COMEDY

POLITICS 111frustration that characterize him and his routine: ‘Wish I had a train. Ifeel like smashing a train up. On me own. I feel really strong. I wish Ihad a train’ (Griffiths, 1979:49). After a complicated series of kung fuexercises, a couple of mannequins are brought on, a male and a female,dressed for a night at the theatre. We imagine them waiting for a taxi asPrice enthusiastically greets them, before it becomes apparent that thecouple have nothing to say to him: ‘Been to the match, have we? Wereyou at t’top end wi’lads? Good, wannit? D’you see Macari? Eh? Eh?(Silence.) P’raps I’m not here. Don’t you like me? You hardly knowme. Let’s go and have a pint, get to know each other’ (Griffiths, 1979:49). Through the disjointed and coarse dialogue, Price conveys theinarticulacy and anger he perceives in the working-class male,marginalized by middle-class society and reduced to expressing himselfthrough violence and sexual aggression; becoming, in fact, a stereotypeof the prejudices that define his class. His routine does include twostandard jokes, one sexual, one racial, but both are delivered maniacallyand to the dummies rather than the audience. In this context, they seemlike desperate and pathological symptoms of rage, rather thanpleasurable social exchanges. Towards the end of the routine, Priceoffers the lady a flower:Here. (He takes a flower out of his pocket, offers it to them.) Forthe lady. No, no, I have a pin. (Pause. He pins the flower—amarigold—with the greatest delicacy between the girl’s breasts.Steps back to look at his work.) No need for thanks. My pleasureentirely. Believe me. (Silence. Nothing. Then a dark red stain,gradually widening, begins to form behind the flower.) Aargh,aagh, aagh, aagh…(The spot shrinks slowly on the dummies,centring finally on the red stain. PRICE’s ‘aaghs’ become shortbarks of laughter. Innocence.) I wonder what happened. P’raps itpierced a vein.(Griffiths, 1979:51)This disturbing image, followed by a simple rendition of the socialistanthem the ‘Red Flag’, is an explicit expression of the militant subtextof Price’s act, where revolutionary politics are confusingly mixed withaggression and sexual threat. While Challoner can only describe it as‘repulsive’, Eddie Waters calls it ‘brilliant’, but the final discussionbetween Price and Waters reveals considerable tensions between thetwo men. Price is full of revolutionary anger, while Waters retains faithin political truth and social redemption. Yet something has been