Mooning Chris De Burgh | WTF: Weekly Trivia File

Mooning Chris De Burgh

WTF: Weekly Trivia File

Jack Whitehall says he knew he had a career in comedy – when he mooned Chris De Burgh during of Songs of Praise. He says the singer filmed an episode at his school, and 'while he was singing or talking to the camera, I pulled down my pants and mooned right behind him. That got great laughs, caused lots of disruption. Don’t think he knew what was going on but I was thrown out of my classroom, landed myself in hot water for that one. And it was very worth it. I learned from then on that having extremely low levels of self-respect is good for comedy and you have to able to humiliate yourself.'

Russell Kane's dad – usually portrayed in his stand-up as hating his dramatic pretensions –once appeared in Doctor Who. The comic made the revelation when making a surprise appearance at XS Malarkey night in Manchester this week, much to the delight of host Toby Hadoke, a huge fan of the series, with an encyclopaedic knowledge of its history. A fact he demonstrated when Kane gave a brief description of his non-speaking 1966 role – and Hadoke came up with Russell's dad's stage name (even though he was uncredited on the programme), identify the episode in question and produce some screen grabs. Hadoke said the fact only came up after he spoke about the show on stage because another act on the bill, Bethany Black, has just filmed a Doctor Who set herself. 'It was just an amusing way of [Russell] starting his set because of what I'd been talking about,' Hadoke said. 'I don't think he thought for a moment that I'd be able to identify the episode, let alone know what his dad was called on BBC paperwork - he should have known better.' Here is a shot from episode one of the 1966 Doctor Who adventure The Ark, which features Russell Kane's dad, centred. He was credited - only in paperwork - as David Greneau – and played a character who gets shrunk.

• New Zealand comic Michele A'Court says a reviewer once took her to task for using too much bad language on stage. So she listened back to the tape to find she said two swear words, while a male dropped 25... and wasn't commented upon.


In case you missed this, FHM ran the above Q&A this week. Only problem was it was Jason Byrne they interviewed, not Ed. And when Ed pointed out their error, they went on the defensive. 'I didn't do this interview. Clearly you interviewed @thejasonbyrne and got confused. #JournalismFail,' he tweeted. Prompting the magazine to tweet back: '@MrEdByrne looks like you to us' – completely failing to appreciate that he wasn't just complaining about the whole... everything.

• The real Jason Byrne will join Jimeoin, Fred MacAulay Carl Donnelly, Chris Martin, John Robins, Jimmy McgGhie, Charlie Baker and Alistair Barrie as they take on the rest of the comedy industry in the annual Mackenzie Taylor Memorial Cup golf match in Edinburgh next Tuesday….

• Jess Robinson is currently doing brisk business at the Edinburgh Fringe with her comedy musical impressions. But it seems the talent runs in the business. Here’s her granddad, Jules Ruben:

• In Paul Fleckney's review of George Egg's Edinburgh show on Chortle, he said the comic reminded him of a chef in a gay bar in Bristol... It was an idea the stand-up ran with, calling in John Robins' and Elis James' Xfm show as Benedict, who worked at a bar called 'The Pink Courgette', to say he was having no end of problems with my avocados. The call – in which Robins forgot the pseudonym a couple of times – is 22 minutes into the podcast:

• Henry Normal is these days known as the boss of top comedy production house Baby Cow, makers of the likes of Gavin & Stacey and Moone Boy. But he is returning to his roots as a comedy poet for a one-off charity gig. Photos With My Son will revolve around his 17-year-old son Johnny, who is autistic, with proceeds will be going to Brighton-based charity Amaze. The event will be at Brighton’s Komedia on September 8.

• Hundreds, or possibly thousands, of topless protesters are to take to the Royal Mile in Edinburgh on Sunday for a Free The Nipple Rally – an event about freedom of expression organised by Fringe comic Samantha Pressdee.

• Tweets of the week

Published: 21 Aug 2015

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