Have you ever shaken hands with or met your comedy hero ?

[Brundle-Fly]

Bresslaw was a cracking actor, though (comedy and otherwise). And he always seemed like a lovely bloke (actually Palin mentions in his first diaries that Bresslaw came to the set of Jabberwocky straight from his brother's funeral, while managing to keep a happy outward appearance on set). Remember you mentioning the Stephen Lewis thing before, Brundle... wasn't he pretending to be Blakey to some bused-in pissheads or summit?

Bresslaw was underrated really. He was RADA trained too.

And yes I have brought up the Blakey story on here before when he died.

Met him once in the late nineties. I was working at a music industry corporate event and they'd laid on a load of buses to ferry all the punters onto a nightclub after their awards ceremony. The show wasn't over yet and I went out for a fag in the carpark only to see Blakey himself in full station inspector garb hanging around on his tod.  He was booked to usher folk onto these proper London red buses and inexplicably say "I 'ate you, Butler" on a loop. I think the former Suede guitarist was in attendance though.

We got talking and he was surprised (and almost dewy-eyed) I knew his actual name and that I remembered his sit-com, Don't Drink The Water. This was when knowing stuff off the bat was impressive because you couldn't covertly Google IMDB on your smartphone for obscure TV credits to ingratiate yourself with British comedy character actors long past their prime.

Lewis remarked he had never done a corporate before and was a bit embarrassed because he felt he was prostituting himself. I told him to stop being so soft, take the money and have a laugh. People went bananas when they saw him and he did look like he had a ball.  My remaining memory is watching a refreshed Keith Flint hugging him warmly.



I 'ate you, new page

[zomgmouse]

Shook Stephen Fry's hand after a show he did but there were about a hundred other people there scrambling got autographs so it was fleeting and ultimately intangible. I thought I was being clever not asking for an autograph but now I don't have an autograph.

Alan Davies was doing a signing and I went and gave him some badges I'd made and also gave him what was at the time (and still is come to think of it) Woody Allen's latest short story collection. He was very grateful and asked me to sign it. The guy behind me in the queue took some photos on his phone but never sent them to me.

Alexei Sayle - also a signing, after a Q&A type talk promoting his new Thatcher book. I had a copy of his Stalin book, which he noted briefly. I told him "your continued oddness is an inspiration to me" or words to that effect and he laughed and said "I don't think I'll ever stop".

Bill Bailey I met twice after two different years, both at the back door of the venue he was performing in. Weirdly not many people waiting there. He's always very jovial and happy to take pictures and have a quick chat. The first time I got a picture and he signed a DVD box set of his stand-up ("I am Bill Bailey. 98% human"), the second time I also got a picture of us making the same stony face but I didn't have anything to sign so I just handed him a blank notepad my friend had on him and he signed it and drew a little caricature of himself. I then got to tell him he was basically the reason I got into comedy and told him about Dunnet Head which I went to last year (the northernmost point in the British mainland) where you can see puffins. It was very nice.

Dylan Moran after a gig I didn't particularly enjoy but I was there and figured I'd try my luck; after a while waiting he stormed out of the venue clearly eager to get to his car, I kind of thrust a Black Books DVD at him which he very hastily signed and walked off as others tried to get him to sign stuff as well and he seemed incredibly annoyed at the whole experience. The signature didn't even turn out well as it was black paper and the white pen I'd brought didn't work that well.

John Waters did a signing after a live show, he signed his photo in one of his books, asked me how I was and I was too overwhelmed so I just said "okay!" and then got what is probably my worst ever photo taken.

During the comedy festival I've talked to a few comedians including Milton Jones (who smirked at a joke I was holding up when trying to flyer for my show and then after I saw his show I thanked him for the smirk and had a short chat) and Simon Munnery (also after his show). With Munnery I did the thing of trying to name an obscure thing he'd done so I proffered "Smart Alek", a short film he was in with Sean Lock, directed by Andrew Kötting and he seemed suitably impressed.

