Frankie Boyle Page 2

Quote: Mark @ November 20 2008, 11:57 AM GMT

Thanks for the report on this Seefacts.

I'm a big fan of Frankie Boyle's TV work, so it's a shame to hear that he hasn't quite managed to transfer the quick witted magic to his live tour.

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I don't think he's much of a wit actually. He's got some fantastic one-liners, but all his stuff is pre-written and he's not got a lot of it.

No one on that show says anything spontaneous, bar David Mitchell who is far quicker than any of them.

Quote: Johnny Green @ November 20 2008, 12:54 PM GMT

Yeah that is a poor encore to shoe ratio; only one in 50 pairs!

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Note to self: Proof read.

Quote: Griff @ November 20 2008, 12:12 PM GMT

The comedians on MTW are as sharp-witted a bunch of comedians as you could find anywhere, I'm sure of that.

Having said that, I know someone who's worked on MTW, and also once chatted to someone who is a gag-writer for a big-name comic, and they both tell tales of much pre-planning and preparation. The comics turn up at the set with long lists of pre-written gags, topical and otherwise. Some written by themselves, some written by their gag writers. Obviously the "can you give us five minutes on football/the royals/whatever" bits are written in advance by the comics who bring the routine with them to the show. Plus the games are played over and over again until enough good gags come out to fill the airtime.

But despite all the prep, once they all start interacting the improvised gags start coming out, and some of those are the best jokes of all. But not all of them, which is why I'm glad there's a whole bunch of top gags in people's pockets that have been worked on in advance.

(Also obviously the presenter's script is written by a team of staff writers, as with HIGNFY etc.)

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The 'few minutes on the Royals' isn't even stuff written for the show, it's just stand up crow-barred in. All the comics just shoe-horn in whatever they can from the act.

I doubt much of MTW is really ad-libbed, even less so that HIGNFY - where someone like Paul Merton knows how to do it, or Frank Skinner the other week who put in the best comedian performance in years on that show. Most of the MTW are rubbish, lets be honest and couldn't rustle up an ad-lib between them.

HIGNFY presenter script used to be written by Deayton of course and it's style was carried on after he left - hence the trade-mark joke style still be present.

Quote: Seefacts @ November 20 2008, 10:09 PM GMT

Note to self: Proof read.

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Did you by chance mean "pre-written"? *points up*

Quote: Aaron @ November 20 2008, 10:10 PM GMT

Did you by chance mean "pre-written"? *points up*

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Thanks Dad. I can never be bothered to proof read. I've got to be more careful. Any long stream of thought type post always have errors.

Which is why I'm almost always word-perfect.

Just watched the Frankie Boyle Live DVD. I was actually rather embarrassed for him. The audience was dead, his material is outdated ( he was talking about the Glasgow airport terrorist attack) and he came across as being cruel just for the sake of being cruel. Overall, boring, rehashed and disappointing. He should maybe quit the panel show circuit for a while and save up new material for his next LIVE DVD.

Quote: paul f @ November 20 2008, 10:32 PM GMT

Just watched the Frankie Boyle Live DVD. I was actually rather embarrassed for him. The audience was dead, his material is outdated ( he was talking about the Glasgow airport terrorist attack) and he came across as being cruel just for the sake of being cruel. Overall, boring, rehashed and disappointing. He should maybe quit the panel show circuit for a while and save up new material for his next LIVE DVD.

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Thanks for that, Paul. I was really looking forward to getting this for Christmas.

Maybe if comics advertised their shows as a kind of Greatest Hits From The Panel Shows, people wouldn't be so disappointed. Of course, they'd hardly sell any tickets, but hey-ho.

I saw Frankie Boyle in Basingstoke last night. I thought he was mediocre and borderline dull. I would say 2/5ths of the stand up was funny, the rest had a mixture of obvious punchlines and outdated material. There was also a large amount of time spent picking on the audience which really started to get on my nerves as I'd paid to hear jokes - not see him pick on the bald bloke in the front row and continuously swear at people. There appears to be a trend at the moment for live comedians to be as shocking as possible with jokes about rape, incest and peadophilia. I've seen this all before and it's been done a lot better than Boyle did last night.

I have seen lots of live comedians over the years and this is the first time ever that I have thought that the warm up comedian was actually better than the main act. Frankie Boyle was possibly the worst 'big name' comedian I have ever seen live.

Def.

I've never liked the man at all, finding his stuff all a bit obvious, frankly.

Interesting to find people who actually like him thinking he's a bit shit, though.

I saw some of the mentioned comics during filming for the last series of Live At The Apollo (Boyle, Amos and McIntyre). Both Boyle and Amos did joke re-use - Boyle used basically everything he'd already given on Mock The Week (along with some jokes that got cut on there and LATA) and Amos basically did a minor variation of his 'Find the Funny' routine which I'd seen a few weeks earlier on Paramount Comedy's Edinburgh airings. For McIntyre it was the reverse - most of what he used on the night started popping up when he did the most recent Mock The Week.

I think if the majority of your act is based on shock humour, you can't do that. Something is only shocking once. We all have favourite jokes we like to see/hear again but when you keep reusing stuff it just becomes dull. I enjoyed Boyle on Mock The Week[c/] so it was dissapointing to go to the taping at the Apollo and see "...Oh. He's just going through all his previous jokes and not making much of an effort either". Amos at least had a rapport with the audience. ("It a joke. You think it funny? Please tell your face!" )

So is the McIntyre DVD worth it or are we starting to see the whole routine on panel shows?

I found it really funny. I don't remember much of it being from panel shows.

Excellent, that's one Christmas present for the missus sorted then.

Thanks for sharing your report of your evening Deferenz. I'm disappointed to hear yet another negative review. Seems a couple of stand-ups have been relying on their TV reputations a bit much recently.

Afinkawan - I've heard good things about McIntyre's (now record-breaking selling) DVD. I certainly hope it's good... it's on my Christmas list too!

Quote: Afinkawan @ November 26 2008, 4:29 PM GMT

So is the McIntyre DVD worth it or are we starting to see the whole routine on panel shows?

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I watched this at the weekend. You'll see a few things you've heard before, but most is new, original material. If you like him on MTW etc, you won't be disappointed.

I agree. I had a man crush on Frankie Boyle when I first started watching him on Mock The Week. Then the more I watched, the more I started to think he was only mediocre... He gets old fast, and his whole "I'm so offensive" shtick gets tiresome... Once in a while he has a few gems, but most of his jokes you can get yourself by using this formula.

(kestral reference)+(shagging) / (pedophilia) = Frankie's latest joke

There were a couple Mock The Weeks where I literally cringed and was embarrassed for him. Then again, some of it was pure genius. I find the stuff he comes up with off the top of his head way better than his written material...more natural.