Anthony Lawrence Allen (4 March 1945 – 1 December 2023) was an English comedian and writer. Known as the "godfather of

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 ...

", Allen was one of the original alternative comedians. In May 1979, following notoriety at

Speakers' Corner A Speakers' Corner is an area where free speech public speaking, open-air public speaking, debate, and discussion are allowed. The original and best known is in the north-east corner of Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park in London, England. Histor ...

with his "Full-Frontal Anarchy Platform", he began to perform at

The Comedy Store The Comedy Store is an American comedy club opened in April 1972. It is located in West Hollywood, California, at 8433 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip. An associated club is located in La Jolla, San Diego, California. History The Comedy ...

. Two months later he founded Alternative Cabaret with

Alexei Sayle Alexei David Sayle (born 7 August 1952) is an English actor, author, stand-up comedian, television presenter and former recording artist. He was a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement in the 1980s. He was voted the 18th g ...

and ran a regular "Alt Cab" Club night in the back bar of the Elgin pub on

Ladbroke Grove Ladbroke Grove ( ) is a road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, which passes through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue. It is also the name of the sur ...

in London.

Stand-up comedy

Allen was resident comedian in the early days of The Comedy Store, London (1979–1980) and took over from

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 between the theory and practice of an anarchist/lefty." His desire to challenge audiences could lead to varying results, as noted in a 1986 fanzine: "I've seen Tony Allen do minutes of cursing, swearing, abusing of heckler and audience alike (Comedy Store, Autumn '85) and equally I've seen him do sets of such comic brilliance as to take your breath away and send you home to your bed-sit on wings! The last time I saw him was at The Pied Bull, and his set was a mixture of both. Except, tell me of another comedian who could order an audience of cabaret lovers not to applaud him when he left the stage because he wasn't happy with his set, and have that same audience remaining mutely passive in an alt cab equivalent of one minutes silence." In 1980, Tony Allen and Alexei Sayle took their solo stand-up acts to the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

under the title "Late Night Alternative". Allen continued to appear on the Edinburgh Fringe for the next twelve years. Most successful was his "1984 Meaning of Life Crusade", with Sharon Landau and Roy Hutchins. In the early 1980s, Allen supported rock bands, including

Killing Joke Killing Joke were an English rock music, rock band formed in Notting Hill, London, in 1979 by Jaz Coleman (vocals, keyboards), Paul Ferguson (drums), Geordie Walker (guitar) and Youth (musician), Youth (bass). Their first album, ''Killing Joke ...

at the

Lyceum The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies among countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Basic science and some introduction to ...

(26 July 1981) and

The Clash The Clash were an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1976. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they are considered one of the most influential acts in the original wave of British punk rock, with their music fusing elements ...

at Portsmouth Guildhall (28 July 1982). He also supported anarcho-punk band Poison Girls on two national "No Nukes Music" tours. In the late 1980s, he was a founder member of Green Wedge, and performed in a series of one-off benefit gigs as MC/support to, among others, John Martyn,

Osibisa Osibisa is a Ghanaian-Caribbean Afro rock band founded in London in the late 1960s by four expatriate West African and three London-based Caribbean musicians. Osibisa was the most successful and longest lived of the African-heritage bands in ...

and

Joe Strummer John Graham Mellor (21 August 1952 – 22 December 2002), known professionally as Joe Strummer, was a British musician. He was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist, and lead vocalist of punk rock band the Clash, formed in 1976. The Clash' ...

's Latino Rockabilly War. In 1989, Allen acted the role of Clopin, King of the Thieves in Max Handley's stage musical ''Quasimodo''. In 1990, Allen toured extensively with his solo show "Sold Out", about an Amazonian tribal

shaman Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

who understands both the workings of the

futures exchange A futures exchange or futures market is a central financial exchange where people can trade standardized futures contracts defined by the exchange. Futures contracts are derivatives contracts to buy or sell specific quantities of a commodity or ...

and the logic of Heisenberg's

Uncertainty Principle The uncertainty principle, also known as Heisenberg's indeterminacy principle, is a fundamental concept in quantum mechanics. It states that there is a limit to the precision with which certain pairs of physical properties, such as position a ...

