Liverpool
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The art of comedy
I had a run around Tate Liverpool with stand up Brendan Riley this week,
as he prepared for a new role as temporary art expert...
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Liverpool
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Brendan Riley: The Life Of Riley, Unity Theatre
Last year Brendan Riley's show covered the theory of happiness. This year
his Festival offering was more of a flowing set and showed how versatile
the likable Riley can be...
View
or Print full PDF article
The
art of comedy
I
had a run around Tate Liverpool with stand up Brendan Riley this week,
as he prepared for a new role as temporary art expert.
Lovely Riley and Young Ones legend Alexei Sayle are helping the gallery
with its 20th birthday celebrations over the weekend by individually leading
tours of the main culture year exhibition, The 20th Century: How it Looked
and How it Felt.
They're going to be putting their own comedy spin on things, and Riley
for one has spent the last month doing his homework and getting up to
speed on the artists featured, such as Picasso and Warhol.
Above is a great picture of him with the former's Nude Woman in a Red
Armchair. I pushed for such a cool looking, colourful pic to go on the
front page of the paper, but the abundance of T & A (and, erm, V)
might have put paid to that. Even in Cubist form.
"Art galleries are usually so quiet, and I want to make them noisy.
People should be buzzing over when they see this stuff. People should
be like "OMIGOD THAT'S A F*CKING PICASSO!"" Riley enthused.
That quote didn't make it into the paper either, but take a look at that
picture and you'll see what he means.
Top
Brendan Riley: The Life Of Riley, Unity Theatre
Last
year Brendan Riley's show covered the theory of happiness. This year his
Festival offering was more of a flowing set and showed how versatile the
likable Riley can be.
As the name suggests this years show was semi-autobiographical with tales
of his life as a altar boy to motorbike racer and then of course stand
up comedian.
He has lived many lives already. Riley is a natural storyteller, he has
the ability to hold the audiences attention throughout.
A particular audience favorite was his tale of his experiences as an extra
on Emmerdale Farm.
Throughout the show the pace never dropped, one minute he was trying to
convince the audience that the Austrian Joseph Fritzel was not all bad,
“he was just very keen on DIY”, and then he changes gear and
talks about the times he was bullied by his brother (apparently he used
to pull the legs and wings off bumble bees and tell him they were humbugs).
What you are left with after an hour of his company is that he enjoys
his life and he truly lives a life of Riley. Top