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And Away... by Bob Mortimer (funnyman autobiography)

Started by Ballad of Ballard Berkley, September 02, 2021, 06:29:16 PM

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I.D. Smith

Quote from: Magnum Valentino on October 05, 2021, 06:32:48 AM
It's entirely possible. Something similar happened with Knowing Me Knowing You, which I think might have been in the can before On The Hour but was broadcast after. Very likely I'm wrong about that.

If Bob has made a mistake on this, as with the Les chives/spirit level mixup, it really does make you wonder if all proofreaders do is correct spelling mistakes.

Quote from: DrGreggles on October 05, 2021, 07:40:42 AM
The Shooting Stars pilot was in 1993, so there's every chance that a series was commissioned before Smell 2.

Quote from: turnstyle on October 05, 2021, 09:22:09 AM
Matt Lucas goes into this initial meeting in his book, and I am 99% sure he talks about his first job with Vic and Bob being as Dawes on Shooting Stars, so it does sound right.

Thanks for the replies! Yeah, from what you're all saying it seems that Shooting Stars must've been filmed before, and possibly during, the filming of Smell Of S2. It's surprising to me, because Shooting Stars always felt like a key-change moment for Vic and Bob - in my head Big Night Out and Smell of is one era (more showy, musical hall, almost family friendly), and then Shooting Stars, Bang Bang, Catterick, is another era (a bit darker, sweary, gross-out humour), so for them to overlap like that is quite interesting.

Virgo76

I assumed all his short truth or lie stories were true? The horse one did sound a bit crazy but the ones about his legal career were borderline dull.
I'd completely forgotten about his role in the denouement of the 90s Papa Nicole Renault Clio saga.

Blue Jam

Quote from: Virgo76 on October 05, 2021, 08:43:26 PM
I assumed all his short truth or lie stories were true? The horse one did sound a bit crazy

I had to wonder if he told that one to Mark Lamarr and he then used it as the basis as that bit in 15 Storeys High where
Spoiler alert
one of the neighbours is attempting to keep a Shetland pony in his flat
[close]
. Or maybe Bob Mortimer just watched that episode and borrowed that little sub-plot for his book...

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: mr. logic on September 27, 2021, 05:33:09 PM
Hmmm. Found this pretty disappointing to be honest. It's a pretty bog standard effort as per what's typical in this genre, and I was expecting much more. Didn't dislike it as such, as he's a comedy genius, but not close to being as thrilled as some of you seem to be. I read it, so maybe I'll try listening sometime

I feel along the same lines, or at least with the first 150 pages or so. I love Bob so much but hearing about his heart issues / surgery in such detail was quite boring to me, and while his early years pre-fame had the odd amusing moment a lot of the stories were quite bland. I know he wanted to get across just how shy he was back then, and talk about the depression he suffered from, but it wasn't something I found interesting unfortunately.

The second half of the book I really enjoyed, from the moment he meets Vic it becomes extremely entertaining and far funnier. My only complaint there was that it wasn't longer, that he didn't write more about the various series he discusses (Tom Baker not being mentioned in the Randall and Hopkirk bit felt especially odd), or those which are all but ignored like Monkey Trousers and Vic & Bob's Afternoon Delights.

olliebean

I thought it was going to be longer, but then it unexpectedly finished when my Kindle said I was only 3/4 of the way through. Turns out the index is about a quarter of the book.

He did say there were enough exploits with Vic to fill several more books, so fingers crossed for more...

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: olliebean on October 08, 2021, 10:49:52 AM
I thought it was going to be longer, but then it unexpectedly finished when my Kindle said I was only 3/4 of the way through. Turns out the index is about a quarter of the book.

He did say there were enough exploits with Vic to fill several more books, so fingers crossed for more...

I know I'm in danger of being the grumpy old man of the thread but that last bit annoyed me too, it wasn't exactly a huge book so could have included at least some of those stories.

BeardFaceMan

I think that's because theres virtually nothing in the book that paints Bob in a negative light. He alludes to his drinking days by saying he was a big fan of drinking and smoking, but suspiciously few stories of him going out drinking with fighty Lamaar or pissing in hotel kettles or anything.

Cuntbeaks

Finished the audiobook and have to agree it was all a bit biege, even Bob's narration was a bit one note.

BeardFaceMan

Yeah he wasn't joking when he said he was a terrible actor. It works in his favour in sketches and things like House of Fools but it stood out like a sore thumb here.

He even did the 'what are these big famous people doing on the telly with little old me?" thing, which was annoying. It was a good listen overall but 'beige' is a very good word for it.

phantom_power

Conversely I found his genuine and overwhelming normalcy in the face of everything really endearing, and found  his early life before Vic just as interesting as his later fame stuff.

beanheadmcginty

To suggest that the only man who has ever done an utterly perfect impression of Noel Edmonds is a bad actor seems a little off the mark to me.

wrec

An enjoyable book but definitely more about sincerity, social anxiety and so on, than hilarious antics. A bit puzzled that such a lovely gentle fellow is good friends with apparently obnoxious cool Britannia elements like Lamaar and Hirst. Felt very sad at various points about how shyness and lack of confidence affected him, seems ridiculous as he's such a comedy hero.

