20-446: Mark Adrian Tavener (8 July 1954 – 18 October 2007) was an English writer, humorist , and dramatist best known for his BBC radio and television series In the Red ( BBC Radio Four , 1995-1999/ BBC Two , 1998) and Absolute Power (BBC Radio Four, 2000-2006/BBC Two 2005–2007), both of which came out of his PG Wodehouse Prize nominated novel In the Red ( Hutchinson , 1989). Tavener
40-453: A Wodehouse-style novel. Mark Twain (pen name of Samuel Langhorn Clemens, 1835–1910) was widely considered the "greatest humorist" the U.S. ever produced, as noted in his New York Times obituary. It's a distinction that garnered wide agreement, as William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature ". The United States national cultural center, the John F. Kennedy Center for
60-628: A book of humorous essays and short stories, in 1977 (published 1979). He wrote his first humorous play Picasso at the Lapin Agile in 1993, and wrote various pieces in The New Yorker magazine in the 1990s. He later wrote more humorous plays and two novellas. Hugh Laurie (born 1959) is an English comic actor who worked for many years in partnership with Stephen Fry . He is a fan of the English humorist P. G. Wodehouse , and has written
80-474: A series of murders during a FIFA World Cup at Wembley Stadium, a summit of EU leaders and an upcoming general election, which he wrote alone. The three-part television series In the Red ( BBC Two , 1998), was adapted by Malcolm Bradbury without input from Tavener, who was working with Schlesinger on a second six-part sequel series In the Chair ( BBC Radio 4 , 1998), about George Cragge's investigation into
100-505: A series of murders of dentists linked to New Labour policy. A third and final six-part sequel series In the End ( BBC Radio 4 , 1999), about George Cragge's investigation into a series of murders of journalists, was written by Tavener and produced by Schlesinger and Dawn Ellis. Tavener reunited with executive producer Paul Schlesinger and producer Dawn Ellis to create the spin-off series Absolute Power (BBC Radio Four, 2000–2006) featuring
120-450: A story; the comedian generally concentrates on jokes designed to invoke instantaneous laughter. The humorist is primarily a writer of books, newspaper or magazine articles or columns , stage or screen plays, and may occasionally appear before an audience to deliver a lecture or narrate a written work. The comedian always performs for an audience, either in live performance, audio recording, radio, television, or film. Phil Austin , of
140-402: A vaudeville comedian who created the character Uncle Josh Weathersby and toured circuses and medicine shows . He befriended Twain and Rogers, and in 1898 became the first comedian to make sound recordings , on Edison Records . Garry Moore (1915–1993), known as a television comedian who hosted several variety and game shows , after his 1977 retirement became a regular humor columnist for
160-468: A writing career and gain notability as a humorist. Some examples are: Will Rogers (1879–1935) was a vaudeville comedian who started doing humorous political and social commentary, and became a famous newspaper columnist and radio personality during the Great Depression . He is an exception to the education rule, as he only completed a tenth grade education. Cal Stewart (1856–1919) was
180-424: Is performing to an audience for laughter. Humor is the quality which makes experiences provoke laughter or amusement, while comedy is a performing art . The nineteenth-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer lamented the misuse of humor (a German loanword from English) to mean any type of comedy. A humorist is adept at seeing the humor in a situation or aspect of life and relating it, usually through
200-626: The BBC , drawing on his early experiences working for the BBC and the Liberal Party . Working with comedy-writer Peter Baynham he later adapted this into a seven-part radio series of the same name ( BBC Radio 4 , 1995), which was produced by Paul Schlesinger. He reunited with Schlesinger for the six-part sequel series In the Balance ( BBC Radio 4 , 1997), about George Cragge's investigation into
220-595: The autobiography Smilet er den korteste afstand ("The Smile is the Shortest Distance") with Niels-Jørgen Kaiser. Peter Ustinov (1921–2004) was an English comic actor who wrote several humorous plays and film scripts. Woody Allen (born 1935), known as a comedian and filmmaker, early in his career worked as a staff writer for humorist Herb Shriner . He also wrote short stories and cartoon captions for magazines such as The New Yorker . Steve Martin (born 1945), comedian and actor, wrote Cruel Shoes ,
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#1732801743220240-547: The comedy group the Firesign Theatre , expressed his thoughts about the difference in 1993 liner notes to the Fighting Clowns album: To me, there is a great difference between a humorist and a clown, and I had hoped that life for the Firesign Theatre would have led more toward the world of Mark Twain than the world of Beepo. The humorist is a happy soul; he comments from the sidelines of life, safe behind
260-399: The course of their careers. Notable humorists include: Humorist A humorist is an intellectual who uses humor , or wit , in writing or public speaking . A raconteur is one who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way. Henri Bergson writes that a humorist's work grows from viewing the morals of society. The term comedian is generally applied to one who
280-405: The keyboard or pen; not forced to mold his thinking to the direct response of an audience, he has indirection on his side. He has time to think. Beepo, on the other hand, takes his chances directly facing—or mooning—the audience; a buffoon, a patsy, a performer, he is out in the open and his audience, unlike a humorist's, becomes necessarily half-friend and half-enemy. Sometimes a comedian will adopt
300-465: The newspaper The Island Packet of Northeast Harbor, Maine , with a column titled "Mumble, Mumble". He later released a book of his columns under the same name in the early 1980s. Victor Borge (1909–2000) was a Danish-American comedian known for bringing humor to classical music . He wrote three books, My Favorite Intermissions and My Favorite Comedies in Music (both with Robert Sherman ), and
320-438: The one-off special, Tavener and producer Dawn Ellis created two six-part series of High Table, Lower Orders (BBC Radio Four, 2005–2006), featuring a murder mystery at a Cambridge College similar to the one the writer had attended. His final work was a collaboration with the comedian Steve Punt on the four-part series, His Master's Voice (BBC Radio Four, 2007), set in the offices of a fictional Conservative magazine, which
340-467: The supporting characters of Charles Prentis and Martin McCabe from In the Red and its sequels In the Chair and In the End , who having left their previous positions as BBC executives have set up their own public relations firm. After three series on radio, Schlesinger produced a television adaptation of the same name (BBC Two, 2003–2005), although, as with In the Red , Tavener was not involved in
360-472: The writing of this. Following a one-year break for production of the first series of the television adaptation, Tavener reunited with Ellis for the fourth and final series of the original radio programme. A second and final series of the television adaptation followed without input from Tavener. The franchise was later brought to a conclusion in a one-off radio special written by Tavener and produced by Ellis. Between Absolute Power ' s final radio series and
380-521: Was born and brought up in Plymouth and educated at Plymouth College , before attending Peterhouse, Cambridge . Tavener wrote a satirical novel, In the Red ( Hutchinson , 1989), about fictional BBC Crime Reporter George Cragge's investigation into the serial killing of London bank managers, a small political party contesting a by-election, and a plan to overthrow the Director-General of
400-428: Was produced by Dawn Ellis. Tavener died of cancer on 18 October 2007. List of humorists A humorist ( American English ) or humourist ( British English ) is an intellectual who uses humor in writing or public speaking. Humorists are distinct from comedians , who are show business entertainers whose business is to make an audience laugh, though it is possible for some persons to occupy both roles in
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