Obituary of a linchpin from the early days of alternative comedy

Peter Wear – a pioneer of the British improv comedy scene and early performer on the alternative cabaret circuit  – has died at the age of 76.

In his own words, Wear was an ‘old Colonial boy, educated to run the Empire, but who became a clown’.  He took to performing while a student at the Hornsey College of Art in 1968, kickstarting a decades-long career of comedy, physical theatre and improv that took him across Europe and the US. 

He made his Edinburgh Fringe debut in 1975 in a double act with musician  Pete Somerville called Theatre Slapstique, one of 125 shows at that year’s festival. They went on to support Dr Hook.

With future Comedy Story Players Steve Steen and Jim Sweeney, plus comic Justin Case, he formed the Omelette Broadcasting Company,  one of the first improv shows after Keith Johnstone's established the genre of ad-libbed games. They were regulars at the first Jongleurs comedy club in London and  played the Edinburgh Fringe in the early 1980s, securing a TV pilot.

With Neil Mullarkey and Ros Adler, he then formed Bananadrama, performing long-term improv at the Banana Cabaret in Balham, then ran the influential Late At The Gate shows in Notting Hill’s Gate Theatre for six years.

He also performed as a street entertainer in Covent Garden, while as a solo comedian he created Frank Shovel Private Eye (pictured above), which he performed in the early years of the alternative cabaret circuit, including the nascent Comedy Store. He also created a one-man Robin Hood parody which he performed for 20 years. 

On his website, Wear wrote: ‘My training has been entirely in front of audiences.  They let you know how you're doing. Where the comedy came from is a mystery best left unsolved.’

Ben Keaton, the actor and writer who won the 1986 Perrier Award described Wear – who died on Monday – as 'the linchpin that connects the pioneer Keith Johnson of the late 1970s to the Comedy Store Players, Hoopla, Imprology and others around today.;

Keaton wrote this obituary for Chortle: 

PETER WEAR
IMPROVISER 1944-2025

I recently asked ChatGPT to do some research on my friend the improvisor Peter Wear, who passed away recently. This is what it came up with:

‘Peter Wear's preparation for his improvisational shows, such as Late At The Gate, likely involved techniques common among experienced improv artists: Mental Preparation, Technical Practice, and Guarding Against Repetition. While improvisation thrives on spontaneity, experienced performers like Wear likely balance this with thoughtful preparation to ensure engaging and dynamic shows.’

I love this because it clearly has no idea who Peter Wear was or how he worked. Peter was a completely natural improviser. His mental preparation was more likely to have been an afternoon nap. His technical practice? Maybe double-knotting his shoelaces. Guarding against repetition? He’d endlessly repeat himself.

Like many in my generation who were lucky enough to experience the explosion of comedy in the early 1980s, I sought out the thrill of sitting in an audience with no idea where the evening might take us. Going to a comedy club was a risk—we were discovering the possibilities. Comedy at the time had become small-minded, bigoted, and stale. But by starting afresh, we found a new frontier. The audience, like the performers, had no clue how things would turn out. It was exhilarating.

Popular improvisation performance was pioneered by Keith Johnstone, along with Ben Benison, Roddy Maude-Roxby, Richard Morgan, and Tony Trent in Theatre Machine during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Pete was part of the second wave, lucky enough to be around when the comedy boom of the 1980s took off. He was the linchpin that connected those early experiments with the mainstream comedy scene that followed.

Pete had a gift: he listened well and said funny things. His performance style was that of the great clowns—slightly confused, always charming. He carried a colonial air about him, a 6ft 6in, gaunt, adorable giraffe of a man. A lanky streak of playfulness. Bewildered, hopeful, and utterly delightful to watch.

He set up nights at various venues and worked with an incredible team that included Jim Sweeney, Steve Steen, Justin Case, and others. He devised structures for improvisation—parodies of courtroom dramas, film noir detective romps, and more. He wrote plays. His solo show Robin Hood delighted audiences across the country.

Only in hindsight do we see that Pete was the vital link between Keith Johnstone’s pioneering work in the 1960s and the comedy boom of the 1980s. Without him, the industry it spawned – and its influence on actor training – might not exist as we know it.

We all stand on the shoulders of giants. Pete watched Theatre Machine in the 1970s. I watched him in the late 1980s. Because of that second wave, I trained in improv and performed hundreds of shows with Jeremy Hardy, Steve Frost, Eddie Izzard, and the Comedy Store Players.

I will always be grateful to him for his tireless stupidity, relentless hope, and his glorious attention to the details that made people laugh. A lovely, kind man who made a difference. Peter Wear will always be part of the DNA of British entertainment.

• Ben Keaton is a writer, director and actor who won the Perrier Award in 1986 and has twice been nominated in the Olivier Awards. He also played Father Austin Purcell in Father Ted. 

Published: 21 Mar 2025