I admired the late Bernard Manning as a comedian.
And, unlike many who criticised him, I saw him perform live.
I blogged about this in January and got a lot of negative feedback.
But I think many anti-Bernard Manning sentiments are knee-jerk reactions. People dislike him because they know they are supposed to dislike him.
The comedian, musician and writer John Dowie contributed a very interesting short story to the Sit-Down Comedy anthology which the late Malcolm Hardee and I commissioned and edited for Random House in 2003. His Help Me Make It Through the Night is basically a fictional story about a right-on early Ben Elton type alternative comedian and an old school Bernard Manning style comedian… written sympathetically from the point of view of the Bernard Manning character.
The story was written for the book by John Dowie after he and I had a discussion about Bernard Manning and surprisingly found a lot of common ground. Indeed, I think we agreed that we both admired him as a technically brilliant comedian; and it helped that we had both lived through the period when Manning was having his greatest success.
John Dowie is (in my opinion) a notable left-wing thinker; we are not talking a Daily Mail reader here.
I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that I am chairing a couple of debates in Malcolm Hardee Week (the last week of the current Edinburgh Fringe).
On Tuesday 23rd August, the proposition is:
RACIST OR SEXIST JOKES? IT DOESN’T MATTER IF THEY’RE FUNNY!
It is perhaps not the most original of ideas for a debate, but it is never not irrelevant and I felt it still has a lot of proverbial mileage left in it. The phrasing and punctuation of the debate’s title can be taken to represent either viewpoint:
RACIST OR SEXIST JOKES? IT DOESN’T MATTER IF THEY’RE FUNNY!
I did invite Jim Davidson to take part in this debate (through his agent) without payment. He is taking part in the Guardian-sponsored Edinburgh International Television Festival at the end of the week reflecting, according to the programme, “on the industry that loved him, supported him but ultimately rejected him, as he discusses the changing nature of acceptability in comedy and television as a whole”.
His agent said Jim was unable to be in Edinburgh on Tuesday 23rd for the Malcolm Hardee Debate because he is on tour – playing Great Yarmouth on the Monday night and Weymouth on the Wednesday night.
I have no idea if it is just impractical (it sure ain’t easy) or because there was no money in it or because he just did not fancy doing it. All are perfectly reasonable.
It is a pity – but much in life is, like the fact choc ices are fattening.
I have never met Jim Davidson and have never seen his live act (television, in this case, does not count). I have asked people who have worked with him what he is like and opinion is varied. I have no personal opinion on him.
Prejudice is not something I admire and, by that, I mean judging people without really genuinely knowing what you are talking about. It is a comic irony that people who say you should never believe what you read in newspapers and magazines nor on the internet – and you should never believe edited video clips out of context – often do.
So I am prepared to believe Jim Davidson is a shit; but I am also prepared to believe he is misunderstood and misrepresented. Jimmy Carr, a brilliant comic whom I have seen and whom I do admire, has also been accused of telling racist jokes. To which I say Bollocks.
Admittedly, even if I did think Jim Davidson were a shit, I would put him on to get bums on seats and to let him defend himself (equal factors in my mind).
I think the line-up on 23rd August without him is still very good:
Simon Donald, co-founder of Viz magazine, who has now re-invented himself as a stand-up comedian.
Hardeep Singh Kohli, sometime presenter on BBC1’s The One Show and columnist for Scotland on Sunday newspaper.
Ian Pattison, creator and writer of the culturally phenomenal BBC TV series Rab C.Nesbitt.
And Maureen Younger, the astonishingly well-travelled London-Scottish comedian who hosts all-female Laughing Cows comedy gigs in London, Birmingham, Berlin etc.
If you are in Edinburgh on Tuesday 23rd August…
RACIST OR SEXIST JOKES? IT DOESN’T MATTER IF THEY’RE FUNNY!
at The Hive, 6.15-7.00pm.
It is part of the Free Festival – so it is free unless you want to throw appreciative money in a bucket at the end, in which case it is for charity; 100% goes to the Mama Biashara charity.
Don’t pre-judge it.
SO IT GOES - John Fleming's blog 
I went to see Bernard Manning in the 90s, so I could have a valid opinion. His jokes were well constructed, some of them very funny, some of them casually racist and sexist. Offensive by nature, but not agressively so. He wasn’t in the best of health and repeated a gag, then had a fugue for about 20 seconds. More offensive was his support, a female (club) singer from Oldham. She tried to banter inbetween songs and used the P word a lot. We went to the bar. No-one else did. I say we because I went with two other very well known Comedians but don’t think I should name them as it seems to be the ultimate sin. Without seeing him perform live, how could I have an opinion? I find it hard to believe that the legions who condemn him, all paid to see him. He must have been a millionaire.
Say, you got a nice article.Much thanks again. Keep writing.