Entertainment For Lively Minds
What's happened to Mark Lamarr?
Haven't heard anything about him since he left Radio 2 last year.
He was a great stand-up, a spiky interviewer on The Word, a good foil to Vic and Bob (Jack Dee tries to do the same trying-not-to laugh schtick but isn't as good) and a funny presenter on Never Mind...(until he became too grumpy at the end).
But I thought Lamarr had found his calling as a DJ. He'd be ideal for Radio 6, but maybe he's p*ssed on his chips by criticising Radio 2 for not putting him on earlier. I have to admire him for sticking to his principles and leaving but it's Radio 2's loss, especially with some of the bland music they play.
When was the last time he did any stand-up? I saw him a couple of times in the late 80s and early 90s and he was excellent at conjuring up funny material on the hoof on stage, usually from audience reactions. I've only seen Frank Skinner do that better.
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According to Wikipedia...
"Lamarr presents a music show for British Airways on-board listeners as part of their in-flight entertainment. In this show he presents a mix of rock and roll, blues, reggae, soul and R 'n B."
Or is this just a cheeky Wiki entry?
He was a surprisingly good stand-up
in the days when he was maybe better known for cheeky yoof teevee stuff like Word and Big Breakfast.
I remember one extended joke about trying to find entertaining ways of passing the time in a Swindon pub with his mates, but ending up getting his head kicked in by Chris de Burgh. Maybe you had to be there.
Lammars Attacks
His excellent BBC TV show pre-empted Charlie Brooker's Screen/Newswipe shows by quite a few years. A DVD release ain't gonna happen, is it?.
His Christmas shows
were excellent. All the way back to GLR then R2. Being a non-believer, it was just another work day for him but he loves Christmas music. And who doesn't?
Leaving the 20th Century (1999)
was a brilliant series, especially the one about drugs. The follow up Lamarr's Attacks not as good but still creditable.
He gets a credit
on Nick Lowe's The Old Magic but it doesn't say what for. Anyone care to elucidate?
TRIVIA: Lamarr also co-wrote
Sean Lock's comic gems: R4's 15 Minutes Of Misery and BBC2's 15 Storeys High, under the pseudonym Mark Jones,
Lamarr is the pseudonym.
Jones is his real name.
He's always struck me as a genuinely nasty piece of work, has Mark Lamarr. Part of it is obviously his shtick, but he's been gratuitously venomous over the years. I like people who are nice, personally; I know he knows a lot about rock n roll, but in the words of Renton from Trainspotting, that's hardly a substitute.
Gratuitously venomous
like Stewart Lee with fangs?
Argh!
I *like* Stewart Lee, and even I'm sick of the sound of his name!
But anyway. I've always felt Mark Lamarr's comedy comes from an unpleasant place: bullying, bitter, no underlying warmth or knowingness or sense that he's in "in character" (Shooting Stars was an exception, and the closest he came to sending himself up, and I didn't mind him in that). But every other bit of comedy I've seen him do seemed to be just flat out nasty.
Maybe I'm wrong, and it was all a clever persona. I just never got that sense at all.
Never liked him after seeing him turn on his audience ....
Saw Mark Lamarr playing top of the bill at a small comedy club in St Albans (not my hometown, just visiting) in the 90s. The audience were a bit lukewarm, but instead of trying to win them over he turned really snarky, deriding them as yokels. Then a few locals starting coming out with really funny heckles and showing him up, so he just walked off, well before his allotted time was up. Every time I see him I still feel short changed.
I stand corrected.
Lamarr does have a reputation for being a spiky character but he did produce some good comedy and presented a great radio show which is slightly more admirable than being a thieving amoral pimp who knows a lot about Sean Connery, Bob.
irritating
But not as irritating as the awful Phil Jupitus or Russell Brand.
Personally I don't give a toss
about his comedy persona.It's as a radio presenter that I miss him.
God's Jukebox, Alternative 60's, Shake Rattle etc and his Xmas shows were essential listening in this house (subbing for Jonathan Ross with Jo Brand was great as well).
The Pete Townshend & Keith Moon documentaries are the only times I've visited Radio 2 since he left.
you may want to look here:
http://goej.blogspot.com/
Lamarr himself only posts every now and then but it's still a pretty good blog.
I never understood...
... his jokes on Buzzcocks - it was like clique humour, and only Jupitus was in on it. He was good at slagging off people, but he always went for easy targets. I would have liked to see him on the receiving end of some verbal jousting and see how he handled it.
He was OK on Shooting Stars, but only because he hardly opened his mouth.
Has he ever hosted HIGNFY?
I'd be interested to see how he handled the comments from Hislop 'n' Merton.
Don't recall him...
... ever hosting it.
Interesting, A man seemingly capable of interesting and
informative work on radio who (may well) have had his career totalled by his less than attractive (and totally unrelated) stand up persona.