Jack Dee: from acerbic to cosy

[ajsmith2]

This video, 'Live At The Duke of Yorks Theatre' from 1992: my parents had it, and for years and years I'd watch and rewatch it always revelling in the brutal nastiness of Dee's persona and delivery showcased in it's glory and prime contained within. I know that 1) performers often mellow as they age and 2) his early 'nasty' persona was itself an affectation that stuck borne originally but of trying to find a way to play off unresponsive audiences, but I miss the guy captured in this video and always lament the decline into cosiness of his later works. Just wanted to say that on this here comedy forum and see if anyone felt similarly.

[Mr_Simnock]

he has ben through the 'panel show' circuit enough times to be assimilated into the nice bbc cosy persona he is now

[Sebastian Cobb]

When did he turn cozy? The last thing I watched was Lead Balloon where I guess the whole thing is he's acerbic in a cozy world.

It was the coziness, slightly dodgy foreign au-pair stuff and the fact that Tony Gardner is so good at playing intolerable characters I can't tolerate things he's in that put me off.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Jack. With your face, like a sink full of tadpoles.

Wasn't he always cosy? I know his whole persona is based on being grumpy, but that's just pure schtick. He was never an angry young man type, was he?

I remember an interview he did in the 90s, in which he said people were calling him a sellout for moving to ITV. Even as a little kid, that rang false to me. I'm pretty sure he'd already done those beer widget adverts at that point.

[ajsmith2]

Here's the hallowed performance in question on Youtube if you're not familiar. Could well be that outwith the context of being an early exposure to adult comedy, seen cold today it may come across to many as an unremarkable bunch of observational comedy performed with a slight mocking edge and no more, but I dunno, I still think there's something there in the performance that was lost later. Most shocking bit at the time and to this day comes around 9 minutes 45 secs in 'they say stop smacking your kids: I say stop fucking them first!'

[up_the_hampipe]

My dad had this VHS and I did the exact same thing. We are the same person. I loved the vintage mic, I wish more comedians used those. Also the punchline "... so I stabbed him" will always remain a favourite.

He's been going for so long and pumped out so many hours of stand-up, so any decline is forgivable for me. A persona like that can be restrictive.

[Twilkes]

I loved the stuff he did with Jeremy Hardy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBEmrKO3-4E#t=14m10s

[Twonty Gostelow]

Most shocking bit at the time and to this day comes around 9 minutes 45 secs in 'they say stop smacking your kids: I say stop fucking them first!'

Was it this bit?

[Catalogue of ills]

I saw him in Hemel Hempstead once, and he laid into people from Hemel Hempstead, which is as it should be. He did do the obvious thing and mention the roundabout though.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

"Whatever happened to the Elephant Man? He just made that one cracker of a film, and that was it."

I've always loved the silliness of that gag.

[curiousoranges]

Stewart Lee hasn't let himself go and update his everyman Eyeore character since the nineties.

[Autopsy Turvey]

I miss the guy captured in this video and always lament the decline into cosiness of his later works. Just wanted to say that on this here comedy forum and see if anyone felt similarly.

Certainly, I loved his sneery irritability, especially when describing something as gentle and innocuous as a craft fair. The withering contempt in lines like "People sitting behind trestle tables, with things they'd made. Things they'd made. And then brought along with them." The line "How'd you do it and make a profit eh?" still comes in handy quite often.

All this curmudgeonly aloofness may have made him seem an adequate replacement for Humph on ISIHAC, yet shortly after getting that gig he was also presenting that BBC2 Apprentice spin-off. So one day he'd have to feign interest in the witless drivel of failed entrepreneurs, then the next day he'd be mucking about with Barry, Graeme and Tim and having to feign cynical indifference. It was a fatal paradox that couldn't be sustained. He only lasted one series, but it seemed to neatly summate the deterioration of his comic persona.