"video, in which Ashcroft is alone, Kaye gradually gathers a large crowd which includes Fat Les members Keith Allen, Alex James, and artist Damien Hirst, further on Rowland Rivron (as the drumming Queens guard), Edward Tudor-Pole, Matt Lucas, David Walliams, comedian/actor Ricky Grover as a security guard, a young Lily Allen, and the late Malcolm Hardee, sumo wrestlers, French maids, a French mime artist, an Onion Johnny, Pearly Kings and Queens, a Max Wall lookalike (as Professor Wallofski), a priest, women dressed as girls from St Trinian's and many others who dance around him, some brandishing bags of curry. By"
"Stanley Unwin (comedian) Stanley Unwin (7 June 1911 – 12 January 2002), sometimes billed as Professor Stanley Unwin, was an English comedian, actor and comic writer. He invented his own comic language, ""Unwinese"", referred to in the film ""Carry On Regardless"" (1961) as ""gobbledygook"". Unwinese was a corrupted form of English in which many of the words were altered in playful and humorous ways, as in its description of Elvis Presley and his contemporaries as being ""wasp-waist and swivel-hippy"". Unwin claimed that the inspiration came from his mother, who once told him that on the way home she had ""falolloped"
"been commemorated by plaques elsewhere, including those at Teddington Studios, BBC Television Centre and Blackpool Comedy Carpet. Harry Worth Harry Bourlon Illingsworth (20 November 1917 – 20 July 1989), professionally known as Harry Worth, was an English comedy actor, comedian and ventriloquist. Unlike the brash humour of other comedians at the time, Worth portrayed a charming, gentle and genial character, totally bemused by life, creating comedic confusion wherever he went. Worth was born in Hoyland Common, West Riding of Yorkshire, the youngest child of a miner. He had ten siblings. When he was only five months old his father died"
"Harry Worth Harry Bourlon Illingsworth (20 November 1917 – 20 July 1989), professionally known as Harry Worth, was an English comedy actor, comedian and ventriloquist. Unlike the brash humour of other comedians at the time, Worth portrayed a charming, gentle and genial character, totally bemused by life, creating comedic confusion wherever he went. Worth was born in Hoyland Common, West Riding of Yorkshire, the youngest child of a miner. He had ten siblings. When he was only five months old his father died from injuries resulting from an industrial accident. He left school at 14 and was a miner for"
"Stanley Holloway Stanley Augustus Holloway, OBE (1 October 1890 – 30 January 1982) was an English stage and film actor, humourist, singer, poet and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in ""My Fair Lady"". He was also renowned for his comic monologues and songs, which he performed and recorded throughout most of his 70-year career. Born in London, Holloway pursued a career as a clerk in his teen years. He made early stage appearances before infantry service in the First World War, after which he had"
"Eddie Izzard Edward John Izzard (; born 7 February 1962) is an English stand-up comedian, actor, writer and political activist. His comedic style takes the form of rambling, whimsical monologue, and self-referential pantomime. He had a starring role in the television series ""The Riches"" as Wayne Malloy and has appeared in films such as ""Ocean's Twelve"", ""Ocean's Thirteen"", ""Mystery Men"", ""Shadow of the Vampire"", ""The Cat's Meow"", ""Across the Universe"", ""Valkyrie"" and ""Victoria & Abdul"". He has also worked as a voice actor in ""The Wild"", ""Igor"", """", ""Cars 2"" and ""The Lego Batman Movie"". Izzard has cited his main"
"significant influence on the two books written by John Lennon: ""In His Own Write"" (1964) and ""A Spaniard in the Works"" (1965). Stanley Unwin (comedian) Stanley Unwin (7 June 1911 – 12 January 2002), sometimes billed as Professor Stanley Unwin, was an English comedian, actor and comic writer. He invented his own comic language, ""Unwinese"", referred to in the film ""Carry On Regardless"" (1961) as ""gobbledygook"". Unwinese was a corrupted form of English in which many of the words were altered in playful and humorous ways, as in its description of Elvis Presley and his contemporaries as being ""wasp-waist and"
"Tony Hancock Anthony John Hancock (12 May 1924 – 25 June 1968) was an English comedian and actor. High-profile during the 1950s and early 1960s, he had a major success with his BBC series ""Hancock's Half Hour"", first broadcast on radio from 1954, then on television from 1956, in which he soon formed a strong professional and personal bond with comic actor Sid James. Although Hancock's decision to cease working with James, when it became known in early 1960, disappointed many at the time, his last BBC series in 1961 contains some of his best remembered work (""The Blood Donor"")."
