Tommy Cooper died - just like that.
Dec06 Filed in: Entertainment
Looking through Cheeks n Paste, a blog by three witty Brits, I was reminded of the time I watched a comedy giant die on stage. (Not Michael "Kramer" Richards.) Embarrassed to say this, but it was really funny seeing a guy clutch his chest and fall backwards through the curtains with a look of pure surprise on his face. How were we to know that Tommy Cooper was expiring for real?
Tommy Cooper was a British comedian from the 60's to the 90's who was as cheeky and witty as Chris Rock and did better close-up tricks than David "I made the prettiest girl ever, disappear" Copperfield. I mean, if either of them died in the act, would you laugh? No!
Of course, if you subscribe to the School of Thought where David Beckham is the greatest ever Briton, or George Bush is the best President in history, then you won't grasp the idea that an entertainer in black and white and dodgy color was hysterical in his day. The concept of history can be a hard one to grasp in today's selective memory, sound bite, sensationalist era. There are probably many readers who don't believe that Ghenkis Khan had an Empire more scary than the modern US, and refute the truth that old people have sex, but hey, get over it already.
Tommy Cooper was a genuine Magic Circle magician who pulled doves out hats, yanked scarves out of sleeves and made unhappy faces disappear. The secret to that last trick was that he was a natural clown. He could say nothing, do nothing, except maybe adjust his fez and look sideways at the audience. Somehow that simple combination got the audience in stitches.
To qualify his appeal, you have to realise he was a big bloke, hair all over the place under his trademark fez; he sort of barked and growled instead of spoke, and was pretty damn ugly to boot. Or to appease the politically correct we should say, he was heavy-boned, folicly unkempt and had an interesting face.
There is no doubt that if you plonked Tommy Cooper on stage now, and put him up against Chris Rock, old decomposed Tommy's material would seem very outdated. But so will Chris Rock's routine in a few decades time.
In his day, Tommy would have said, "A man walks into a shop and asks for a food mixer. "Kenwood?" OK, where is he?" and laughed at his own joke. Chris Rock would now rattle off three hysterical observations in that time, but the end result would be the same - a crowd of folks wiping tears from their cheeks, rolling around at material they had never heard delivered quite like that before.
As for magic, he was a bona fide wizard, just like Ali Bongo or David Copperfield. Sleight of hand, witticisms to destract your eye and perfect timing, he was the man. Obviously he was no hit with the girls like Mr Copperfield, but then again, history proved that neither was the perfectly manicured big time illusionist.
These are a few of Tommy Cooper's one liners from the aforementioned hereto amusing Cheeks n Paste, blog. And just imagine a big buffoon with a glint in his eye saying stuff that noone had ever heard before. B-boom.
Tommy who?
Tommy Cooper was a British comedian from the 60's to the 90's who was as cheeky and witty as Chris Rock and did better close-up tricks than David "I made the prettiest girl ever, disappear" Copperfield. I mean, if either of them died in the act, would you laugh? No!
Of course, if you subscribe to the School of Thought where David Beckham is the greatest ever Briton, or George Bush is the best President in history, then you won't grasp the idea that an entertainer in black and white and dodgy color was hysterical in his day. The concept of history can be a hard one to grasp in today's selective memory, sound bite, sensationalist era. There are probably many readers who don't believe that Ghenkis Khan had an Empire more scary than the modern US, and refute the truth that old people have sex, but hey, get over it already.
Tommy in brief
Tommy Cooper was a genuine Magic Circle magician who pulled doves out hats, yanked scarves out of sleeves and made unhappy faces disappear. The secret to that last trick was that he was a natural clown. He could say nothing, do nothing, except maybe adjust his fez and look sideways at the audience. Somehow that simple combination got the audience in stitches.
To qualify his appeal, you have to realise he was a big bloke, hair all over the place under his trademark fez; he sort of barked and growled instead of spoke, and was pretty damn ugly to boot. Or to appease the politically correct we should say, he was heavy-boned, folicly unkempt and had an interesting face.
Tommy v Rocky
There is no doubt that if you plonked Tommy Cooper on stage now, and put him up against Chris Rock, old decomposed Tommy's material would seem very outdated. But so will Chris Rock's routine in a few decades time.
In his day, Tommy would have said, "A man walks into a shop and asks for a food mixer. "Kenwood?" OK, where is he?" and laughed at his own joke. Chris Rock would now rattle off three hysterical observations in that time, but the end result would be the same - a crowd of folks wiping tears from their cheeks, rolling around at material they had never heard delivered quite like that before.
Tommy v Davey
As for magic, he was a bona fide wizard, just like Ali Bongo or David Copperfield. Sleight of hand, witticisms to destract your eye and perfect timing, he was the man. Obviously he was no hit with the girls like Mr Copperfield, but then again, history proved that neither was the perfectly manicured big time illusionist.
These are a few of Tommy Cooper's one liners from the aforementioned hereto amusing Cheeks n Paste, blog. And just imagine a big buffoon with a glint in his eye saying stuff that noone had ever heard before. B-boom.
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