Just to fill you in a bit on who I am and what I do – I've been a stand up comedian since 1975. I won a talent show called New Faces when I was sixteen. It was a show that had a celebrity panel of judges, Arthur Askey, Ted Ray, Mickie Most, Tony Hatch, Martin Jackson, people like that. These guys had been around the industry for a while and tried to be positive about the parade of wannabees in front of them.

Felixstowe 1977. It's hot, I'm 18 years old, I'm at the Spa Pavilion theatre for 12 weeks... We're talking summer season. You move in, you fall in love (several times) you do some shows and then you split-job done. I was still a bit green at all this comedy lark, but I was willing to give it a go. I was performing (second spot comic as usual) with John Hanson – of Desert song fame and Peter Butterworth from the Carry on films. John Hanson was very strict, but did a crowd pleasing show with all the old songs... Peter Butterworth was lovely but didn't really have an act. He was first half closer..

"I remember very clearly splitting my pants during 'you are the sunshine of my life'"

Within two weeks, He'd been bumped to an earlier position on the bill and I'd been promoted to first half closer. I was also extremely fit and skinny, I was trying to dance in this show and sing a Stevie Wonder medley... I remember very clearly splitting my pants during 'you are the sunshine of my life'. The guy with the long hair is Roger Fotheringay. He was an ok dude, I think this is his auntie's Beach hut, I was kind of adopted by him and his family for the season, so big up Rog. We had good times in this year... Elvis died while I was here, and my Dad died later on so it was an important time , and this is very good portrait of how things were back then.

Looking back, I now realise how lucky I was – it would have been very easy for those guys to crush a guy like me back then. I was an inexperienced impressionist with jokes from the Beano. How the hell did I win that competition? Tony Hatch said they voted on potential – he also told me that I had to do myself a favour and seek out Bill Cosby Albums because 'You won't want to be an impressionist for ever – you'll be a story teller like Cosby one day, you'll see'. He was right – although, when I listened to my first Bill Cosby Album, I think it was called Wonderful, I was scared shitless. Cosby has total recall – he remembers everything funny that ever happened to him, his child hood stories about having his tonsils out, or sharing the bed with his Brother Russell or hanging out with Fat Albert, were mini works of genius. Listening to him was a privilege, and I didn't flatter myself into thinking that I would in any way be able to emulate his style. However I did listen, and I did start to collect Cosby and other American comedy albums by people like George Carlin, Dick Gregory, Flip Wilson, Redd Foxx and of course Richard Pryor.

My career had only just begun, we're still in the seventies for God's sake, I was asked by Michael Grade to participate in a pilot of a television series called The Fosters – which was going to be the changed format version of the long running American sit–com 'Good Times'. I went to see Grade at London Weekend Television and sat in his huge office. Michael put a video of Good Times on and for the next half an hour I watched a black American family doing what normal families do – just with a nutcase called JJ (played by Jimmy Walker) at the centre. I laughed a lot and Michael asked me if I wanted to do it. I said yeah!

This wasn't the only thing I said yes to at this point. I also signed up to do the club tour of the Black and White Minstrels Show. The reasons are very complicated,

but I'll try and explain. My manager was very aware that if I was to get on in the business, I needed an agent, preferably someone with a bit of gravitas about them. We approached Robert Luff – this was as gravitas as it gets. We drove down to London and snuck along to the Portman Hotel for a big lunch. Robert Luff was a complete gent, paid for lunch with one of three dozen credit cards, and spoke to me about my future. He told me I needed experience and that what I needed to do was be in a show where my lack of stage polish wouldn't be quite so focussed on.

He told me that he had two shows on the go, one was a NewFaces winners summer season in Morecambe and the other was a Black and White Minstrel show Club Tour. I naturally assumed I'd be on my way to Morecambe, but he mentioned something about 'The Minstrels being a safer place for me – the audience don't really care about the acts, they just want to hear the old songs'. Suddenly I was signed up as second spot comic for the Minstrels. Now at the time, the Black and Whites were a huge phenomenon on British television. Multiple award winners, the stage show had run at the Victoria Palace for 20 some odd years, this was a big success story. Yes a few people, like the Race Relations Board, complained about the racist problem at its heart, but generally people enjoyed the costumes and the old songs and generally ignored the blacked up faces.

So, I was in the Black and White Minstrels Show Club Tour which was 8 weeks or so long, we did Jollees in Stoke, The Showboat in Cardiff, Batley Variety Club, Caesars Palace Luton, The Golden Garter in Manchester. It was a massive show; Don MacLean (Crackerjack!) was the compare.

I watched him like a hawk – he didn't seem to have a problem with it, and it became very clear that for him, this tour was a huge thing. He stormed the audience every night – Don was a master at crowd control –he never died on stage. He was always there for me gave me loads of advice and didn't mind me bombarding him with questions. He was a mensch. When the tour was over, I thought that was it – but oh no...I did Black and White Christmas Show, in Coventry, further summer seasons in Great Yarmouth and Bournemouth. And Blackpool.

I think by 79 – I'd had enough. The jokes were boring – 'And now the only one of 'em who doesn't need make up', 'when Lenny cries he gets little white lines crawling down his face', etc. I partook in these jokes because I didn't really know any better; It hurts thinking about it now. I think the term 'ill advised' could be bandied about here.

Jumping ship after a vigorous conversation with Robert Luff, I found myself in Summer Season with Cannon and Ball. I was already performing on Tiswas and had done one series of Three Of A Kind, but working with Tommy and Bob introduced me to a TV writer David McKellar, and the idea that, on Tiswas, a structured act wasn't really what they wanted. I'd been trying to replicate my New Faces act on Tiswas over and over and it wasn't working Tarrant was on the verge of sacking me – this was not good. I needed the exposure, Tiswas was a hot show and I had to hang on. Mckellar suggested that I create characters that could pop up here and there on the show. Thank you God!

Suddenly we were off.A whole world opened for me, suddenly I was free to improvise, as Algernon, Winston Spencer Churchill, Heath, Wilson, Thatcher, Razamatazz, David Bellamy, Trevor Mcdonut, etc I could do fake news reports, bulletins, natural history films, or just interrupt. The summer season was the first time I felt that my act had received a proper response from an audience. This was a crowd that had come to see comedy, not just a bunch of people singing and dancing – the demographic was skewed younger too, which didn't hurt. I did '80 and '81 with Cannon and Ball, I think I had '82 and '83 off and then I topped the Bill with David Copperfield at the North Pier in Blackpool in '84. In '82 and '83, I'd worked on the Tiswas World Tour and been booked by Phil McIntyre to do a tour of colleges. This had gone very well (wow, students don't mind if you swear.) and now I had the rock and roll comedy–touring bug. Now we'd see.

Damn, this just gets us up to the early eighties...

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Crade to Rave latest tour dates

Posted Saturday, January 15, 2011

Download a pdf of the latest tour dates here

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Cradle To Rave - UK tour starts January 2011

Posted Wednesday, November 24, 2010

When Lenny Henry played Othello, he psyched himself up for the second half by listening to hip-hop on his headphones. One night, he looked up to see a fellow actor at the dressing room door. The actor had a message...

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Rock with Laughter 2010

Posted Friday, July 23, 2010

"Rock with Laughter is back with a gobsmackingly brilliant line up. Just look at who'll be performing. Utterly marvellous! I had such a cracking time last year and I can't wait to see you all back again this year for the best Christmas gig ever!" Lenny Henry

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