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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Frankie Howerd On Campus

Frankie Howerd

ITV · 1990 · 49 min

An aging veteran works over a room of Oxford undergraduates.

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The punchlines are older than the audience, but the written material is entirely beside the point. At 73, Frankie Howerd holds the room through sheer marginalia. The performance is built on a display of nervous tics, dramatic mood swings, and hands planted firmly on hips. When a line lands softly or the crowd gets ahead of him, he openly berates them, dropping familiar admonishments like “Titter ye not” and “Shut your face”. It is an exercise in crowd control through calculated mannerisms and feigned stage fright.

Filmed at the Oxford University Union for London Weekend Television, the set captures a distinct late-career resurgence. Howerd had experienced professional lulls as the British comedy scene shifted toward alternative acts, but by 1990, university students had fully embraced him. The reception from the college crowd is entirely earnest. They are completely bought into the veteran’s sprawling, innuendo-heavy delivery, responding warmly to every exaggerated sigh and adjustment of his obvious toupee.

The set list

3 bits

  1. Receiving a call for a one-night stand at the Oxford Union

    Howerd jokes that he assumed the Oxford Union was a pub or a chapel rather than a university debating society

  2. Encountering a porter and Oxford Union President Melanie Johnson upon arrival

    A porter expresses surprise that Howerd is still alive expecting Ben Elton, and the president warns him not to do his tired, corny gags

  3. A disastrous journey traveling from Dundee, Scotland to Oxford

    Missing the train after a Monday concert and flying down in a chartered plane with an enormous air hostess and an ex-RAF pilot

How it plays

Tone
Camp, cheeky, self-mocking, and uproarious
On stage
Doyen of the double entendre, gossiping, self-deprecating, feigning innocence about risqué remarks while mockingly censuring the audience
Pace
Meticulously timed hesitation, punctuation pauses, apparent waffling, and sudden punchlines
About
Academia versus lack of intellectualism, Old age and rumors of his demise, Corny old jokes versus modern comedy, Travel mishaps from Dundee to Oxford

What the critics said

A triumphant stand-up performance that galvanized the young audience into uproarious laughter, demonstrating his consummate professionalism beyond mere catchphrases

In the room: Packed, responsive crowd of students cheering, laughing uproariously, and enthusiastically participating

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: comedy.co.uk, acmi.net.au, mymoviefinder.com, theguardian.com, letterboxd.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

Filmed in the Oxford University Union debating chamber before a packed audience of students, marking his appeal to the alternative comedy generation

Details

Released
Taped
The Oxford Union Society debating chamber
Runtime
49 min
Where
ITV
Director
Ian Hamilton
Topics
After
Frankie's On The Coals! (1992)

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