Dave Allen at Large

IN MUCH THE same manner that the "Fab Four" from Liverpool, the BEATLES' arrival on the shores of our folks here in "the Colonies" spawned a full invasion of British Pop Stars, so too the appearance of MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS over Public Broadcasting System's affiliated stations had a similar effect.

ONCE WE Americans had acquired a taste for "the Lumberjack Song", the Dead Parrot Sketch" and "Silly Walks", the PBS big shots were chomping at the bit for more. Soon we were treated to THE GOODIES, THE TWO RONNIES, NO HONESTLY and, of course, BENNY HILL.

IN THE MIDST of this, we found DAVE ALLEN AT LARGE, a half hour hosted by an Irishman, whose preference seemed to be the somewhat lost art of the story. In short, he was good at telling jokes. That surely was his strong suit; although he did participate in the show's sketches.

DRAWING ON HIS own life experiences, the show features a lot of "Catholic Funnies", as well as a liberal dose of situations involving the Age Old Irish-English feud.

OTHERWISE, WE FOUND this Dave Allen guy to be a fine host, who made us feel right at home in front of our TV sets, right in that time slot that followed MONTY PYTHON on Channel 11, WTTW,PBS in Chicago. It was on Sundays at 11:00 PM.

If Benny Hill is the King of British Comedy, then Dave Allen is the Duke. He has a marvelous talent for combining mimmickry and mannerisms into telling stories, as well as a mind for creating the funniest sketches. Even without the scale of a Benny Hill size extravaganza, he creates the same level of humor. While Benny was always, can he do that, Dave was always, he did that ! His humor, though, of sex, drinking and religion might be too contoversial for today, but there's a lot less funny comics getting way with a lot more.

I used to watch this show back when I was a kid, and to this day I still think of it from time-to-time. (Hence the fact that I'm here today.) He would mix sitting on stage and telling jokes to showing skits that were Python-like in their humor. While on stage, he'd always have a drink in his hand. One time he had the camera do a close-up and you could see that he had part of one finger missing. He'd say, "I used to hold my glass with that finger... strong drink!" I know darn well that if I were to see this today it wouldn't be nearly as funny as my childhood memory, but then again, maybe it would.

One of my favorite skits had him dressed as a bishop with a robe, miter and staff. (Religeon was one of his comedy foils, but he'd always emphasize he was just having fun.) He was in a litter being carried by two men. Across the field, they spotted a rival bishop, also in a litter. The two men glared at each other, lowered their staffs, and had their litter-bearers run at each other like they were in a joust. I liked it.

"Because they missed the boat." Sayeth Dave Allen in one of his many riffs on religion and fables thereof. I watched Dave Allen imports from the UK throughout the 70s and 80s, and loved every minute of them.

I don't have too much to say about Dave Allen or his show, other than he was a comic genius. His vignettes, his stand up material where he usually sat in his chair on a stage before an audience as he delivered zingers and funny stories, it was all entertaining.

Unlike Benny Hill who did largely burlesque, Dave Allen's material was a little more high brow. His sketches and jokes didn't rely on sex nor body functions, and usually were just poking innocent fun at history and society as a whole.

There's nothing much more to add, other than don't think about his humor too much. Take it for what it is. Just love and laugh the legacy he's left us.

Enjoy.

It was amazing, when I first started watching this show, how funny it was. This was the mid to late 80's, and even then I remarked on the show's vintage. Most comedy shows of that age would barely have raised a smile: times had changed. But somehow Allen's humour seemed as fresh as it had been when it was made. Lord knows how it must've gone down in the 70's, I certainly couldn't see it ever having been broadcast any earlier than 10pm....

Allen lived near here at some stage, in a sort of retirement. It didn't seem to matter what age he was, though, he always bore an odd resemblance to my old man (and they were about the same age)....

R.I.P. Dave Allen. You left many fond memories for this viewer.