Respected comedians bombing on stage (including Simon Munnery)

[23 Daves]

Last weekend at the Melbourne festival of comedy I had the misfortune to witness a comedian I respect hugely bombing on stage with a bunch of under-rehearsed and under-baked material.  That comedian, I'm sorry to say, was Simon Munnery.  

I went along to see his "Buckethead" show, which is basically a one-man show based in the future where a bucket-wearing cult of people has emerged who are regarded as a "terrorist threat".  They wear buckets on their heads all day, can see nothing, and are hard to identify (for obvious reasons).  I was actually quite fired up by this idea and rushed off to buy tickets for it as soon as it was advertised, because I thought it could be another piece of genius inspiration a la "League Against Tedium".  I couldn't have been more wrong.

For starters, the show was under-rehearsed.  Technical problems happened all over the place, and Simon was periodically reduced to reading parts of his act off of notepaper.  Secondly, the material was actually quite weak - imagine chunks of the more average humour from "Attention Scum" mixed with stuff that wouldn't even have made the cut (his opening joke was "Read all about it!  Read all about it!  Homosexuality compulsory in Sydney, Melbourne to follow!", which nobody laughed at). The net result is that few laughs were heard throughout the evening.

Munnery eventually came back onstage at the end and apologised to everyone profusely for how crap the evening had been, then asked the audience if they had any questions.  "Yes, can we have our money back?", asked one man.  "Er, no,", he replied "I think you'll find once you give people money, you very rarely get it back.  If I had all the money I'd given away to people back, I'd be a very wealthy man".   He then tried to highlight what he thought was the stronger material in the show, nobody laughed yet again, so he pulled a face and quickly said goodnight and went behind the curtains.

This got me wondering if anyone else has witnessed anything like this.  Of course, amateur comedians bombing on stage is a common sight all over the world, but respected comedians with television series behind them and an established fanbase seldom struggle so mightily.

I suppose the favourite example over the years has become Reeves and Mortimer doing gigs in Canada, where the entire audience did not titter once and remained baffled by their humour.  I'd be very surprised to hear anyone witnessed this at any of the venues they were at, though.

(btw - yes, I am back everyone.  Don't know how frequently I'll be posting, though).

[Rats]

I saw him with a bucket on his head a few years back at glastonbury. I don't know if it was the same material but he was awfull, he got a few titters but that was it. He didn't seem to attract a big audience though, the tent was packed when stewart lee was on, I had to peer in amongst heads from outside but it was half empty when munnery came out.

[23 Daves]

Sounds like the same show.  Jesus Christ, you'd think he'd have realised he's flogging a dead horse by now, wouldn't you?  You'd also think he'd at least have adequately rehearsed (or at least memorised) the material...

[ApexJazz]

Simon munnery has a perverse compulsion towards bombing on stage....itz almost a schtick, ya' dig?  what did he read from his notes?

[Darrell]

For starters, the show was under-rehearsed.  Technical problems happened all over the place, and Simon was periodically reduced to reading parts of his act off of notepaper.  Secondly, the material was actually quite weak - imagine chunks of the more average humour from "Attention Scum" mixed with stuff that wouldn't even have made the cut (his opening joke was "Read all about it!  Read all about it!  Homosexuality compulsory in Sydney, Melbourne to follow!", which nobody laughed at). The net result is that few laughs were heard throughout the evening.

Munnery eventually came back onstage at the end and apologised to everyone profusely for how crap the evening had been, then asked the audience if they had any questions.  "Yes, can we have our money back?", asked one man.  "Er, no,", he replied "I think you'll find once you give people money, you very rarely get it back.  If I had all the money I'd given away to people back, I'd be a very wealthy man".   He then tried to highlight what he thought was the stronger material in the show, nobody laughed yet again, so he pulled a face and quickly said goodnight and went behind the curtains.

Apparently this happens at nearly every performance. Imitationleather saw the exact same thing happen at the Fringe last year.

Attention Scum seemed to be closure on all his best 'greatest hits' material (which he'd been recycling furiously for years), and he seems to be struggling with little new stuff of interest. Still nice to have him around, but he's floundering quite embarrassingly of late and it's a bit soul-destroying.

