desprateseagull
New member
who do you miss most?
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o/t best dead comedian?
- Thread starter desprateseagull
- Start date
Dover
Home at Last.
Peter Sellers. I am now discovering him as an adult. Same as Spike, as a kid I didn't get it.
Cadiz Seagull
Grey bearded old man
How can you miss Spike Milligan off the list of candidates - the greatest EVER, alive or dead, IMHO
Meade's Ball
Well-known member
Has to be Bill Hicks. Taken from us in his prime. And he was only going to get grumpier and more bitter and therefore funnier.
Tooting Gull
Well-known member
- Jul 5, 2003
- 11,033
Bloody posting delays...
Tooting Gull
Well-known member
- Jul 5, 2003
- 11,033
Got to be Bill Hicks. One of my greatest regrets in life is not going to see him live when I had the chance, figured there was plenty of time.
Potters Tiger
New member
Spike Milligan!!! Have a read of his war diaries. Classics!
Kylies Stunt Arse
What?
Peter Cook. No further explanation needed.
Pavilionaire
Well-known member
- Jul 7, 2003
- 31,089
I liked Arthur Atkinson (Ooh, where's me washboard? How queer!")
Jambo Seagull
Well-known member
I saw Bill Hicks "live" about a year before he died and he was absolutely sensational.
The door is a jar, man!!!!!!!! (story about a couple of guys on acid. You had to be there.)
The door is a jar, man!!!!!!!! (story about a couple of guys on acid. You had to be there.)
Juan Albion
Chicken Sniffer 3rd Class
Also Dermot Morgan
Wozza
Shite Supporter
Bill Hicks
Pevenseagull
meh
- Jul 20, 2003
- 20,432
Lenny Bruce
37 Years After His Death, Lenny Bruce Receives a Pardon
By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: December 23, 2003
enny Bruce, the pioneering, ribald comedian who died of a drug overdose in 1966, was given a posthumous gubernatorial pardon today for the obscenity conviction that some supporters believe hastened his demise.
Gov. George A. Pataki of New York said his decision to pardon Bruce nearly four decades after the fact was "a declaration of New York's commitment to upholding the First Amendment."
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The pardon followed campaigning this year by a group of advocates who included members of Bruce's family; the First Amendment lawyers Lawrence Tribe and Floyd Abrams; and the entertainers Robin Williams, the Smothers Brothers, and Penn and Teller, according to a Web site dedicated to the campaign.
"He needed to be vindicated," Ronald Collins, a co-founder of the campaign that led to the pardon, said in a telephone interview. "We're elated. It's very important that now this record has been set straight."
Mr. Collins, a legal scholar at the First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va., who led the pardon campaign with Prof. David M. Skover of the Seattle University School of Law, also said the decision was a "good omen" because it "shows that New York is a safe First Amendment harbor for artists of all backgrounds."
While the governor's office trumpeted the decision as the first posthumous pardon granted in New York, Mr. Collins said he believed that it was also the first time that someone had been posthumously pardoned for a First Amendment conviction anywhere in the United States.
Bruce, who broke from the staid and corny conventions of mid-20th century comedy with caustic social satire and a freewheeling use of expletives, was arrested in 1964 after a performance at Cafe au Go Go in Greenwich Village. Undercover police officers cited him for using words they deemed "obscene."
A six-month trial in State Supreme Court in Manhattan ended with his conviction on the misdemeanor charge of giving an obscene performance. He was sentenced to four months on Rikers Island.
The owner of the cafe where Bruce had performed, Howard Solomon, was also convicted of obscenity. But Mr. Solomon retained a lawyer for his appeal and successfully overturned his conviction in October 1965. Bruce represented himself and fumbled the process. According to the statement issued by Governor Pataki's office announcing the pardon, the comedian "never legally appealed his conviction on First Amendment grounds."
Some advocates say Bruce's career never recovered from the legal defeat. He died of a morphine overdose in 1966, at the age of 37.
"There's no question about it, the case killed him," Martin Garbus, a lawyer who represented Bruce, said earlier this year in an interview with The New York Times. "This was a man who was destroyed by the law. He couldn't get a job. No one would touch him. It was a sad, angry time for Lenny."
