Abstract
This chapter is an edited transcript of an event in 2019 with the core members of the group Alternative Cabaret, one of the founding pillars of the alternative comedy movement. Tony Allen, Jim Barclay, Andy de la Tour, and Pauline Melville recall their early experiences of performing stand-up, how the Comedy Store brought them together, and the formation of Alternative Cabaret. They reflect on the venues they played, the politics that informed them, how their acts developed, their 1981 show at the Edinburgh Fringe, de la Tour’s trip to play republican clubs in Northern Ireland, and what they have done since moving away from stand-up. They also respond to archive recordings of their 1980s comedy routines, which are included here as transcripts.
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Notes
- 1.
The Sadista Sisters show in which Melville first performed the Edie character was A Cabaret of Political and Sexual Blasphemy (1977).
- 2.
The Prisoners’ Dependants Fund [PDF] Club later became the Andersonstown Social Club.
- 3.
At Last! The 1981 Show, Royal Festival Hall, 29 May 2011.
References
Allen, Tony. 2002. Attitude: Wanna Make Something of It? Glastonbury: Gothic Image.
Wilmut, Roger and Rosengard, Peter. 1989. Didn’t You Kill My Mother-in-Law? London: Methuen.
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Double, O., de la Tour, A., Barclay, J., Melville, P., Allen, T. (2022). Alternative Cabaret in Conversation. In: Double, O., Lockyer, S. (eds) Alternative Comedy Now and Then. Palgrave Studies in Comedy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97351-3_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97351-3_7
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