Last month I wrote a witty one-liner; it referenced a high profile news story at the time and was unique. I told a couple of my friends who thought it was really funny, so I posted it on Twitter. 4 days later, whilst watching a very popular comedy news programme on mainstream television, I saw my joke being repeated verbatim by a well known comedian.
Was I seething? Was I flying to my laptop to track down this disgraceful rapscallions’ website so I could harangue him mercilessly? Was I contacting my shady friends from the local underworld so they could go around, have a quiet word & get my joke back for me? Erm, no.
I sat for a moment, sipped my tea gently, like a guru from the Orient (not Leyton) with all the mystical calm that comes with deep understanding, and smiled to myself. In my mind, I was certain of something. Whether or not my original joke had been ‘utilized’ (plagiarised is such an accusatory and tasteless word) or the comedian in question had merely arrived at the same cerebral place as I independently, it meant that the humour that was emitting from my weird and sometimes wonderful, sometimes ‘blunderful’ brain was deemed fit for the masses.
With the advent of the internet, digital time stamping, intellectual property and the like, many people have become more than a little obsessed with who wrote what first. As if it was a crime for somebody to come up with the same idea at a later date. I pride myself on trying to be original, surreal, fresh & inventive when it comes to writing comedy. Jokes – especially one-liners – have been something I decided to try my hand at recently. I penned over 250 jokes in 2 months on a famous website, only to find that 15 were deemed duplicates that had previously appeared there. The tenet ‘great minds think alike’ or ‘idiocy loves company’ sprang to my surprised mind.
I remember the furore over Bill Hicks’ material being ripped off by Dennis Leary, who has gone on to make a very successful career. Hicks is remembered fondly for his originality and style, and yes, it appears Leary copied a good part of his act for a while. Hicks died 17 years ago, Leary is now a popular movie figure, seemingly continuing to be successful after his main source of material had passed on. I reserve judgement, but it portrays a strange change in the lifespan of a joke.
When I was a teenager in the early 1980s, all jokes were heard in the playground, the pub, at the match or in the young offenders unit. You heard a good one, you passed it on. Many originated in the comedy club scene: Bernard Manning, Chubby Brown, Jimmy Jones etc. or from television, Ben Elton, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Dave Allen etc. People relayed them to share the humour, to have a common ground, a point of reference, or just to give the lads a good laugh in the vault on a Saturday night. Nowadays it appears to be about separatism, ownership, a competitive need to be the first to get the text joke out to all your mates.
Humour has become competitive. Stand ups like Gary Delaney are accused of stealing from websites; he is counter-accusing website users of stealing his material. Did a joke originate with Tim Vine? Or was it one of Tommy Cooper’s? Does it really matter? We’ve reluctantly put the ‘fun’ in dysfunctional – it’s only a small observation of society’s changing ways, but it definitely highlights the way technology has increased paranoia & selfishness in the 21st century. As the baby goat said to me, “I kid, you not”.
http://www.burybob.com/
Friday, 10 June 2011
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Manchester comedian Bury Bob at burybob.com
Alternative comedy in Manchester with Bury Bob
About a year ago I returned to the UK to try and ”get back to my roots” after living in Canada, Spain and Denmark over a period of 15 years.My goal was to gather together a bunch of talented people I had known for years and get some kind of coop together. People from different disciplines working together to create material that was as far away from the tired BBC, ITV mainstream as possible. My theory was ”If I’m sick of this crap”, there must be a large number of people out there who are thinking the same and with the internet it’s just a matter of finding those people.
I got in touch with the guy I’d met in Spain and we began to meet once a week at my flat ‘ up int thills’ above Manchester,UK. He was an ex ”olic’ , that is, if you could abuse it he’d taken it and he also suffered from schizophrenia – not the best choice of a business partner, you might think – but we found that we clicked on many levels and began to work on a project to take into the schools around Salford to use his experiences to warn kids from rougher areas about the consequences of substance abuse.
