Dumb Riffs » comedy

‘Bloody sod yis den’

Karl Whitney — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 17:34:08 +0000

My review of Alexei Sayle’s memoir Stalin Ate My Homework is up on the 3:AM site here. (Above, Alexei in character as tragic ‘top warm-up man’ Bobby Chariot.)

I’ve linked below to sides one and two of Alexei’s live album Cak!, from 1982, to give you and idea of what a great stand-up comedian he was: sweary, angry, verbose. (Did I mention angry?) Great stuff!

Alexei Sayle – Cak! – Side One by dumbriffs
Alexei Sayle – Cak! – Side Two by dumbriffs

Karl Whitney — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 16:32:30 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Karl Whitney — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:32:59 +0000

Graham Linehan tells all about how he ripped off Ricky Gervais’s The Office here.

Karl Whitney — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:45:07 +0000

A while ago I wrote an article about a visit to the house the Marx Brothers grew up in, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Since then, some of the block the house stands on has been demolished with a view to building a seven storey apartment building, and a group has formed to campaign for the preservation of the house (they linked to my article, and that’s how I found out about the story). Woody Allen’s written a letter about the issue, calling for the preservation of the building

because the Marx Brothers are among the great comic artists in history, their accomplishments are revered internationally and in countries that place a high value on cultural contributions as opposed to simply bulldozing things in the name of progress, the Marx Brothers home would remain standing and affixed with a plaque.

Quite. There’s also a NY Times article about it here.

Karl Whitney — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:01:23 +0000

…is this passage by Anthony Lane in the New Yorker:

In the seventeenth chapter of “The Voyage of the Beagle,” Charles Darwin turned to the mating habits of the giant Galapagos tortoise. “When the male and female are together, the male utters a hoarse roar or bellowing, which, it is said, can be heard at the distance of more than 100 yards,” he wrote. This is also the most accurate description that we possess of the duet performed by Mick Jagger and Christina Aguilera in “Shine a Light,” Martin Scorsese’s documentary on the Rolling Stones.

Anthony Lane, review, New Yorker April 14 2008.

Karl Whitney — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:52:31 +0000

Lorcan will be telling his jokes in front of audiences between July 31st and August 31st this summer at the Edinburgh Fringe. Find out more on his blog here.

* see here

Karl Whitney — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:50:44 +0000

The first story on the Earlham Road Project in a while is here.

Karl Whitney — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:10:47 +0000

“With the price of oil escalating, and the threat of global terrorism, the world is in urgent need of a viable alternative to oil,” Dr Christian Koch told reporters in Kleinhartmannsdorf. “So when I announced that I had developed a method to produce fuel from waste meterial, I had expected positive coverage of my pioneering technique. But instead, the headline in the Bild newspaper last Wednesday was ‘German inventor can turn cats into fuel – for a tank he needs 20 cats,’ and ever since I’ve been receiving hate mail from animal rights campaigners.

“It’s true that my technique could turn dead cats into organic diesel fuel, but so far I’ve never used a single one. Okay, the odd toad or two may have jumped into my patented KDV 500 machine, and perhaps a couple of rabbits, but I mostly produce my fuel from waste products such as paper, plastic, and textiles, with only a few animals thrown in. If I did use cats, each cadaver would produce about 2.5 litres of fuel, so yes, I would need about 20 cats to fill up my car’s tank. But that’s a theoretical calculation, and I wish to make it clear that I’ve never actually used so much as a single kitten.”

From this week’s Private Eye spotted in Deutsche Welle, 18/9/2005 by David Painter

Karl Whitney — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 07:22:54 +0000

Lorcan’s appearance on the Tom Green show, where he discusses British comedy with Scott Thompson, can be seen online at Lorcan’s site here.

Karl Whitney — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 11:51:22 +0000

The air outside has been thick with the smell of hops from the Guinness brewery since last night. It must mean I’m back in Dublin, after my travels to London, Paris and West Cork. And it’s September, which means: back to the PhD.

Last Monday’s Irishman’s Diary, about my trip to Groucho Marx’s house on the Upper East Side of Manhattan is available here.