council. Oxford features special guests Lenny Henry and Leslie Philips. Spaghetti Hoops and Les Dogs were next, with the latter been a surreal piece featuring Kate Bush.
Three specials then came from The Comic Strip Presents stable: The Red Nose of Courage, which parodied British politics, with Adrian Edmondson playing John Major. The Crying Game was another Allen/Richardson collaboration which put some spin on the Paul Gascoigne story. Wild Turkey was a Christmas special.
The fifth series started strongly with Allen and Richardson’s Detectives on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown expanding the premise of The Bullshitters to parody all TV detectives with a few song and dance numbers. Space Virgins from Planet Sex was a b-movie pastiche that blended science fiction and James Bond in a way only the Comic Strip team could pull off. Queen of the Wild Frontier saw Richens and Richardson start the move towards straight films. Gregory was a parody of The Silence of the Lambs, whilst Demonella and Jealousy intimated that The Comic Strip Presents had perhaps run its course.
The original cast re-assembled on Channel Four for Four Man in a Car, the success of which was repeated with Four Men in a Plane.
Peter Richardson
You can now get The Comic Strip Presents…The Complete Collection on DVD, although the DVD was released before the last Comic Strip Presents… film Sex Actually was produced. Also missing is Eat the Rich and The Pope Must Die. Perhaps they could be included on the next DVD release of The Comic Strip Presents… The Complete Collection.
Despite the temporary misnomer, and although the bonus documentaries offer very little in the way of insight, one thing that very quickly becomes glaringly obvious is Peter Richardson’s vast – yet somehow still under-rated – talent as an actor, writer and director. The Comic Strip Presents… is clearly his creation. Finally, Julian Temple’s film of the initial stage revue does at least fill in some of the gaps. All in all, this is a nearly-complete, brilliant box set of a truly innovative and very funny TV show.
Here’s a clip of The Comic Strip Presents… team in action:
One of the best plays I’ve ever seen performed is Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot.
The latest production, which stars Sir Ian McKellen as Estragon (Gogo), and Patrick Stewart as Vladimir (Didi), is currently touring the UK.
Simon Callow and Ronald Pickup also star (as Pozzo and Lucky respectively).
This particular production of Waiting For Godot certainly benefits from having such talented actors star in it – for McKellen and Stewart are able to successfully mine Beckett’s rather bleak tragic-comic play for its humorous elements.
During one of the performances, Gogo (played by McKellen) rolled up his trouser legs and took off his shoes. He then walked across the stage with a ministry-of-silly-walks-style gait – and it was obvious that Ian McKellen was enjoying himself immensely. It was at that point that I realized I was watching a Knight of the Realm at work. I suddenly found the whole thing as bizarre and as surreal as anything Samuel Beckett could have dreamed up.
After one of the performances, McKellen and Stewart did a mock-impromptu soft-shoe shuffle. It was all a bit music-hall, but very funny and quite moving, despite that.
The set is amazing – a ruined building in the background and the stage as a piece of waste ground with a single tree growing in it – that’s all there is, but it’s all that’s needed.
One criticism: if there is anything superfluous, it’s the sound effects. They’re not at all necessary and detract a little from the seriousness of the play.
Aside: On the way out of the theatre I heard a 65-ish year old woman with blue hair and a fur coat proclaim: ‘Well, I’ve seen a lot of drama in my time and that was, without doubt, the worst play I’ve ever seen.’
As for me, well I enjoyed the play and the superlative performances immensely. I had a wonderful evening. Waiting For Godot is funny, moving, tragic, serious, flippant and comic. The current production is worth going to see. Don’t miss the opportunity. The quality of the acting alone is worth the price of admission.
I’ve always loved and admired Alfred Jarry’s story The Crucifixion Considered as an Uphill Bicycle Race;
I’ve always loved and admired J G Ballard’s story The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race;
I’ve always wanted to write a satirical short story in which I combined a huge world disaster with a game of concentration, skill and coordination. When 9/11 occurred, darts was the sport that immediately suggested itself. Once I had the flight numbers, the rest was easy.
Bill Hicks was the funniest and profoundest stand-up comedian ever.
