Sunday, May 22, 2011

Does this mean you wont visit again?

jim davidsonIf your wondering to whom I refer, its Jim Davidson, a comedian who's has strong views on Margate, last Friday's Gazette had a story about Jim Davidson's Blog posting which appears to be criticising the Turner Contemporary, this comment of his seems to encapsulate his mood "What the f--k is an arty-farty art gallery doing in Margate? 

A thought provoking question, still here's another,  Turner Contemporary attracted 80,000 visitors during its first month, could Jim Davidson attract that many visitors to Margate?

Maybe he would and could draw that many, however the chances are they would be a different sort of audience, what he and others don't seem to grasp is that there is a market and demand for art, as there is for more traditional seaside entertainment, the gallery is here and has proved popular, Dreamland is next on the list, the two will help reverse the decline, I must say there is little I agree with on Davidson's blog accept about the Winter Gardens inadequacy as a theatre.

23 comments:

  1. Love him or hate him, Jim Davidson can still pack out venues well over 30 years into his career. I doubt if TC will be packing them in next year.

    Good to see that he praises the Winter Gardens staff in his blog post (even though I don't work there anymore).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well said Tony,who cares what Jim Davidson thinks,we can all see positive change in Margate,i just back from walk on beach with little dog,sun coming up,amazing..

    ReplyDelete
  3. Davidson is out of place in the modern world take this excerpt from his blog talking about Margate "It became known as the asylum seeker capital of the world. The locals were outnumbered by Sudanese refugees, who incidentally didn’t give a toss about a funfair or a decent hotel

    Not only does that seem to incite but is complete nonsense

    Well I live in Margate and he doesn't speak for me or anyone I know.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tony check out my Facebook friend Dr Laurence Clark re Jim Davidson.

    Jim though as an ardent tory consistently misses a rich vein of comic material. Thanet tories.

    "When I left school I never had no qualifications. Just had to make my way in life by hard effin work mate. Plus Our Cyril soon printed me some qualies up. My mate Jock, who likes dresin up as a soldier Gawd bless the real armed forces, he got a job as an engineer at Sericol. Larf or do what ? Their personnel geezer couldn't even spot forged qualies using Sericol printing ink. Course Jock became a councillor. Planning committee naturally. He only chinned an 80 year old woman councillor for disagreeing wiv him at a planning meeting. Had to close ranks on dat one. Send Bully Billy up the court to lie for him. Then Labour wanted to end council funding of Jock's little pretend army cadets. Our lads voted against but the funding was ended. Two true blues voted to keep our own little private cadet youth group. Can't think why people ask about it. Purely political. Nothing to do with one cllr being a kitten killer and the other facing child porn charges in the most serious category."

    "Ran into Chalky the other day. Caught up a bit. Turns out he went to evening classes and then did an OU degree. He looks back very fondly of when I used to take the mickey out of his Caribbean accent. But funny thing he said to me ... Jim you still a loser mate"

    ReplyDelete
  5. The funniest thing I saw him do was AFTER a show at Margate Winter Gardens 3 or 4 years back, when I was a doorman there...

    He'd agreed to meet his yobs - I mean fans - in the bar after the show, but kept them waiting & waiting. Eventually he sauntered out, poked his head round the door, said to me "Nah!" - then got in his car & drove off! Of course I got lots of stick from the twats in the bar, but it still made me laugh.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jim doesn't pack out venues.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12784399

    ReplyDelete
  7. Retired you are still a boring old fart trundling out the same old rubbish however you dress it up.

    ReplyDelete
  8. You may care to listen on BBC iPlayer to the Radio Kent Pat Marsh show on sat the 21st where traders are interviewed post the first month. (2hrs 16 mins approx in). Many traders now say its back to normal trade.

    ReplyDelete
  9. If you cant make money out of 1000 people passing a day your not selling the right stock.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yes, I'm aware that not all of Jim's gigs are a success, though I suspect that not every day down at TC (even after a month) is that busy either.