Bruce's life has been the subject of books and documentaries, and Bob Fosse's film "Lenny" earned Dustin Hoffman, playing the comedian, an Academy Award nomination.
Bruce "almost single-handedly turned comedy clubs into free-speech zones," said Mr. Collins, co-author with Mr. Skover of "The Trials of Lenny Bruce."
"He's kind of the patron saint of modern American comedy," Mr. Collins continued, then caught himself. "I hate to use `saint' and `Lenny Bruce" in the same breath," he said, adding that the more accurate moniker might well be `patron devil."
37 Years After His Death, Lenny Bruce Receives a Pardon
By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: December 23, 2003
enny Bruce, the pioneering, ribald comedian who died of a drug overdose in 1966, was given a posthumous gubernatorial pardon today for the obscenity conviction that some supporters believe hastened his demise.
Gov. George A. Pataki of New York said his decision to pardon Bruce nearly four decades after the fact was "a declaration of New York's commitment to upholding the First Amendment."
Advertisement
The pardon followed campaigning this year by a group of advocates who included members of Bruce's family; the First Amendment lawyers Lawrence Tribe and Floyd Abrams; and the entertainers Robin Williams, the Smothers Brothers, and Penn and Teller, according to a Web site dedicated to the campaign.
"He needed to be vindicated," Ronald Collins, a co-founder of the campaign that led to the pardon, said in a telephone interview. "We're elated. It's very important that now this record has been set straight."
Mr. Collins, a legal scholar at the First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va., who led the pardon campaign with Prof. David M. Skover of the Seattle University School of Law, also said the decision was a "good omen" because it "shows that New York is a safe First Amendment harbor for artists of all backgrounds."
While the governor's office trumpeted the decision as the first posthumous pardon granted in New York, Mr. Collins said he believed that it was also the first time that someone had been posthumously pardoned for a First Amendment conviction anywhere in the United States.
Bruce, who broke from the staid and corny conventions of mid-20th century comedy with caustic social satire and a freewheeling use of expletives, was arrested in 1964 after a performance at Cafe au Go Go in Greenwich Village. Undercover police officers cited him for using words they deemed "obscene."
A six-month trial in State Supreme Court in Manhattan ended with his conviction on the misdemeanor charge of giving an obscene performance. He was sentenced to four months on Rikers Island.
The owner of the cafe where Bruce had performed, Howard Solomon, was also convicted of obscenity. But Mr. Solomon retained a lawyer for his appeal and successfully overturned his conviction in October 1965. Bruce represented himself and fumbled the process. According to the statement issued by Governor Pataki's office announcing the pardon, the comedian "never legally appealed his conviction on First Amendment grounds."
Some advocates say Bruce's career never recovered from the legal defeat. He died of a morphine overdose in 1966, at the age of 37.
"There's no question about it, the case killed him," Martin Garbus, a lawyer who represented Bruce, said earlier this year in an interview with The New York Times. "This was a man who was destroyed by the law. He couldn't get a job. No one would touch him. It was a sad, angry time for Lenny."
Bruce's life has been the subject of books and documentaries, and Bob Fosse's film "Lenny" earned Dustin Hoffman, playing the comedian, an Academy Award nomination.
Bruce "almost single-handedly turned comedy clubs into free-speech zones," said Mr. Collins, co-author with Mr. Skover of "The Trials of Lenny Bruce."
"He's kind of the patron saint of modern American comedy," Mr. Collins continued, then caught himself. "I hate to use `saint' and `Lenny Bruce" in the same breath," he said, adding that the more accurate moniker might well be `patron devil."
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Beach Hut
Brighton Bhuna Boy
Eric Morecambe was a genius - isn't Ernie Wise still alive ?
Tom Hark Preston Park
Will Post For Cash
- Jul 6, 2003
- 71,878
Jim Davidson would be Best Dead 
Juan Albion
Chicken Sniffer 3rd Class
Oh, and Larry Grayson
:safeway
:safeway
Pevenseagull
meh
- Jul 20, 2003
- 20,432
Beach Hut said:
the short fat hairy legs left the building in 1999
Beach Hut
Brighton Bhuna Boy
pevenseagull said:
Ok wasn't sure - still stand by Eric being one of the funniest persons ever.