Brief History of British Stand-up Comedy

In the UK the 1960s saw the growth of satire boom, including the creation of The Establishment Club, which, amongst other things, gave British audiences their first taste of extreme American stand-up comedy from Lenny Bruce. In the 1970's the growth of stand-up comedy in the UK was fuelled by local working men's clubs, where the style of humour was of the smutty crude mother in law style, often with quite racist in content, and much of which would be considered unacceptable today. A breakthrough British TV show called The Comedians saw many of the club circuit comics, such as Stan Boardman, George Roper, Roy Walker, Tom O'Connor, Frank Carson, Jim Bowen, Charlie Williams, Mike Reid, Duggie Brown, Lenny Windsor, Colin Crompton, Ken Goodwin and Bernard Manning, becoming major stars based on stand-up comedy performances on this TV show.

In the early 1980's, with Britain going through an economic recession and the strong often unpopular leadership of it's first woman Prime Minister Margret Thatcher, came the emergence of 'alternative' comedy. Turning it's back on the style of the 70's comedians, it was a comedy perhaps characterized by more character-based, surreal, or absurd humour as opposed to observations of everyday life - non-gag-orientated but completely irreverent and often very anti establishment. Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, Alexei Sayle, Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson were the best known alternative stand-ups of the time.

In 1989, however, Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer more or less killed alternative comedy by proving that you didn't need to swear and be political and rude as an alternative to mother-in-law jokes and during the 90's, for all their foul-mouthed socialist fury, the alternative comedians of the early 1980s became part of the establishment.

So to the present, and it seems as though the British stand-up comedy scene has settled into a happy combination of alternative and more traditional styles of comedy. Encompassing the irreverent and mixing in gag based humour, observational comedy and political satire. All of which now find their niche within the mainstream. The United Kingdom continues its long and rich heritage of stand-up comedians, and continues to be considered the stand-up centre of the world, due to the ease with which a comic can make a living. Read more on Dawn French Comedy.

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Dawn French Weight Loss

As you probably already know, there are lots of different ways you can try and lose weight. One of the most drastic ways, and one generally reserved for those people who are seriously obese, is weight loss surgery. However in this article I want to discuss why this type of surgery, and indeed weight loss supplements, can easily be avoided.

The fact is that surgery, and I'm thinking here of gastric band surgery in particular, can give you instant weight loss. However there are some possible side effects and it is not without it's risks, just like any major operation.

Similarly if you take weight loss pills to help you lose weight, they can help you lose more weight, but they also have certain side effects. Furthermore they may not be suitable for everyone, and they may not even help you to lose weight anyway because some people find them to be a waste of time.

That's why it's always best to use the tried and tested methods of losing weight. These are safe methods you can use that have no side effects whatsoever. In other words eating healthy meals and getting more exercise mentioned on Dawn French Weight Loss Book.

The whole concept of weight loss is quite straight forward. You are probably overweight because you have consumed far too many calories every day, and not got enough exercise to burn off these extra calories. So it stands to reason that the best way to lose weight again is to consume a low calorie diet every day, and try and burn off a lot more calories through exercise.

You don't need to pay thousands to have a gastric band fitted. If you are heavily overweight then you can simply start walking every day. Leave the car in the garage and start walking down to the shops instead of driving, for example. You will soon find that you are able to lose weight if you start getting some form of exercise every day.

If you are just mildly overweight then you will be in even better shape to do lots of exercise because you will be able to do a lot of vigorous activities such as running or cycling, for instance. This will help you burn even more calories.

Anyway the point is that you don't need to buy any weight loss pills or consider undergoing surgery if you are overweight. You just need to take a look at your diet and make some changes so that you are consuming less calories overall, and start burning more calories through exercise. This is how millions of people have lost weight in the past, and it will always be an effective (and safe) way of losing weight. Read more about Dawn French weight loss.

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Why Don't Diet Bring Permanent Weight Loss

"What is wrong with me? Why can't I lose weight permanently?"

If you've ever asked yourself this question, then you've probably also wondered:

"I have such ability to make other changes in my life, why do I struggle so much with this one?"

"I have a great tenacity to stick at other things in my life, how come I am so weak willed when it comes to losing weight?"

"How come other people lose weight but I still struggle?"

Well, after years of being in this same dilemma I figured out that it's NOT that we are weak willed, or lack the tenacity to lose weight permanently. The fact of the matter is, we have been using a mindset of thought processes and a range of habits that work against our motivation, rather than with it.

What you have probably not noticed is the 98% of people, like you, who put all the weight back on and more within 2-3 years! Like me you may well have believed the propaganda that you can be a perfect size 10 if only you try harder, which has meant you have spent years ignoring reality!

