Dave Allen my hero.

[padi56]

Dave Allen - My hero comedian,a lot of forum members might be to young to remember Mr Allen, and maybe those
across the pond.This guy done a lot for me,well thats how
I got my sense of humour.

Irish-born comedian Dave Allen, famed in Britain for his sit-down comic routines with a whisky in one hand and cigarette in the other RIP.
The former journalist made his breakthrough in Australia in 1963 when, during a tour of the country, he was offered a television slot called "Tonight With Dave Allen".
He appeared in a series of the same title back in Britain in the late 1960s before hosting "The Dave Allen Show" and "Dave Allen At Large" for the BBC where the popular format of his stool routine interspersed with guest appearances took off.
Allen would target both sex and religion, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, in his routines, drawing the wroth of lobby groups, and his use of strong language also landed him in hot water quite a few times.
A few of his quotes below IMO he was a genius up there with the best.



"I still think of myself as I was 25 years ago. Then I look in a mirror and see an old bastard and realise it's me."

"Am I the Irish comedian with half a finger? No, I'm the Irish comedian with nine and a half fingers."

"I don't go out of my way to be outrageous, I just go out of my way to look at things."

"I'm an Atheist...thank God."

"I've stopped smoking...I think the cost was a lot of it, and not being able to breathe. I first gave up smoking when I was eight."

"A good storyteller never lets the facts get in the way."

"We spend our lives on the run: we get up by the clock, eat and sleep by the clock, get up again, go to work - and then we retire. And what do they give us? A f#ck#g clock."

"If it's sent by ship then it's a cargo, if it's sent by road then it's a shipment."

"Don't mourn for me now, don't mourn for me never - I'm going to do nothing for ever and ever (what Allen said he would like to have inscribed on his tombstone)

It would be great to see some of Dave Allen's shows on the telly again, but I fear the PC brigade have got the television networks by the b#ll#cks a bit too tight these days. There was a lot of classic comedy a few years ago which has now been smote from our screens as racist and sexist dirge, which has no place in our newly civilised society. These are the same people who force-feed us repeats of Only Fools And Horses for the 69th time, laughing along at all the same points, repeatedly reminding us that "this is what good comedy is all about".yes it was good but after so many repeats.

P/Correct has gone more than mad in this country, and it is shown in full display with shows like Little Britain, where they try to push the lines, but are so tightly strung in with what they are or are not allowed to show that it becomes bland and boring. Like saying Victor Meldrew was a good example of "grumpy". You only have to look at the 66 complaints the ITC received about the "crazy frog's cock" on the advert to see why the state of our television has gone up the wall. People have got nothing better to do than sit there and complain about things any more, but not because they are interested,but because they have got nothing else to do.

It is the same situation as the people, who scowl at gentlemen perusing the top shelf material in the newsagents. The publications in question are on sale for a reason, but these so-called do-gooders feel the need to invest their opinion where it is not actually required. The same goes for the female sales clerk, who scowls at the gentlemen for buying such "perverted filth", yet it is one of the reasons she has a job in the first place.Not talking about real porn here
but girlie mags,and those who remember having a look at the
health and efficency mags with the blanked out bits in our
younger days.

If some (just some) of these people were to sod right off, and stop telling us what to do, and what not to do, what to watch, and what not to watch, we could probably get on with our lives, a lot more happily. I have one simple message to the people who feel they need to interject their unwanted opinion.

If YOU don't like it, SOD OFF and find something YOU like, and leave ME to what I like.

It is because there are tossers like this in such Brobdingnagian (nice word) proportions of society that I feel we may miss out on the repeats of such top class comedy as Mr.Dave Allen,and Lord Charles and we will once again be forced to sit through the inane ramblings of Del and Rodney, over and over again.

Part of this post may suggest that I am the gentleman in question perusing the top shelf material in the local newsagents, but I can assure you that I obtain my girlie books,pictures from JJs sources on-line. Why not? It's free. ..
Mr Dave Allen my hero.He famously ended every show by saying: "Good night and may your god go with you." RIP but never forgotten.

[dman]

Sounds like he was a very funny dude with a great way of looking at and into life Padi.

[JJ Irani]

Beautiful post, Padi. I remember seeing a great number of his shows back home in Bombay. He was really very funny and I can still recall seeing that half finger of his with the glass of whisky.

RIP

JJ