When Silliness Fails
HE old saying about one man’s meat is particularly true in humour, and what will rock the theatre audience often falls flat in radio. The "whimsical" brand of humour is especially prone to mishap on the aif-waves, and seldom appeals unless the listener is whimsic-ally-minded or has seen the comedian and so can bring memory to his aid in elaborating the purely vocal picture, I am thinking especially of a recent session featuring Mr. Baker, who accepts the nick-name "two-ton," The sort of whimsy in which he delights is the delicate little personal song of. najve and childish appeal, and those who haven't heard him will understand what I mean when I append a few of his titles, "I Wove a Wabbit," "I'm a Wittle Teapot," and "I’m a Wonely Wittle Petunia in an Onion-Patch," © This, of course, is the sort of thing Arthur Askey has been doing for years, with seagulls, fairies, worms, and bees as his subjects. But for me Askey succeeds (except in an occasional record) in putting it across, and Baker does not. The explanation may be that Askey succeeds by pretending to be perfectly serious about the whole darn silly thing, and by adding
a spice of pure malice to his whimsy, whereas Mr. Baker too obviously has his tongue in his cheek. Besides, no copy is effective when you have known the Original for years. 7
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 487, 22 October 1948, Page 9
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235When Silliness Fails New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 487, 22 October 1948, Page 9
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