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The Alexei Sayle Podcast

Started by Endicott, December 01, 2020, 09:38:16 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Drygate

I guess it's just one bald guy helping another bald guy out.

olliebean

Quote from: poodlefaker on June 06, 2021, 12:54:39 PM
This occured to me in that interview he did with Stewart Lee, in which he seemed genuinely shocked that Lee had never been to a dinner party.

Unless you count Sunday lunches I was dragged along to when I was a child, I've only ever been to one dinner party, and it was a not entirely unironic one.

McFlymo

I like Talal.
I am chuffed that together, he and Alexei are breaking the podcast mould by, on the one side, not giving a fuck about the form or success of it and on the other, not particularly gelling with, or understanding the main character's style or vibe.

It's make for subtle but enjoyable calamity.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

I agree. It's a refreshingly unusual podcast in the sense that it doesn't really have a format, and the host is quite sceptical about - yet cautiously intrigued by - the whole thing. The fact that the host is a brilliant, politically engaged comedian who doesn't give a fuck about challenging safe centrist values is obviously a major selling point.

And that interview with the professor chap, which I enjoyed, illustrated that Alexei is open to having his own views challenged. Listening to Alexei expounding upon his thoughts while chatting to interesting people is A Good Thing.

As for Talal, he's a nice chap who is obviously not on Alexei's wavelength. But I think their low-key dynamic works. It's slightly awkward at times, but not in an unpleasant way. And it's not as if they're a double-act - Talal leaves Alexei to his own devices for the most part.

Sonny_Jim

I haven't listened to the latest one, but I don't mind the awkwardness too much.  Althetico Mince took a while to hit it's stride and I'm hoping Alexei gets his head around it a bit more, although it is nice to hear him just ramble on about stuff.

phantom_power

It is a free podcast from someone who doesn't seem to like or understand podcasts. We should be grateful that it is in any way listenable

Quote from: EOLAN on February 24, 2021, 09:46:16 PM
Loving anytime Lee discusses old pre WW1 comedians. Seems to have a different anecdote for each podcast lately.

Quote from: McFlymo on February 24, 2021, 10:11:25 PM
Have just been looking into Fred Barnes. Fascinating stuff.

Lee mentioned that John Mackay told him his mother had told him about a comedian who would sing "Danny Boy" as his arms got imperceptibly longer. According to this article, the comedian's name was Sandy Powell and the song was "Sonny Boy".

QuoteThe star with a surprise up his sleeve 1 April 2011 Daily Mail

QUESTION Who was the singer/ comic who would stretch out his arms as he sang? They would get longer and longer as his sleeves revealed artificial hands on wooden rods.

SANDY POWELL from Rotherham was one of the great comics and panto stars of the Thirties, Forties and Fifties, who was still making TV appearances in the Seventies.

He also appeared in several films, such as Sandy The Fireman (1930), Can You Hear Me, Mother? (1935), I've Got A Horse (1938) and Cup-Tie Honeymoon (1948). He was born in 1900, as Albert Arthur Powell, but nicknamed 'Sandy' because of his ginger hair. He travelled with his mother — a variety performer named Lily le Maine — around England and began to sing and perform on stage as a young boy.

He moved towards comedy and impressions, often performing as an incompetent ventriloquist (he had an hilarious routine where his dummy would fall apart) or in a kilt as a Scottish comedian. Sandy's catchphrase was: 'Can you hear me, mother?' It came from one of his acts in which he would talk to his deaf mother on the phone.

Awarded an MBE in 1975, Powell still performed in Sussex (to where he had retired) until his death in 1982. He would perform his 'long arm' act while singing the Al Jolson hit Sonny Boy. His arms got longer and longer after each verse. The audience loved it.
H. Middlemiss, Seaham, Co. Durham.

I RECALL Sandy Powell doing his 'long-arm' act during an hysterical guest spot on the Sooty Show in about 1970. Back in those days, Sooty was not so much a puppet act as a full-on variety show. Powell's act would certainly not be allowed today because he appeared 'blacked up' singing Sonny Boy. He waved his arms about as he did so, with them getting longer and longer until he could eventually scratch his ankle when standing up straight. This move was carried out with such deft comic timing that it reduced many members of the accompanying Alan Braden Orchestra to helpless laughter, which could clearly be heard above the studio audience. Wonderful.
Mrs Ivy Lane, Bootle, Merseyside.

THIS act has been performed many times over the years; no doubt the makers of Dead Ringers were aware of it because they did a similar routine for Kevin Connelly's impersonation of Andrew Marr. Freddie Starr also did a great version while impersonating Billy Fury. It was an important part of Norman Caley's act. He was a popular variety actor of the Seventies and Eighties who appeared on ITV's Sunday Night At The London Palladium. I saw him perform this act at Havil Hall Theatre. It was a small venue with a tiny stage and when Norman extended his arms, his extremities disappeared into the corner of the stage, negating the impact of the high point of his act.
John Simmons, Barnsley, S. Yorks.

