Sunday, March 13, 2005
Goody Goody Yum Yum
I had the inestimable pleasure and once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Goodies stage show last weekend. And not just once, but twice, which was very very cool.
The Goodies may have been just another comedy show in Britain, but in Australia they are part of our cultural landscape, part of our childhood. In Australia, generations grew up with the Goodies. The ABC, bless their cotton socks, decided to edit out "offensive" material, and present the tv show for kids. It was on before the nightly news, so every evening at 6 or 6.30, kids got to monopolise the telly watch an insane, inventive, and explosively funny comedy show. I'm pretty sure parents loved the show just as much.
And then as we all grew up, we would watch the repeats again and again and again. So much so, that I and most of my friends can quote entire episodes. (It also helps that I'm a complete geek). I would happily do "The Disco Heave" (from Saturday Night Grease) on those rare occasions that I was dragged out onto a dancefloor. And, of course, no moment of panic is complete without the classic recitation "I'm a teapot! I'm a teapot!"
The Goodies helped to launch me into a lifelong love affair with British comedy, and over time, I became quite an afficionado of the era out of which the Goodies sprang. It is wonderful to track the convoluted family tree that produced the Goodies and of course Monty Python, and to know that the branches are interwoven from Cambridge Circus to I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again to At Last the 1948 Show to Broaden Your Mind to How to Irritate People.
Thus it was a truly exciting experience during the live show to see Tim Brooke-Taylor don his smoking jacket as President of Cambridge Footlights and put Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden through their paces. I felt like I knew their secret history and now they were sharing it with the wider world and I was in on the joke. Many others in the audience greeted the mention of ISIRTA and Broaden Your Mind with rapturous applause, so I'm thinking I wasn't the only person feeling like that.
The Goodies - Alive on Stage was a tremendous experience. The three interspersed seemingly improvised banter and laughs with clips from the shows (to my lasting joy, they showed the bunfight at the OK Tea Rooms - brilliant!!) They also revealed what the ABC had deemed too naughty for telly - like this exchange from The End:
Tim "Don't mind him, he's pissed."
Graeme "Has he?"
Tim "Yes."
Much of the material they performed proved once again that Graeme Garden is the absolute king of comic timing. His "Pet Time" skit was beautifully timed and painfully funny.
The only part that felt slow was the radio sketch towards the end, but given that I had been laughing so hard that tears were streaming down my face, a bit of a break may have been what the audience needed. And the fellers seemed to be having such a laugh during the skit that the audience followed their joy.
I was worried that seeing the Goodies up close and personal would break my heart, because of the absolute fact that they have aged. I wasn't sure that I ever wanted to see Tim, Bill and Graeme being old. And I have to admit, Tim's crooked hands and Graeme's slight limp, combined with the general loss of hair and greyness in the hair that was there was sad to see. But the joy with which they attacked the material, the verve that they brought to the stage, dimmed and diminished the evidence of age, and I swear I could see them as I had always seen them - best expressed in their song The In-Betweenies (number 7 on the British charts in 1975!!): "Too old to be a teenage idol, too young to be a mother's pet."
If you want to get back in touch with your inner Goodies fan (and I know you want to!) go to the official Goodies fan site. It's comprehensive, fun and there are many many Aussies drifting around there.
The Goodies may have been just another comedy show in Britain, but in Australia they are part of our cultural landscape, part of our childhood. In Australia, generations grew up with the Goodies. The ABC, bless their cotton socks, decided to edit out "offensive" material, and present the tv show for kids. It was on before the nightly news, so every evening at 6 or 6.30, kids got to monopolise the telly watch an insane, inventive, and explosively funny comedy show. I'm pretty sure parents loved the show just as much.
And then as we all grew up, we would watch the repeats again and again and again. So much so, that I and most of my friends can quote entire episodes. (It also helps that I'm a complete geek). I would happily do "The Disco Heave" (from Saturday Night Grease) on those rare occasions that I was dragged out onto a dancefloor. And, of course, no moment of panic is complete without the classic recitation "I'm a teapot! I'm a teapot!"
The Goodies helped to launch me into a lifelong love affair with British comedy, and over time, I became quite an afficionado of the era out of which the Goodies sprang. It is wonderful to track the convoluted family tree that produced the Goodies and of course Monty Python, and to know that the branches are interwoven from Cambridge Circus to I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again to At Last the 1948 Show to Broaden Your Mind to How to Irritate People.
Thus it was a truly exciting experience during the live show to see Tim Brooke-Taylor don his smoking jacket as President of Cambridge Footlights and put Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden through their paces. I felt like I knew their secret history and now they were sharing it with the wider world and I was in on the joke. Many others in the audience greeted the mention of ISIRTA and Broaden Your Mind with rapturous applause, so I'm thinking I wasn't the only person feeling like that.
The Goodies - Alive on Stage was a tremendous experience. The three interspersed seemingly improvised banter and laughs with clips from the shows (to my lasting joy, they showed the bunfight at the OK Tea Rooms - brilliant!!) They also revealed what the ABC had deemed too naughty for telly - like this exchange from The End:
Tim "Don't mind him, he's pissed."
Graeme "Has he?"
Tim "Yes."
Much of the material they performed proved once again that Graeme Garden is the absolute king of comic timing. His "Pet Time" skit was beautifully timed and painfully funny.
The only part that felt slow was the radio sketch towards the end, but given that I had been laughing so hard that tears were streaming down my face, a bit of a break may have been what the audience needed. And the fellers seemed to be having such a laugh during the skit that the audience followed their joy.
I was worried that seeing the Goodies up close and personal would break my heart, because of the absolute fact that they have aged. I wasn't sure that I ever wanted to see Tim, Bill and Graeme being old. And I have to admit, Tim's crooked hands and Graeme's slight limp, combined with the general loss of hair and greyness in the hair that was there was sad to see. But the joy with which they attacked the material, the verve that they brought to the stage, dimmed and diminished the evidence of age, and I swear I could see them as I had always seen them - best expressed in their song The In-Betweenies (number 7 on the British charts in 1975!!): "Too old to be a teenage idol, too young to be a mother's pet."
If you want to get back in touch with your inner Goodies fan (and I know you want to!) go to the official Goodies fan site. It's comprehensive, fun and there are many many Aussies drifting around there.
