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The Comic Strip
The Comic Strip are a group of British comedians who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series ''The Comic Strip Presents...'', which was labelled as a pioneering example of the alternative comedy scene. The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders, with appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane, Alexei Sayle and others. Early history Two double acts, Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall under the name 20th Century Coyote and Nigel Planer and Peter Richardson as The Outer Limits, started performing at the newly opened Comedy Store in London in 1980, alongside compere Alexei Sayle who had been resident there since the Comedy Store opened in 1979. Concurrently Richardson searched for a venue to mount a play he had produced with Michael White. He planned to run the Comic Strip late at night after the play's performances. He sourced the Raymond Revuebar in Soho, but real ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Michael White (producer)
Michael Simon White (16 January 1936 – 7 March 2016) was a British theatrical impresario and film producer. White was responsible for the productions of 101 stage shows and 27 theatrical films over the span of 50 years. Early life Michael White was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of Victor White, a merchant who ran a glove making business, and Doris (née Cohen), a property developer. His parents were from Eastern European Jewish backgrounds. As White suffered from asthma as a boy, his parents decided he would be educated as a boarder at the Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz in Switzerland from age 7, where he was the only boy who did not speak the French language. He then graduated from the Sorbonne in Paris. Career After working as a Wall Street runner in New York City in the 1950s, White took an interest in theatre, spending five years as assistant to Sir Peter Daubeny for his World Theatre seasons in London. White produced his first West End play, the London premiere of J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Ryan
Christopher Papazoglou (born 25 January 1950), known professionally as Christopher Ryan, is a British actor. He is best known for his roles as Mike The Cool Person in the BBC comedy series '' The Young Ones'', Dave Hedgehog in the BBC comedy series '' Bottom'', Tony Driscoll in the BBC comedy series ''Only Fools and Horses'', and '' The Green Green Grass'' and as Edina Monsoon's ex-husband Marshall Turtle in the BBC sitcom '' Absolutely Fabulous''. He has also appeared as the McKendrick twins in '' One Foot in the Grave'', and in Doctor Who played the Mentor Kiv in Trial of a Time Lord in 1986 and Sontaran General Staal in 2008 and 2010. Early life Ryan was born Christopher Papazoglou on 25 January 1950 in Bayswater, London to an English mother and a Greek father. He trained at East 15 Acting School from 1968 to 1971, then began his professional acting career with Glasgow Citizens' Theatre. Career ''The Young Ones'' Ryan was the only '' Young Ones'' cast member who was not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Young Ones (TV Series)
''The Young Ones'' is a British sitcom written by Rik Mayall, Ben Elton, and Lise Mayer, starring Adrian Edmondson, Mayall, Nigel Planer, Christopher Ryan, and Alexei Sayle, and broadcast on BBC2 for two series, first shown in 1982 and 1984. The show focused on the lives of four dissimilar students and their landlord's family on different plots that often included Anarchy, anarchic, offbeat, surreal humour. The show often included slapstick gags, visual humour and surreal jokes sometimes acted out by puppets, with each episode also featuring a notable selection of guest stars and musical numbers from various performers. ''The Young Ones'' helped bring alternative comedy to British television in the 1980s and made household names of its writers and performers. The show became a notable icon of 1980s British popular culture, and it received its own game and a home-media release while becoming the first non-music-related programme to appear on MTV in the United States in 1985. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Film
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since the 1930s, synchronized with sound and (less commonly) other sensory stimulations. Etymology and alternative terms The name "film" originally referred to the thin layer of photochemical emulsion on the celluloid strip that used to be the actual medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for an individual motion-picture, including "picture", "picture show", "moving picture", "photoplay", and "flick". The most common term in the United States is "movie", while in Europe, "film" is preferred. Archaic terms include "animated pictures" and "animated photography". "Flick" is, in general a slang term, first recorded in 1926. It originates in the verb flicker, owing to the flickering appearance of early films ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeremy Isaacs
