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March 28, 2024, 12:42:40 PM

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Victor Lewis Smith

Started by EggsLikeABird, December 10, 2021, 06:38:23 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Pauline Walnuts

#30
Quote from: Autopsy Turvey on December 13, 2021, 11:57:21 AMOh yeah, you said it. Now explain it!

And pathetic, and disgraceful. I was amazed he released that, you'd think he'd have a rethink and tape over it with something funny. He also clogs up the beginning of an Orb track, bothering a security guard who responds professionally even though funny Victor says "Babylon and ting" to him, hilariously.

How do I explain subjective opinion?

But Babylon and ting, that's like one of those thingy those funny black men say isn't it? This lame security guard doesn't get the reference, what a lamer!

Oh, I can't be bothered.

Looking further into those restaurant reviews He does seem to have a very limited material dosn't he? As I say I liked him at the time, but it's like he's only got 3/4 hours worth of good jokes in him. Which is admittedly more than most comedians, lot more than me, lol!

Quote from: mippy on December 13, 2021, 11:53:21 AMThey replayed his Radio 1 Christmas Special on R4Extra a year or two ago and there were bits of that that made me wince. Annoyingly I can't remember what they were now. I'm not into prank calls at all but his Brian Sewell phones Brian Sewell is excellent.

This thing?

https://we.tl/t-TGttQbaobc

Autopsy Turvey

Quote from: Pauline Walnuts on December 13, 2021, 12:48:30 PMHow do I explain subjective opinion?
Oh, I can't be bothered.

Fair enough, but I can explain why I think The Blood Donor is at least up to the standards set by the final BBC Hancock series, and I'm sure you could probably manage something about 'it's less good because he's looking over his fellow actors' shoulders to read his lines off cue cards due to a car accident shortly before filming', which is a valid issue, and about the only reason I can think of.

Petey Pate

A lot of his prank calls are edited, there are some obvious changes in audio quality for bits that were inserted later. Some don't appear to have been based on an actual phone call at all, although the Prince Charles 'prank' was convincing enough for Howard Stern and his team.


steveh

I remember Chris Morris doing a spoof of VLS's style on one of his GLR shows which captured it really well. That probably didn't endear him to VLS either.

Goldentony

watched the first 3 TV Offal last night after rreading thru this and having not seen Ads Infinitum since it went out. Couple of questions which i'm guessing the answer to is "worked at the BBC and had full use of the archives" but - first off where the fuck would he have got that Hospital TV footage? looks absolutely amazing, and Arthur Mullard saying Victors name on Wogan, that just a well done audio prank?

buzby

#35
Quote from: Goldentony on December 13, 2021, 06:16:23 PMfirst off where the fuck would he have got that Hospital TV footage?
VLS is a well-known radio and TV history enthusiast (hence why he bought the rights to the name and logo of the defunct Associated Rediffusion TV channel to use as his production company) and a hoarder of archive material. I imagine through his contacts he has built up his own personal archive over the years.
QuoteArthur Mullard saying Victors name on Wogan, that just a well done audio prank?
I think it was from the wife beater and child abuser's 30/07/86 appearance on Wogan, which was just after VLS, who was working as a producer on R4's Midweek, booked Mullard as Libby Purves' holiday stand-in for an edition of the show that May. Presumably Wogan was asking him about that.

Quote from: thenoise on December 12, 2021, 07:43:42 PMDoes he still have the stupid 'do? Or are there just no photos of him online after about 2003?

He's often to be spotted in Soho, on his way to and fro from the Groucho. Still got the hair.

Pauline Walnuts

Quote from: Wacky Homemade Badges on December 14, 2021, 12:06:25 PMHe's often to be spotted in Soho, on his way to and fro from the Groucho.

Oh, no, that's, that's depressing.

He really is yesterdays man isn't he?

peteprodge

Quote from: Pauline Walnuts on December 14, 2021, 01:54:35 PMOh, no, that's, that's depressing.

He really is yesterdays man isn't he?

Perhaps he goes in there to be "a workaholic - I'm on five bottles of workahol a day!".

That was the dad joke he would drop into his Daily Mirror column about 2-3 times a month. And I think it turned up in a few of his shows, too.

Jumblegraws

Maybe you had to be there, but I never really got the claims that Morris was ripping off VLS, it's not as though the latter pioneered radio prank calls and the like.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Jumblegraws on December 14, 2021, 04:08:08 PMMaybe you had to be there, but I never really got the claims that Morris was ripping off VLS, it's not as though the latter pioneered radio prank calls and the like.

The 'having to be there' is an interesting point and ties in nicely with a post that I was intending to quote, due to what people have said VLS' comedy not going particularly well, as I believe it offers some fantastically astute comments and does a brilliant job of putting the material into the context of the time.

With regards to Morris 'ripping off' VLS, personally I don't feel that really stands up -  but Morris, particularly early on, clearly had influences and would say that VLS was clearly one and this manifests itself in different ways.

The Loose End demo tape warrants a mention - there was some discussion here: https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=11937.0 and the recording can be heard here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gjdJJ7OaTuo. Neil's comments are spot on there - and as per the (short) thread discussion, Morris is clearly imitating VLS' Loose Ends spots.

