Fighting talk: Vine targets the student vote
A series contender
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TIM VINE
GilmorehillG12. Glasgow. Sun 22 Jun
Tim Vine deserves an Olympic medal for masterful backtracking. On the blower to chew the fat about his first solo national tour. he recalls less agreeable times. 'When I first started doing comedy I did a few university tours which nearly made me give up - a lot of drunk 18-year-olds.' I feel obliged to inform him the only Scottish date of his tour is a university venue. ‘Goodbye. No. I‘m sure it'll be fine. 00 you know what I love more than anything? Students. Student audiences, my goodness me, if I‘d my way I'd only ever play universities.‘
As one of the three male stooges on ITV‘s Sketch Show, a bland, pedestrian stand-up act might be expected. Not so. Vine‘s set is a ridiculous circus of furious one-liners which tickle the most unflinching of rib-cages. Such is the relentlessness of the delivery — not to mention a few natty songs interspersed in the proceedings - that Vine can get through a few hundred jokes in an hour. ‘After about five minutes the audience thinks: “He's not going to do this for an hour, is he?"‘ Multiply that by a 24-date tour and you'd probably need a calculator.
Moreover. and a curious rarity among comedians, Vine is good-natured. self-effacing. and gives great chat. Which is. again. surprising. Anyone who hasn’t seen the lame effort that is Sketch Show might recognise his gangly frame from such eminent gameshows as Whittle, Housemates and Fluke. 'I sometimes joke that most comedians finish their career by doing a gameshow and I'm no exception.‘
While Vine‘s TV appearances are unremarkable, his punchy material is garnering much praise — even if it‘s often not credited to him. A series of prank emails and websites have attributed pages of Vine’s gags to the legendary Tommy Cooper and even Peter Kay. ‘It's extraordinary,‘ he says. ‘I think someone has got some kind of vendetta. There‘s a guy at every gig with a huge boom mic and a reel-to-reel tape recorder — he‘s the one I‘m suspicious of.‘
The bootleg fan will have to make haste is he‘s to catch both the live Vine in Glasgow and the first episode of the second series of that sketch show. which broadcasts the same night. Like the series. Vine‘s material is strictly PG-rated. “There‘s no use of the ‘f’-word. Occasionally we might say ‘fridge‘. or “family picnic‘. Or ‘tast car‘ — that’s about as racy as it gets.‘ (Maureen Ellis)
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Joking aside
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THIS YEAR‘S FRINGE festival, as ever. has already thrown up a series of surprises: Anthony Hopkins to direct a show, post- Theroux Paul Daniels trying to resurrect his career. and a comedy venue with air conditioning. Yes indeed-ee, mega-chain Jongleurs is to expand its mighty empire to coincide with the start of the Fringe and. while much is being made of its acts. the company is relying heavily on marketing its chilled environs. Jongleurs may not be known for producing the most cutting edge of shows, but at least there won‘t be sweat dripping from the ceiling. For that. at least, we can be thankful.
Mearns' Glasgow kiss
LOCAL COMEDY FIREBALL Raymond Mearns has landed a role in the next Ken Loach film. The Parkheid legal eagle has cancelled a family holiday in New York to be part of what he describes as ‘the most exciting project of my career thus far‘. Mearns plays a brickie in the movie, entitled Ae Fond Kiss, and shooting starts late June.
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