Also reminded me how great (and well known) Matt Lucas was on Shooting Stars, which makes attempts by a certain nutjob to take credit for his success seem all the more ludicrous.

beanheadmcginty

I just watched the original Shooting Stars pilot from 1993 and one of the answers involves a brass hand. I had no idea Bob had been keeping the concept of a brass hand for so long. Always assumed he conjured it up for Athletico Mince.

Magnum Valentino

I'm nearly sure the brass hand thing is actually Vic's. Fuck, I can't remember where I picked that up though. Something old.

phantom_power

Quote from: wrec on October 09, 2021, 09:39:08 PM
A bit puzzled that such a lovely gentle fellow is good friends with apparently obnoxious cool Britannia elements like Lamaar and Hirst.


I think it maybe hints that the public view of celebrities is often at odds with how they are in real life with family and friends, or at the very least people are more complex than the caricatures that fame makes them into

Captain Z

Quote from: Magnum Valentino on October 10, 2021, 08:14:45 AM
I'm nearly sure the brass hand thing is actually Vic's. Fuck, I can't remember where I picked that up though. Something old.

Vic does a Brass hand reference in one of their 'documentaries', I just watched it recently on YouTube but can't remember which exactly. It was either The Story of BNO or Omnibus: Reeves & Mortimer The Film.

SteveDave

On the back of reading this, we started watching "Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased)" on the weekend. He wasn't lying about not being able to act. He always looks like he's on the verge of corpsing too.

phantom_power

He is right that he couldn't do sincerity. Everything comes across as arch. He has become much better though judging by Athletico Mince. He gets some real emotion from Beardsley and McLaren

Jittlebags

Came across this for the first time last night. Two of my favourite comedy universes in collision.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTMqIKNWgV8

DrGreggles

Quote from: Jittlebags on October 11, 2021, 10:10:33 AM
Came across this for the first time last night. Two of my favourite comedy universes in collision.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTMqIKNWgV8

I still have that night on VHS somewhere.
Might even have burned it to a disc.

Small Man Big Horse

Just noticed the Chortle review and was a bit confused by the way it opens:

QuoteBob Mortimer has had his life saved twice now. Literally by the surgeons who gave him a triple heart bypass in 2015, and metaphorically by Vic Reeves, after he stumbled into his comedy show in Goldsmith's Tavern in South London in 1986.

At the time, he was miserably trudging through an empty life as a disillusioned solicitor for a local council, suffering 'deeply and painfully' from depression. 'Every day I would wake up hoping that the dark cloud of depression might have magically disappeared overnight, but it never did,' he writes in his new memoirs, And Away... 'I longed for the day when I might laugh out loud freely and not through this veil of sadness that consumed me.'

When he first encountered Reeves, he thought he had experienced 'the past, the present and the future of comedy'. He would return each Thursday as the shows 'made my whole week as a solicitor bearable'.

But isn't that a complete load of nonsense? I know Bob was unhappy as a solicitor, but didn't he begin to overcome his depression when at a Middlesbrough game, a fair time before he ever met Vic?

Virgo76

He's quite modest. He doesn't even mention that he won Taskmaster.
I wonder if, when it comes to writing his own autobiography, Ed Gamble will make a similar omission?

Virgo76

Quote from: olliebean on October 08, 2021, 10:49:52 AM
I thought it was going to be longer, but then it unexpectedly finished when my Kindle said I was only 3/4 of the way through. Turns out the index is about a quarter of the book.

He did say there were enough exploits with Vic to fill several more books, so fingers crossed for more...

The index is eight pages long in the physical copy. So only about two or three percent of the entire book.

olliebean

Quote from: Virgo76 on October 13, 2021, 07:17:38 AM
The index is eight pages long in the physical copy. So only about two or three percent of the entire book.

Presumably multiple columns and small type, which would explain why it takes up less space than in the e-book. I think the % progress indication on the Kindle is based on word count (or possibly character count) rather than number of pages.

I was in Cheltenham yesterday (still am) to see Bob chatting about his book with Charlie Higson. I think we all know about Bob's shyness and how it affected him growing up, and he spoke about it again yesterday. What did surprise me was when he said that Jim isn't shy, as he's previously said that his shyness is what has often been mistaken for aloofness.

Still, seeing Bob shortly after Adam's ramblechat about his book made for a better Tuesday evening than most.


phantom_power

Re-using material might bother me with some comedians but fuck it, he pulls it off with his sheer joy

ProvanFan

In the acknowledgements Bob mentions Dan McGrath and Josh Phillips as being him and Vic's music guys over the years. A quick googling suggests that doesn't include the earlier stuff, though. Anyone got a thorough knowledge of such things? Who made the original Big Night Out theme and Novelty Island and all that?

Looking up Peter Brewis who apparently worked on The Smell of, I found myself on this CAB thread and then this archived page of his now dead website. Of course it's fucking .ram files on there.

Someone provide me with high quality R&M information and audio so I haven't just wasted my time, thanks.



poodlefaker

I'm sure he did the brass hand bit in one of his bank adverts in the 90s, but I can't find it on youtube.

sevendaughters

Quote from: ProvanFan on October 13, 2021, 04:18:53 PM

Looking up Peter Brewis who apparently worked on The Smell of, I found myself on this CAB thread and then this archived page of his now dead website. Of course it's fucking .ram files on there.


Peter Brewis of Field Music?