Comic Amadeus in Kevin's movie

Young comic Amadeus has landed a part in Kevin Spacey's next movie.

The stand-up is to play the part of the real-life comedian George Kirby in the film Beyond The Sea, the biopic of Fifties teen idol Bobby Darin.

Kirby was one of the first black comics to cross over to mainstream success, spurning the street slang and overt sexual and racial material that characterised the routines of many of his contemporaries.

Instead, his inoffensive material and wide range of impressions earned him bookings on TV show and in clubs which had previously barred black acts. But his career was crippled by drug addiction, and although he made something of a comeback, he died from Parkinson's disease in 1995.

Amadeus has just returned from three-days of filming in a Berlin club.

He said: "Kevin got me to write my own routine as Kirby ­ doing impressions of Tony Curtis, Greta Garbo and Humphrey Bogart.

"Because all the extras were German, and half of them didn't speak English, it was tough audience to perform to, but enjoyable.

"My scenes were with John Goodman and Bob Hoskins, and we were filming from 7am to 10pm."

Beyond The Sea is a labour of love for Spacey, who wrote the script as well as directing and starring.

Brought up in an impoverished English family in the Bronx, Darin became an early rock and roll star with an ambition said to be driven by the serious heart condition that he knew would curtail his life. He had a high-profile marriage to Sandra Dee, and was devastated to learn in adulthood that the mother who brought him up was actually his grandmother, and his 'sister' was actually his mother.

Published: 9 Feb 2004