[benthalo]

*Sometimes* it's the case that Munnery is aiming for Chippington-esque alienation. Of the six occasions I've seen him live, two were awful and one of those was a warm up for the Hegley/Munnery shows of 2001. That was basically an hour of hesitant script reading to an audience at Darlington Arts Centre who expected a regular Hegley night. No one spoke to Munnery during the interval. Six months later he did a night of his own and stormed the same venue.

I've seen him most often at Brixton Comedy Club which also serves as my local. It's an easy audience to get along with, so a reasonable barometer to judge someone against. He tried out a lot of his Where Did It All Go Wrong? material there with mixed results. I've got recordings of those shows somewhere...

I've heard worse. Glastonbury in 2002, wearing a nappy and doing little else, the appearance on Live Floor Show which is amongst the most embarrassing things I've ever seen... But those are wilfully perverse moments. Munnery is at his best when he's working at those extremes and the audience are reacting in much the same way - early routines were received with glass attacks. Persistance is all, but I hope he gets onto a good track soon.

[23 Daves]

He was alright the last time I saw him - doing a stand-up gig to about 15 people in a pub in North London!  Nothing exceptional and very obviously trying out new material (as you'd expect in a venue that size) but still funny enough.

I've also realised I'm possibly being a bit harsh as he's only recently recovered from cancer, therefore a lot of his new material may have spent some time on the backburner before it was revisited.  Whatever though, I think he's got to face up to the fact that "Buckethead" just plain doesn't work.  I've been looking over the Internet, and nobody seems to have anything much good to say about it.  Also, a lot of people are pretty quick to criticise Munnery on this forum, but I'm actually a fan, so this isn't a typical Cookdandbombd "Attention Scum was shit" forum member talking here.

[Neil]

Ahem...I watched all the episodes of Attention Scum after downloading them recently (many thanks to ClaudiusMaximus for those).  I love the series now, but can see what pissed me off about it before!  I seem to have given up after the first episode, in total digust, but it is a stinker of an episode!  The main things that put me off were: (1) Kevin Eldon running round in a red cat-suit screaming "WHAT AM I?!" which was interspersed liberally through the show. (2) Johnny Vegas and (3) Combat Opera.  Oh, bent halo, to be fair that line you quoted the last time I said this was entirely unrepresentative of the general quality, in fact Combat Opera largely misfires throughout the whole series, but I did like the long song about corby trouser presses or something around episode 4.  These bits of filler don't really go anywhere, but I did settle into the show and was really enjoying it by the end!  I'm glad I got to see Cluub Z as that was a nice way of getting into it...it was also nice to see the conclusion to the hat gag!

[alan strang]

The main things that put me off were: (1) Kevin Eldon running round in a red cat-suit screaming "WHAT AM I?!" which was interspersed liberally through the show.

That joke works much better as part of The League's stand-up - it's just a little scribbly cartoon man on a screen with Munnery providing a whimpering voice as the mouth moves:

"What am I... wh... what am I? What am I?"

"You... are curious!"

"But... why?"

Building it up as a running gag with a post-credits payoff killed it a bit.

(2) Johnny Vegas

Agreed, that really was a mistake. Mere filler though.

and (3) Combat Opera.

Outside - now! I adore Combat Opera with a passion. Munnery's earlier series on some digital channel (UK Play?) also featured them in a non-weirdly costumed manner. Gorgeous stuff.

[Rev]

'Either/Or', and the 'Combat Opera' lass really was a highlight.  The winner of the show was the loser in real terms, and would be subjected to her singing 'noooooooobody likes you' a few inches away from their face.  You just can't buy that kind of class, unless you have money.

[Neil]

That sounds good, but I don't really see much to like about the Attention Scum incarnation.  The vast majority of the lines were pretty unremarkable, although as I say I liked the exteneded piece in one of the later episodes...still not funny but just bit of a treat visually and musically as I recall.

[Spiteface]

(2) Johnny Vegas

Agreed, that really was a mistake. Mere filler though.

What? 24 hour news - that was one of my favourite bits!

[Mister Six]

I liked almost all of Attention Scum, and am baffled by claims that it's a load of toss. 24 Hour News was funny too, especially since it was way before everyone had grown sick of Johnny Vegas.

[Darrell]

I've very recently rewatched Attention Scum on video (along with Cluub Z on the same tape), and here are a few points of my own. I can't be bothered constructing a normal post.

