Wednesday 22nd February 2006

Thanks once again to Jill, whomever you might be, for providing more news on the anonymous and mediocre actor Ben Kingsley and his latest projects. You can see the latest news under yesterday’s entry. And once again I should point out that there is nothing funny about that last sentence, it’s perfectly logical and sound.

The article basically states that he’s going to be in a documentary about the Pakistani earthquake tragedy. Not helping with the Pakistani earthquake disaster you’ll note, no, just appearing in a film about it. For money.

Ben’s reported as saying, whilst commenting perhaps justly that the often-used phrase ‘we should sort out our differences’ isn’t very helpful because it highlights difference, and indeed – to quote Ben - “We are far more similar as human beings than we are different.�

I’d say that’s obvious and the opinion of all right-minded people. I would say we are all very, very, very similar and that they fact Kingsley thinks we are merely more similar that different means he still thinks we’re up to 49% different and therefore I think he’s exposed himself as a racist. He is a racist.

Then there’s a horribly funny bit when he says “When you see a woman crying because she can’t find her child under four million tons of rubble, that’s humanity…We all have moms, dads, brothers, sisters and grandparents who we’d miss terribly if they disappeared in 26 seconds.�

Bit specific. Twenty six seconds. But we’ll let that go. I just like the way he points out that we’re all pretty similar around the world really, because it doesn’t matter where you live, if you see your entire family killed in front of your very eyes you’ll doubtless be a bit upset. Well done, Ben. And again, by alluding to the possibility that might have existed in some people’s heads that perhaps some people might NOT find this upsetting, and on the contrary that everyone would, he is again being a screaming racist.

The next time you look at Ben Kingsley’s racist face try shouting out ‘Nazi’ at it. We must expose these people.

Then the report notes a funny bit of the press conference when a journalist asked if he’d been in any films since Ghandi? The article suggests that the reporter was naïve to Kingsley’s career but I think it was just a journalist being cheeky. It’s what I’d have asked. Apparently Ben then ‘good naturedly’ said that he’d been in forty films since Ghandi and has been nominated for four Oscars.

I hope the journalist then asked “So why haven’t I heard of them? Were they not successful? I know quite a lot about films and could name you twenty that Robert De Niro’s been in. Why do I only know one of yours?�

Although the report says Kingsley was good natured about the question, I bet he wasn’t afterwards. I bet he was seething like a caged Panther that’s been poked with a stick.

Anyway, this evening I went to an excellent comedy show at The Green Room in Manchester which was called Bastard Funny. I can’t get in trouble for swearing there, because that’s the name of the show. And bastard isn’t technically a swear word. It depends on the context. It would only be rude if you said “Crikey, Ben Kingsley’s an egotistical bastard isn’t he?� but not in the context above. It’s just the title of their show.

It’s a sketch show which is put on about every three months by a group of Manchester based comics and co-ordinated by the BBC. I approve of it very much because not only was it funny and different, it demonstrates comedians doing something for themselves and taking the initiative which is rare. Comedians are intrinsically lazy and typically just moan that nothing’s going their way. They never write and writing’s the key to everything.

But what I enjoyed most about the evening is that you got a sense that there was something ‘happening’ and that these performers were forming a following and trying to change the comedy scene a bit. I imagine in the 50’s and 60’s when the Goon Show and Beyond The Fringe were starting up the feeling was similar, although perhaps more so then because it really was a brand new movement.

I wish them luck and talking to Seymour Mace, one of the performers, afterwards – he suggested the same thing should be done in Liverpool. I completely agree and perhaps, in regard to my suggestion that comics rarely take the initiative, it should be me that sets it up? I’d certainly like to write sketches and try some comedy acting.

Would you support us?

Then of course all the Manchester comics would slag us off and say we were just copying them and so forth… that’s the way the comedy wheels turn. And we would be copying, but so what? Only the fact it’s a sketch show. I think it’s a good idea.

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