Lamarr hosts history of US stand-up

Mark Lamarr is to take an in-depth look at American comedy in a new BBC 2 series.

Stand Up America includes performance footage that has not been screened before in Britain, as well as rare interviews with the likes of Sid Caesar.

The series begins in the post-war years, when vaudeville and slapstick were being replaced by fast-taking comedians, and traces the story up to modern stars such as Jerry Seinfeld.

But Lamarr insists: "This isn't a history of comedy," but an account of post-war wiseguys and the times in which they flourished.

Key among them was Bob Hope, who will be 100 in May, who emerged from vaudeville to become a great entertainer, albeit with the help of an army of gag writer, and a political force.

Hope even joked that he'd been asked to run for President,but had declined: "The money isn't right ­ and my wife wouldn't want to move to a smaller house."

Almost as famous as Hope was 'Mr Television', Milton Berle, who died in 2002. A less flattering nickname was 'The Thief Of Bad Gags', coined because of his notoriously light-fingered approach to material.

While other comics may have bridled at such accusations, Berle turned it to his advantage,,joking on Wogan: "I don't steal jokes. I just find them before they 're lost.

And it didn't dent his standing with the American public, his live TV show in the Fifities was said to be responsible for selling millions of new-fangled TV sets, so ensuring the success of the medium.

Lamarr's show also pays tribute to Sid Ceasar, whose sketch-based TV show nurtured writers including Mel Brooks, Woody Allen and Carl Reiner.; and pioneer comedienne Phyllis Diller, who brazenly confronted to bland conformity expected of women of the time.

Other comedians interviewed for the series include Denis Leary, Whoopi Goldberg, George Carlin, Garry Shandling, Lily Tomlin, Dustin Hoffman and Billy Connolly.

The first 50-minute episode goes out on BBC2 on Sunday January 12 at 10pm.

Published: 16 Dec 2002