Jim Barclay (comedian)

Last updated

Jim Barclay (born 23 May 1947) is an English actor and comedian, who played the title role of Jossy Blair in the BBC TV series Jossy's Giants . [1] He was also part of the early British alternative comedy movement in the 1980s. [2] [3]

Contents

Early life

Barclay was born in South Shields [4] but brought up in South East London, the son of a deputy headmaster. He went to comprehensive school in 1958, where he started acting in school plays and was encouraged by his drama teacher to join the National Youth Theatre. He went on to study at the New College of Speech and Drama. [5]

Career

Theatre

Barclay started his career working in Theatre-in-Education, starting in 1969 at the Newcastle Playhouse Regional Extension Unit. He went on to work with left-wing alternative theatre groups, notably 7:84 and Mayday Theatre, where he met Tony Allen. [6] Barclay's disillusionment with traditional anti-establishment arts - "there must be a more honest, less patronizing way of getting ideas across to people" [7] – led him to move to political comedy. After his involvement with alternative comedy, he returned to theatre acting in the late 1980s, spending three years with the National Theatre. [8] [9] In 2014, he starred as Scrooge in the Derby Theatre's production of A Christmas Carol. [10]

Comedy

Encouraged by Tony Allen, Barclay began performing comedy in the early days of the London Comedy Store. [11] [12] By 1981, Barclay was compering shows at the Comedy Store, an article from The Sun noting his skill in this role: "Jim is a pro. They don't muck about with him, even at The Comedy Store." [13] Along with Alexei Sayle, Andy de la Tour and others, he was one of a group of comedians who formed the politically-charged comedy group Alternative Cabaret, [14] [8] which staged shows at the Elgin pub in Ladbroke Grove in 1979–80, and in gigs around London and beyond. [15] Tony Allen has described how he, Barclay and Andy de la Tour supported each other in developing their respective stand-up acts: "All three of us were struggling to understand what we were doing and we gave each other valuable feedback and helped nurse each other's wounds." [16] Barclay appeared in Alternative Cabaret's 1981 show at the Edinburgh Fringe, and a recording of his act appears on the Alternative Cabaret LP. In 1984, he devised an anti-nuclear one-man show called Four Minutes to Midnight, which he performed at the Edinburgh Fringe and elsewhere, [17] being one of the first of the new generation of alternative comedians to take a full-length solo production to the Edinburgh Fringe, pioneering a style of theme-based show taken up by comedians in the decades that followed. [18] Barclay's style on stage was both highly political and ridiculous, exploring the absurdity of using comedy to promote radical change while at the same time being part of the general "alternative" challenge to 1970s mainstream comedy culture. He would tell audiences, "Well, as you've gathered from what you've seen so far of my act, I'm the Marxist-Leninist comedian. And I tell jokes which precipitate the downfall of capitalist society". [19] His act has been described as an example of how alternative comedy played with the politics of pleasure and "the boundaries between what audiences want and what they feel they should want". [20] He evolved an "agitprop" style he described as 'wacky and zany', adopting a costume which included yellow tights, T-shirts with slogans like 'Loot British', and a hat which incorporated both a joke nail-through-the-head and deeley boppers. [21] A review of a show at Brickies Club in Poole in January 1984 describes Barclay's act: 'All "come on", chat and cheerfully manic aggression, with his silly hat, yellow lyrics tights and massive physical presence, he seemed more like Alternative comedy's answer to Tommy Cooper.' [22] In June 1984, Barclay appeared in three different guises in an event staged by the Labour Party at the Wembley Conference Centre called A Night for a Nuclear Free Europe. He appeared perfoming his own stand-up act, in character as a comic alien among the "Pre-Curtain Up and Interval Entertainers", and running an "Interval Competition" in the second internval. [23] Following the event, Neil Kinnock, then the leader of the Labour Party, wrote a letter of thanks to Barclay, saying, "I wish to thank you for your splendid contribution to Labour's Night for a Nuclear Free Europe at Wembley...I think we have really hit on a winning formula for political entertainment which can appeal to a far larger audience than the usual political meeting." [24]

