Well, well, well, with the Manchester Comedy knees up happening soon I thought it'd be good to take a moment and think about the great comedians. Ken Doddy performed at the Palace last night, and I stood through all 5 and a half hours of it, but the point is that he is the consummate performer, the likes of which we don't often see today. His experience has given him an endless list of stock jokes and stories he can reel off whenever he needs to, and his ability to sing as well as be damn funny marks him out as traditionally old school. The closest performer I can think of to match this ability is Bill Bailey, with his crazy keyboard playing and flailing hair. Point is that the likes of Dylan Moran and Peter Kay, as funny as they are, are not of the old school. It kind of fills me with a sense of reverance towards Dodd and his ilk. I mean, do we imagine Peter Kay will still be doing his thing 50 years down the line, getting 1,500 people to fill a theatre and keeping bums in seats through most of a marathon of a show?! I don't think so.
It all just makes me feel very lucky to have had the chance to see this (just about) living British institution live on stage, even more the lucky since it was technically work. Another thing I can say about Dodd, is that he has the charisma to tell a very crude joke, to a mostly OAP audience, and get them to laugh rather than throw scorn upon him. Again, this is part of what makes Dodd such an old school comedic legend.
If you get the chance to see this fella live, no matter your age, do so. You'll definately get your monies worth and it will make you feel very distinctly British.
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