Comedian Freddie Starr found dead at home in Spain aged 76.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48222827
RIP.
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 10 May 19 at 10:18
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Headline in Sun:
Freddie Starr Joins His Hamster.
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He just found out out the reason we dont eat them.
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Should have stuck to guinea pigs
Last edited by: legacylad on Fri 10 May 19 at 12:58
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I used to think Freddie Starr was hysterical, really really funny.
Then some time in the early 80s I went to see his show at Blazers in Windsor. Unfunny, very blue, bullying, often actually offensive and toe-curlingly embarrassing. Avoided him ever after.
Still, there was a time... So RIP.
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ditto, saw him at the lakeside Frimley, similar time period. He was just as you say, and my reaction was the same as yours.
You can be blue and un pc and still be funny, he wasnt, far too over the top in both.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 10 May 19 at 13:22
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I saw Jim Davidson at the Frimley Lakeside and he was the same. Way OTT. Occasionally quite funny though. But (maybe to his credit, certainly to my irritation) he walked off after a fairly short time when the crowd were shouting to him to do his Chalky character, when he clearly didn't want to do it.
Last edited by: smokie on Fri 10 May 19 at 14:22
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I saw JD, I think at the Lakeside in Swindon. It was just as you say, except I don't think any of it was funny. Whereas on the television he was great. If you've never seen JD, The Dyke Spoon on the Generation Game with Jethro, then you simply haven't lived.
Funniest I ever saw, and I've seen quite a few, was Lee Evans in Oxford. Not my thing on the television at all and I went under considerable protest. But it was genius. I laughed so hard I was struggling for breath and thought I might have to step out. Utter genius.
Strangely though, still not funny on television.
Worst I've seen in recent years was Bill Bailey. Drunk I think.
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Never saw Freddie Start live but saw him often enough on television not to find him funny.Far too aggressive but had a decent singing voice.
Best live comedian I have seen without a doubt was Billy Connolly but that was in the 70's just after his Parkinson show .He would be closely followed by Ken Dodd.
Also Jasper Carrott was and indeed still is a master of comedy.
My nomination for best old timer still touring 50 years on is Richard Digance.
Most of the modern PC lefties turn me cold.
Humour is a very personal thing
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In the early 80s crossing a road in Sheffield when I heard tyres squeeling and glanced round to see where it was coming from. Around the corner came a huge Mercedes with the drivers door swinging open and Freddie Star leaning out trying to grab the handle. He appeared to be well refreshed in the middle of the afternoon.
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Talking of left wing BBC 'comedians' I see 'Have I got news for you' has been pulled from the schedule tonight. Usually means legal problems....
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It’s actually because one of the guests booked was Heidi Allen and the BBC rules regarding impartiality pending the forthcoming European elections.
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Never heard of her, had to google the name.
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>> Never heard of her, had to google the name.
>>
She's our elected as a Tory MP who isn't a Tory any more.
As to comedians on stage, I had high hopes of Ken Dodd, but found it unbearable and left after seventeen hours at the interval, and had no hopes at all of Max Boyce but laughed really quite a lot. And I mean a lot.
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>> As to comedians on stage, I had high hopes of Ken Dodd, but found it
>> unbearable and left after seventeen hours at the interval
I have heard of people having to leave Ken Dodd in full flow, because they had last trains to catch. He just wouldn't stop.
I think he has stopped now.
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>> I have heard of people having to leave Ken Dodd in full flow, because they
>> had last trains to catch. He just wouldn't stop.
As we were going, he said "don't even think about leaving, I'll follow you home and shout jokes through your letterbox".
I half think he meant it.
Which reminds me that I did actually like his joke:
What a wonderful day for shoving a cucumber through the vicar's letterbox and shouting "The Martians are coming".
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>> I think he has stopped now.
Diddy?
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We saw him there too. Same experience.
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Have to agree with you about Max Boyce Crankcase.I only saw him live once in Englandafter an international when one of the Welsh team got sent off and England won.
He bounded onto the stage with a gigantic leek and responded to heckling defiantly by saying 'you still haven't beaten 15 Welshmen'.
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Looks like he had a good send off.
"Return to sender" engraved on the side of the coffin was a nice touch.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48621164
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I found it a bit sad actually.
Despite finding him hilarious in the very early days, my regard for his humour began to wane and then hit a brick wall after the concert of his I saw at Blazers.
But he was a product of his time, the humour at that time, and Max Clifford's imagination.
Then the media picked up on some girl who said she'd been groped by him. She also said she'd been molested by Saville, so she was clearly the unlucky sort. Not the sort I would easily believe but the judge at the later defamation case apparently believed her so you'd have to believe that it did happen.
[ www.bbc.com/news/uk-33477004 ]
Starr lost and got lumped with huge legal bills, though not huge enough to account for losing all his money. I can't remember what he earned now, but it was in the millions.
Lost his money to the point where he lived above a karaoke bar and when he died it needed a donation to get his body home and funeral paid for.
It just seems all very sad, whatever the rights or wrongs of the various situations.
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>> She also said she'd been molested by Saville, so she was clearly the unlucky sort.
>> Not the sort I would easily believe but the judge at the later defamation case
>> apparently believed her so you'd have to believe that it did happen.
The allegation was that she was assaulted by Starr while on Savile's TV programme. He sued her and lost.
I'm never sure what to make of Savile's connection with Duncroft approved school where Karin Ward was apparently an inmate. Her approximate contemporary the late Anna Raccoon had much to say on the subject:
annaraccoon.com/2014/11/30/duncroft-the-finale-part-one/
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Fri 14 Jun 19 at 16:59
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>>Her approximate contemporary the late Anna Raccoon had much to say on the subject:
An interesting link, and article.
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