#graffo

[tundrafloe]

In 1999, Julian and Noel described their first meeting to “It’s Irrelevant” zine:

Noel: “When I saw him doing stand-up I thought "Wow, that's what I want to do". No-one was laughing at him but at least he was doing it! I met him at the Hellfire Club in Wycombe and he was really odd.” Julian: “I was being a character, a weird geography teacher.” Noel: “All my friends saw him as well and said "There's a bloke that you'd really like who's doing the same thing as you, he's really funny but he hasn't got any jokes". At the gig Julian said to me "Boothby Graffoe's on in a minute, I really like him, does anyone want a drink?" So he bought me a drink, said "I love this bloke", and then suddenly went out into the night air without his jacket, and I had to chase after him to give him his jacket!” Julian: “If you hadn't given me that jacket we wouldn't be working together today.”

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

There’s a video on YouTube of the finals of the 1995 Open Mic Awards, broadcast on the BBC in September, 1995. I haven’t seen it before, but I think this calls for a post in which I write my thoughts down live as I watch.

- Right off the bat, here’s Barry Cryer telling us about the recent stand-up comedy boom, and he lists the most important, moneymaking comedians who’ve been to the Fringe: Monty Python, Rowan Atkinson, Jo Brand, Julian Cleary, Eddie Izzard. So I guess it’s 1995.

- They announce at the beginning that it’s a contest for any comedians who’ve never been paid to do stand-up comedy before, they started with over 500 and now they’re down to 8. So that’s sort of cool, that we talk (well, I talk about this, maybe other people don’t so much) about what comedians started at the same time as each other, but any who are in this have started at exactly the same time, having never been paid for it before but now being good enough to make this shortlist.

- Oh, here’s Boothby Graffoe hosting the event, a man whom I know as a voice on Radio 4, looking a lot more telegenic than I picture most people on Radio 4.

- First judge is Tony Hawks (the S is important there, not the skateboard guy), the guy who wrote two books that are on my shelf: Round Ireland with a Fridge, and One Hit Wonderland. I read both those books about ten years ago and recall them being quite funny and the former making me really want to go to Ireland. I mean, I already wanted to do that, and that’s why I read the book, but the book made me want that even more. Looking back, it's possible that that book may have been vaguely condescending, an Englishman saying "look how cute and quirky Ireland is." But if that was the case then I didn't pick up on it at the time.

- “[The stand-ups in this competition], they’ve not really done it much for money… if you’ll pardon the expression…” Tony Hawks making a joke right at the beginning in which I think he’s called Lee Mack an aspiring whore (it’s relevant to know that Lee Mack is one of the finalists).

- I apologize for anything I said about assuming voices on Radio 4 are less-than-telegenic. The next judge is Sandi Toksvig, and she has never, ever been less-than at anything.

I’m so pleased to see her that I’ll even overlook Boothby Graffoe using the word “comedienne” to introduce her.

- I’ve not heard of the next judge, apparently he’s an important decision-maker at the BBC. Or he was one of those, at least. Now all the decisions are being made by... oh God, I'll end this point here, I've done enough ranting about the cancelation of BBC topical comedy lately, I won't get into it again, I promise.

- Barry Cryer is the fourth and final judge, and they immediately make several jokes about how incredibly old he is. In 1995. His recent death was very sad, but he did have a long run.

- Barry Cryer on what he looks for in good stand-up comedy: “Originality. No sex, 70s, or Star Trek.” That's interesting to me. In the last 10 years, 90s nostalgia has been everywhere. In 2023, 00s nostalgia is taking hold (I don't mean to be dismissive about that, it's certainly taken hold of me). In 1995, someone was complaining that 70s nostalgia was so ubiquitous it had become unoriginal. As, apparently, had Star Trek and sex.

- I’ve seen pictures and videos of Baby Lee Mack before, I know what he looks like, I was prepared for this. But still, Jesus Christ.

