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Re: New vs Old

Messages in this topic: 33 View All
DaveFeb 27, 2007
 

 
I certainly wouldn't deny that Julian is now the latest star of
that niche started by Kenneth Williams (prior to practicing
homosexuality being legal in Britain, I might add), a niche then
copied and exploited by so many others in this country. Julian
himself admits that 'almost everything I say has a double
meaning'. It isn't funny BECAUSE he's Julian Clary, its because
a) he took it a step farther to a more overtly 'outrageous'
level and b) he is so practiced at it that his performance is
second nature, polished and flows from him.

But isn't this whole act reliant on the fact that people find
something a little risque about the idea of homosexual sex? Would
it be funny if, say, Nicholas Parsons included some sort of
double meaning in everything he said to a female panellist?
Oh hang on, he often does, and YOU hate it!

Well, as I said and Julian admits, he does it in 'almost everything
he says (while performing, that is) - and what I say is that, while
acknowledging how clever he is at it, I just don't find it that
funny anymore. In fact, I have gay friends who are far more overtly
camp but don't feel a need to make constant jokes about their
sexuality in, I hope, a far more tolerant society than poor
Kenneth Williams had to exist in. To be fair they are a generation
younger than Julian also, who is a lot older than he comes across
and maybe that's why his one-track comedy often seems old, tired,
and even establishment to both me and them.

The fact is the whole gay thing feeds into the JAM panel
chemistry that I threatened to start a new thread on and
as I know you'll have a reply, why not wait until I make that post
before coming back on this?

--- In just-a-minute@..., Robert Torres
<bobbyshaddoe3004@...> wrote:

>
> Well, Julian doesn't really milk the same joke that he's gay or

anything like that, cuz that's ridiculous. what it is, is that a
great deal of what he says on subjects have a double meaning BECAUSE
of the fact that he is so overtly homosexual. that's what I find
funny, and what other people find funny, the fact that everything he
says on the most innocent of subjects take on a whole new meaning,
just because it happens to be Julian Clary.

>
> I mean there's no one else quite like him quite frankly. I mean

come on, Kenneth used to milk the same material and the same schtick
over and again and always got laughs for it. he was so over the top
he often fell over the other side, but no one complains about that do
they?

>
> Dave <j_a_m_fan@...> wrote:
> --- In just-a-minute@..., Dean Bedford

<dbedford@> wrote:

> > oh rubbish. JAM managed it for 32 years after all - and what are

we

> > talking about here - making a commitment for say five nights out

of 5

> > 365 in a year.
> >
> > If they wanted say Tony Hawks or Kit or Charles Collingwood or
> > Julian or Chris Neill... to do the show more often, I reckon

they'd

> > jump at it. I saw Julian mentioning JAM in an article last week

as

> > one of his main jobs when asked what he does these days!
> >
>
> You're surely not talking about Saturday night, prime time TV

Julian

> Clary one of the highest-pay-cheques-on-the-BBC are you? All the
> others would surely jump at the chance. Personally I wouldn't miss
> Julian from JAM, he adds little beyond the same joke over and over
> again - the joke being that he's gay ... how often can one man
> reveal the fact in double-entendre and still get a laugh?
>
> Also, it a bit more than a 'five nights a year' if you're
> travelling from London to Manchester or Edinburgh or Glasgow and
> staying overnight in these places (no choice if you're travelling

by

> train these days). London shows will become fewer and fewer as the
> BBC is prized out of London at long last, so it wont just be a case
> of a 45 minute walk from Great Portland Street!
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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