I Read Books: And Away

And Away

Comedian Bob Mortimer’s autobiography. It begins and is loosely framed by the time in 2015 that, trying to get into shape for a tour with partner Vic Reeves, he has a chest twinge and goes to the doctor. It turns out he needs a triple heart bypass operation.

It goes well as shown by firstly, this book, and secondly him having a successful fishing show with another friend, comedian Paul Whitehouse, that grew out of their fishing trips during Bob’s recovery. But it does make him reconsider his life and priorities leading to, amongst other things, writing this book.

As a boy he was good at football,  shy, but makes some friends and has some fun adventures. There’s also a bit of tragedy (estranged from some family because they disapproved of his parents’ marriage, and his dad dying when he was quite young). He becomes a modestly good lawyer, slightly drifting until at a comedy night he teams up with Vic Reeves (Jim Moir). When Vic gains the attention of various media people and decides to put on some shows in a big theatre, he invites Bob to join him in both performing and also writing.

He has a go at talking about their style of comedy, suggesting that it’s just old fashioned messing about and nonsense (absurdity maybe?) rather than postmodern or ironic or even especially a riposte to regular stand up. And I guess so, and that might be why I found their sketch and quiz shows better than when they did a sitcom or comedy drama, though Bob suggests that it’s because he was bad at acting.

Read This: For a lot of fun stories, and some less so, written in an easy, breezy style
Don’t Read This: Bob doesn’t dish the dirt on anyone really, except possibly himself