Television

In 1986, Barclay starred in the popular BBC children's football-based drama Jossy's Giants , playing the eponymous Jossy Blair, a former child football star injured shortly after his debut for Newcastle United, now charged with coaching a local school team to greatness. [4] [25] Barclay also appeared on television a number of times as a comedian, notably performing his stand-up act on Book 'Em and Risk It (Channel 4, 1983), Stomping on the Cat (Channel 4, 1984), [26] and Interference (Channel 4, 1984). As an actor, he appeared in three episodes of the seminal alternative comedy series The Young Ones : (Boring, Flood and Sick). He has appeared in several episodes of both Grange Hill and The Bill .

Personal life

Barclay is the father of comedian and journalist Ellie Gibson, [3] who is half of the double act Scummy Mummies, who perform live shows and produce The Scummy Mummies Podcast. [27]

Barclay first encountered duvets in Berlin in 1968. [28]

Collections

The University of Kent holds material relating to Barclay's career as part of the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive. [29] The collection includes audio-visual material and items relating to his social activism and politics. [29]

Related Research Articles

In film, television, and radio, British comedy has produced some of the most renowned characters in the world. In it, satire is one of the features of British comedy. Radio comedy in Britain has been almost exclusively hosted on BBC.

The Comic Strip are a group of British comedians who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series The Comic Strip Presents..., which was labelled as a pioneering example of the alternative comedy scene. The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders, with appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane, Alexei Sayle and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexei Sayle</span> English stand-up comedian (born 1952)

Alexei David Sayle is an English actor, author, stand-up comedian, television presenter and former recording artist. He was a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement in the 1980s. He was voted the 18th greatest stand-up comic of all time on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups in 2007. In an updated 2010 poll he came 72nd.

Alternative comedy is a term coined in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era. The phrase has had different connotations in different contexts: in the UK, it was used to describe content that was an "alternative" to the mainstream stand-up of the day which took place in working men's clubs, and was characterised by unoriginal gags often containing elements of sexism and racism. In other contexts, it is the nature of the form that is "alternative", avoiding reliance on a standardised structure of a sequence of jokes with punch lines. Patton Oswalt has defined it as "comedy where the audience has no pre-set expectations about the crowd, and vice versa. In comedy clubs, there tends to be a certain vibe—alternative comedy explores different types of material."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Comedy Store (London)</span> Comedy club in Soho, London

The Comedy Store is a comedy club located in Soho, London, England, opened in 1979 by Don Ward and Peter Rosengard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Richardson (British director)</span> English director, screenwriter, comedian and actor

Peter Richardson is an English director, screenwriter, actor and comedian. He founded the Comic Strip troupe of performers, which showcased his double act with Nigel Planer and boosted the careers of French and Saunders, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, and Alexei Sayle. Richardson approached Channel 4 to make a series of short, self-contained one-off comedy films with this group, which led to The Comic Strip Presents..., the majority of which featured Richardson in acting, writing and directing roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hattie Hayridge</span> British comedian and actress (born 1959)

Hattie Hayridge is a British comedian and actress, best known for the role of the female version of Holly in Red Dwarf during the third, fourth and fifth series. She was described as a "cult figure in a beloved sit-com" by The List in 2007.

Observational comedy is a form of humor based on the commonplace aspects of everyday life. It is one of the main types of humor in stand-up comedy. In an observational comedy act, the comedian makes an observation about something which is common enough to be familiar to their audience, but not commonly discussed. Such observations are typically presented with the phrase "Have you ever noticed...?" or "Did you ever notice...?" which has become a comedy cliché.

Pauline Melville FRSL is an English-Guyanese writer and former actress of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry, who is currently based in London, England. Among awards she has received for her writing – which encompasses short stories, novels and essays – are the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award, and the Guyana Prize for Literature. Salman Rushdie has said of Melville: "I believe her to be one of the few genuinely original writers to emerge in recent years."