Compiled by Charles Legge



There are some clips of him on youtube but I can't find the extending arm routine.

Herbert Campbell as Little Bobby eating and drinking 1899 (who has the 'Comedian' obelisk in Stoke Newington cemetery).

The lobster-walker Sayle compared to Fred Barnes was Nerval and Kenneth Tynan wrote: 'Ernie today is a comic who is not funny. And Eric is the straight man who is funny.'

I couldn't find anything about J.W. Stead, the jumping comedian, from Bayham Street in Camden, who Lee said was written about by J.B Priestley. Does anyone know about him?

Dog Botherer

Tony Collins on this week. really good stuff. his rugby league/union/football pod is excellent too.

monkfromhavana

"Dickhead commentators like Dan Hodges...or Owen Jones".

#159
The discussion with Stewart Lee is superbly open, witty and honest. For example, in the discussions of Beryl Reid and Dennis Potter, they acknowledge how many opportunities they wasted in the 80s and 90s to learn from others due to their "youthful arrogance" and mistaken belief that they were already beyond that kind of need.

https://audioboom.com/posts/7808859-unfit-for-purpose-with-stewart-lee

pancreas


MoreauVasz

That conversation with Lee was amazing. Almost to the point where I felt a bit sad when he decided to move on and start talking to academics but then I realised that there aren't actually that many comedians that Alexei could talk to.

The Djalili one worked pretty well but you could feel the power imbalance. Who else is he going to talk to? Robert Webb? Jack Whitehall? Please.

MoreauVasz

New one up!

'Interview' with Josie Long.

I say 'interview' as Alexei seems to struggle for things to say and basically winds up being interviewed by Long about his years as a writer. Interesting stuff but there's a bit where he talks about moving on from writing and he talks about how he should have been long-listed for the Booker and while it is a joke, I also think he was completely serious.

frajer

Just listening to it now and very much enjoying it. The stuff about certain types of people finding it near-impossible to change their mind once they have invested so much of themselves in something was particularly interesting. Almost finished the ep and could easily listen to more of Long and Sayle together.

pigamus

Quote from: MoreauVasz on August 17, 2021, 08:49:41 AM
New one up!

'Interview' with Josie Long.

I say 'interview' as Alexei seems to struggle for things to say and basically winds up being interviewed by Long about his years as a writer. Interesting stuff but there's a bit where he talks about moving on from writing and he talks about how he should have been long-listed for the Booker and while it is a joke, I also think he was completely serious.

So he should be - I remember being really impressed by Barcelona Plates

MoreauVasz

There's a line in an old Archers film where David Niven says his character is Labour by instinct but Conservative by experience.  That idea of a duality has always stayed with me and I am very much delighted by the way it is manifest in Alexei.

On the level of principles, Alexei remains a committed leftist.

On the level of instinct, he is like a jaded aristocrat who nurses grudges over minor slights for decades, considers himself head-and-shoulders above everyone else, and is, manifestly quite bitter over the fact that BAFTA have yet to erect a statue in his honour. There's a lovely bit in an earlier podcast where he sneers at an old showbiz rue and then goes on to spend an hour talking about how well-connected he was back in the 1980s.

Mobbd

Quote from: MoreauVasz on August 19, 2021, 10:15:47 AM
There's a line in an old Archers film where David Niven says his character is Labour by instinct but Conservative by experience.  That idea of a duality has always stayed with me and I am very much delighted by the way it is manifest in Alexei.

Hi MoreauVasz. I didn't quite know what this meant but it totally inflamed by interest and I spent a minute or two unboxing what Niven and you were getting at (unrelated to Alexei) because I am constantly trying to understand (and often exorcise) some of my own conservative instincts/learned traits. I'll confess first that I didn't know what Archers films were, though it turns out I have seen and enjoyed a couple of them! I knew who David Niven was of course, so I could imagine him saying it, in a leather flying helmet (was he wearing a flying helmet when he said that? probably not).

But what did he mean in the context of the film and what does his duality mean to you today (again, unrelated to Alexei) if you don't mind my asking? It sounds like you have carried that line around for a long time and I'd love to know more about how you interpret it.

His "instinct" is to vote Labour or to support the labour movement because he has an innate sense of justice/fairness/reason? But Conservative by experience? Meaning what? He is becoming Conservative with age? He is disappointed by the direction/flavour of progress in practice? I don't quite get it but I would like to. Maybe it's the phrasing of "by experience" - does he mean "in practice"? I am thick.

Wet Blanket

He actually says he's conservative by instinct but Labour by experience. It's from A Matter of Life and Death. And I think he is indeed wearing a leather pilot's helmet.

