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Alternative Comedy
Alternative comedy is a term coined in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era. The phrase has had different connotations in different contexts: in the UK, it was used to describe content that was an "alternative" to the mainstream stand-up of the day which took place in working men's clubs, and was characterised by unoriginal gags often containing elements of sexism and racism. In other contexts, it is the nature of the form that is "alternative", avoiding reliance on a standardised structure of a sequence of jokes with punch lines. Patton Oswalt has defined it as "comedy where the audience has no pre-set expectations about the crowd, and vice versa. In comedy clubs, there tends to be a certain vibe—alternative comedy explores different types of material." In an interview with '' The A.V. Club'' after his performance in the 2011 comedy-drama film '' Young Adult'', Oswalt stated: I had come up out of that who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy
Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greece: in Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by political satire performed by comic poets in Ancient Greek theatre, theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance pitting two groups, ages, genders, or societies against each other in an amusing ''agon'' or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions posing obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth then becomes constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to resort to ruses which e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Young Adult (film)
''Young Adult'' is a 2011 American comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman, written by Diablo Cody, and starring Charlize Theron. Reitman and Cody worked together previously on '' Juno'' (2007). ''Young Adult'' began a limited release on December 9, 2011, before expanding to a wide release on December 16, 2011. It received generally positive reviews from critics, and Theron earned a Golden Globe nomination for her performance. Plot Mavis Gary is a 37-year-old divorced, alcoholic ghost writer of a series of young adult novels, on deadline with her editor to finish the last book of the soon-to-be-canceled series. Mavis receives an e-mail with a picture of the newborn daughter of her high school boyfriend Buddy Slade and his wife Beth. Believing it to be a sign she and Buddy are meant to be together, Mavis leaves Minneapolis, returning to her hometown of Mercury, Minnesota, to reclaim her life with him, under the pretext of overseeing a real estate deal. Arriving after listen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Allen (comedian)
Anthony Lawrence Allen (4 March 1945 – 1 December 2023) was an English comedian and writer. Known as the "godfather of alternative comedy", Allen was one of the original alternative comedians. In May 1979, following notoriety at Speakers' Corner with his "Full-Frontal Anarchy Platform", he began to perform at The Comedy Store. Two months later he founded Alternative Cabaret with Alexei Sayle and ran a regular "Alt Cab" Club night in the back bar of the Elgin pub on Ladbroke Grove in London. Stand-up comedy Allen was resident comedian in the early days of The Comedy Store, London (1979–1980) and took over from Alexei Sayle as resident MC early in 1981, where he was described as, "A tall, willowy figure who has the air of a Lenny Bruce mixed with the vulnerability of Tommy Cooper". According to an early article about him, Allen's style of stand-up "is not so much jokes and gags, as having a slant on a view of the world. Sex life, relationships, the contradictions betwee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soho
SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall (SoHo), and has also been known for its variety of shops ranging from trendy upscale boutiques to national and international chain store locations. The area's history is an archetypal example of inner-city regeneration and gentrification, encompassing Socioeconomics, socioeconomic, cultural, political, and architectural developments. The name "SoHo" derives from the area being "South of Houston Street", and was coined in 1962 by Chester Rapkin, an urban planner and author of ''The South Houston Industrial Area'' study, also known as the "Rapkin Report". The name also recalls Soho, an area in London's West End of London, West End. Almost all of SoHo is included in the SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District, which was designated by the New Yor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gong Show
''The Gong Show'' is an American amateur talent contest franchised by Sony Pictures Television to many countries. It was broadcast on NBC's daytime schedule from June 14, 1976, through July 21, 1978, and in first-run syndication from 1976 to 1980 and 1988 to 1989, and was revived in 2017 for broadcast on ABC. The show was created and originally produced by Chuck Barris, who also served as host for the NBC run and from 1977 to 1980 in syndication. Its most recent version was executive-produced by Will Arnett and hosted by Tommy Maitland, a fictional character performed by Mike Myers (uncredited in Season 1). ''The Gong Show'' is known for its absurdist humor and style, with the actual competition secondary to the often outlandish acts presented; a small cash prize has typically been awarded to each show's winner. Format Each show presented a competition of amateur performers of often dubious talent, with a panel of three celebrity judges. If any judge considered an act to be par ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy Store, London
The Comedy Store is a comedy club located in Soho, London, England, opened in 1979 by Don Ward and Peter Rosengard.Peter Rosengard's website Retrieved 2019-03-08. Early history Since 16 January 1925 's private members' club had leased the three top floors of 69 , , London (at t ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Dowie (humourist)
