Dr Oliver Double, Reader in Drama within the School of Arts and Head of the Performance and Theatre Research Cluster, has just released the latest episode of the podcast series ‘A History of Comedy in Several Objects’.
In the podcast series, Olly examines objects from Kent’s British Stand-Up Comedy Archive alongside Project Archivist Elspeth Millar.
The recent film Funny Cow (2017) uses one of the late, great Linda Smith’s signature jokes without permission or attribution. ‘Comedians and funny men see material as being common property… A lot of the jokes are shared,’ explains Olly in the episode.
Elspeth and Olly look through Linda’s old set-lists and unpublished recordings going back to the 1980s to trace the origins of the joke, and look into how it fits into her development as a comedian. You’ll hear different versions of the gag at different points in her career, to show how it changed and developed. It’s still quoted as one of Linda’s best jokes today. So what is the gag? All I’ll say is if you’re a fan of Linda’s – and not so much of her hometown Erith – you probably already know it. In any case, listen to the episode and find out.
The podcast is free to download and is available here:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-history-of-comedy-in-several-objects/id1210414720?mt=2