Mobbd

Quote from: Wet Blanket on August 19, 2021, 11:26:46 AM
He actually says he's conservative by instinct but Labour by experience. It's from A Matter of Life and Death. And I think he is indeed wearing a leather pilot's helmet.

swoon!

MoreauVasz

Quote from: Mobbd on August 19, 2021, 11:24:11 AM
Hi MoreauVasz. I didn't quite know what this meant but it totally inflamed by interest and I spent a minute or two unboxing what Niven and you were getting at (unrelated to Alexei) because I am constantly trying to understand (and often exorcise) some of my own conservative instincts/learned traits.

The way I interpret it is that while you can have a set of political convictions, those convictions are not born just of rational argument or calculated self-interest but also of a variety of emotional responses to things to things from your life and your upbringing. Some of that stuff will be the ideology pumped into your head by school, parents, and the media but a lot of it will be really weird emotional stuff. For example, there was a much-mocked and recirculated tweet from some centrist bluetick saying that she didn't like Bernie Sanders because his shouting reminded her of her dad. I think those types of weird irrational judgements inform a lot of our decisions.

With regards to the film,  I think what he's saying is that his upbringing and emotional responses lead towards conservatism but experience has taught him that surrendering to those impulses doesn't result in good government and so he tends to support Labour even though he understands left-wing politics to come from a very different set of emotional responses.

I describe myself as an anarchist by instinct but a socialist by conviction because my instincts will always be to go and live in the woods.  I can completely understand the people who don't want to pay taxes but I don't think these instincts translate into a liveable political programme and so I am a socialist by conviction despite recognising that instincts like solidarity and collectivity are not natural to me.

Well remembered Wet Blanket!

Mobbd

Absolutely excellent. Thank you, MoreauVasz.

Quote from: MoreauVasz on August 19, 2021, 01:35:49 PM
I describe myself as an anarchist by instinct but a socialist by conviction because my instincts will always be to go and live in the woods.  I can completely understand the people who don't want to pay taxes but I don't think these instincts translate into a liveable political programme and so I am a socialist by conviction despite recognising that instincts like solidarity and collectivity are not natural to me.

Same. My political journey of the last 15 years in a nutshell.

Josie Long speaks beautifully about ADHD in the last 10 minutes of the podcast. Anyone who trolls her after listening to that is an utter cunt.

Mobbd

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on August 19, 2021, 11:21:04 PM
Josie Long speaks beautifully about ADHD in the last 10 minutes of the podcast. Anyone who trolls her after listening to that is an utter cunt.

Aye, she was good. Really enjoyed it. Perfect guest for this show: on a similar political page, aware of Alexei's work and cultural significance but successful enough in her own terms not to be fawning or starstruck. Plus, she was just funny and reasonable. Related greatly to what she said about her hurt around the Corbyn project and escaping to Scotland.

I did wonder about the ADHD thing to be honest. I have some personal experience here and it's extremely difficult to get an adult diagnosis; her online consultation didn't sound very legit to me but maybe she simplified the story for our benefit like a podcasting pro.

Good old Josie. A lovely person and always worth your time as a comedian imho.

Key

Quote from: Mobbd on August 23, 2021, 10:45:46 AM
Aye, she was good. Related greatly to what she said about her hurt around the Corbyn project and escaping to Scotland.

Good old Josie. A lovely person and always worth your time as a comedian imho.

I too related to being shocked how, when the Jezza chips were down, just how many people in the comedy/arts world were unmasked as common or garden liberals.

Josie went the other way for me, I thought she was ok before but now I always check out her stuff.

zomgmouse

Quote from: Mobbd on August 23, 2021, 10:45:46 AM
her online consultation didn't sound very legit to me but maybe she simplified the story for our benefit like a podcasting pro.

I would hazard a guess that she meant "online" as in "not in person because of the pandemic"

MoreauVasz

Corbyn was definitely a masks off moment for an entire generation of British comics. I mean... For Liberal hacks too but a certain kind of British comedian built careers out of being anti-establishment only to freak out when a politician threatened a set of modest reforms.

My regard for Josie definitely went up. I'm still not sure that I like her stand-up that much but she is always a good presence on a podcast.

In some ways she's like the anti-David Baddiel in that her persona is that of the silly goof who talks about how little she knows and how much she wants to learn only to then reveal herself smart and sensitive. Meanwhile Baddiel's persona pitches him as intelligent whereas in fact he's dull witted and pathologically incurious.


easytarget

This doesn't look good for Corbyn

beanheadmcginty

Never heard Jezza speak in such a conversational setting so I'm fascinated by his accent. It roams all over the place. Not a criticism before you all cancel me. Just not something I'd noticed before. North and south simultaneously.

Pink Gregory