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Austerity BingeBACK TO THE PRESENT?

By Michael Holland in Southwark News Posted on Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

Something funny happened over the Bank Holiday weekend: I was walking down the Old Kent Road and heard a South London accent!

Unbelievable. Even funnier was At Last! The 1981 Show, Stewart Lee and Paul Jackson’s attempt to recreate the buzz of thirty years ago when alternative comedy was about to explode.

They have persuaded comics to resurrect routines that have not been performed for almost all of that 30 years, got double acts to reform for this one-off event, and dragged comedians out of comedy retirement to make an appearance.

There were as many funny men in the audience as there was on stage. Me and young Jimmy played spot the comedian as we sat in the Royal Festival Hall bar. Frank Skinner, Matt Lucas, Sean Hughes and many others I recognised but not put a name to.

Bermondsey Boy Arthur Smith compered the first part of the show and exhumed old gags from his early days, one about ‘entering a marathon’ was crude but hilarious; his 1980s political jokes still have a freshness about them as the Tories are in government now, as they were then.

Comedians that had passed away were fondly remembered with some of their best lines, Malcolm Hardee’s ‘Doctor, Doctor’ gags getting an airing. Smith also did a passable impression of Leonard Cohen, which surprised us all.

Alexei Sayle came on and did a few introductions but did not seem too bothered about making us laugh: ‘ I’m only here to give validity to this thing,’ he told us with a sense of boredom. But he did want to let us know that he is now an author. Hello John, got a new book out?

It was an evening of legends. Ageing legends but legends nevertheless. Nigel Planer bringing back Neil for our delectation; the brilliant John Cooper Clarke giving us the one and only Chicken Town; Arnold Brown demonstrating why he has been at the top of the game longer than anyone else on the show and The Oblivion Boys showing us why they were not.

Memory of the night: The Greatest Show On Legs (Malcolm Hardee’s old gang) performing the famous Balloon Dance.
Joke of the night: ‘One out of three people weigh as much as the other two.’
Visual of the night: One naked comedian with a firework up his backside, spraying hot sparks over another naked comedian.

Now, that’s what I call a finale!

Written by Michael Holland in Southwark News on 1st June 2011. Filed Under: At Last The 1981 Show, Austerity Binge
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