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Alexi Sayle, 1990 TV series

Started by Phoenix Lazarus, July 16, 2019, 05:57:37 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Pdine

Revisiting that, it's unfortunately another example of modern standards overtaking older standards: he just doesn't look fat these days, which breaks a lot of the jokes.

Famous Mortimer

I remember really not liking anything he did after "Stuff", but that was what me of the mid 1990s thought.

And that's another exciting Mortimer Opinion! Would you like to know what I thought about anything else 25 years ago?

Virgo76

Loved Alexei Sayle's Stuff!
("Hi! I'm Dick Van Dyke! I hope you are too!)
Loved both title sequences (at least, I can only remember two) esp. the one with 'The Wanderer' at the beginning.
Loved the 'Alexei is just a cartoon character' thing. Leslie Crowther. The sketch about Einstein secretly writing scripts for George Formby.
Suspect it ran out of steam quickly though - and more Python-esque than anything I've ever seen.
Lynne from Alan Partridge was in it sometimes.

Loved the spoof Australian soap, Psycho Ward 10 - the Hitchcock joke. Shane from Neighbours being in it. The cast being confused by the occasional fade-outs.
But I see that's actually from The All New Alexei Sayle Show which generally I remember less fondly? The titles are the same as Fry and Laurie too..
Compare...
https://binged.it/318mJOv

https://binged.it/2YrPGmB

How are you diddling?
Well, bloody sod you then...

petril

Quote from: Virgo76 on July 30, 2019, 01:50:25 PM
Leslie Crowther.

always loved the telly presentation gaggery that happened. the people wandering into the TWO ident thinking it was an artwork, the "regressive trend", and, as you said, the apology for the loss of Alexei Sayle and continuing in Leslie Crowther.

I think it was All New that had the "selling the format" gag too, cut to fat, bald Spaniard doing material in the same aggressive tone

Alberon

Yep, it was the All-New show.


"El Nuevo Alehandro Santiago Spectaculo"

Virgo76

Has anyone else seen Alexei live?
I saw him in 2013. He was generally good. The warm-up act was Red Dwarf's own Hattie Hayridge: a poor choice as it turned out. She is famously deadpan and so didn't exactly "warm up" the audience for a man who was still very lively anyway. Secondly, she was actually crap. Perhaps she is better usually but this is the only time I've seen her.
During her performance, we noticed Alexei watching her in the audience from the front row: a bit unusual, we thought. Except we soon realised it wasn't him. It was another man: a bald, bearded Alexei lookalike. We soon spotted another. And another. And another. It was a bit like the Saturday Night Live sketch where the Woody Allen film audience is full of Woody-alikes.

petril

Quote from: Virgo76 on July 31, 2019, 06:54:09 AM
Has anyone else seen Alexei live?
I saw him in 2013. He was generally good. The warm-up act was Red Dwarf's own Hattie Hayridge: a poor choice as it turned out. She is famously deadpan and so didn't exactly "warm up" the audience for a man who was still very lively anyway. Secondly, she was actually crap. Perhaps she is better usually but this is the only time I've seen her.
During her performance, we noticed Alexei watching her in the audience from the front row: a bit unusual, we thought. Except we soon realised it wasn't him. It was another man: a bald, bearded Alexei lookalike. We soon spotted another. And another. And another. It was a bit like the Saturday Night Live sketch where the Woody Allen film audience is full of Woody-alikes.

presumably they're at a loose end after buying the format off him all those years ago

Virgo76

I don't look like Alexei Sayle myself incidentally. I'm more like George Wendt. Or Stephen Hawking (before the accident).
Apparently, I look a bit like Richard Nixon in photos. I don't see it.

Gulftastic

Which one was it that had Alexi walking down a hall with big pictures of people like Tony Hancock, Kenneth Williams and other legends, before ending stood in front of a picture of a grinning Les Dennis as Alexi said 'Here, in this hall of great comedians...' to audience laughter?

I remember not long after, Les started doing his impression of Alexi in his 'laughter' show. Sample line 'That'll upset a few people!'.

Alberon

Les Dennis did Alexei Sayle? I have to find a clip of that!

Quote from: Gulftastic on August 01, 2019, 05:08:56 PM
Which one was it that had Alexi walking down a hall with big pictures of people like Tony Hancock, Kenneth Williams and other legends, before ending stood in front of a picture of a grinning Les Dennis as Alexi said 'Here, in this hall of great comedians...' to audience laughter?