- There is an amazing contrast between how much Lee Mack has physically changed since this video (drastically), and how much his comedic style has changed (not at all). It’s not my favourite comedic style, but I do respect it when it’s done well, which I think it is in Lee Mack’s case. And to be fair, he did make me laugh a few time in the set from this video. His stand-up DVDs made me laugh as well, when I watched them a few years ago.

It's now been more than two years since I watched Lee Mack’s stand-up DVDs, but I still recognized a couple of jokes from this 1995 set – they made it into his first DVD, which was released in 2007. His later shows no longer recycled exact jokes from 1995, but they never changed style.

I also respect a comedian who decides what they want to be early on because they truly love that thing, and then they continue to love it enough to stick with it. And I think that is real for Lee Mack, I’ve read his autobiography and so much of it’s about being really into the comedians who came before him and did that style. Comedy changed around him as he grew up, he definitely saw the alternative comedy stuff and then the other styles that branched out from there, but no, he wanted to be one type of comedian that is what he did. It's worked damn well for him, credit goes to Lee Mack for that.

- Next up are three comedians I hadn’t heard of, a couple of whom were a bit funny, followed by:

John Oliver has some stand-up jokes in his early career about how he looks like he’s Jewish, and I never understood those jokes until I saw pictures of him from even earlier in his career, when he did look exactly like a young David Baddiel. He wrote those jokes back when he looked like that, so people probably did often assume he was Jewish, and then kept telling them even after he didn’t look that much like that anymore.

I think I’ve just had a similar moment of understanding about all the jokes in The Mighty Boosh based on Julian Barratt’s eyes being too small. By the time they filmed the Mighty Boosh things that I’ve seen, he’d apparently learned to open his eyes properly, because I heard those jokes and thought, okay, they’re a bit small, but not really enough for the jokes to make sense. This, however, suggests that the issues used to be more pronounced. I'm not sure that man even has eyes.

- On the subject of The Mighty Boosh, you know how Julian Barratt’s the straight man there? Apparently he wasn’t always. He packed an impressive amount of offbeat stuff into only a couple of minutes there. Not even really a character act, just fucking weird. Possibly just as weird as the old clips I've seen of Noel Fielding's 90s-era stand-up. I see how they ended up together.

- I’ll be honest, and say the next one is the actual reason I’m here:

Jesus. I've seen a lot of different Daniel Kitson looks from different Daniel Kitson eras, but had not seen that one before. This gives me the same feeling I get from watching his Blockbusters thing, which is... okay, I love finding old footage of comedians I like, but if they're an actual child in that footage, at what point is it a weird thing to have? I think he's actually older here than he was on Blockbusters, but looks younger, possibly because of the shorter hair and/or the vest.

Seeing his age right after Lee Mack and Julian Barrett puts that difference in perspective, too. I’d been thinking that them all being in this means they all started at the same time so are the same comedic generation, but they’re really not. Because that is a small child. It takes a hell of a lot of confidence to think you can do something like this when you’re that young. I say this as someone whose brother started doing stand-up when he was sixteen… it requires an uncommon level of self-regard.

- I’ve now watched the set, and it was primarily about A-level results, his glasses, and his failure to get a girlfriend during high school. I have heard him do material even in his polished shows as an adult about his glasses and his failure to get a girlfriend in high school, and I can even think of a couple of routines that have discussed his A-level results. So he didn’t stop using the topics. Just changed every single other thing.

There was only one tiny bit when the crowd laughed too early, he got mildly annoyed and said that was just a word, that wasn’t the joke, and it was this little flash of reality. Like for about a second and a half, a curtain moved and you could look at this strange teenager and see Daniel Kitson. And then the curtain closed again and it’s just a kid with way more confidence than anyone that age should be allowed to have.

- The video cuts off the ending, but I looked it up and learned that Julian Barratt won. Which makes sense, especially if the judges were, in fact, looking for originality. He definitely had that. A very weird and creative set that would lead you to never guess he's destined for "straight man" status in his double act.

