I almost posted this guy the other day when the word of the day was lampoon. I loved this clip because Shirley Bassey just gives up trying to keep a straight face.
This is Freddie Starr – I don’t know if he ever went international so I’ll give a little backstory. In the early 1960s he was the (straight) lead singer of a Merseybeat group The Midnighters. Out of te same stable as the Beatles, The Midnighters toured the same Hamburg clubs and released three singles, but none of them charted.
By the late 1960s, Starr had reinvented himself as a comedy singer, and in my youth (80s) he appeared regularly of TV variety shows. One of his specialities was Adolf Hitler in Wellies. He only died a year ago. That he could get Shirley Bassey to make a fool of herself with him shows how highly he was regarded. Lastly, what a voice she has.
And here he is what happened when he met Muhammad Ali:
Oi! I’m …. I’m…. I’m speechless. thanks for the breath taking laugh today!
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did he ever get to the US? I can imagine he was kinda specialised… š¤£
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I’ve never heard of him before actually, but I could see the appeal. BUT. I ‘get’ (fairly well, not totally) “British” humor. A lot of Americans don’t. And I’m sure vice versa…our humor over here might appear odd to folks in your country too. I LOVED the reaction he got from Muhummad Ali though…. and that whole song with the lady? A gut buster.
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The first one I will have to say that I couldn’t stomach. Seeing the swastikas I just couldn’t. The one with Muhammad Ali was really funny.
I do usually enjoy British humor.
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Possibly we are more sensitive to that now, because to my knowledge this didn’t cause even the slightest controversy at the time (which I guess was late 70s/early 80s) when there would have been many more people around who had a direct memory of the Nazis. But I know exactly what you mean.
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Those were funny! I’d never heard of this guy before, though. That last story, at the end I jumped too. š
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No it looks like he didn’t get to the USA, although we all loved him. I wonder why?
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Never heard of Freddie, but that was just too funny! Reminds me a bit of our late great, Tim Conway. Props to Shirley for playing along! š
Enjoyed the clip with Ali too. Freddie gave him a good scare! š
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I shall have to look up Jim Conway. I guess it’s safe to say that comedians don’t travel. sono d’accordosono d’accordosono d’accordosono d’accordosono d’accordosono d’accordosono d’accordosono d’accordosono d’accordoIsono d’accordosono d’accordot makes me think how significant the internet has been – everything is now global where before, some things definitely were not.
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