Tim Vine a couple of times. The first time was the same year as the Milton Jones one above; I think I've written about this on here before. Basically as part of my flyering technique I had a big poster book with one-liners written in big text and I was walking around displaying it when I saw Tim Vine and walked up to him like a cheeky shit and started flipping through it. He laughed at a few of them which was nice. Later after seeing his show I again thanked him for generously allowing me to be a cheeky shit. The second time I actually got to interview him, and still have the footage but it's never been uploaded anywhere even though it went rather well. That year I also talked to him a few times while he was waiting for a coffee, he is a very nice man.

[Brundle-Fly]

RE: Tim Vine: That year I also talked to him a few times while he was waiting for a coffee, he is a very nice man.

A few times? Hmmm.... I need you to clarify something. Were you supplementing your show budget by moonlighting as a barista?

[Norton Canes]

Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure was fifteen years ago? Holy shiatsu.

[Konki]

Saw Chris Morris in my place of work twice last year but it would have been inappropriate to have approached him. There was eye contact though so he definitely knew I knew and that I knew that he knew that I knew.

[zomgmouse]

A few times? Hmmm.... I need you to clarify something. Were you supplementing your show budget by moonlighting as a barista?

No, there's a coffee stand right outside the Town Hall which is the biggest festival venue[nb]the Town Hall not the coffee stand[/nb] and that's where he'd get coffee and also where a lot of comedians hang out in general.

[SteveDave]

The first time I met Stewart Lee was in the toilets of the venue under The Albany on Great Portland Street at the 60s night he and Dan Maier used to DJ. We had a long chat about Bob Dylan. He then said I was the coolest person in the room. Which was nice.

I met him a few places out and about after that and of course, he's on my Welsh Music Award losing LP. Many copies still left.

I met Harry Hill after being a shoddy wedding band for my friend and he told me about meeting George Harrison. He was lovely and so was George apparently.

I'm sure there are more but I'm on my second can of Monster and everything's going fuzzy.

[dekko]

I decided to go to Ben Volchok's most recent festival show as I was quite keen to observe a verbwhore in the flesh.

As the show progressed I debated whether I should say hello afterward and introduce myself as a lurker who hadn't posted for about five years. Ben's show has a single section of audience interaction, where one audience member is dragooned into playing an ostrich with a water pistol. And he chose me. So I shared a stage with my comedy hero and he gave me 20 cents.

Then last week I saw him walking down Swanston St at about 11pm one night when I was on a tram.

zomgmouse, this is all desperately true/truly desperate. I was probably in the same Alexei Sayle signing line as you.

[yesitsme]

I met the Viz-ers (including the Fezzipegs from the Enrazzlement calender).  I was fairly giddy at that.

I was also in a room when Kevin Davies came in.  I've never been awe struck by the presence of another guy, even if he was a g-g-g-footballer but I did find myself stammering the words 'There's K-k-kevin D-d-davies' to my lad.  A felt a bit of a fool for that.

We went to see that Elvis with Royal Philharmonic thing and even though you could cut the almost universal hatred of the woman with a knife when Priscilla comes on (she's like a fairy godmother in a panto) you can feel the electricity from her going around the auditorium.

Strange that Cilla draws so much ire from the fans of Elvo.  Let's face it he robbed her of her childhood and yet some (my aunt including) cannot stand the woman for 'stealing' him away.

Nice beaver though.

edit - Oh aye, a couple of years ago we used the kids as an excuse to go and see Sooty $ Co Live!  I love a good TV puppet me.  At the end Richard (botoxed to fuck I might add) stayed behind while anyone and everyone queued to get their photo taken with the TV bear.

I was pleased to see that while there was plenty of murch Richard didn't force it on anyone and the photos were taken well away from the stalls.  You could buy any amount of shit that you wanted to or not.  I thought that was a nice touch. 

In short I was delighted to elbow my children out of the way to be front and centre.

