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This makes me sad.
We used to get Dave Allen in the late 70s-early 80s, late at night, on a Boston independent TV station (channel 38, WSBK). Another independent station used to show Benny Hill at about the samee time: Dave Allen was 38's idea of counterprogramming, I guess.
I was just a kid, but I used to stay up and watch Allen occasionally—usually on a Friday night—and I understood (in that way that kids do) that he was the conoisseur's choice. I didn't always get the jokes, but there was a clear light of intelligence and irreverence coming off him that spoke to me. Something cool and unmistakably adult.
With it came an understanding (for the first time, I think) that comedy was not an inescapably juvenile, buffoonish thing—that it wasn't just about getting laughs, but that it was a lens for looking at the world. Absurdity is the flipside of existentialism, really—as black and terrible as life can be, it's laugh or cry.
Dave Allen laughed. And so did I.
Thanks, Dave, for changing the shape of my head.
You didn't believe in God, I know: here's hoping you're pleasantly surprised. |
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