This episode, linked to in this earlier post.  It's at 21.19 - 21.29.

Quote from: Darles Chickens on July 16, 2019, 06:47:03 PM
It's brilliant.  Here's a taster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE8b_e16brc

EBGB

 I'd never taken Volvos or their drivers seriously anyway, but "My name is Sven, and I've got a VolVO" sealed it for me.

zomgmouse

Is the show in this thread a separate entity to Stuff or am I missing something?

letsgobrian

Quote from: zomgmouse on August 02, 2019, 09:56:35 AM
Is the show in this thread a separate entity to Stuff or am I missing something?

It's a little confusing as Stuff only aired in repeats in 1990, but that and the other two sketch series from the 90s are the main topics.

He did have a couple of Comic Strip Presents in 1990, Les Dogs (the Kate Bush wedding one) and Spaghetti Hoops (a Fellini homage that has apparently completely left my memory), as well as a ScreenPlay called Night Voice, and the Channel 4 EEC satire The Gravy Train with a baby Christoph Waltz.

Gurke and Hare

I love everything about this sketch - the names, Tony Milan's little Ted Rogers-style hand gesture every time he says "Up the Chimney", the technical chimney related dialogue and the Gyles Brandreth gag.

And to write Stuff off as a Python rip-off is ridiculous. Yes, it does some Pythonish messing about with the sketch show structure but the writing is totally original.

Virgo76

Sayle's own brand of humour isn't Python-like at all. There's loads of great stuff in ASS (that's Alexei Sayle's Stuff!) and to write it off as anything would be foolish.
But the William Rees-Mogg stuff? The pretending the show was over and then showing a fake trailer for a new BBC 2 show about Jam? Very Python-esque indeed!

The whole of the first series here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plYPn29CVi4

I love it. Watch out for a kind of proto-Collaterlie Sisters in the second episode.

Edit: This bit is very Python-esque.

The more Pythonish bits are probably largely due to Andrew Marshall and David Renwick.  They'd written End of Part One before, and that also played about with sketch show structure and television conventions.

Quote from: Pdine on July 18, 2019, 11:33:20 AM
Revisiting that, it's unfortunately another example of modern standards overtaking older standards: he just doesn't look fat these days, which breaks a lot of the jokes.
He never did! I really liked Stuff but this always really annoyed me - he quite blatantly wasn't fat!

Captain Poodle Basher

Quote from: Virgo76 on July 31, 2019, 06:54:09 AM
Has anyone else seen Alexei live?
I saw him in 2013. He was generally good. The warm-up act was Red Dwarf's own Hattie Hayridge: a poor choice as it turned out. She is famously deadpan and so didn't exactly "warm up" the audience for a man who was still very lively anyway. Secondly, she was actually crap. Perhaps she is better usually but this is the only time I've seen her.
During her performance, we noticed Alexei watching her in the audience from the front row: a bit unusual, we thought. Except we soon realised it wasn't him. It was another man: a bald, bearded Alexei lookalike. We soon spotted another. And another. And another. It was a bit like the Saturday Night Live sketch where the Woody Allen film audience is full of Woody-alikes.

I saw him in 1986 at Camden Town Hall, I think. It was a benefit night for something or other (Possibly Nicaragua) and was full of the epitome of Leftist London mid-80's "Death to Thatcher!" clones - dungarees, spray-painted Docs and hand-knitted beanies everywhere you looked.

Myself and my friend blagged our way in as there was a "Cut-Price Entry for The Oppressed" notice by the door so we challenged their preconceptions by loudly declaring our Irishness and demanded equal treatment. After a bit of back and forth we got a weary "Ok, you too are amongst the oppressed" and got in for a couple of quid.

There was the usual parade of Jugglers, Legz Akimbo-style troupes and over-enthusiastic shouty sloganeering of the "Either turn down the Mic or lower your voice, we're getting feedback" variety.

Eventually, Alexi Sayle came on to much cheering although, he didn't look too happy to be there and it soon showed. He didn't do anything I hadn't seen previously on tv but, from memory, did all his jaundiced anti-populist material. The bits about overthrowing Apartheid by means of a witty slogan on your placard and his Marxist puppet show routine to increasing annoyance from the crowd. He didn't do a very long set either. From what I remember, we left the venue as soon as Alexi did.