. A truncated version of the Heisenberg piece was also featured on Granada TV's ''Fourth Dimension''. Economics, viewed as a bogus science for scam artists causing both personal and planetary debt, was one of the subjects tackled in his full-length stand-up Edinburgh show "Final Demand – The Grim Repo Man is at the Door" in 1993. In 1994, Allen teamed up again with Sharon Landau and Roy Hutchins for a season of live cabaret gigs, "Ain't Necessarily Solo". His last solo show before semi-retirement was "The End is Nigh", a mischievous piece of panic-mongering about the Y2K bug which took the form of a public meeting, and had its final performance, pertinently, at

in October 1999, before he went to live in the hills of

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

for a year. In July 2023, a tribute gig in Ladbroke Grove was organised for Allen called "This Was Your Life".

Plays

Allen's theatrical career began in the early 1970s with theatre groups such as West London Theatre Workshop and Pirate Jenny. In 1973, Allen was co-founder with John Miles of Rough Theatre, described by

Heathcote Williams John Henley Heathcote-Williams (15 November 1941 – 1 July 2017), known as Heathcote Williams, was an English poet, actor, political activist and dramatist. He wrote a number of book-length polemical poems including ''Autogeddon'', ''Falling ...

as "a street theatre group from the Ladbroke Archipelago which specializes in low comedy, political satire, ham oratory, and spontaneous busking…and they perform in the pubs, streets, gutters, and community centres of the Corrugated Iron Belt." Rough Theatre sometimes performed at a squatting venue called the Charlie Pig Dog Club, occasionally sharing the bill there with Joe Strummer's pub pock band,

the 101ers The 101ers were a pub rock band from the 1970s playing mostly in a rockabilly style, notable as being the band that Joe Strummer left to join The Clash. Formed in London in May 1974, the 101ers made their performing debut on 7 September at the ...

. Allen co-wrote and performed in all five of its productions. The most memorable was ''Dwelling Unit Sweet Dwelling Unit'' (1973)—which he later adapted for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

's ''Thirty-Minute Theatre'' (1977)—and ''Free Milk and Orange Juice'' (1976), which had a short run at the ICA. During the 1970s, Allen wrote three more radio plays including an Afternoon Theatre play, ''Two Fingers Finnegan Comes Again'', co-written with Vernon Magee and bespoke for the actor Wilfrid Brambell. He went on to devise and write over twenty plays for fringe and community theatre, most memorably, ''Metropolitan'' with Ken Robinson, for the Young People's Theatre Scheme at The

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opene ...

; and various productions at The Theatre Royal, Stratford East, including their Christmas panto ''Robin Hood'' (1975), which he co-wrote with Heathcote Williams. Allen later co-wrote a television play with Ken Robinson—''Que Sera'' for TVS's '' Dramarama''.

Journalism

Allen's obsession with small press journalism led him into countless publishing ventures, most notoriously the vacant property bulletins of the "Ruff Tuff Creem Puff Estate Agency for Squatters", again with

(1975–76); the Ladbroke Grove monthly ''Corrugated Times'' (1976); "The New Instant" with Chris Saunders (1985), and the eighth re-launch of ''

International Times ''International Times'' (''it'' or ''IT'') is the name of various Underground press, underground newspapers, with the original title founded in London in 1966 and running until October 1973. Editors included John Hopkins (p ...

'' (1986). Allen continued writing columns for radical journals, the most recent being "Lofty Tone" in the late 1990s DIY activist rag, ''Squall''.

Scripts

With his writing partner Max Handley (1945–1990) Allen was occasional script-writer for many TV and radio shows such as '' Spitting Image'', '' Naked Video'', '' Week Ending'' and ''

Alas Smith and Jones ''Alas Smith and Jones'' is a British comedy sketch television series starring Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones that originally ran for four series and two Christmas specials on BBC2 from 1984 to 1988, and later as ''Smith and Jones'' for six ...