[rlephant]

halle graffo

[barbarapicci]

Streetart by Nean @ Saint-Nicolas-de-Redon, France, for Graffo Transfo West Graffiti

More info at: https://barbarapicci.com/2023/10/30/streetart-nean-saint-nicolas-de-redon-france/

[nedsecondline]

Streetart – Nean @ Saint-Nicolas-de-Redon, France

Title: Solace Location: Saint-Nicolas-de-Redon, France Artist: Nean For: Graffo Transfo West Graffiti Year: 2023 Photo Credits: Sophie USEFUL LINKS: …Streetart – Nean @ Saint-Nicolas-de-Redon, France

[duru95]

Human’s Sin

《Algunos se impresionan por la magnitud de las acciones que un ser humano puede hacer por el poder, horrores que tiñen las historia de muchas familias, ciudades, países; justifican sus acciones egoístas bajo la influencia de bienestar de su tribu donde la vida de las demás personas son parte de los riesgos que toman》

Los gritos tras la ventana helaban la sangre del pequeño cuerpo oculto en el rincón más oscuro de la habitación que, iluminada por la luz mortecina de la luna buscaba entre sus pensamientos, la canción de cuna que tanto había escuchado cuando niña.

—Te… diriges a la feria de Scarborough… — cubrió sus oídos con las manos temblorosas que tenían la temperatura de un témpano, una vez que la tonada de la canción murió en su mente vinieron los rezos cuando un golpe en la ventana se hizo presente*

—AUXILIO… ABRAN...POR FAVOR…SALVENLO… SALVEN A MI HIJ… —La frase terminó repentinamente, las hogueras con el olor grotesco habían llenado el poblado vecino y los pronósticos añadidos a las negociaciones del padre de la iglesia eran la única forma de evitar que aquella matanza, no fijará su pueblo en el camino pero el cadáver de este había llegado dos días después. Los pobladores aterrados comenzaron a buscar refugio y las familias nobles eran las primeras, el resto de menos afortunados indignados terminaron por cometer el preludio de la matanza que solo 3 días después se produjo

Un sonido metálico se escuchó en la planta baja lo que le quitó la respiración a la dama, le siguieron los pasos pesados que se dirigían a su ubicación, aterrada se alejó de la puerta buscando alguna manera de salir por la ventana la cual reforzada por tablas impedía su liberación inmediata por lo que esa idea debía ser abandonada.

Lentamente los pasos llegaron hasta quedar frente la puerta, el sudor recorría su rostro sumado a la inestable respiración por la adrenalina que corría por sus venas, el picaporte se abrió y la figura oscura de un a hombre alto detrás del marco fue lo que sus ojos percibieron.

—¡Graffoe!... Pero…¿Que? … ¿Donde esta mi madre? — Después que su respiración se regulara se Acercó con muchas más confianza a este —Señorita sigame, de eso hablamos una vez que logremos escapar de aquí— le agarró fuertemente del brazo casi llevándola a rastras hacia la planta baja, donde un pasadizo secreto, hecho para este tipo de situaciones.

—Mi madre me dijo que me dirigiera hacia tu casa, cuando llegue no había nadie… Perdón…— Conocía a este hombre desde que su memoria había iniciado, un hombre amable que servía a sus padres desde, según su madre, ella era una doncella.

—Ya eso no tiene cabida señorita, lo importante es salir de aquí, sigame por favor— sin dudar más iba detrás de él.

Tras varios minutos el túnel parecía eterno, la excitacion en sus venas bajaba lentamente revelan un dolor en sus extremidades, el hombre nunca miró atrás en todo el recorrido pero cuando la luz de lo que parecía ser la salida estaba cerca, tomó con fuerza la muñeca de la chica

—Señorita, ¿Confía en mi? — sin dudarlo la chica asintió—¡Completamente!— su respuesta no vaciló, el hombre de nuevo la arrastró hacia la luz donde no olvidaría el frío que recorrió su sangre, ciertamente era la pesadilla que le seguiría por la eternidad.