    I'd love to know more about people's thoughts after they've been there. Most the people I've spoken to have been rather disappointed & seem in no hurry to visit again (unlike visitors to The Winter Gardens).

    ReplyDelete
  11. Jim Davidson thinks to be working class you have to be a misogynistic, bigotted, philistine. He believes that this is how us plebs are, every last one of us. That's probably why he is so irrelevant today and his fanbase consists of bitter and twisted reactionaries, none of whom have a clue about anything other than booze, footie and porn.

    He'd be the last person I'd want on my side in a debate over the relevancy of anything to do with art.

    ReplyDelete
  12. That's one way of looking at him 7:06, & I agree to a large extent... but I also somehow miss those un-PC days when it comes to comedy.

    When Stan Boardman performed at The Winter Gardens in his heyday an audience member literally died laughing. Believe me, there was no chance of that when Michael McIntyre played there.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Peter.

    Oh dear, Stan Boardman!...you'll be saying Bernard Manning was the King of Comedy next. Those "un-PC days when it comes to comedy"? I suppose you mean when comedians told jokes about wogs, pakis and how women were all moaning old bags who needed a good seeing to, never mind those mincing wooftas. God help us!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I can't recall Stan Boardman being a bigotted racist myself, nor Norman Wisdom, Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howerd... but they actually made people cry with laughter, something I rarely see the new breed do (& I've seen many of them up close). I like Jimmy Carr though, lovely bloke.

    ReplyDelete
  15. And Bernard Manning probably WAS the king of comedy, or at least one of them, just like Gary Glitter was one of the kings of glam rock. You can't rewrite history.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Peter

    Here's a link to Stan Boardman's wikipedia entry and mention of racist controversy:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Boardman

    You were talking about un-politically correct comedians and I doubt you can bracket Norman Wisdom, Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howerd in with that category.

    I really don't get your Gary Glitter analogy. Glitter was hardly perceived as dodgy in his heyday (pretty lame perhaps) whereas Manning was. Maybe you're the one trying to rewrite history?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Manning was seen as suitable primetime entertainment (The Wheeltappers & Shunters Club, The Comedians, etc). So maybe you're the one trying to rewrite history? ; )

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anyway, modern comedians like Frankie Boyle & Jimmy Carr make "jokes" about the disabled & child molestation instead of wogs & mother-in-laws. Is that really progress? I'm not so sure...

    ReplyDelete
  19. Peter

    What I was trying to say was that in hindsight (a wonderful thing, I know) Bernard Manning was still dodgy whereas it's only recently Glitter's crimes came to light. I remember, as a kid in the 70's, Bernard Manning was hated by the women in our house - maybe they were ahead of their time.

    Un-pc humour nowadays is supposedly done through the prism of irony whereas in the good old days it was just straightforward prejudice. I reckon this could be the coward's way out, which is why I'm not too keen on the likes of Frankie Boyle and Jimmy Carr.

    I suppose we are meant to look at what the likes of Frankie Boyle and Jimmy Carr are doing and then examine our own feelings towards the subject matter: why are we laughing along? I reckon Jerry Sadowitz did it better and it's time for this sort of comedy to move on.

    Like a lot of our culture, comedy seems stuck in a rut with nowhere to go, although there are some comedians around who don't have to resort to the lowest common denominator to get a laugh. Maybe it says a lot about us as a society or maybe I'm just getting harder to please as I become older?

    ReplyDelete
  20. I believe that Love Thy Neighbour & Till Death Us Do Part were intended to be ironic too, but that doesn't mean that all of their audience saw the irony...

    Personally I try not to analize comedy too much. If it makes me laugh then it makes me laugh.

    Anyway, I'm going to relax in front of the TV now & watch Mutiny On The Buses.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Jim Davison seems to be tame here, if he reaily wanted to make fun on the town it should have been reference to how bad the locals love da drugs and alcohol....

    ReplyDelete