On the home page of
comedy website Chortle today, I noticed that there were pictures of four of the acts who you would have seen had you happened to come to the Oxford Revue Workshop in 1988. The lead story is about Armando Iannucci, who seems to be on the cusp on international success with his latest film "In The Loop", there are reviews of the tour of Al Murray and the TV show of Stewart Lee and then up in the corner (admittedly in an advert for something else) is a picture of me.
But I wonder what we'd have made of it all 21 years ago, had we even been able to understand the concept of the internet. I am not sure anyone has ever really made anything out of the fact that that 3 or 4 year period at Oxford University produced rather a large number of successful and influential comedians. It might not be a surprise to some that people who went to Oxford did well in the comedy business, but I think in this case most of these people have done well in spite of this, rather than because of it. It was something of an albatross in the late 80s and early 90s and it's not like any of the people I have mentioned have had an easy ride of it, due to some false idea of an Oxbridge Mafia.
And I think all those people have proved their pedigree in any case. It's weird to think that someone paying a couple of quid (in fact it might have just been 50p) to go to a dingy cellar at the Oxford Union in the late 80s would have seen all these people, plus David Schneider, Ben Moor and TV's Emma Kennedy. A couple of years before you'd have seen Rebecca Front and Patrick Marber as well, but he at least proves that not everyone at the University was talented or funny.
Because student comedy was painfully untrendy at the time no one really spotted what was going on, but I wonder if the Oxford Revue Workshop will ever get recognition for the part played in 21st century comedy. If so then credit must be given to Tony Brennan who set the whole thing up. Maybe all those people would have had careers without it, or maybe that breeding ground and fortnightly meeting of minds helped push us all towards better things. But I thought it was worth commenting on. The late 1980s were amazing times for comedy.
And as if to make the point that we're not all super successful after two decades of work, I headed to King's Lynn tonight to perform my show to just 80 or so people. After a week of bigger audiences and sell outs it was a good reminder that there is still some way to go, though several comedians contacted me today to say that they had struggled for an audience in the same venue.
They were a quality 80 though. And I enjoyed performing for them, even if I would have driven for over 4 minutes for each one of them by the end of the day.
At least tomorrow I can rest.