- Eldon screaming "WHAT AM I?!" in the costume had me on the floor every time. It's just so utterly ridiculous and stupid that it makes me laugh uncontrollably.
- The flippant people are the best sketch show characters evarrrr.
- I prefer Attention Scum to Cluub Z, I think it's much more satisfying as a format. I'm probably in a minority, mind.
- Probably less than half of the Kombat Operas I enjoyed, though the ones I did tickled me, the vegetables one in show 1 being my favourite.
- Munnery dressed in a suit of roses, being 'The Church of England' performed as a Michael Caine impression, is fantastic.

"I told you to turn the bloody Doors off!"

[Darrell]

I thought Either/Or was alright at the time, but did anyone other than me ever see FuturTV? It was on in the very early days of UK Play (the same time as Rock Profile was premiering), and was a series of 15-minute shows, of Munnery's favourite music videos interspersed with full-screen animations (as in his live act, y'know, all Powerpointy and everything) with a Munnery voiceover.

Quite charming. Clearly designed as filler, but great filler.

I fear I'm the only person who ever saw the bastard though - even Play stopped broadcasting it about 1999. Probably rare-as-fuck now.

[benthalo]

They were transmitted concurrently at some point or another, as I have muddled off-airs strung together on a tape somewhere.

[Manford Thirty-Sixborough]

The riddles were fantastic, particularly "My first is in Chicken, but not in Honduras, my second is not in Chicken, but is in Honduras, my third is in both Chicken and in Honduras, my last is not in Chicken, nor in Honduras."

[Mister Six]

"You're a cunt!"

[Jonny Jonny Butter Fiend]

I've got about 7 FuturTvs on video somewhere and a shedload of Either/Or...in fact I think I'm only missing one episode. I did enjoy Attention Scum! when it was on, taped all of those too. I do prefer Cluub Z though, the production looked higher and the material fitted in a whole lot better with the surroundings.

I saw 1 part of the Simon Munnery Trilogy in Edinburgh last year, which was the Sherlock Holmes monlogue. The place was heaving, although he did have to rush off stage to get a sheet of paper he'd forgotten, nobody seemed to mind.

These days though he doesn't perform the League Against Tedium. My friend and I went to Darlington to watch T.L.A.T. or that was what was on the poster, instead we got Alan Parker opener and the Bucket head character (not the play) standing playing the harmonica and throwing out witty observations. No League Against Tedium.

He's performing Alan Parker more often these days. I wonder if he just got disenchanted with the League after Attention Scum.

[Darrell]

As I said before, I think Attention Scum was deliberate closure on the League Against Tedium, a conscious send-off for all the old material.

I'm still waiting for the Alan Parker series suggested by Stewart Lee on the Cluub Z credit sequence...

[Jonny Jonny Butter Fiend]

I think that'd be a pretty good series to work on these days, although Alan Parker really does seem based in the 80s fighting Thatcherism, not sure how well it'd stand up these days. Saying that though, the gigs he performs are all blinders, really funny stuff.

It's a shame about closing the League, I only started to know about him with Either/Or and I'd never consider going to a stand up gig before I saw that. I really did want to see the League live, but it looks like it will never happen now.

Did anyone ever listen to Simon Munnerys Resonance FM shows? What did you all make of them? All I remember was a lot of Harmonica playing. Most times my computer would stall or cut out ten minutes before the show ended, so I missed most of it. Plus I only ever heard one or two because I was always at work at 3.00pm on a Monday afternoon.

[Big Jack McBastard]

He's awfully hit and miss isn't he? Attention Scum was pretty patchy and I was (slightly rightfully) berated by my brother for watching it as well, just hoping it would be as good as Either/Or if he's gone even further south then it may be time to write him off.

[Jonny Jonny Butter Fiend]

Attention Scum was pretty hit and miss. The Flippant Men was though, easily one of the funniest sketches I've seen in a long long time. I also liked the way they filmed The Leagues pub crawl, that 50s music and black and white scenes really gelled nicely together. There was quite a lot of good stuff in there. There was also a lot of stuff that fell flat though, I did notice the very same joke was repeated in two episodes.

Possibly the reason A.S. isn't popular with many people is because, I assume anyone who watched this was familiar with Munnerys material anyway. There wasn't much new stuff and having heard it before you could pre empt the jokes.

I do like A.S, especially the opening title sequence. The way he smiles and waves holding a flower cracks me up every time. It was a nice quirky kind of show, totally undeservant of the bad treatment it got. It sounds like everyone got royally fucked about on that one by the BBC. But possibly now Jane Root is out the door, maybe he can get a second chance and another show.

