John Fleming (I)
- Journalist
Press clippings Page 2
'President of Africa' cleared by Reuters of US invasion threat to support Trump
Last week, I blogged here about the fact that the Reuters news agency was investigating - for a second time - whether 'President Obonjo' (aka comedian Benjamin Bello) really is the president of an African country. In fact, this time, the worrying suspicion was that he is actually the President of the whole of Africa and that he had threatened to invade the US in support of Donald Trump. Reuters have today - presumably after a week of detailed research and fact-checking - come up with their conclusion...
John Fleming, John Fleming's Blog, 14th March 2024Robert Wringham returns to live comedy. Plus a chicken sexing fall-back.
Robert Wringham is what Americans would call a hyphenate. He does all sorts of things. Basically he is a writer of humorous books; plus he has written two histories of alternative comedy; and he is editor of the New Escapologist magazine which "takes the stance that work has too central a position in Western life". He has appeared in previous blogs here and is currently co-producing Melt It! a documentary film about The Iceman. We were supposed to be having a chat about Robert's live performance at the Glasgow Comedy Festival this week. But I am not one to keep to the subject...
John Fleming, John Fleming's Blog, 11th March 2024Reuters suspects that a comedian may secretly be a real-life African dictator...
In August last year, Reuters fact-checked President Obonjo, a British stand-up comedy act that has been performing for over ten years. The shtick is that President Obonjo is the leader/dictator of the Lafta Republic in Africa. So convincing did many people (largely Americans) find this act that they believed President Obonjo was real.
John Fleming, John Fleming's Blog, 6th March 2024Njambi McGrath has written a revenge novel...
Njambi McGrath wrote an autobiography in 2020. Now she has written a revenge novel. So I chatted to her about it...
John Fleming, John Fleming's Blog, 4th March 2024AI knows who Malcolm Hardee was but can't copy his inimitable comedy...
Last Friday (5th January) was the late comedian Malcolm Hardee's birthday. He was born in 1950. He died 19 years ago, in 2005. So I asked three AIs to write me an obituary of Malcolm Hardee to see what facts they had mined.
John Fleming, John Fleming's Blog, 7th January 2024Is The Iceman's upcoming movie MELT IT! a documentary or a piece of Art...?
The documentary is co-produced by Robert Wringham and director Mark Cartwright. I talked to Robert and Anthony via Zoom... Mark was elsewhere, possibly in Wolverhampton.
John Fleming, John Fleming's Blog, 5th January 2024Bernie Clifton says: "I'm just mucking about."
Yesterday's blog was the first part of a chat with legendary English entertainer Bernie Clifton. It concludes here...
John Fleming, John Fleming's Blog, 29th December 2023Bernie Clifton - family entertainer and national treasure
Legendary comedy entertainer and British national treasure Bernie Clifton has just published his showbiz autobiography Crackerjack to Vegas.
John Fleming, John Fleming's Blog, 28th December 2023The late comedy godfather Tony Allen: anarchy, creativity and a "Plan B" film
Following on from the last blog - a tribute to the late performer Tony Allen by his friend Becky Fury - performer Tony Green was sharing some memories of Tony Allen with me... At the end, he said: "Oh, I didn't mention the film we did... Plan B by Jerri Hart, one of Tony's workshop pupils. Tony's impatience regarding continued re-takes - "Fuck! Another car's just come round the corner! We'll have to go again!" - made his performance one to cherish."
John Fleming, John Fleming's Blog, 4th December 2023Steve Best is Britain's clowntographer
Last year, comic/photographer Steve Best published Comedians, an extraordinarily classy collection of his photos of, you guessed it, comedians. Now he is about to publish a sequel - Comedians 2.
John Fleming, John Fleming's Blog, 20th September 2023