Since his death on February 26th, 1994, there has been no other comedian to rival his incisive wit, his cutting, analytical insights and his incredibly funny delivery. He was compared to Lenny Bruce, mostly because his material seriously challenged accepted conventions and mores. He wasn’t really like Bruce at all; Hicks was original and unique.
Several of his live performances are available on DVD. The best one is Revelations, followed by Relentless and One Night Stand.
Here is an edited version of One Night Stand, which will give an indication of Hicks’ stand-up style.
If you want to listen to a CD performance, then the best one is probably Philosophy: The Best of Bill Hicks, because it does actually contain the best material from several CDs.
CDs
Dangerous (1990)
Relentless (1992)
Arizona Bay (1997)
Rant in E-Minor (1997)
Philosophy: The Best of Bill Hicks (2001)
Love, Laughter and Truth (2002)
Flying Saucer Tour Vol. 1 (2002)
Shock and Awe (2003)
Salvation (2005)
DVDs
Sane Man (2005)
One Night Stand (2002)
Relentless (2006)
Revelations (1993)
Totally Bill Hicks (UK Only) (2002)
Bill Hicks died of pancreatic cancer and his untimely death left a void in the comedy world that no one else has ever been able to fill.
There is a new Bill Hicks documentary, American: The Bill Hicks Story, out now. Here’s the official trailer:
If you’re not familiar with Bill Hicks, then check him out. He’s funny and profound – a winning combination.
He’s a comedian/ actor/ TV and radio presenter-host/ author/ columnist, and he’s one of England’s funniest men. He is, of course, Russell Brand.
I’ve been a fan of his since I saw him perform a Tamara Beckwith routine on his live DVD:
and an Ian Huntley/Sun newspaper routine at The Secret Policeman’s Ball. He was – and is – hilarious.
Since then I’ve watched his stand-up (live and on DVD); I’ve watched all available episodes of RE-Brand;I’ve also watched (and loved both series of) Ponderland; and I’ve read My Booky Wook and Articles of Faith – and I’ve just finished reading Booky Wook 2: This Time It’s Personal.
I enjoyed St. Trinians (a little). Here’s the trailer:
I enjoyed Forgetting Sarah Marshall(a lot). Here’s the trailer:
and Bedtime Stories (a little). Here’s the trailer:
and Get Him to the Greek (a lot). Here’s the trailer:
I’m looking forward to him playing Arthur in Arthur. Here’s the Arthur trailer:
and to him playing Trinculo in Julie Taymar’s version of The Tempest. (Note for trivialists – in the BBC version of The Tempest, Trinculo was played by Andrew Sachs). Here’s the trailer to The Tempest:
I’m also looking forward to Hop. Here’s the Hop trailer:
I’ve watched everything he’s in on Youtube; and I’ve listened to him on TalkSport, and to every podcast of his Radio 2 Russell BrandShow (Saturday 21-23.00), a show I miss very much.
What I like about Brand is his intelligence, his wit, his use of language to make valid points about us and our world, his (former) use of a camp persona as a strategy to seduce women, and his unflinching use of his own (often painful) experiences for his comedy.
I don’t care about his seedy past; hopefully he does. He must realize that the moment he stopped the drugs/alcohol, his career sky-rocketed and he became world-famous.
His acting/film career is blossoming; hosting the controversial (2008) and relatively incident-free (2009) MTV VMAs raised his profile; his television career in the US and the UK is going from strength to strength; he’s just signed a very lucrative book deal; the podcasts of his TalkSport radio show attract million of listeners, as do his BBC radio show podcasts; his newspaper football column is popular and widely read; his stand-up shows sell out – and he’s recently married pop warbler Katy Perry – not bad for someone who could be described as a self-obsessed introverted extrovert from Essex.
As Russell Brand thrives on controversy, it looks as though he is going to have a long and successful career – and as long as he stays funny, I’ll continue watching him and listening to him.
Here’s a clip from the 2009 DVD Russell Brand in New York. It’s a perfect example of Russell Brand’s intelligence at work, particularly towards the end of the clip (at 6.20) where Brand makes a reference to Michel Foucault’s refutation of the ‘repressive hypothesis’; a theory Brand uses in relation to the media image of the Jonas Brothers.
And here’s Russell Brand being interviewed by Jeremy Paxman.