Despertó de golpe, el sol llenaba su rostro molestando sus pupilas las cuales rápidamente buscaban un poco de oscuridad en lo que se acostumbraba

[manuela-nimue-fortini]

🐱te ieri feo ftata via tutto il giorno e deffo mamà è mia! 🧙🏻‍♀️è tutto il giorno che mi stai incollato addosso… 🐱perché mamá è mia! 🧙🏻‍♀️sì Tora…ma non mi sento più la gamba sinistra… 🐱ftai dicendo che fono graffo??? 🧙🏻‍♀️no, cucciolo…sei solo..grande 🤷🏻‍♀️ 🐱me fono ciucciolo! 🧙🏻‍♀️…8 chili di cucciolo! 🐱tanta pucciofità non ci fta in un corpo magro! 😅 https://www.instagram.com/p/CoxjLUgt4LWuKsYDRtjGnXNmMsB4gCVNGJGsnw0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[dodogev]

I'll be sharing a preview of my forthcoming graphic novel, Cassuto Crashes, on the Graffo Broadsheet monthly newsletter by Adam Griffiths for free. Click below to read the first few pages and sign up to the next ones:

[sanduich]

Graffo: https://instagram.com/siir.ns?igshid=1vv457antj3ic

💜🧴🚯

[luismiguel829-blog]

La vida no es siempre una cuestión de tener buenas cartas, sino de jugar bien una mano mala. . . . . MD: @karen_ruilova 📸: @luis_miguel29_ . #vsco #outfitoftheday #photographer #outfitideas #tattoo #tatt #tattooed #cultura #photoshop #photography #grafi #graffo #caracterdesign #skate #skateboard #skategirl #styl #styler #canon #chimborazo🗻 #chimborazo #riobamba #modelos #vans #vansoldskool #adrenaline #photographer #phot #p #travelphotography (en Parque Guayaquil) https://www.instagram.com/p/BtSCIFah7pg/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1hk7aik5dwcws

[corporaciong]

"Liquid Tiger" x @the_g_corporation #spraypaint #spraycontrol #graff #graffo #graffiticharacter #graffiti #streetart #mural #illustration #ilustracion #aerosol #aerosolcontrol #onlyspraypaint #thegcorporation #illustrator #ilustrador #smallpiece #graffitiart #tiger #flow #theeyesofthetiger

[graff-vida]

#customclothing por @dw_air_ Foto original en el perfil del #Exponente @dw_air_ en su perfil encontraras mas #ArtWork gracias por la etiqueta ❤ #GraffVida es un pequeño espacio de ustedes para ustedes ❤, me encantan ❤ todas sus fotografías ❤ Excelente inicio de semana #Lunes de #GraffVida envia tu #GraffArt o #Artwork, #Etiqueta a @Graffvida o usa el #Hastag para ver tu #Graffiti y subirlo a nuestra #FanPag hoy #Lunes de #GanarSeguidores deja tu #Like dale #DoubleClick y que se vea ese ❤ #Follow @dw_air_ y a @graffvida Por que somos #Amantes del #Graffo de #caracter #GraffArt #ArteUrbano #GraffitiLegal #customclothing #airbrushedtshirt #airbrushart #jayz #airbrushedclothing #airbrushedclothes https://www.instagram.com/p/CDLAtHiAfaE/?igshid=17rsgvw3u1asb

[lectoresap]

[ramiroarganaraz]

Muro de mensajes

[vhsxxx]

[incorrecttomarryquotes]

Harry, running around the house: It's raining, it's raining, it's raining, it's raining, it's raining! 

Voldemort, frustrated, looking at Tom: Doesn't that get annoying? 

Tom, trying to read: After the first hour or so. 

Harry: It's raining, it's raining, it's raining! 

Tom, looking up at him: So what?

Harry: So, let me in!