I couldn't imagine this working - but it does!
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Surely this is going to be Hamlet without the prince? The whole point about Dave Allen was his delivery, his timing, his charisma. How could a book capture that?
Yet somehow, against all odds, this book does just that. As you read the jokes and their punchlines, some pithy, some rambling monologues, you hear his voice in your head, imagine him sitting there with his drink and his cigarette (he gave up the latter later on - a cue for more hilarious material).
This is the man captured in book form - priceless!
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May Dave Allen Make You Laugh
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Recently finished this book and I have to say it was a joy just reading about the sketches and tales. Some parts of the book had me laughing aloud almost.
Well worth the read.
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brilliant
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A great read. We are still laughing weeks later. Wish we could have more of the same.
Thanks Graham for giving us this.
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A beautiful anthology
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It`s taken me some time to write a review of this book, but I will try!
I hope alot of people will have received this wonderful book for Christmas, and been reminded of how brilliant and varied his material really was. Or found out for the first time - I really hope new people will continue discovering him.
Not only does the material zip off the page (which proves it wasn`t just about his delivery, as people often said),but Graham McCann, in his introductions to each chapter, gives him the intelligent analyses that he so deserves. He even, I think, provides an answer to why so many of my age group (late 30`s/early 40`s) have such happy memories of watching Dave Allen, supposedly so adult, in our 70`s childhoods. It`s because we recognised him as someone who was on our side. His targets were always authority figures, not the vulnerable, and he never laughed at people for being different.It set him apart then - and, sadly, would set him apart now.
Yes, alot of us miss him more than the media seems to realise - but at least Graham McCann realises, and has stepped in to fill the void. Unlike Carolyn Soutar`s book, this was compiled with the full assistance of Dave Allen`s family - he wanted to be known for his work, not his private life. They have allowed reproduction of his cartoons and pages from his notebooks - he was more than "just" a comedian. We can only hope that they also allow more material to be released on DVD in the near future.
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Enjoy the craic!
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Dave Allen was one of the great comedians. If you watched him on TV in the seventies and eighties and nineties, you loved him for the way he'd always treat you like an equal, never sought to be cruel and always sent you away smiling - and thinking. He was proof of the axiom that you don't have to be intelligent to be funny, but it certainly helps. This wonderful, wonderful collection of his best stories, jokes, one-liners and witty observations, organised to capture the ongoing nature of the humour as you move from age to age, is just about the nicest and most apt tribute to the man and his memory that I could have imagined (apart of course from more film of the man in action), and I'm so glad to have it. Dip into it, read it all the way through - whatever - it is the best of its kind that I've read. Classy cover, classy selection, classy man. Goodness me, how we miss him - but how good it is to have this of his to treasure.
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