[Crabwalk]

I've had encounters with three comedy heroes so here come the brags:

- Met and interviewed Arthur Mathews around the time he was promoting 'Well-Remembered Days'
- Did a phone interview with Richard Briers. So no, didn't meet him, but RICHARD FUCKING BRIERS MAN
- Filmed a corporate thing with Prunella Scales in her house. So technically I have directed Prunella Scales and you should all bow before me.

[zomgmouse]

I decided to go to Ben Volchok's most recent festival show as I was quite keen to observe a verbwhore in the flesh.

As the show progressed I debated whether I should say hello afterward and introduce myself as a lurker who hadn't posted for about five years. Ben's show has a single section of audience interaction, where one audience member is dragooned into playing an ostrich with a water pistol. And he chose me. So I shared a stage with my comedy hero and he gave me 20 cents.

Then last week I saw him walking down Swanston St at about 11pm one night when I was on a tram.

zomgmouse, this is all desperately true/truly desperate. I was probably in the same Alexei Sayle signing line as you.

!!! this is pretty extraordinary! You definitely should have introduced yourself. Also it was a cassowary not an ostrich and "comedy hero" seems strong but this is REALLY WEIRD and kind, thank you.

I hope the show was enjoyable.

[Glebe]

- Did a phone interview with Richard Briers. So no, didn't meet him, but RICHARD FUCKING BRIERS MAN

Fucking hell, you lucky bastard! If it had been me, I wouldn't have been able to resist the opportunity to get him to say, "Honey, nuts and brown sugar drenched in ice cold milk!"

[Jockice]

I was also in a room when Kevin Davies came in.  I've never been awe struck by the presence of another guy, even if he was a g-g-g-footballer but I did find myself stammering the words 'There's K-k-kevin D-d-davies' to my lad.  A felt a bit of a fool for that.

Kevin Davies was in the same pub as me one Christmas Eve not too long ago. I wasn't over-excited by it.

[kngen]

Met Chris Morris coming out of a trendy pop-up restaurant near the Guardian office at Kings Place a couple of years ago. Was very gracious when I asked for a picture with him, but then shouted 'What the hell is THAT?' when I pulled out my (pretty sizable for the time, I guess) Samsung Galaxy phone to take it. Oh, I so wanted to shout 'TECHNOLOGY!' at him in response, but instead I burbled something about On the Hour. Anyway - very, very nice man. Couldn't have asked for a better interaction.

Back when the Graun was still based in Farringdon, I used to occasionally see Sadowitz behind the counter at International Magic, based around the corner. I never had the balls to go in and talk to him (he looked fucking miserable, to be fair, so it was hardly an inviting sight.) My l'esprit de l'escalier moment there was that I thought I should go in, take a novelty dog turd down from the little carousel of such crap near the front of the shop, place it on the counter and say: 'I'm thinking of becoming a standup comedian. I wonder if you could offer me some advice.' I'm sure that would have gone down brilliantly.

As a teenager, I was sat with a friend in a poncy beer garden in Glasgow's poncy West End. During a lull in the conversation, we both look up to see Billy Connolly striding our way (we were sat right by the entrance to the equally poncy restaurant he was on his way to). This was well into his breaking into the US/living in LA years, so sightings were far less common than they used to be.  'Awrite lads!' he said in that unmistakable brogue. 'Awrite Big Yin!' we squeaked in unison. He smiled, nodded and swished past us. Pure gallus, big man!

[Crabwalk]

I went into International Magic in about 2001 to buy some magic tricks for children. Sadowitz didn't serve me but was behind the counter. He spontaneously started showing me a few kids tricks when he heard my enquiry and was charming in a low-key way - probably aided by my not letting on I knew who he was.

That was great, but part of me was yearning to be called a lanky paedophile or suchlike.

[Serge]

Ah, that would explain why Sadowitz regularly used to come into a bookshop that I used to work in on Leather Lane, near Farringdon.....