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Comedians who can act

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    Comedians who can act

    And I mean act pretty well.

    I've heard it said that they (comedians) often make really good actors, since they are often used to doing things in one take - and sometimes spontaneously - in slightly stressful situations (i.e. live, in the case of stand-ups).

    That practical consideration aside, though, what comedians do you feel have successfully transferred their skills - not necessarily permanently, though - to 'serious' acting?

    Also, what particular comedy performances or moments do you feel cross over into 'proper' acting? Have any comedians been able to make you temporarily forget that that is their primary trade?

    I remember some colleague of Charlie Higson's on The Fast Show commenting "My God! He can *really* act!" when called upon to do so - in certain moments of the Ted & Ralph sketches, I think. Indeed, it was the Ted & Ralph 'Christmas Special' a few years back that actually showed the acting talents of both Whitehouse and Higson quite well. I really liked that.

    There was also a moment in one of the sketches in Chris Morris' 'Jam' - the one where the mansion-owning posh chap had 'gone feral' and lived permanently outdoors on their estate. In the mock interview, his 'wife' said "I still leave the door unlocked at night", to which Morris' character eventually and quietly replied "And I wish you wouldn't". It was really rather moving in a strange way. Definitely not one of the 'laugh out loud' moments of the series.

    #2
    Comedians who can act

    I'd love to have seen Jimmy Jewel in the first run of Trevor Griffiths' Comedians. By all accounts he was sensational. Bill Fraser is pretty bloody good in the Play For Today version.

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      #3
      Comedians who can act

      Loads of examples, but I'm struggling to think of a stand-up comic who was memorably poor when he or she tried straight acting.

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        #4
        Comedians who can act

        I saw Bernard Bresslaw playing Malvolio in Twelfth Night, and he was brilliant, and very moving.

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          #5
          Comedians who can act

          I have no idea what the received wisdom is, but I think Hugh Laurie is fucking superb as House. (Mind you I can't decide if it's his acting or just a fantastically drawn character, or possibly both)

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            #6
            Comedians who can act

            Oh he's a fine actor all round.

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              #7
              Comedians who can act

              John Cleese's Petruchio in the BBC production of The Taming of the Shrew is downright brilliant, an inspired bit of casting on Jonathon Miller's part. He obviously saw the possibilities of taking the pissed off, run ragged, qualities of Basil Fawlty, then, by stripping the farce out of them getting to the humanity beneath.

              Is there really a difference between "comedian" and "actor" though? Isn't the overlap almost always there? It seems mostly happenstance as to which direction an actor's career takes. Bresslaw and Fraser are mentioned above, but they both had plenty of straight roles — and in Fraser's case a long career — before The Army Game pigeonholed them as comics.

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                #8
                Comedians who can act

                Robin Williams is a fine actor when he's not trying to be funny. Trained at Julliard, don't you know. Then again, maybe he doesn't count as a "comedian" because his comedy shtick hasn't been funny in decades.

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                  #9
                  Comedians who can act

                  I've also heard it said, though, that's it's far more difficult for an actor to succeed when trying comedy than the other way round. Dunno why that should be, but it seems to broadly bear out.

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                    #10
                    Comedians who can act

                    Some comedians that are rubbish actors:

                    Simon Amstell, worst sitcom acting you can ever imagine.

                    Eddie Izzard, I don't find him particuarly bad, but his presence in a film seems to be a kiss of death.

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                      #11
                      Comedians who can act

                      He was good in The Riches. A pretty odd — but interesting — show that veered wildly between comedy and tragedy, almost melodrama really. He managed to keep his hands on the wheel in all cases though.

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                        #12
                        Comedians who can act

                        evilC wrote:
                        I've also heard it said, though, that's it's far more difficult for an actor to succeed when trying comedy than the other way round. Dunno why that should be, but it seems to broadly bear out.
                        Well, you've got Leonard Rossiter and Harry H Corbett who were certainly successful. Leslie Nielsen's an odd one as he succeeds in comedy by playing it straight, so I'm not sure how to categorise it. His timing is superb, though.

                        Hmm, others...I can't remember if John Thaw was any good or not in Home to Roost, so that's not much help.

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                          #13
                          Comedians who can act

                          Agree with the Barn Door on Izzard. Find it very hard not to think "oh look, there is Eddie Izzard".

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                            #14
                            Comedians who can act

                            Have any comedians been able to make you temporarily forget that that is their primary trade?

                            Mike Reid?

                            (I never saw him in EastEnders, so I don't know how good he was at acting. Probably better than he was at hosting Runaround, the bloody great bully.)

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                              #15
                              Comedians who can act

                              Reg Varney gave a wonderful, moving performance in 'The Best Pair of Legs in the Business'.

                              I seem to recall Norman Wisdom received great acclaim for his performance alongside Fulton Mackay as a cancer victim in a BBC Playhouse production (the name of which escapes me now) in the late 70's.

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                                #16
                                Comedians who can act

                                I enjoyed The Trip last night with Brydon and Coogan, not really acting in this but i think theyre pretty good elsewhere. Notably Coogan in Sunshine which i thought was excellent.

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                                  #17
                                  Comedians who can act

                                  Coogan was very good in The Fix where he played the reporter Peter Campling.

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                                    #18
                                    Comedians who can act

                                    There seems to be a lot of mistaking "comedians" for "comedy actors" in this thread as there's a huge difference between stand up, which is interactive and involves breaking the "fourth wall" and comedy acting, which is the same as normal acting but being funny.

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                                      #19
                                      Comedians who can act

                                      Apologies, didn't mean that last post to come across quite as patronizing as is probably does.

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                                        #20
                                        Comedians who can act

                                        One of the best examples I know of an "actor" doing comedy is Robert de Niro in "King of Comedy", whereas one of the worst examples I know of is De Niro in whatever that appalling piece of shit is in which he plays Ben Stiller's prospective father in law (Meet the parents?)

                                        I have no idea what this tells us

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                                          #21
                                          Comedians who can act

                                          That De Niro is only as good as the script he's given?

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                                            #22
                                            Comedians who can act

                                            So, proper stand-ups who can act, then? A Tratorello says, that's a much narrower field.

                                            Leaving the scripts and what they otherwise do aside, I seem to remember Lee Evans being pretty good in some film or other. Jack Dee's not too bad either and Peter Kay is very good as well. Although I'm not sure how many of them trained as actors and then took up stand-up.

                                            It's funny how it pans out. Take Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer - they're both about as funny as each other when they're doing their usual thing, but Reeves is clearly a more natural actor than Mortimer.

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                                              #23
                                              Comedians who can act

                                              I don't know that it's that small a field. Ken Dodd's been good in stuff, I gather, and I think Russ Abbott has as well. Indeed, it sometimes seems as if stand-up is just more difficult; as if once you've done that, "mere" acting might be less of a challenge.

                                              Back when I used to do acty things, I never did stand-up, but I was in a semipro production of Comedians, playing a stand-up and doing his act. It was a fascinatingly different feeling, even that.

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                                                #24
                                                Comedians who can act

                                                ad hoc wrote:
                                                I have no idea what the received wisdom is, but I think Hugh Laurie is fucking superb as House. (Mind you I can't decide if it's his acting or just a fantastically drawn character, or possibly both)
                                                Indeed. And because you can't have one without the other, it's worth noting that Stephen Fry has serious chops too.

                                                Lenny Henry played Othello in a production at the WYPH in Leeds recently, I think it transferred to the West End at some point. Reviews were very good.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Comedians who can act

                                                  And yet when Dave Lee Travis played MacBeth, the response wasn't quite so positive.

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