John Dowie (born 3 August 1950 in Birmingham) is a British comedian, musician and writer, often viewed as a pioneer of alternative comedy. He began performing stand-up comedy in 1969. Career Described as an "idiosyncratic original" and "lone pioneer", Dowie's "arthouse proto-alternative" work mixed parody, fantasy, impersonations and taboo topics. His innovative comic style led him to being seen by many comedians that followed, such as Alexei Sayle, Tony Allen, Mark Steel and Jeremy Hardy, as a precursor to the alternative comedy wave that arrived a few years later, with comedy impresario Malcolm Hardee noting that Dowie's work predated even the founding of the Comedy Store. In particular, Dowie was credited with establishing observational humour as part of the new movement. In 1972 he appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe with a solo show. In 1977 he toured with and influenced another alternative pioneer Victoria Wood. As well as writing songs and sketches with her, he is credited ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Connolly
Sir William Connolly (born 24 November 1942) is a Scottish actor, musician, television presenter, artist and retired stand-up comedian. He is sometimes known by the Scots nickname the Big Yin ("the Big One"). Known for his idiosyncratic and often improvised observational comedy, frequently including strong language, Connolly has topped many UK polls as the greatest stand-up comedian of all time. In 2017, he was knighted at Buckingham Palace for services to entertainment and charity. In 2022, he received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Connolly's trade, in the early 1960s, was that of a welder (specifically a boilermaker) in the Glasgow shipyards, but he gave it up towards the end of the decade to pursue a career as a folk singer. He first sang in the folk rock band the Humblebums alongside Gerry Rafferty and Tam Harvey, with whom he stayed until 1971, before beginning singing as a solo artist. In the early 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Cooper Clarke
John Cooper Clarke (born 25 January 1949) is an English performance poet and comedian who styled himself as a "punk poet" in the late 1970s. In the 1970s and early 1980s, he released several albums and performed on stage with punk and post-punk bands. He continues to perform regularly. His recorded output has mainly relied on musical backing from the Invisible Girls, which featured Martin Hannett, Steve Hopkins, Pete Shelley, Bill Nelson and Paul Burgess. Early life Clarke was born in Salford, Lancashire, in 1949. He lived in the Higher Broughton area of the city and became interested in poetry after being inspired by his English teacher, John Malone. He described Malone as "a real outdoor guy, an Ernest Hemingway type, red blooded, literary bloke". During an April 2018 episode of Steve Jones's radio show ''Jonesy's Jukebox'', Clarke revealed one of his early inspirations to be the poet Sir Henry Newbolt, reciting from memory a portion of Newbolt's poem "Vitaï Lampada". R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Punk Rock
Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced short, fast-paced songs with hard-edged melodies and singing styles with stripped-down instrumentation. Punk rock lyrics often explore anti-establishment and Anti-authoritarianism, anti-authoritarian themes. Punk embraces a DIY ethic; many bands self-produce recordings and distribute them through independent record label, independent labels. The term "punk rock" was previously used by American Music criticism, rock critics in the early 1970s to describe the mid-1960s garage bands. Certain late 1960s and early 1970s Detroit acts, such as MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges, and other bands from elsewhere created out-of-the-mainstream music that became highly influential on what was to come. Glam rock in the UK and the New York Dolls from New York ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Paul Joans
Reginald John Davidge (5 May 1930 – 1 January 2011), better known under his stage name John Paul Joans, was a British comedian active in the 1960s and 1970s, who had one top thirty single in the UK singles chart. Biography Born in Somerset, the 6'6" tall Davidge started performing in the mid-1950s under the name Reg Gray, and appeared in the 1958 film Tom Thumb. His career struggled to the extent that he was imprisoned three times in the 1950s, once for fraud, once for stealing a pork pie worth 1s 2d (at which time he had no fixed abode), and once for trying to steal a record player in order to pay for the fare for a gig in Burnley. One probation officer said that he "did not think there was much likelihood of his getting regular work". In 1963 he adopted the stage name John Paul Joans and his break came when he won Best Club Act award in the Granada Television talent show Firstimers in 1967 and earned a contract with Harvey Lisberg, the manager of Herman's Hermits. Musica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), better known by his stage name Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy that combined satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon in 2003. Bruce forged new paths in comedy and counterculture. His trial for obscenity was a landmark of freedom of speech in the United States. In 2017, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked Bruce third (behind Richard Pryor and George Carlin) on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time. Early life Bruce was born Leonard Alfred Schneider in Mineola, New York, to a Jewish family. His British-born father, Myron (Mickey) Schneider, was a shoe clerk; they saw each other very infrequently. His mother, Sally Marr (legal name Sadie Schneider, born Sadie Kitchenberg), was a stage performer and danc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