Sir Jeremy Israel Isaacs (born 28 September 1932) is a Scottish television producer and executive, and an opera manager. Following a career at Granada Television, the BBC and Thames Television, Isaacs was the founding chief executive of Channel 4 in 1982, serving in the role until 1987. He won the BAFTA Fellowship in 1985, the British Film Institute Fellowship in 1986, and the International Emmy Directorate Award in 1987. He was also the General Director of the Royal Opera House from 1987 to 1996. A recipient of many British Academy Television Awards and International Emmy Awards, Isaacs was knighted in the 1996 Birthday Honours "for services to Broadcasting and to the Arts." Early life Isaacs was born in Glasgow from what were described as "Scottish Jewish roots". He grew up in Hillhead, the son of a jeweller and a GP, and is a cousin to virologist Alick Isaacs. He was educated at the independent Glasgow Academy and Merton College, Oxford, where he read Classics. Whilst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded entirely by its commercial activities, including Television advertisement, advertising. It began its transmission in 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in the United Kingdom. At the time, the only other channels were the television licence, licence-funded BBC1 and BBC2, and a single commercial broadcasting network, ITV (TV network), ITV. Originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public corporation of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which was established in 1990 and came into operation in 1993. Until 2010, Channel 4 did not broadcast in Wales, but many of its programmes were re-broadcast ther ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and comedies alike, Williams is regarded as one of the greatest comedians of all time. He received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, five Grammy Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Williams was awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2005. Born in Chicago, Williams began performing stand-up comedy in San Francisco and Los Angeles during the mid-1970s, and released several comedy albums including ''Reality ... What a Concept'' in 1980. He rose to fame playing the alien Mork in the ABC sitcom ''Mork & Mindy'' (1978–1982). Williams received his first leading film role in ''Popeye'' (1980). Williams won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for '' Good Will Hunting'' (1997 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. Nicholson is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, often playing rebels fighting against the social structure. Over his five-decade-long career, he received List of awards and nominations received by Jack Nicholson, numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, and a Grammy Awards, Grammy Award. Nicholson won Academy Awards for Academy Award for Best Actor, Best Actor for playing Randle McMurphy in ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' (1975) and a man with Obsessive–compulsive disorder, OCD in ''As Good as It Gets'' (1997), as well as for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actor for playing an aging playboy in ''Terms of Endearment'' (1983). He received further Oscar nominations for ''Easy Rider'' (1969), ''Five Easy Pieces'' (1970), ''T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French And Saunders
''French and Saunders'' is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring comedy duo and namesake Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders that originally broadcast on BBC2 from 1987 to 1993, and later on BBC One until 2017. It is also the name by which the performers are known when they appear elsewhere as a double act. The show was given one of the highest budgets in BBC history to create detailed spoofs and satires of popular culture, movies, celebrities, and art. French and Saunders continued to film holiday specials for the BBC, and both have been individually successful starring in other shows. In a 2005 poll to find ''The Comedian's Comedian'', the duo were voted among the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. Their last special, ''French and Saunders Christmas Celebrity Special'', aired on 27 December 2005 on BBC One. In 2006, both French and Saunders announced their sketch show was dead and that they had moved on to more age-approp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stand-up Comic
Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage and delivers humorous and satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical acts. These performances are typically composed of rehearsed scripts but often include varying degrees of live crowd interaction (crowdwork). Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, observations, or shticks that can employ props, music, impressions, magic tricks, or ventriloquism. Performances can take place in various venues, including comedy clubs, comedy festivals, bars, nightclubs, colleges, or theaters. History Stand-up comedy originated in various traditions of popular entertainment in the late 19th century. These include vaudeville, the stump-speech monologues of minstrel shows, dime museums, concert saloons, freak shows, variety shows, medicine shows, American burlesque, English music halls, circus clown antics, Chautauqua, and humorist monologues, such as those delive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arnold Brown (comedian)
Arnold Brown (born 1936, in Glasgow) is a Scottish Jewish comedian, one of the main figures in the alternative comedy scene of the early 1980s. Life and career Originally an accountant, Brown worked hard at live standup, until he found a knack for presenting observational comedy in a slow, meandering but entertaining style. He won the Edinburgh Festival Perrier Award in 1987. His catchphrase is "And why not?" He quotes the highlight of his career as supporting Frank Sinatra on stage in Glasgow's Ibrox Park. He can be seen on: the original Julien Temple film ''The Comic Strip'' (1981), performing live on stage; the Bill Forsyth film '' Comfort and Joy'' in which he plays a psychiatrist in a manner reminiscent of his stand-up style; ''The Comic Strip'' television series (1982 onwards) in various roles; '' The Young Ones'' in various roles; and in ''The Dangerous Brothers'' (1985). He appeared as himself in the 1994 partially- improvised comedy film ''There's No Business...'', st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
