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By the time he was nineteen, Royston Vasey had married, divorced, fathered two children, spent two years in Britain's toughest Borstal, served three prison stretches and been stabbed while in the Merchant Navy. He thought his only career choice would be a life of crime. Fifteen years later, he was one of Britain's most successful comics, playing live to half a million fans a year as Roy 'Chubby' Brown. COMMON AS MUCK! tells an incredible story of hardships, heartbreak and, ultimately, success. From an impoverished childhood with his abusive father, to his brand of comedy too rude for television and his determined fight against throat cancer, COMMON AS MUCK! is a frank telling of a remarkable life, laced with Roy's irrepressible humour.
By the time he was nineteen, Royston Vasey had married, divorced, fathered two children, spent two years in Britain's toughest Borstal, served three prison stretches and been stabbed while in the Merchant Navy. He thought his only career choice would be a life of crime. Fifteen years later, he was one of Britain's most successful comics, playing live to half a million fans a year as Roy 'Chubby' Brown. COMMON AS MUCK! tells an incredible story of hardships, heartbreak and, ultimately, success. From an impoverished childhood with his abusive father, to his brand of comedy too rude for television and his determined fight against throat cancer, COMMON AS MUCK! is a frank telling of a remarkable life, laced with Roy's irrepressible humour.
I've written another book and this will be one of those that when you pick it up, you'll begin to regret it. You see, I don't read books; I read the Sun newspaper. Actually, that's a lie; because when I get to page three I can't let go of my cock, so I can't turn the pages.
Comedy is crucial to how the English see themselves. This book considers that proposition through a series of case studies of popular English comedies and comedians in the twentieth century, ranging from the Carry On films to the work of Mike Leigh and contemporary sitcoms such as The Royle Family, and from George Formby to Alan Bennett and Roy 'Chubby' Brown. Relating comic traditions to questions of class, gender, sexuality and geography, A National Joke looks at how comedy is a cultural thermometer, taking the temperature of its times. It asks why vulgarity has always delighted English audiences, why camp is such a strong thread in English humour, why class influences what we laugh at and why comedy has been so neglected in most theoretical writing about cultural identity. Part history and part polemic, it argues that the English urgently need to reflect on who they are, who they have been and who they might become, and insists that comedy offers a particularly illuminating location for undertaking those reflections.
'Turner's seductive blend of political analysis, social reportage and cultural immersion puts him wonderfully at ease with his readers' David Kynaston 'Reading Alwyn Turner's account of life in the first two decades of the 21st century is a bit like trying to recall a dream from three nights ago ... uncannily familiar, but the details are downright implausible ' Kathryn Hughes, Guardian Weaving politics and popular culture into a mesmerising tapestry, historian Alwyn Turner tells the definitive story of the Blair, Brown and Cameron years. Some details may trigger a laugh of recognition (the spectre of bird flu; the electoral machinations of Robert Kilroy-Silk). Others are so surreal you could be forgiven for blocking them out first time around (did Peter Mandelson really enlist a Candomblé witch doctor to curse Gordon Brown's press secretary?). The deepest patterns, however, only reveal themselves at a certain distance. Through the Iraq War and the 2008 crash, the rebirth of light entertainment and the rise of the 'problematic', Turner shows how the crisis in the soul of a nation played out in its daily dramas and nightly distractions.
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An investigation of the origins of comedy and the meaning of laughter, drawing on biology, anthropology, classical studies, behavioural science, philosophy and psychology - with a few authorial jokes along the way.
Have you seen these feline felons? These cats have been responsible for some of the most heinous and shocking crimes ever committed, from dealing in catnip to unravelling a ball of yarn with malicious intent.
"Dark, brooding and painfully funny." (Goodreads ★★★★★) Two tribute bands. One ultimate prize. Zero room for failure. Having been blown away by seeing Gary Numan perform on Top of The Pops in 1979, Five went out and put an ad in the paper to form a tribute band. He named it 'The Romford Bombers'. They soon went on to dominate the annual Essex battle of the Gary Numan tribute bands. Until last year that is, when 'The Storm Troopers' came out of nowhere and stole their crown. The Bombers' 56-year-old lead singer will do whatever it takes to win it back. He also has reason to believe The Storm Troopers are pursuing a hidden agenda, and he's determined to get to the bottom of it. As Fi...
One of the best comedy talents in the North, Paddy McGuinness pours all of his expert northern knowledge into this hilarious guide book.