Maggie Steed is an English actress and comedian.

John Dowie is a British comedian, musician and writer, often viewed as a pioneer of alternative comedy. He began performing stand-up comedy in 1969.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Revuebar</span> Theatre and strip club in Soho, London

The Raymond Revuebar (1958–2004) was a theatre and strip club at 11 Walker's Court, in the centre of London's Soho district. For many years, it was the only venue in London that offered full-frontal, on-stage nudity of the sort commonly seen in other cities in Europe and North America. Its huge brightly lit sign declaring it to be the "World Centre of Erotic Entertainment" made the Revuebar a local landmark.

"Goodies and Politics" is the first episode of the eighth series of the British television comedy series The Goodies. The 64th episode of the show overall, it was first broadcast at 8.10pm on BBC2.

Roger Wilmut is a British writer and compiler of books on British comedy. Wilmut attended Warwick School, and began his 'day job' as studio technician for the BBC on leaving school in 1961. Wilmut claims to have drifted into a career as a writer "by accident". Wilmut's books include The Goon Show Companion, Tony Hancock: Artiste, From Fringe to Flying Circus and Didn't You Kill My Mother-in-law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Allen (comedian)</span> English comedian and writer (1945–2023)

Anthony Lawrence Allen was an English comedian and writer. Known as the "godfather of alternative comedy", Allen was one of the original alternative comedians. In May 1979, following notoriety at Speakers' Corner with his "Full-Frontal Anarchy Platform", he began to perform at The Comedy Store. Two months later he founded Alternative Cabaret with Alexei Sayle and ran a regular "Alt Cab" Club night in the back bar of the Elgin pub on Ladbroke Grove in London.

Alternative Cabaret was a group of politically motivated performers, jokingly described by one of its founder members, Tony Allen, as 'a sort of collective of comedians, musicians – dope smokers, dole scroungers, tax evaders, sexual deviants, political extremists'. It was set up by Allen and Alexei Sayle in the summer of 1979 shortly after they had met at the newly opened London Comedy Store. They quickly recruited comedians Jim Barclay, Andy de la Tour and Pauline Melville; plus folk duos Chisholm and Stevens and Gasmask and Hopkins aka Alexander Arundel and Stuart Turner. Plus jazz salsa band Combo Passe. Alternative Cabaret performed their first show at the Pindar of Wakefield pub on Grays Inn Road on 15 August 1979.

Danny Blue is an English comedian, television presenter, media personality and charity fundraiser. His stand-up act is mainly aimed at an adult audience, with adult material; however, his television work has proven he is just at home with a mixed audience. It was during his touring of the club circuit that he was spotted and given the opportunity to appear on television programmes such as The Des O'Connor Show, The James Whale Show, and The Big Breakfast. Danny also appeared on Sextasy with his comedy show The Oddballs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julian Rose (entertainer)</span>

Julian Rose was an American-born Jewish comedian. From the 1910s he lived and worked in Britain, where he was usually billed as "Our Hebrew Friend".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oliver Double</span> British comedian

Oliver Double is a British stand-up comedian, author and academic. Since 1999, he has taught comic and popular performance at the University of Kent. His current roles at the university are Reader in Drama and Theatre, and Head of Comedy and Popular Performance.

Scummy Mummies are a British-Australian comedy double act composed of Ellie Gibson and Helen Thorn. Their podcast, The Scummy Mummies Podcast, has had over 5 million downloads, and they have performed their live comedy show over 500 times.

