MUST SEE - DER COMEDY GUIDE - VOL. 1 - Deuser or Die

STEVEN WRIGHT
The Wright Stuff
by Steve Dix
Because of the 40th Anniversary of the
Moon Landing (note the title), we‘re going
to look at someone with a space connection
: Steven Wright. No, not because
he‘s on a different planet to the rest of
us : Steven Wright‘s father worked on
electronic testing for the Apollo project,
and a lot of his work ended up on the
moon. Some would say his son still lives
there…
In the UK in the mid 80s, comedy enthusiasts
would regularly tune into „Des
O‘Connor Tonight―. The basis of this
programme was a celebrity chat-show,
bookended with Des warbling a couple of
middle-of-the-road songs for the Granny
element of the audience – sort of like an
english version of Heino, but without the
sunglasses and the blond hair. (Des was a
big hit with my Gran – the same one who
bought me the Bill Cosby Album.) Due to
it being a chat-show, it regularly featured
American comedians. At the time, English
comedy was split into two camps – the old
guard, who came through the workingmens
club circuit, and often relied on sexist
and racist humour in the form of street
jokes, and „Alternative comedy―, which
aspired to the American observational
style. You can guess which one interested
me more.
Anyway, I switched over to BBC2, got
past Des‘s initial song without losing the
will to live, and, all of a sudden, was confronted
with a very dead-pan, unhappylooking
American character, who didn‘t
even acknowledge the audience, but just
wandered around the stage, microphone
in hand, delivering a surreal monologue.
„I have a decaffinated coffee table. You
wouldn‘t know it just to look at it.―
„The other day somebody stole everything
in my apartment and replaced it
with an exact replica… When my roommate
came home I said, ‗How did this
happen?‘ He said, ‗Do I know you?‘‖
„When I die, I‟m going to leave my body
to Science Fiction―
Who was this man who said such strange
and funny things? The nearest to this in
English comedy was Spike Milligan (who,
in an interview, quoted one of the above
jokes as one of his favourites). I was
hooked, as were doubtess people like
Mitch Hedberg and Jimmy Carr (who
was probably watching that night as
well..)
Steven Wright delivers his comedy in a
long, slow drawl whilst pacing the stage.
Unlike most comedians, he often ignores
the audience and appears to be talking to
himself. He‘s the king of deadpan delivery,
and you can be quite sure that Mitch
Hedburg owes a lot to him. But whilst
Hedburg points out surreality of everyday
life, Steven Wright‘s act is what Salvador
Dali would do if he did stand-up comedy,
and I mean that both in terms of surreality
and craftsmanship.
Wright explains he puts tape on all his
mirrors to prevent himself falling into an
alternate dimension (shades of „The Twilight
Zone― as well as „Alice Through the
Looking-Glass―) - and that‘s one of his
more normal jokes. Looking at him,
you‘re not really sure if he actually believes
this stuff himself. He certainly looks
like some of the mental derelicts you find
riding round on subways mumbling to
themselves.
Fortunately, he‘s a lot more together in
real life, and supplements his comedy
with acting and film-making: He appeared
in „Reservoir Dogs― and has even
won an Oscar for his film „The Appointments
of Dennis Jennings―.
He has his own website on http://
www.stevenwright.com/ which contains
an excellent biography:
„I was born. When I was 23 I started telling
jokes.
Then I started going on television and
doing films.
That‘s still what I am doing. The end.―
[Video ansehen]
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MUST SEE - COMEDY GUIDE VOL. 1