Frankie Howerd

Rating:
Summary: A great biography of a great English comic
Review: American readers may know of Frankie Howerd via BBC Worldwide (which screens, occasionally, his 1970s sitcom 'Up Pompeii!'), or possibly his association with the musical comedy 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum' (he took Zero Mostel's place in the first London production), but there's so much more to him than this, and, if you have a passion for the history of stand-up comedy, he is a vital figure to add to your memory banks (if you thought that Eddie Izzard, for example, is doing something 'revolutionary,' then you need to discover Frankie Howerd, who made such stand-up possible). Graham McCann, quite rightly, celebrates him as Britain's most innovative stand-up comic, because Howerd was the first to stop telling gags and start finding humour in his own life and comedy character. From the mid-1940s through to his death in 1992, Howerd delighted audiences on radio, television, movies and the stage, and the classically 'rollercoaster' nature of his long career - which saw him suffer multiple setbacks as well as enjoy multiple triumphant comebacks - makes it a compelling read. McCann writes beautifully, and with unforced authority, about Howerd's rise to fame, the perfection of his stand-up technique, and the various crises behind the scenes, and he also provides countless fascinating anecdotes about such events as the time when Howerd followed Lenny Bruce at Peter Cook's Establishment club, Galton and Simpson's ill-fated 1968 Broadway production of 'The Wind in the Sassafras Trees,' and Howerd's unlikely new wave of popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s with a fresh generation of college students, 'alternative' comedians and even Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols. This is a serious book about comedy that still encourages you to laugh and love: it is a superb biography of a unique comic star. I don't tend to write reviews online, but I loved and admired this book so much I felt compelled to make my appreciation public. This one is a special.

Rating:
Summary: A Triumph
Review: Frankie Howerd was a much-loved stand-up comedian in Britain from the 1940s to the 1990s. He also appeared in tv shows in Canada and Australia, made several movies and starred in the hit sitcom 'Up Pompeii'. This biography is a superb introduction to the man and the performer, providing one with a remarkably thorough, well-written and well-researched account of his life, career and achievements, and it also fascinates with its more general insights into British comedy and the art of stand-up comics. Hugely enjoyable.