References

  1. ↑ Hogan, Michael (14 March 2018). "More than just a branch of science: the non-ironic 1980s joy of Jossy's Giants". Daily Telegraph .
  2. ↑ Wagg, Stephen (29 November 2010). "'They can't stop us laughing'; politics, leisure and the comedy business". In Bramham, Peter; Wagg, Stephen (eds.). The New Politics of Leisure and Pleasure. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 179. ISBN   9780230299979. Jim Barclay, a socialist and pioneer 'alternative' comedian
  3. 1 2 "How to survive 100 gigs as a standup: Ellie Gibson's comedy crash course". The Guardian . 30 May 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2021. Her father, Jim Barclay, was one of the original alternative comedians in the early 80s
  4. 1 2 Morton, David (21 April 2021). "Jossy's Giants, the 1980s children's TV football drama with a strong Tyneside theme". Evening Chronicle .
  5. ↑ Wilmut, Roger (1989). Didn't You Kill My Mother-in-Law?. London: Methuen. p. 24. ISBN   0413173909.
  6. ↑ Wilmut, Roger (1989). Didn't You Kill My Mother-in-Law?. London: Methuen. p. 27. ISBN   0413173909.
  7. ↑ Curran, Kieran. Cynicism in British Post-War Culture: Ignorance, Dust and Disease. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 102. ISBN   9781137444356. The reasons for seeking to break away from the 1970s were hit up on by one of Sayle's political theatre contemporaries, Jim Barclay, who later became a Comedy Store regular (as a self-parodying Marxist-Leninst comic)
  8. 1 2 "'My stuff was didactic... but it wasn't very funny': The founders of Alternative Cabaret reminisce". Chortle. 7 May 2019.
  9. ↑ "Jim Barclay". 1984pm. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  10. ↑ "A Christmas Carol – Interview with Jim Barclay". Audioboom. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  11. ↑ Allen, Tony (2002). Attitude: Wanna Make Something Of It?. Glastonbury, UK: Gothic Image Publications. p. 100. ISBN   0906362563.
  12. ↑ Cook, William (2001). The Comedy Store. London: Little, Brown. p. 53. ISBN   0316857920.
  13. ↑ Colin Dunne, "Going, Going Gong!", The Sun, 15 October 1981, p.9
  14. ↑ Sayle, Alexei (2016). Thatcher Stole My Trousers. London: Bloomsbury Circus. p. 178. ISBN   9781408864531.
  15. ↑ Double, Oliver (2020). Alternative Comedy: 1979 and the Reinvention of British Stand-Up. London: Methuen Drama. pp. 47–53. ISBN   9781350052802.
  16. ↑ Tony Allen, Attitude: Wanna Make Something Of It? (Glastonbury: Gothic Image, 2002, p.100).
  17. ↑ Wilmut, Roger (1989). Didn't You Kill My Mother-in-Law?. London: Methuen. pp. 142–45. ISBN   0413173909.
  18. ↑ Double, Oliver (2020). Alternative Comedy: 1979 and the Reinvention of British Stand-Up. London: Methuen Drama. p. 77. ISBN   9781350052802.
  19. ↑ Double, Oliver (2020). Alternative Comedy: 1979 and the Reinvention of British Stand-Up. London: Methuen Drama. pp. 163–4. ISBN   9781350052802.
  20. ↑ Wagg, Stephen (1996). "Everything else is propaganda: The politics of alternative comedy". In Paton, George E.C.; Powell, Chris; Wagg, Stephen (eds.). The Social Faces of Humour: Practices and Issues. Ashfield 1996, Routledge 2019 (Reissue). ISBN   9780429752100.
  21. ↑ Double, Oliver (22 January 2014). Stand Up: On Being a Comedian. Performance Books. p. 171-172. ISBN   9781408148877.
  22. ↑ Ward, Tony (February 1984). "Jim Barcley". Coaster.
  23. ↑ Progamme for A Night for a Nuclear Free Europe held in the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive, University of Kent
  24. ↑ Letter from Neil Kinnock, held in the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive, University of Kent
  25. ↑ "Jossy's Giants". bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 9 December 2004.
  26. ↑ "Stomping on the Cat (1983)". BFI. British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 13 June 2018.
  27. ↑ "Podcast". Scummy Mummies. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  28. ↑ "Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  29. 1 2 "Jim Barclay Collection". Special Collections and Archives - University of Kent. 6 December 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2024.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.