"Ernie Kovacs Ernest Edward ""Ernie"" Kovacs (January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962) was an American comedian, actor, and writer. Kovacs' visually experimental and often spontaneous comedic style influenced numerous television comedy programs for years after his death. Many individuals and shows, such as Johnny Carson, David Letterman, ""Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In"", ""Saturday Night Live"", ""Monty Python's Flying Circus"", Jim Henson, ""Max Headroom"", Chevy Chase, Conan O’Brien, ""Jimmy Kimmel, Captain Kangaroo"", ""Sesame Street"", ""The Electric Company"", Pee-wee's Playhouse, The Muppet Show, Dave Garroway, Andy Kaufman, You Can't Do That on Television, Uncle Floyd, and many others have credited Kovacs as"
"Oliver Wakefield Oliver Wakefield (born 29 May 1909, Mahlabitini, Zululand, South Africa; d. 30 June 1956, New York City), was a popular British actor and comedian active from the 1930s until his death in 1956. Often billed as ""The Voice of Inexperience"", Wakefield is best known for his idiosyncratic satirical monologues. Wakefield was educated in South Africa, then travelled to England, where he began acting with a Shakespearean repertory company. He then attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts for further study, where he developed his distinctive style of humorous monologue. Wakefield created the stage persona of a nervous upper"
"Robb Wilton Robb Wilton (28 August 1881 – 1 May 1957), born Robert Wilton Smith, was an English comedian and comic actor who was famous for his filmed monologues in the 1930s and 1940s in which he played incompetent authority figures. Wilton was born in Everton, Liverpool, and had a dry Lancashire accent which suited his comic persona as a procrastinating and work-shy impediment to the general public. Wilton's comedy emerged from the tradition of English music hall, especially popular in the North of England, and he was a contemporary of Frank Randle and George Formby, Sr.. He portrayed the"
"Boris Karloff William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor who was primarily known for his roles in horror films. He portrayed Frankenstein's monster in ""Frankenstein"" (1931), ""Bride of Frankenstein"" (1935) and ""Son of Frankenstein"" (1939). He also appeared as Imhotep in ""The Mummy"" (1932). In non-horror roles, he is best known to modern audiences for narrating and as the voice of Grinch in the animated television special of Dr. Seuss' ""How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"" (1966). For his contribution to film and television, Boris"
"Peter Cook Peter Edward Cook (17 November 1937 – 9 January 1995) was an English actor, satirist, writer and comedian. He is widely regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He was closely associated with the anti-establishment comedy that emerged in the United Kingdom and United States in the late 1950s. Called ""the father of modern satire"" by ""The Guardian"", in 2005, Cook was ranked number one in the ""Comedians' Comedian"", a poll of more than 300 comics, comedy writers, producers, and directors throughout the English-speaking world. Cook was born at his parents' house,"
"the period 1924 to 1978. A review in ""The Gramophone"" of one of his 1957 albums containing recordings of his old ""concert party"" songs commented, ""what a fine voice he has and how well he can use it – diction, phrasing, range and the interpretative insight of the artist"". Stanley Holloway Stanley Augustus Holloway, OBE (1 October 1890 – 30 January 1982) was an English stage and film actor, humourist, singer, poet and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in ""My Fair Lady"". He was also"
"David Tomlinson David Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson (7 May 1917 – 24 June 2000) was an English stage, film and television actor and comedian. Having been described as both a leading man and a character actor, he is primarily remembered for his roles as authority figure George Banks in ""Mary Poppins"", fraudulent magician Professor Emelius Browne in ""Bedknobs and Broomsticks"" and as hapless antagonist Peter Thorndyke in ""The Love Bug"". In 2002, two years after his death, Tomlinson was posthumously inducted as a Disney Legend. Tomlinson was born in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire on 7 May 1917, to Florence Elizabeth Tomlinson (née Sinclair-Thomson)"
"Walford Bodie Walford Bodie, whose real name was Samuel Murphy Bodie (1869–1939), was a Scottish showman, hypnotist, ventriloquist and stage magician, famous for his 'mock' electrocutions involving a replica of 'The Electric Chair'. He also performed an act of 'Bloodless Surgery', claiming he could use electricity, hypnosis and manipulation to cure 'all kinds of ailments and disabilities.' His performances were enormously popular in the early 20th century, and inspired both Harry Houdini and Charlie Chaplin. Charlie Chaplin imitated Bodie on stage in 1906, and continued to do so in Hollywood years later, while Bodie and Houdini were firm friends for"
"New York home at 351 Park Avenue, aged 47. Oliver Wakefield Oliver Wakefield (born 29 May 1909, Mahlabitini, Zululand, South Africa; d. 30 June 1956, New York City), was a popular British actor and comedian active from the 1930s until his death in 1956. Often billed as ""The Voice of Inexperience"", Wakefield is best known for his idiosyncratic satirical monologues. Wakefield was educated in South Africa, then travelled to England, where he began acting with a Shakespearean repertory company. He then attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts for further study, where he developed his distinctive style of humorous monologue."
