Stage Humour

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 898, 15 February 1930, Page 26

Stage Humour

Who is England's Funniest Comedian? HENSON, HOWES AND HA 1 !' Drury Lane pantomime inevitably reminds me of Dan Leno, who was, I think, the funniest comedian I have ever seen, writes William Pollock in the ‘‘Daily Mail.” Leno lived when good comedians were more plentiful than they are now. The music-halls developed them, and the theatres had such men as Edmund Payne, G. P. Huntley, Harry Pelissier, Alfred Lester, George Graves and W. H. Berry frequently in long runs. Some time ago George Robey told me that, in his opinion, the films have made the comedian’s job harder — which may be a reason why really funny stage comedians are fewer. I would say that the greatest living comedian is undoubtedly Chaplin. George Grossmith, who has always amused me, once said to me that only a minority of comedians can be “funny with their mouths”; the majority make people laugh more by what they do than what they say. In other words, they rely more upon humour than upon wit.

During the past few days I have asked a number of people who go to theatres and music-halls often whom they consider to be the funniest comedian. Most of <the votes have gone to Leslie Henson, Bobby Howes and Will Hay. X am inclined to say that Mr. Hay. backed up by his silly old man and his cheeky boy, gets more laughs with his idiotic “schoolmaster” sketches in, say, ten minutes than anyone else on the stage. People laugh as much as they used to laugh at Harry Tate's “Motoring,” “Fishing,” and so on. There is nothing funnier anywhere than Will Hay giving a lesson in “entomology” and trying to catch a big red” “beetle.” People laugh so much at Leslie Henson because he makes such funny faces and looks so funny, because he says funny things in a funny voice, and because he can get such fun out of a deck chair or a bag of golf clubs, or six hats. He has figured in two of the best bits of comedy seen in London in the last 12 months or so; the cocktail scene (with that most amusing new comedian, Sydney Howard) in “Funny Face,” and the "plumbers” scene (with Mark Lester) in "Follow Through.” Bobby Howes has come right to the front of London’s laughter-makers with a spurt. He has an instant and spontaneous sense of the ridiculous, and he is modern. Others wto run these three “H’s” pretty close include Billy Bennett, whose leather-lunged sallies are rather more to the liking of men jhan of women; Stanley Lupino, an arch exponent of acrobatic humour; Noni, the musical clown; and the perfectly blended combination of Tom Walls and Ralph Lynn. And then there is that quaveryvoiced A. W. Baskcomb, whose new sketch, “Relativity,” is really funny.