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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Live 'N Lewd

Steve Coogan

Channel 4 · 1994 · 64 min

A 1994 showcase of regional oddballs and miserable amateur comedians.

Before Alan Partridge eclipsed his creator’s identity, Steve Coogan was a stage comedian building a small, strange universe of British losers. Live ‘N Lewd captures him entirely in character, treating stand-up not as a venue for personal confession, but as an excuse to inhabit people who have no business holding a microphone. The appeal lies in the specific, regional pettiness of creations like Paul Calf, an unemployed Mancunian who spends his stage time complaining about students in chip shops and dispensing deeply flawed advice on the art of seduction.

Filmed at Liverpool’s Neptune Theatre and released on video in 1994, this set arrived right as Coogan was transitioning from the live circuit to television. He had won the Perrier Award two years earlier alongside his collaborator John Thomson and was just beginning his stint on The Day Today. The show functions as a tour of his early stage arsenal. Coogan wheels out Paul’s sister Pauline, Duncan Thickett, a painfully inept amateur comedian, and Ernest Moss, an obsessive health and safety officer. Thomson also drops in as Bernard Righton, a “reformed” comic struggling to perform a politically correct act.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Pauline Calf routine

    Coogan performs fully in drag as an openly-polysexual townie repeating her slaggy 'I've done him' mantra.

  2. Duncan Thickett stand-up routine

    An awkward, nervous open-mic stand-up who delivers an overzealous 'anti-performance' of terrible jokes and impressions, including an imitation of Neil Kinnock.

  3. Ernest Moss lecture

    A performance portraying a no-nonsense, pedantic health and safety lecturer.

  4. Paul Calf routine

    A performance portraying an eternally intoxicated, loud, and crude wastrel lost in pub culture.

  5. Bernard Righton compere sets

    John Thomson acts as emcee playing Bernard Righton, a reformed and staunchly politically correct traditional comic introducing Coogan's characters.

How it plays

Tone
Crude, irreverent, outrageous, and satirical.
On stage
Chameleonic character comedian adopting unappealing, depressing, and exaggerated personas (such as a polysexual townie, an inept stand-up comic, a safety lecturer, and an intoxicated wastrel) interspersed with meta-documentary versions of himself.
Pace
Ranges widely per character, from overzealous, anxious, jittery anti-performance physical movements to boisterous, crude pub banter.
About
British pub and pop culture, inept stand-up comedy, promiscuity and townie life, health and safety

What the critics said

Praised as an enjoyable romp that still holds up, noted for the delicious variety and conviction of Coogan's grotesque character creations despite occasional jokes that falter.

In the room: Enthusiastic audience response with vocal applause, though featuring moments where female audience members in the crowd were picked on.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, letterboxd.com, moviefone.com, goldposter.com, comedy.co.uk, popmatters.com, themostpretentiousgirlintheworld.blogspot.com, screenrant.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Details

Released
Taped
Neptune Theatre, Liverpool
Runtime
64 min
Where
Channel 4
Director
Dominic Brigstocke
Topics

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