He had always had the nick name of bury bobz so we decided to take the z off and make it Bury Bob and build the character around that. One afternoon I said ”Right lets try something different”
We set the camera rolling….my little 5 year old Panasonic camcorder – turned down the lights and started talking. Very quickly Bob appeared. An opinionated scally Manchester bloke with a very warped, but very funny view of the world. I sat behind the camera and watched in amazement as …the one who shall henceforth be known as Bury bob…came to life,
Over the next 3 months we had more of these sessions and uploaded them to You Tube and slowly but surely other characters began to appear from Bob’s schizophrenic, from Terry Bull. q list confidant to the stars,well asteroids, to Snood P Whipper Salford’s urban warrior poet, rapper and general bad boy subversive. We even have a cannibal chef called Canny Kenny Bull ,Terry’s cousin.
Bob built a very strange and very orange website and over the following months developed a place where he could let us share his warped imagination and uniquely funny veiw of the world we live in.
We wanted to get to all those people who are sick of Saturday night pap and have an interactive site where people could send in questions for Bob and then film his responses. It would be an interesting experiment in interactive internet improv comedy. (Try saying that after a few smokes…I mean pints)
We built up Bob’s back story and sketched out a family history so we could begin to involve other people, which was my original plan.
We intend to carry on working as a small tight knit group doing stuff that makes us laugh and having a bit of fun. Eventually we will be doing a full podcast with all the characters turning up and involving a larger group of friends and colleagues, but first we have to make a little money and we are relying on advertisers and donations for that as we would like to keep the site as free as possible for our users who need a laugh, because they don’t have any money or a job or a….don’t let me go there, I don’t want to have a rant.
We are also looking to help local good causes and I recently met a wonderful inspiring man called David Feldman from The Princes Trust group of charities and am hoping to be able to help in their goal to make Burnley rise from the ashes of despair and become the guiding light for inner city regeneration in the 21st century. They are doing wonderful things there in a very practical way.
So you guys , our aims are modest…to bring a little sunshine and laughter into people’s lives in these dark times.
So if you like the sound of Bury Bob and would like to have a private chuckle check out the website and register with us so we can keep you informed and find out what is important in your world.
Just as a footnote we have also done several tunes that might be of interest, one of which is currently in the top 50 at revernation.com an online indie music chart. Your votes would be appreciated there a we would love to get to number one. The song is called Only on F in Salford featuring Snood P Whipper
My name is Ian Jameson …henceforth known as
Uncle Joe Bloggs
Love and peace and all that shit!
http://www.burybob.com/
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Sunday, 15 May 2011
Manchester is the capital of English football. It's official! Throphies and titles abound. The backslapping begins in the board rooms as they justify the mind boggling sums of money they spend and vie eachother for a bigger piece of the pie.
Nostalga cannot help but raise it's head reminding us of former glory days. The days when hotdogs were the staple diet on the terraces, not prawn sandwhiches and fine cheeses. Players with names you could pronounce.
Were things better when teams were not the all powerful money machines they are today.I don't know, maybe you would like to give me your thoughts on that.
Football songs are normally ghatly things that are aimed at the lowest common denominatoer.
This beautiful Game by Bury Bob is the exception. The lyrics are on the nail and the music keeps your ears interested.
Maybe all you fellow Mancunions out there should take this as your anthem for the summer.
How live do you want it to be. It's up to you.
Uncle Joe Bloggs
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Salfordians Unite
Help Bury Bob get to number one one Reverbnation become a fan at the link below
http://www.reverbnation.com/#!/snoodpwhipper
http://www.reverbnation.com/#!/snoodpwhipper
Sunday, 17 April 2011
Bury Bob. Catch him before the authorities do.
Contact: Ian Jameson email: infoburybob@gmail.com
The musical bit of the Bury Bob empire,
Press Release April 9th 2011
This Beautiful Game by Bury Bob
''Die hard fans are all but gone, players celebrate alone, while you watch on your mobile phone...''
