Over on my sister-blog Absobloominglutely I posted a video of Danny la Rue and waxed lyrical about him being one of my biggest influences outside actual burlesque. Although Danny's dialogue was very funny and his interaction with audiences superb......the people who've influenced my burlesque the most have been entertainers who use physical comedy.
This post was actually going to be solely about the pair in my number one spot below, but I kept finding myself referencing others. So here's my top 20 physical comedy experts (or double acts) with links to or embedded videos. Most of them are experts in verbal humour too. These are the people I tend to watch for inspiration before putting together new acts:
20. Harold Lloyd
19. Freddie Frinton
18. Ellen Degeneres
17. Lee Evans
16. Beryl Reid
15. John Cleese
13. Max Wall
12. Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson
11. Buster Keaton
10. Harpo Marx
9. Steve Martin
8. Rowan Atkinson
7. Dick Van Dyke
6. Lucille Ball
5. Hugh Laurie
4. Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams (Laverne & Shirley)
3. Danny Kaye
2. Norman Wisdom
1. Morecambe and Wise
Blimey that not only took a lot of work narrowing my list down to just 20 (I had plenty more to start with), but then ordering them.....but choosing just one clip for each of them - murder!
I suspect I shall be picking some out of this list to say more about on other occasions, if not during the 31 days of burlesque....and I definitely have loads more to say about Morecambe and Wise, but now it's time for a big mug of tea and to sit back and watch some of those clips again :)
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