Introducing Jamie Green / 23 April 2012
Did you see my review of Laurence Clark's gig at the Dugdale Centre, Enfield. I left a lot of stuff out.
Something i've really liked about working with disabled comedians of late is that its easy to access them back stage and chat. In Enfield, I was listening in to Laurence talking with Jamie Green who revealed himself to be a stand up with a few youtube clips to his bow.
I watched these out of interest. I'm not sure if I liked what I saw. Jamie certainly was getting the laughs out of his audience. Surely a good thing. He came over like a young man with a young mans interests. Kind of like Bernard Manning before he got fat and bloated. I saw Bernard Manning at a working men's club once and I have to say he was one hell of a comedian who could sustain a show with a contant barrage of heckler responses. But as you know, for many of us there was something deeply unpleasant and worrying about our Bernard.
For me Jamie just about gets away with riding a cusp of dodgy moments. I put this down to his youth and enthusiasm for the laughter response. I also credit his clear potential.
His show made me wonder about how we support young artists, where do they go for mentoring, how they get involved with troupes, what are they getting already? I wondered about the ownership of jokes. Who do jokes belong to? Are they copywrited? Is there a willingness to share? Do we pay our dues?
My top joke of the year so far was given by a man who's been around the block a few times. Warning!!!! Salacious alert!!!! Here comes that joke: What's the difference between acne and a priest? Acne doesn't come on a young boys face until he's 12. I heard that from Mat Fraser whilst he was compering Abnormally Funny People. I have repeated it and found people laughing at it as much as I did. But i'm wondering if it was a Mat original or if it is in wider use (well, it is now).
I guess the usefulness of Jamie Green is in what you learn about the world of young disabled people. Does that make it merit worthy? Is it enough? The next thing that comes up is the questions the performance raises. I'm still thinking about it. I've not decided yet. Would love some comment, wouldn't mind some feedback on Jamie's act. Just post below.
Keywords: bernard manning,comedy gig live comedy,jamie green,laurence clark
Comments
EJ Allen
/Im not sure what you wrote in that article is entirely true. What were you expecting to get out of watching Jamie's stand up? Did you just want to have a laugh and enjoy the video or were you looking for something more revolutionary/ life changing.
Ive worked with Jamie on multiple occasions and booked him for my shows and not once has he failed to deliver a laugh. When i look at comedians to book or work with, their ability to make an audience laugh and feel comfortable enjoying the night is what i rank highest. Jamie always keeps the audience laughing and has stolen the show at one of my events. I personally love his comedy style because its real and as for him needing support the only support he or any other comedian needs is seeing a crowd laughing and enjoying the moment. Jamie gets this support everytime hes on stage by the way so in that field he's fine.
Jamie does exactly what he's on stage to do, he makes people laugh and that is the most basic element of comedy and essentially all its out there to do. Of course hes merit worthy, its undisputed. The audience love him and other comedians love working with him, i personally cant see the problem and this is coming from another comedian who understands the comedy world.
I look forward to seeing more of Jamie green and working with him again. Thanks for the interesting read though it was an interesting opinion :)
richard downes
/Many thanks readers for helping me with my struggle in understanding this work.
I'll let Jamie know aout the positivity of your responses
I completely agree on the first and most fundamental aspect of his act - to get people to laugh, to get people to think. Its clear that he does this.
With respect to my questions re mentoring and Debs reply re: coaching; i'm sure Jamie has already had some. I still neex to know where it ismade availaable, how support is made available.
perhaps i need to look a little lonoger and a little harder
Colin Hambrook [ED]
/Just watched Jamie at The Way Out Club on http://wn.com/Jamie_Green. He's comfortable on the stage. He's honing the craft... I mean how many of us could go stage and have the balls to try to make people laugh. Loved the joke about "People ask me why I wanted to be a comedian. Well, I wanted to be a footballer, really."
It's an absurd joke, without being self-deprecating. It makes you laugh at all the things you'd have liked to have been that clearly weren't going to happen.
Deborah Caulfield
/What ‘dodgy moments’?
The only problem I had, watching the clips, was not catching some of his words. This is often a controversial issue but in Jamie's case, just slowing down would help.
While he doesn't reflect my world and interests, I was struck (happily) by the sense in which Jamie is clearly living in the same world as his audience, has the same interests, is on their wavelength.
I like the Steven Hawking joke, a dig at the fact that 1) all wheelchair users look alike (don’t they), 2) for many people Stephen Hawking is the only disabled person they’ve heard of, and 3) how unusual, a comedian in a wheelchair (Liz Carr can’t be everywhere).
He's not trying to be highbrow or exclusive. He's working class, one of the people. And why not.
It's not his job to represent disabled people at large, never mind any particular group, marginalised or otherwise. His job is to be funny and make people laugh at no one else’s expense.
He’s a lad. Sure, the stuff about a woman in a wheelchair not being able to run away can be seen as sexist; it can also be seen as self-deprecation. I’m all for this in a bloke.
I don’t know that Jamie needs mentoring any more than any other stand-up. If he ever feels the need for some coaching, it’s OK by me if it's with a non-disabled comedian, though I’d like him to talk to a range of disabled comedians, including our own (well, your own) Liz Carr.
Jamie’s content reminds me of early Francesca Martinez, who use to (and maybe still does) make reference to her impairment, as in: ‘I don’t do drugs cos I find it hard to get hold of them.’ There’s room for this as long as it isn’t where the emphasis is.
It takes balls to go in front of an audience to try to make them laugh. It’s best if the guy’s got brains too. Jamie’s got both. I hope he continues.
Maybe you should offer to write some jokes for him, Rich? Just make sure they’re funny, unlike the one you quoted above, which I found offensive and not the least but funny.
chris
/"You learn about the world of young disabled people" You have just answered yourself mate. That is totally merit worthy. Jamie is a young man who has always seen the world with a restriction of access. He is giving his audience access to his view point.
The day a girls 1st floor flat (despite the full monty permission and request) becomes inaccessible because of a flight of stairs is what being "fucked" really means. Meanwhile listen to Jamie enjoy the laughs he gets. Bernard Manning didn't change the world he took the piss out of it. Jamie will help improve the world. Now that's worth a standing ovation!!
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