WOOOO!!! Give me an O!!! Give me a U!!! Give me a T!!! Give me an S!!! Give me another T! Give me a... Give me A! Give me... hang on... GO, FINNEMORE!!! How's
that for
not getting sixty per-cent you lovely fella - sorry - Fellow! And please note, readers: the Writers' Guild didn't give John this award last night in recognition for his outstanding contribution to radio comedy writing, or to comedy writing, but for his Outstanding Contribution to Writing, which is world-straighteningly just, because John strives, and for as long as I've known him has always striven (striven?... strove?) strived to be an outstanding writer, not just by not his own self-punishing standards, but those of every single audient he goes out and performs the stuff in front of. Performing it alongside him however is one of the least worrying things a person can do, and being asked to do it has always felt like a prize in itself, perhaps the only prize John will never be able to win. I mean, just
look at the list of works above! No... look at it. Closer! Nothing missing, is there, Writers' Guild? Just look at the breadth of that. That episode of Safety Catch he wrote? Yep, that's there. Dead Ringers? Yep. Mm-hm. All there. Yhm. Nooooothing missing...
OH! AND my friend and former creative fixture of the Shunt Lounge, Season Butler, won Best First Novel for "
Cygnet" which I raved about last year on Instagram thus: "a bit like what I guess it feels like having a biro stuck in your throat so you can breathe easier feels like - shouldn't make you safer but does" which was meant to be a recommendation, because it is also brilliant.
It's just a shame there's nothing of John's you can currently enjoy as well.
Wait, let me check that list of works again... Anything? Mm? Maybe also to do with swans? Nothing?
Nope. Oh well. Hallelujas all round!
As a Brit I always feel that complimenting someone is tacitly implying everyone else is rubbish. But I'm a comedy fan now deep into his forties and John is comfortably the best writer I've ever heard. Relentless consistency, brilliant gags and only three single sketches ever written I wasn't keen on. Three out of hundreds is a monster hit rate for anything, let alone a sketch show (and Double Acts/Cabin Pressure are near perfect).
ReplyDeleteIt's like watching Buddy Rich, Steve Vai or Stanley Kubrick doing their thing. Effortless and yet you also glimpse the endless toil that led them to such heights.
How very, hm - shall we say, creative? - of them, mentioning John Finnemore, Apparently rather than Souvenir Programme. I mean, it's not as if the latter has been commissioned for eight series, and counting. (Which I'm sure's got nothing to do with its extremely talented cast. But that's beyond the point here.)
ReplyDeleteThe sheer amount of sketches John has written so far is impressive in and of itself, and they're all top-notch. (The odd slightly baffling prawn casserole sketch notwithstanding, but then again, the audience could definitely use an occasional break from literally laughing themselves breathless.)
An absolutely well-deserved award indeed.
Oi! I love that sketch. It just needed the right score.
ReplyDeleteIn all fairness, I had that pun about the grave robbers' names from the Edinburgh special finally explained to me a mere few weeks ago, after puzzling about it for years, so all in all I'm a very bad example of your average audience member.
ReplyDelete(Also, 'slightly less good than literal excellence' is still quite good, considering.)