Anything thing, I feel is also citing is the Times advertising campaign targeting students, which Morris fronted - audio version here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gjdJJ7OaTuo. For me, the influence of VLS is very much there. I'm certain that there was a television version, which I haven't been able to source online but I saw a few years ago (although I thought it was online, it might be one of my VHS tapes that I was going through) and when I revisited it, really felt that influence, whereas as the time, didn't pick up on it.

Here's the post I was referring to - as I say, I feel the poster did a great job of putting VLS' comedy in the context of when it was broadcast.

Quote from: pish on July 15, 2014, 11:40:45 PMTo appreciate VLS, you have to consider (or ideally remember) that he's a product of that short period in the late 80s and early 90s when boundaries of taste in (broadcast) comedy were still being drawn-up. For a while, he was the standard-bearer of creating "shock value" in a way that wouldn't be (at all) acceptable now. And while clearly a lot of his early stuff has aged dreadfully (indeed, it's not so sodding clever now) he was bloody good at it. No wonder Chris Morris was such a fan. It probably also helps if you are a cynical bastard (like me) and are relatively media savvy.

I formed a brief(ish) obsession with VLS upon bumping into one of his Radio 1 shows in the early 90s. I can still remember the sense of amazement and excitement when the dull, ethnic specialist show I had on as wallpaper, was suddenly supplanted by the most fearless, irreverent, shocking (etc.) 30 minutes of radio I'd ever heard. Within minutes, I'd leapt to turn up the volume, while scurrying around to find a blank tape. By the end of that particular outing, I'd been drawn into a surreal world of absurdity, but where fiction collided with fact in the most satisfying and memorable way. I was convinced it had been broadcast by mistake.

I would have been in my late teens then, with an appreciation for (and predilection to) the sort of freshly-mainstream "anarchic" comedy enjoyed by many of my generation. But it was quickly obvious to me that this wasn't the sort of "naughty" snickering we were conditioned to expect from a clever-clever, wry, sideways-look Radio 4 comedy show like Weekending. This was on another level entirely. If listeners to the News Quiz jokily quipped they might be committing heresy by guffawing at its trademark pseudo-satire by-numbers, they'd presumably hand themselves into the nearest police station had they stumbled across this. Genuinely dangerous; "edgy" before that was a thing; an anomaly, littered with scurrilous litigation-baiting throwaway material that somehow made it onto the air in the pre-compliance good old days.

Speaking as a fan, it's hard to deny he would appear to be a prize bell-end - perhaps that's why he shirks from interviews and appearing as himself (whatever that is). At the height of his anarchic best, I celebrated his determination to unapologetically forever rock the boat. Sadly, we all grow old. Certainly he's a lazy hack when it comes to the various print columns he's held down over the years. But I do think he's left a legacy. For every "are the planes actually *sniffing* the building?" there's "I've fallen out me wheelchair."

Brundle-Fly

This is a wonderful piece of eggy live TV.  Actually, a car crash,

VLS and Paul Sparkes plug their new comedy book (which is actually pretty funny and ahead of its time)


Mobius

does he really review posh restaurants for newspapers, with that hair

Goldentony

someone who goes to the groucho club is never going to give me a tape full of shite hospital TV are they, disaster

Goldentony

how does he get in with that haircut

Mobius

It's not too bad in that video to be fair but sometimes it's almost cultural appropriation

I always thought he was one of the more synonymous Grouchoites, no? Just googled and there's stuff from the 90s talking about him being a habitue.

Pauline Walnuts

Quote from: Wacky Homemade Badges on December 14, 2021, 07:42:10 PMI always thought he was one of the more synonymous Grouchoites, no? Just googled and there's stuff from the 90s talking about him being a habitue.

In 1996, fine, but in <Present Year>, oh dear...

thenoise

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on December 14, 2021, 07:05:12 PMThis is a wonderful piece of eggy live TV.  Actually, a car crash,

VLS and Paul Sparkes plug their new comedy book (which is actually pretty funny and ahead of its time)


During which Lewis-Smith's usually absent writing partner Paul Sparkes is considerably more affable, amusing and relaxed than Victor, who shakes with nerves, mumbles his (prepared) punchlines and is generally surly and dislikeable. "Don't be funnier than me" rang a bit too true there.

banana

Is the episode of Midweek with Arthur Mullard available anywhere in it's entirety?
It's referred to in this program:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b013r379

but the whole thing doesn't seem to be around.
The BBC obviously have it but how can one listen to it?

buzby

#50
Quote from: debord on January 21, 2022, 07:26:11 AMIs the episode of Midweek with Arthur Mullard available anywhere in it's entirety?
It's referred to in this program:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b013r379

but the whole thing doesn't seem to be around.
The BBC obviously have it but how can one listen to it?
Given the revelations that came out about him him after his death, the master tape is probably in the same vault as anything involving Savile, Glitter, Harris and Hall. I imagine VLS has his own tape of it, but I can't see the BBC ever airing it again. I'm surprised it even got featured in that 2011 episode of iPM, but that was just before the whole Savile/Yewtree thing kicked off which forced the BBC into action regarding the contents of it's archives.

Also, although VLS was probably a regular at the Groucho in the 90s, he bought a new-build cottage in 1996 with his partner in the village of Avening in Gloucestershire. They lived in this stately pile in the Pas-de-Calais region of France until 2019, and before that Skellerah Farm in Millom (which explains his 2005 advertorial piece in the Guardian saying that A-R's HQ was in Cumbria) which they sold in 2011.