A light hearted, but hard hitting look at the state of British football using several different musical genres and a tongue placed firmly in the cheek. Football fans seem to think that Bob has hit the nail on the head with this lyric and the video even includes some footage shot on Bob's mobile during the Glazier Out demonstration last year. He is singing about a subject he knows about and cares about. Check it out and download it at http://www.burybob.com/
50% of the profits from donations will be given to a local youth team that is trying to get back to playing for the love of the game.
50% of the profits from donations will be given to a local youth team that is trying to get back to playing for the love of the game.
Only one ''F'' in Salford by Snood P Whipper
A new genre of music that Snood P has named ''terror trance''. Rapper and Urban warrior Snood P Whipper looks at the underbelly of his once great city with music that has you looking over your shoulder. T shirts with the ''only one F'' and Bury Bob logos will soon be available. Some of the profits will go to Uncle Joe's 'New Microphone Fund'' as Snood broke his other one making this record .
No snoods were harmed however.
Register at http://www.burybob.com/ to make sure you hear about future releases and new video clips going on line.
Friday, 18 March 2011
Peter Kay, Loveable but Lost? by Ian Jameson
Like most people in the North West , I love Bolton comedian Peter Kay to bits. Believe it or not up to about four years ago I had never heard of him. No I had not been living on the moon ...I had been living in Canada and returned home briefly on a visit to hear everyone talking about him, People looked at me like I was from another planet when I asked who he was and began to load me up with DVDs of all of his stuff.
It was so refreshing to see such confidence and reality in a comedian and of course he is very likeable His catch phrases immediately became part of my vocabulary and I actually sang at the club in Farnworth where he filmed Phoenix nights...there's a message on the wall in the dressing room that says something like..''I died here too – Peter Kay'' a very comforting thought just before you are going on to try and entertain.
I happened to be walking down town in Manchester the day tickets went on sale for his appearance in The Producers and managed to get first class seats for the shows opening nigh for half the price a ticket for his 2010 tour cost. I remember when he walked on stage in full drag the audience went wild for about 5 minutes before he even delivered his first line and he played the part beautifully. Needless to say my respect for him went up even further after that and I looked forward to his career moving in a new direction.
Unfortunately he didn't and reading the reviews of his farewell tour it sounds like he should have.
But. maybe now he has enough money to live for the rest of his life without working if he so desired, he can get down to finding some special niche for his talents. Like Eddie Izzard he may head more towards acting or create another show as brilliant as Phoenix Nights. I hope so because from what I have read it sounds like he has had enough of stand up in the arena format. He has also broken all previous records in many categories, so he has nothing left to prove in that area and indeed in many others.
I left the UK again shortly after that night at The Producers and lived in Spain and then Denmark over the next 3 years.
While working a hotel in Salebrena in Spain I met a guy who was on holiday there and spent the week talking with him until dawn most nights. He had that same likeable quality as Peter has , but his humour was much more off the wall and out of the box. I asked him if he had ever thought about doing stand up and he told me he preferred to write and didn't really want to set himself up as a target. H e wanted people to read his stuff and make their own pictures and have a chuckle in private,
When it came time for him to leave I told him that if I ever returned to England I'd look him up and find a way to get his sense of humour out there in the way he described...giving people a private chuckle.
About a year ago I returned to the UK to try and ''get back to my roots''. My goal was to gather together a bunch of talented people I had known for years and get some kind of coop together. People from different disciplines working together to create material that was as far away from the tired BBC, ITV mainstream as possible. My theory was ''If I'm sick of this crap'', there must be a large number of people out there who are thinking the same and with the internet it's just a matter of finding those people and asking them to help
I got in touch with the guy I'd met in Spain and we began to meet once a week at my flat' up int thills'. He was an ex ''olic' , that is, if you can abuse it he'd take it and he also suffered from schizophrenia - not the best choice of a business partner, you might think – but we found that we clicked on many levels and began to work on a project to take into the schools around Salford to use his experiences to warn kids from rougher areas about the consequences of substance abuse.