Motivation for change and lose weight permanently is NOT about working harder it is about working smarter. The key is NOT to keep repeating the same patterns of habits and thoughts that are working against you. It is also about being realistic regarding what you can change. Foremost it is about loving yourself now NOT at some distant time when you are a desired weight.

To effect any significant motivation and long-lasting change to your shape, size or weight you firstly need to accept 3 things...

1. The reality of 'What is'

2. That fear holds us back from achieving the changes we desire

3. Change is an ongoing process NOT A DESTINATION!

By the reality of 'What is', I mean accepting you body shape and the assets you were genetically born to with. That includes, for many people, accepting that the body changes shape with age. It is also about accepting that you are unique, beautiful and different. So comparing yourself to others is a complete waste of time and energy!

Accepting 'What is' and finding ways of learning to love all of you as you are now, is essential to sustained weight loss motivation. Of course that doesn't mean not having a clear vision or goal of the changes you want to create, just that they need to be realistic and achievable.

For some, but not all, there are fears holding you back! Lots of them that stop you achieving the permanent weight loss you so long for. The problem is that some fears are so well hidden that you probably do not even know they are there! In the book 'FAT, Exploding the Myths' by Lisa Colles, Dawn French describes her fear of "not knowing who she was or how to use her body" when she reduced in size to a 10-12 for her wedding day. Our fears come in all shapes and sizes and for some, acknowledging them is an essential part of the change process.

One of the biggest barriers to change, however, is seeing it as an enforced period of stress, struggle, scarcity or conflict that eventually has an end. Learning to love change in all its facets and seeing the learning in each day is so important. Accepting the joys of new experiences and being excited in the knowledge that it is not the destination that is important but the ongoing journey. These are the keys to weight loss success and sustained motivation just read more book about Dawn French Books.

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Leadership Lesson

One important part of being a good leader is to also be a good teacher. In a very funny video titled "Ponies" by the comedy team of Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, we see two hapless, but happy, riders trying to teach their horses how to jump. Because they are ineffective at teaching, their horses perceive them as leaders that can be ignored. 

  

Dawn's character is riding Peter Pan. She walks him up to a jump and asks him to go over. We had seen earlier in the skit that she had little control over Peter Pan. He's just as happy to ignore her and graze. Dawn's first mistake is to try to teach something when she doesn't have Peter Pan's attention or respect. She should work on that before she even tries to teach him something. 

  

Jennifer's character is riding Jigsaw. In comparison to Peter Pan who wants to just graze, Jigsaw wants to go. Jennifer ask Jigsaw to go over a low jump, and he just runs around it. Apparently, he is not ready to do this jump. She could ask him first to just go over the rail with it on the ground. When he is happy doing that, she can go for more by going over a slightly higher jump. This allows Jigsaw to gain confidence in himself as well is in Jennifer. 

  

At one point, Jigsaw knocks down the rail of the jump. Jen calls him a "stupid bugger." As a leader, she is not taking responsibility for her own actions that cause Jigsaw to "misbehave." Jigsaw is just doing the best he can with what he knows. It's the rider's responsibility to make sure that her horse is ready to perform the tasks she asks him for. When she doesn't take that responsibility, she fails as a leader.  This tales can be read also in Dawn French Book.

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Dawn French

Sometimes we can learn serious lessons from comedy. In a very funny video titled "Ponies" by the comedy team of Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, we can learn some lessons about leadership. At one point in the video, Dawn's horse, Peter Pan, ignores her and grazes, while Dawn imagines winning the Badminton Horse Trials 3-day event. When she can't even get Peter Pan's head up, she tells him he is wonderful anyway. She leans down on him and changes her fantasy to crossing the desert.

Dawn's character makes several leadership mistakes here. First, she asks Peter Pan to lift his head and to move off. When he doesn't she just allows him to keep grazing. At that moment, Peter Pan knows she is not an effective leader, and does not have to do anything she asks. Second, she stops and cuddles him when he disobeys. Again, that teaches him that it's OK to keep grazing.

The most egregious error Dawn French makes is that she has completely unrealistic goals. Peter Pan does not know what the Badminton event is, nor does he have the physical abilities to compete there. So, Dawn's fantasy is harmless.

What if she were running a business and set unrealistic goals? It would be one thing to stretch her employees expectations, like "We will increase our sales 10% over the next year." If she is an effective leader, her employees would be excited by the possibility. But, if she said, "We will triple our sales this month," he employees would just write her off and ignore her, just like Peter Pan kept on grazing. If the leader proposes goals that are completely unreasonable, she will lose her following.

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