"by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour. On 30 September 2012, the Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America unveiled a commemorative blue plaque to Karno at his former studios at 38 Southwell Road, Camberwell, in south London. Fred Karno Frederick John Westcott (26 March 1866 – 18 September 1941), best known by his stage name Fred Karno, was an English theatre impresario of the British music hall. As a comedian of slapstick he is credited with popularizing the custard-pie-in-the-face gag. During the 1890s, in order to circumvent stage censorship, Karno developed a form of sketch comedy without dialogue. Cheeky authority-defying"
"Barry Humphries John Barry Humphries, (born 17 February 1934) is an Australian comedian, actor, satirist, artist, and author. He is best known for writing and playing his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. He is also a film producer and script writer, a star of London's West End musical theatre, an award-winning writer, and an accomplished landscape painter. For his delivery of dadaist and absurdist humour to millions, biographer Anne Pender described Humphries in 2010 as not only ""the most significant theatrical figure of our time … [but] the most significant comedian to emerge"
"Ben Jonson's ""Every Man in His Humour"". Falstaff is a more ambiguous case. Though Falstaff presents some features of an Elizabethan dramatic clown, his character is higher in class and more complex than the other roles with which Kempe is associated. In 2008, comedian Tim FitzHigham re-enacted Kemp's Nine Day's Wonder by Morris dancing from London to Norwich, forming the basis of his play The Bard's Fool, performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. William Kempe William Kempe (died 1603), commonly referred to as Will Kemp, was an English actor and dancer specialising in comic roles and best known for having been"
"Tom Walls Thomas Kirby Walls (18 February 1883 – 27 November 1949), known as Tom Walls, was an English stage and film actor, producer and director, best known for presenting and co-starring in the Aldwych farces in the 1920s and for starring in and directing the film adaptations of those plays in the 1930s. Walls spent his early years as an actor, from 1905, mostly in musical comedy, touring the British provinces, North America and Australia and in the West End. He specialised in comic character roles, typically flirtatious middle aged men. In 1922 he went into management in partnership"
"than the dialogue, that has earned the sketch its popularity. Cleese has cited the physical comedy of Max Wall, probably in character as Professor Wallofski, as important to its conception. The sketch as originally depicted in the series begins with John Cleese playing Mr. Teabag, a civil servant who, after purchasing ""The Times"" from the newsagent in the previous sketch, walks through the streets of London (at the crossing of Thorpebank Road and Dunraven Road) in a very peculiar manner. He eventually arrives at his place of business: The Ministry of Silly Walks, on the northern end of Whitehall. In"
"the United Kingdom: Barry Humphries John Barry Humphries, (born 17 February 1934) is an Australian comedian, actor, satirist, artist, and author. He is best known for writing and playing his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. He is also a film producer and script writer, a star of London's West End musical theatre, an award-winning writer, and an accomplished landscape painter. For his delivery of dadaist and absurdist humour to millions, biographer Anne Pender described Humphries in 2010 as not only ""the most significant theatrical figure of our time … [but] the most significant"
"with both the great showman – and the enigma. The man known as Walford Bodie, 'Merry Devil.' In 2005, a book was published, detailing Bodie's exploits called ""Showmen or Charlatans?: The Stories of 'Dr' Walford Bodie and 'Sir' Alexander Cannon"" by Roger Woods and Brian Lead. Walford Bodie Walford Bodie, whose real name was Samuel Murphy Bodie (1869–1939), was a Scottish showman, hypnotist, ventriloquist and stage magician, famous for his 'mock' electrocutions involving a replica of 'The Electric Chair'. He also performed an act of 'Bloodless Surgery', claiming he could use electricity, hypnosis and manipulation to cure 'all kinds of"
"William Kempe William Kempe (died 1603), commonly referred to as Will Kemp, was an English actor and dancer specialising in comic roles and best known for having been one of the original players in early dramas by William Shakespeare. Roles associated with his name may include the great comic creation, Falstaff, and his contemporaries considered him the successor to the great clown of the previous generation, Richard Tarlton. Kempe's success and influence was such that in December 1598 he was one of a core of five actor-shareholders in the Lord Chamberlain's Men alongside Shakespeare and Richard Burbage, but in a"
"were the sketches of Les Dennis and Dustin Gee and The Goodies. Tommy Cooper made him laugh, as did Morecambe and Wise and the television show ""Dad's Army."" He cites his modern influences as Harry Enfield, of whom he says without meeting he would not have been doing what he does now, and the approach of Reeves and Mortimer who he thinks are ""far and away the best comedians that we have had in this country for a long while."" Paul Whitehouse Paul Julian Whitehouse (born 17 May 1958) is a British actor, writer and comedian. He was one of"
"Garden, Bill Oddie, and Jonathan Lynn. Buffery died in December 2015 at the age of 76. Tony Buffery Anthony Walter Harold Buffery (9 September 1939 – 26 December 2015) was a British actor, comedian, and writer who also had a career in academic psychology. Buffery got his start in the Cambridge Footlights, but his place in the London Footlights Revue was taken over by Graham Chapman (later of Monty Python) when Buffery chose an academic career over one in entertainment. I do remember that in one year – probably 1967 – Clive [James] did a two-man show with Tony Buffery..."
