In October 2006 a book was published called The Rough guide to British Cult Comedy. Written by Julian Hall the 288 pages covered the period from the 1980s to 2006 and second hand copies can sometimes be spotted on Amazon, eBay etc. (the Amazon link shows the Gervais picture on the front cover).

Alternatively, PDF copies can be found on a number of websites, including EPDF.pub (here) and the tag cloud from Google books gives you an idea of who gets a lot of mentions.

Interestingly Sean Lock’s name only appears 3-4 times. Mostly talking about 15 Storeys High and one mention that him and Jack Dee are always “suited and booted”.

I’ve only skim read through it and, as to be expected, the text is frozen in time. Published October 2006 you have to consider that it probably “ends” late in 2005 (awful lot of work has gone into writing it, clearly).

But, if you love comedy, there are some great sections (particularly the descriptions of British venues and Festivals).

Well worth a read.

Some takeaways from the book…

…and in what context Jimmy gets mentioned (seeing as this blog is about him and his name is enlarged, within the tag cloud).

Making Stand-up Pay section (page 18) talks about the rise of the “posh boy comic” and says Jimmy is by far the most successful. Because this is probably only up to 2005 Jimmy’s career is summed up as “…hosting so many game shows and Top 100 shows…” – so you would need to bear in mind how things have moved on. It’s a good historical record of the industry though.

The Face of Comedy section (page 23) says Eddie Izzard is included because he has had limited TV exposure – but Jimmy has been excluded because his TV exposure is limitless. Seems a strange way to decide who to write about (but perhaps the author wouldn’t like how I’ve written this post). This is probably the best example of what “dates” the book. While Jimmy is still prolific on the TV, twenty years on, his career has eclipsed many of the comedians that looked promising back then.

Corporate Comedy (page 26) says that comics such as Bill Bailey, Jeremy Hardy, Baddiel and Skinner and Jimmy Carr do corporate gigs and is a bit sneery about them being a sell-out, saying that they don’t get spoken about. Setting aside the financial payment (and who DOES go to work for free?) they can be a good way of expanding your audience.

The Public Speaks (page 107) discusses the rise in polls. Mentions (amongst others) the FHM awards 2005 (here) and Zoo awards 2006 (here).

The Craft of Comedy section (specifically pages 168 & 184) talk about the different types of joke writing and the effect of (for example) Steven Wright on the style of Jimmy Carr.

Just for Laughs Festival, Montreal (page 190) as a sidebar to the chapter on American Influence the book lays out which comedians have attended Montreal. As it’s 2006 there are only half a dozen. Page 200 takes us back to Wright influencing Carr again.

Comedy Around Britain – this chapter looks at various comedy clubs and festivals and names some comics that have played at each. Twenty years on this is possibly the most interesting section (for me, certainly) as its often talking about venues that have vanished.

Books – the chapter starting from page 247 details comedy books from the 90s and early 2000s. The Naked Jape (here) gets a mention and the cover gets its image printed.