Sad news tonight, as anarchic comedy icon and literal legend in his own lifetime, Freddie Starr, has died.
https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/news/5298/freddie_starr_rip/
Freddie Starr RIP
Oh dear. 
Loved his early stuff impersonating pop stars of that period - his football match of pop singers and the one of Jagger when he first burst on the scene.never fails to make me laugh. RIP Mr Starr, you certainly were a star.
A very funny comic that I remember as a firm family favourite in the 80s and 90s. There were standups that could make you laugh but he would reduce everyone in the room to tears of laughter. I had the Amiga game Rock Star Ate My Hamster which was based on the infamous tabloid headline about Starr eating a hamster which never happened.
Freddie's actual surname was Fowell, as was much of his language.
His dad was a bare-knuckle fighter and Freddie certainly inherited his dad's self-confidence, offstage and on.
When it came to getting laughs and generally entertaining those around him, there were no lengths to which Freddie wouldn't go.
In the history of showbiz, there are a precious few who are rightly described as "men of courage, men of pluck, men who didn't give a . . ." and Freddie Starr could hold his own with the best of them.
He wasn't everybody's cup of tea but, by God, you couldn't help admiring him.
One of a very few to make my late tough, no-nonsense dad laugh out loud whilst watching on TV in 70s.
I saw him at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet very early 80s - hilarious. He invited an annoying heckler outside for a "chat". The heckler shut up.
RIP Mr Starr.
Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 9th May 2019, 11:45 PMOh dear.
This isn't the football match I remember, but nevertheless it has most of the characters in it, along with his Hitler who he always portrayed in white shorts and turned down wellington boots - WhY? I've no idea but it was always funny.
It was his material that got him mauled by the comedy snobs, all the Python loving lot hated him then the new alternative comedy lot, and it ended his career, but put his raw talent for entertaining up against theirs and he'd outdo most of them. His talk show appearance with Mohammed Ali was memorable, couldn't see Stephen Fry clicking with Ali as Freddie did.
All geniuses are flawed and so was Freddie.
But his talents and brilliance outshone his faults.
Les Dawson had his off key piano songs that were his alone - and Freddie had his broken tape machine routine.
You would laugh at them every time.
I went to see him in the late 80s at some venue in Scarborough.
I had never laughed so much at a comedian before in my life, I was literally aching.
The only downside to his act was (for me anyway) at the end, he came on dressed as Elvis and it wasn't a joke
He sang an Elvis medley of songs and a lot of the audience went to the front of the stage to touch him.
In his and the audience's mind - he was Elvis.
RIP Freddie
Did he actually eat that hamster? If he did, I hope there's a big hamster with two slices of big bread waiting for him on the other side.
Quote: chipolata @ 10th May 2019, 11:50 AMDid he actually eat that hamster?
Very good question indeed - because it illustrates (better than you might think) the old adage that we shouldn't believe everything we read in the papers.
The papers said initially that Freddie did eat the hamster.
Sometime later, they said that he didn't eat the hamster and that the story was simply a publicity stunt by his publicist, Max Clifford.
Ha! Ha! Ha! - very funny! So now we know the truth.
Or do we?
I don't think we do.
The question thinking BCG members might like to consider is this: did Max invent the hamster story in order to boost Freddie's public profile, or was the hamster story true and Max invented the story of the publicity stunt in order to repair the damage done by the hamster story?
I don't know the answer, of course, but there is one thing of which I am absolutely certain: eating that hamster is something that Freddie would have done without a second thought.
And there is the other train of thought of not giving a flying f**k about anything to do with Max Clifford.
Just strike him out of history..........................who? I've forgotten him already. 
The most ladylike woman I probably ever met was the very conservative mother of a friend. She was a true woman of leisure with a housekeeper to do all of her chores so that every hour of her day could be devoted to her interest in the ballet. Mostly the family would holiday in places like Frinton and Torbay where they generally had holiday homes larger than my parents' only property. It was on one such regular break when they had nothing better to do they all went to see Freddie Starr of whom she was entirely unaware, it having been sold to her on the grounds that she also loved the theatre.
Obviously they had front row seats. From the word go, he looked to find someone in the audience who could be the butt of his jokes and picked out her who for five minutes or so he was able to wind up remorselessly. She felt so humiliated that she demanded that the family leave the show immediately. My mate who was in his mid teens at the time said that she wasn't the only one who suffered. In having to walk out because of her he had never felt so humiliated in his life.
He was, of course, the owner of Miinnehoma, winner of the 1994 Grand National.
Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 10th May 2019, 12:24 AMThis isn't the football match I remember, but nevertheless it has most of the characters in it, along with his Hitler who he always portrayed in white shorts and turned down wellington boots - WhY? I've no idea but it was always funny.
I remember that impression as being so bizarre, but so unique to him. The Jagger impression was a joy to watch. He was just one of the naughty boy type comedians I grew up watching. My dad would nearly choke to death laughing at him.
Another one he did was Adam Faith, and as he was doing it (VERY funny) Adam came on from the side of the stage in identical clothes looking very "indignant". Excellent!