Savants Aware of the Unattainable Probity,
In the second instalment of the new series of slipshod biographies, The Bellyaches will be highlighting Linda Smith.
Linda Smith (1958-2006)
Linda Smith was a superb comedian who sadly died of ovarian cancer three years ago. Although Linda was a regular guest panellist on Radio 4 shows, and did appear on television panel shows such as QI, Have I Got News for You and Mock the Week, I always felt her television appearances were too few. I suppose I don’t really need to feature Linda in The Bellyaches because she would have been known to millions through her stand-up shows and her appearances on TV and radio; many articles, lamentably obituaries, can be found easily by using an internet search engine; however, it’s worth taking time to discuss the genre of comedy and someone who excelled within my lifetime.
The comedy does not necessarily need to be made into a performance to be funny; I’ve always valued natural wit, knowledge and respectable opinions, anyone can have these, but comedians who have these are a class apart, Linda did. Being funny with genuine opinions can be classed as satire but I feel that that is quite an overused word and it’s often applied to some very poor comedy. I think I also her understated profile is probably quite endearing too, she never seemed to dominate the panel shows she appeared on but she her words always carried worth.
I gave up on attending stand-up comedy gigs sometime ago, I believed that I no longer turn up at an appointed time and be made to laugh. Comedy is at its best when it is spontaneous, I’m not really interested in someone running though a routine of memorised jokes with punch lines, (there are exceptions to this, for instance, the complexity of some of Stewart Lee’s material, the ‘Joe Pasquale joke’ seems to be the most famous, incidentally, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle on BBC2 Monday was highly amusing). The best comedians will be amusing in normal conversation, because they have natural wit and opinions, those people suit the panel shows that are the only outlets for comedians on TV and radio today. It seems in modern times, there have been those who have gained success by using observational humour, by appealing to nostalgias, by using surrealist ideas, by being whimsical, by playing with the platform of the medium in which they appear, Linda Smith could do all of these and that was why she appealed to the Radio 4 massive and I.
Linda Smith (1958-2006)
Linda Smith was a superb comedian who sadly died of ovarian cancer three years ago. Although Linda was a regular guest panellist on Radio 4 shows, and did appear on television panel shows such as QI, Have I Got News for You and Mock the Week, I always felt her television appearances were too few. I suppose I don’t really need to feature Linda in The Bellyaches because she would have been known to millions through her stand-up shows and her appearances on TV and radio; many articles, lamentably obituaries, can be found easily by using an internet search engine; however, it’s worth taking time to discuss the genre of comedy and someone who excelled within my lifetime.
The comedy does not necessarily need to be made into a performance to be funny; I’ve always valued natural wit, knowledge and respectable opinions, anyone can have these, but comedians who have these are a class apart, Linda did. Being funny with genuine opinions can be classed as satire but I feel that that is quite an overused word and it’s often applied to some very poor comedy. I think I also her understated profile is probably quite endearing too, she never seemed to dominate the panel shows she appeared on but she her words always carried worth.
I gave up on attending stand-up comedy gigs sometime ago, I believed that I no longer turn up at an appointed time and be made to laugh. Comedy is at its best when it is spontaneous, I’m not really interested in someone running though a routine of memorised jokes with punch lines, (there are exceptions to this, for instance, the complexity of some of Stewart Lee’s material, the ‘Joe Pasquale joke’ seems to be the most famous, incidentally, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle on BBC2 Monday was highly amusing). The best comedians will be amusing in normal conversation, because they have natural wit and opinions, those people suit the panel shows that are the only outlets for comedians on TV and radio today. It seems in modern times, there have been those who have gained success by using observational humour, by appealing to nostalgias, by using surrealist ideas, by being whimsical, by playing with the platform of the medium in which they appear, Linda Smith could do all of these and that was why she appealed to the Radio 4 massive and I.
Linda was also president of the British Humanist Association, humanism seems a bizarre concept to me. The ways of the humanist seem to be right, but I find it sad that society has deteriorated and the behaviour of people has degraded to an extent that a group of people, the humanists, had to club together, take a stance and define a proper set of morals. I admire these humanists but from my uninformed position, I feel that there should never have been the need. I note that I am once again lead back to Vonnegut.
posted by Leif at 9:30 PM
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