"George Graves (actor) George Windsor Graves (1 January 1876 – 2 April 1949) was an English comic actor. Although he could neither sing nor dance, he became a leading comedian in musical comedies, adapting the French and Viennese ""opéra-bouffe"" style of light comic relief into a broader comedy popular with English audiences of the period. His comic portrayals did much to ensure the West End success of ""Véronique"" (1904) ""The Little Michus"" (1905; for which he invented the Gazeka), and ""The Merry Widow"" (1907). In addition to musical comedy, operettas and revues, Graves specialised in pantomime and music hall. Later"
"in August 2017 by Ben Elton. Elton's lecture focused on the future of the British sitcom. Ronnie Barker Ronald William George Barker, (25 September 1929 – 3 October 2005) was an English actor, comedian and writer. He was known for roles in British comedy television series such as ""Porridge"", ""The Two Ronnies"", and ""Open All Hours"". Barker began acting in repertory theatre and decided he was best suited to comic roles. He had his first success at the Oxford Playhouse and in roles in the West End including Tom Stoppard's ""The Real Inspector Hound"". During this period, he was in"
"Harry Enfield Henry Richard Enfield (born 30 May 1961) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and director. He is known in particular for his television work, including ""Harry Enfield's Television Programme"" and ""Harry & Paul"", and for the creation and portrayal of comedy characters such as Kevin the Teenager and Loadsamoney. Born in Horsham, Sussex, he is the oldest of three children, the son of English television, radio and newspaper journalist and presenter Edward Enfield. He has two sisters. He was educated at the independent Arundale School in Pulborough, Dorset House School, Worth School, Collyer's Sixth Form College (all in"
"Lord Buckley Lord Richard Buckley (born Richard Myrle Buckley; April 5, 1906 – November 12, 1960) was an American stand-up comedian and recording artist, who in the 1940s and 1950s created a character that was, according to ""The New York Times"", ""an unlikely persona ... part English royalty, part Dizzy Gillespie."" Michael Packenham, writing in ""The Baltimore Sun"", described him as ""a magnificent stand-up comedian ... Buckley's work, his very presence, projected the sense that life's most immortal truths lie in the inextricable weaving together of love and irony -- affection for all humanity married to laughter."" Buckley's unique stage"
"Martin Freeman Martin John Christopher Freeman (born 8 September 1971) is an English actor and comedian, who became known for portraying Tim Canterbury in the original UK version of sitcom mockumentary ""The Office"", Dr. John Watson in the British crime drama ""Sherlock"", Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's ""The Hobbit"" film trilogy, and Lester Nygaard in the dark comedy-crime drama TV series ""Fargo"". His other notable film roles include the romantic comedy ""Love Actually"" (2003), the comic science fiction film ""The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"" (2005), the semi-improvised comedy ""Nativity!"" (2009), the comedic ""Three Flavours Cornetto"" trilogy, most prominently in"
"Tony Buffery Anthony Walter Harold Buffery (9 September 1939 – 26 December 2015) was a British actor, comedian, and writer who also had a career in academic psychology. Buffery got his start in the Cambridge Footlights, but his place in the London Footlights Revue was taken over by Graham Chapman (later of Monty Python) when Buffery chose an academic career over one in entertainment. I do remember that in one year – probably 1967 – Clive [James] did a two-man show with Tony Buffery... who had been part of the 1963 Footlights show ""Cambridge Circus"" which featured John Cleese, Tim"