''. Allen and Handley were also responsible for the words to the daily three-frame comic strip "Soho Square" in the short-lived '' London Daily News''; Pete Rigg was the cartoonist. In the late 1980s, he contributed regular scripts and prose to the youth comic magazines ''

Crisis A crisis (: crises; : critical) is any event or period that will lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affairs, especially when ...

'', ''

Revolver A revolver is a repeating handgun with at least one barrel and a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold six cartridges before needing to be reloaded, ...

'' and ''Judge Dredd – The Megazine''. Of particular interest were a 24-page graphic documentary with artist Dave Hine about events leading to the

Tiananmen Square massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between t ...

, and an 11-page strip called "Didn't You Love My Brother" that fictionalised an encounter with a heckler that Allen experienced whilst on tour with the anarchist punk band Poison Girls.

Television

Allen played an anarchist named Fisher in the first-series episode of '' The Young Ones'', entitled " Interesting" (1982). In 1989 and 1990, Allen and Caron Keating co-presented the

Granada TV ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend Television was its ...

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 en ...

science-based programme ''Fourth Dimension'', which included performing (and co-writing with Handley) a weekly five-minute piece to camera, plus other filmed journalism. In ''The Heckler'', Allen was seen in a mentoring role to a couple of trainee hecklers, as the central theme for BBC3 TV's documentary about the history of political heckling at the hustings, coinciding with the 2005 General Election.

Workshops

Tony Allen started teaching stand-up comedy in 1982. From the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, he was a regular workshop tutor with the drama department of

Middlesex University Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated to MDX) is a public research university based in Hendon, northwest London, England. The university also has campuses in Dubai and Mauritius. The name of the university is ...

. From 2003 onwards, he had a similar relationship with the drama department at the

University of Kent The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its roya ...

, working with former comic Dr. Oliver Double. Allen was the artistic director of New Agenda Arts Trust beginning in June 1995. Late in 1995, New Agenda launched the "Performance Club" to promote innovative performers and to showcase emerging workshop talent. In 2005, The Performance Club took up a two-year residency at the Inn on the Green, London W11. Most notable among the regular performers was Ken Campbell.

Dismaland

In a tribute written after Allen's death, graffiti artist

Banksy Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist, and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive ep ...

revealed to the BBC that it was "troublemaker" Allen who had trained stewards at Banksy's dystopian art project Dismaland: "Tony delivered the most surly and incompetent employees in the history of hospitality. They were incapable or unwilling to even point out the fire exits... they popped the balloons they were meant to be selling, they threw people's change on the floor, they even went up to random members of the public and licked their ice creams... They became by far the most talked about part of the show, overshadowing six months of my hard work and the efforts of 50 invited international artists."

Death

Allen died on 1 December 2023, at the age of 78. He was remembered on

's obituary programme '' Last Word''.

Publications

''Attitude! Wanna Make Something of it? The Secret of Stand-up Comedy'' – published by Gothic Image (2002). ''A Summer in the Park. A Journal of Speakers' Corner'' – published by Freedom Press (2004)

Collections

In 2014 Allen deposited some of his archive material with the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive at the

. The collection of audiovisual material includes audio cassettes and sound tape reels which document his career.

Sound recordings

* ''One of Our Safety Valves is Missing'' – a 45-minute recorded live stage act produced by John Williams for Red Tapes (1980). * ''Alternative Cabaret'' – an album showcasing four alternative comedians: Tony Allen, Jim Barclay, Pauline Melville and Andy de la Tour (1981).

References

External links

* *
Tony Allen Collection
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Tony 1945 births 2023 deaths People from Hayes, Hillingdon 20th-century English comedians 21st-century English comedians English male comedians 20th-century squatters Comedians from the London Borough of Hillingdon English anarchists