While working on this idea we did a video for a song we came up with. The song was called
“Where is my wonderful world' and we recorded it in my flat. We recorded the video there too and in the streets around where I live and ended up with something pretty decent considering it had cost us nothing but time and imagination.
We continued to follow the music path and wrote another song called ''This Beautiful Game '' which is about the corporate face of football. Every football fan who seer's it says ..''Spot on that's exactly what s wrong with the game today''.
Then one afternoon I said ''Right lets try something different'' He had always had the nick name of bury bobz so we decided to take the z off and make it Bury Bob and build the character around that.
We set the camera rolling....my little 5 year old Panasonic camcorder - turned down the lights and started talking. Very quickly Bob appeared. An opinionated scally with a very warped view of the world. I sat behind the camera and watched in amazement as ...the one who shall henceforth be known as Bury bob...came to life,
Over the next 3 months we had more of these sessions and uploaded them to You Tube and slowly but surely other characters began to appear , from Terry Bull. q list confidant, to Vladivar the eastern European subversive. We even have a pet cannibal called Canny Kenny Bull ,Terry's cousin.
Bob built a very strange website and over the last month we have nearly got it ready for visitors at http://www.burybob.com.though/ I still have about 4 hours of video to work through. A new vharacter turned up last week called Snood P whipper a Salford rapper and he already has a girlfriend called Chablaise.
I would really like to get to all those people who are sick of Saturday night pap and have an interactive site where people can send in questions for Bob and we can film the resulting session. It would be an interesting experiment in interactive internet improv comedy. (Try saying that after a few smokes...I mean pints)
We have also built up Bob's back story and now have a family history sketched out and have begun to involve other people, which was my original plan.
We have no wish to attempt to reach the commercial heights that Peter Kay has risen to, as that kind of fame seems to be self defeating creatively. I'm sure he had much more fun filming Chorley radio in a supermarket car park than having to live up to a reputation in front of 300,000 paying customers. And you know what we Brits are like...we love to build people up just to knock them down.
We intend to carry on working as a small tight knit group doing stuff that makes us laugh and having a bit of fun. Eventually we will be doing a full podcast with all the characters turning up and involving a larger group of friends and colleagues, but first we have to make a little money and we are relying on advertisers and donations for that as we would like to keep the site free for our users who need a laugh because they don't have any money or a job or a....don't let me go there, I don't want to have a rant.
We are also looking to help local good causes and I recently met a wonderful inspiring man called David Feldman from The Princes Trust group of charities and am hoping to be able to help in their goal to make Burnley rise from the ashes of despair and become the guiding light for inner city regeneration in the 21st century. They are doing wonderful things there in a very practical way.
So you guys have made one northern lad into a super star, our aims are much more modest, but our goal is the same as Peter's ...to bring a little sunshine and laughter into people's lives in these dark times.
So if you like the sound of Bury Bob and would like to have a private chuckle check out the website and register with us so we can keep you informed when we put up new stuff and to ask for your help with some deserving causes.
My name is Ian Jameson ...henceforth known as
Uncle Joe Bloggs
Love and peace and all that shit!
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Sunday, 20 February 2011
Bury Bob's Website is now up and running...well maybe not running ...sort of slouching along....anyway it's at http://www.burybob.com
Bury Bob is a comedian from Bury near Manchester who is practicing the dark art of stream of consciousness comedy and you will find some very interesting video and verbal acrobatics on his website at http://www.burybob.com/...take a look but be warned some of the material is very silly indeed.
Some of the stuff is very dark and other stuff is down right offensive if you are a small minded blinkered biggoted idiot. Sorry, was that offensive?
Some of the stuff is very dark and other stuff is down right offensive if you are a small minded blinkered biggoted idiot. Sorry, was that offensive?
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
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