It does seem a real shame that a comedian with a past track record as Munnerys, and such an inventive comic would be ignored over another 2 pints of larger clone. I would love to see a Television version of his Alan Parker Roadwarrior radio show, especially where he goes to Amsterdam and gets harrassed by the Liverpool football fans.

[Entropy Balsmalch]

I saw Munnery bomb at Edinburgh doing the League Against Tedium - strange because the year before it had been fantastic.

It just seemed to me that he got about a quarter of his way into the act and then lost consentration and consequently all his sense of timing.

He appologised at the end too.

The comedian I saw die the worst death was Phil Jupitus at the dance music festival which used to take place called Tribal Gathering.

I was waiting by the tent to meet friends and he was failing to get a single laugh from the ever diminishing audience with his pale Stars Wars shite and Chewbacca impression.

He's never made me laugh anyway - so it was no suprise.

The only good bit was he said towards the end - "I'm in Glastonbury in a couple of weeks time and I'll be doing exactly the same stuff, so if you are there, please don't come along."

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

I don't think AS was Munnery sending off his League material; he still uses loads of it in Buckethead and Experimental Half Hour.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Didn't Stewart Lee do a gig at the Lowry Theatre, Salford, in 2009, which was a bit of a disaster?

[The Region Legion]

Munnery is an odd one overall and it doesn't surprise me at all to hear that he bombs on the regular.

However, I've seen him 3 times at Edinburgh over the last two years - "Fylm-makker" and this years "Fylm", and a fantastic piece as a waiter that he performs to only 6 people at a time.  I think he works a lot better in these conceptual pieces rather than as a stand-up.

Hadn't heard about the cancer, really glad he's come through it.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

Didn't Stewart Lee do a gig at the Lowry Theatre, Salford, in 2009, which was a bit of a disaster?

Yes! He walked out on stage and was immediately heckled - this was either one of two things: The bloke shouting that Lee wasn't funny, or the bloke shouting "At last, someone funny" after not enjoying Tony Law. Lee presumed the former and entered into a discourse with the heckler and called the guy a cunt. All throughout the show, the heckler - a Maltese gentleman, who I believe had just come along with a friend - continued to interject, disrupting the flow and causing Lee to drop several routines, as he felt they wouldn't work without the build up.

As Lee launched into the ironic routine about how great the UK is, the heckler took it at face value and became enraged, presumably thinking he was a an open discussion forum of political views. Lee tried to explain that, if he'd waited, he would have seen the routine go off in a different direction, thus confounding expectations, but the moment was lost.

By this point, the audience were out for blood. They began shouting threats at the heckler, who finally was persuaded to leave - against Lee's wishes; he seemed to want the guy to stay, as long as he would shut up.

Lee asked the rest of the audience if we wanted to reschedule for another night, but everyone wanted him to carry on.

It was a very awkward evening.

[The Region Legion]

Yes! He walked out on stage and was immediately heckled - this was either one of two things: The bloke shouting that Lee wasn't funny, or the bloke shouting "At last, someone funny" after not enjoying Tony Law. Lee presumed the former and entered into a discourse with the heckler and called the guy a cunt. All throughout the show, the heckler - a Maltese gentleman, who I believe had just come along with a friend - continued to interject, disrupting the flow and causing Lee to drop several routines, as he felt they wouldn't work without the build up.

As Lee launched into the ironic routine about how great the UK is, the heckler took it at face value and became enraged, presumably thinking he was a an open discussion forum of political views. Lee tried to explain that, if he'd waited, he would have seen the routine go off in a different direction, thus confounding expectations, but the moment was lost.

By this point, the audience were out for blood. They began shouting threats at the heckler, who finally was persuaded to leave - against Lee's wishes; he seemed to want the guy to stay, as long as he would shut up.

Lee asked the rest of the audience if we wanted to reschedule for another night, but everyone wanted him to carry on.

It was a very awkward evening.

Hardly sounds like a disaster, just a bit of a weird gig ruined by a twat.

[Famous Mortimer]

Not entirely sure what the 10 posts from 2004 will add to this debate, but never mind.

I've yet to see someone I paid money for bomb on stage, though. I've seen plenty of support acts go down in flames, and Toby Hadoke, doing a pre-Edinburgh show a couple of years ago, wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders, but other than that? Not really any.