guest post by Aaron Muszalski
A drinker, smoker, Irishman and atheist, Dave Allen was, above all, a natural raconteur. A fixture on British television during the sixties and seventies, he became known in America when re-runs of his shows began to air on late-night public television.
Allen’s act was typified by a very relaxed, intimate style — he would sit on a chair, smoking and holding a glass of whiskey. An atheist[1] (according to Allen himself, “what you might call a practising atheist”), he would often make jokes about religion, particularly the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England. Along with his seated stand-up routines, his television shows were interspersed with sketch comedy. He had a lasting influence on British comedy, and influenced many 21st century British comedians. [Wikipedia]
As a child, I remember regularly staying up past my bedtime to watch Dave Allen At Large on PBS, and being struck by his amiable iconoclasm; Allen wasn’t interested in killing sacred cows so much as getting comfortably drunk, and playfully tipping them over. By couching his irreverence in cordiality, he made his free-thinking bent all that much more infectious.
A perfect example of this was Allen’s famous send-off, in which he managed to both gracefully acknowledge the beliefs of others, while simultaneously excusing himself from any part in them:
“Goodnight, thank you, and may your god go with you.”
See Also:
- Dave Allen [Amazon], Dave Allen audio snippets
- Dave Allen At Large intro [YouTube]
Post inspired by (and title borrowed from) His Wholiness The Reverend DrJon
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Thanks for the memory. I *loved* DAVE ALLEN AT LARGE back in the day and was surprised that they showed it on PBS in Dallas and even Oklahoma. I wonder if the same folks would show it today. Progress. SHOUT! or somebody should issue a box set…too dated, I suppose.