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And so, almost out of nowhere, Christmas plans are thrown into chaos. Can we go to a Christmas party on Saturday or a panto in London on Sunday? Is it worth risking losing Christmas entirely so that we can have fun pre-Christmas? As always advice is mixed and confused and no one knows what the dangers are (though I suspect January is going to be rather unpleasant whatever people do now, too late as usual). Record breaking number of cases announced today though, so at least we’ve got that. If only the McWhirter twins were alive. Though if they were, this would almost certainly kill them.
And Covid took another comedian today, as we lost Geoff Rowe, known to you as Jethro (great gag hiding in plain sight there, that was very easy to miss). I never met him, but gigged in the same complex as him twice and experienced the effect he had on crowds. Waves of roaring laughter, punters lost in delight. He may have done some hoary old jokes, but surely that painful ecstasy conferred on strangers is how this job has to be judged. I’ve got there a few times (as a performer) but Jethro seemed to do it night upon night.
I wouldn’t remember too much about it were it not for the blog (though I recall getting stuck in the car park in 2003), but these two entries are a fitting and honest tribute to him and what he achieved.
And maybe a fair summing up of the state of my career too. In the almost 20 years since that first entry I have come to have more respect for working comedians, whether their stuff is to my taste or not. Turning an audience of strangers into a ocean of laughter is perhaps a reward in itself and Geoff seemed to have that pleasure on a regular basis.
I now move up one step on the ladder of successful West Country comedians though. Just need all those Bristol ones to die and I will be near the top.
As one of those comedians who has at least sometimes pivoted towards doing something interesting rather than something funny (on occasion) I do find it weird that there is so little regard in the business for what is the hardest part of the job - making people lose themselves in glee. You can achieve that with a thought-provoking, serious and original show of course, but most of the comedians who get accolades or critical acclaim seem to be rewarded from moving away from that basic truth. Certainly in the Oscars you will rarely if ever see a comedy film win the big award, but creating a truly funny film is much harder than doing something serious. Leave comedy behind or add extra layers to it and then maybe you’ll get acknowledgment. It’s weird. And I get why it is. But I hate the way that that rarest of things - being funny enough to captivate an audience like that - doesn’t get the awe and wonder that it should.
It’s not going to make me start doing jokes though. I am beyond help and live in my own bubble of being neither thing. God help the people who enjoy that.
RHLSTP with the intimidatingly clever and glamorous Emma Dabiri is now up wherever you get your podcasts -
like here.
