Dave Allen - The Late Irish Comedian

I wonder if you have heard of Dave Allen in the States. He had a very popular weekly show here in UK and had a TV audience in the millions, just like Dick Emery and Benny Hill and before them Tony Hancock.

David Allen's real name was Tynan O'Mahoney (6 July 1936 – 10 March 2005). His career had a major resurgence during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Allen's act was typified by his relaxed, rueful and intimate style; he would sit on a high bar stool facing his audience, smoking and occasionally sipping from a glass of what he always allowed people to assume was whiskey, but in fact was merely ginger ale with ice. Literally and metaphorically, he was a sober-minded man who, though sometimes appearing crotchety and irritable on stage, gave off an air of serene melancholy in real life. Each day he would pore over the newspapers, constantly scribbling notes and ideas which he expanded for his routines.

This YouTube sketch is typical of the many we enjoyed. He used tension a lot in his sketches and had us sitting on the edge of our seats.

Hope you enjoy.