84 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
84 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
Rowan Atkinson's HBO Comedy Hour Special.
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Following is a report from Marc Midura (marc@claven.cambridge.ibm.com)
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on the taping of Rowan Atkinson's HBO COmedy Hour special:
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I was at HBO's 'On Location' taping of Rowan Atkinson Dec 19 & 20 at
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Huntington Theatre in Boston. It was all 'skits' and approximately 2 hrs long
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with breaks. Most skits were just Rowan Atkinson monologue with 3-4 done
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with Angus Deayton. From what I can remember there were about 10-15 skits
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in total. I thought the performance was hilarious. One thing that I will
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let you in on, because it will be edited out. While Rowan was performing
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his one-man skit (priest giving funeral) with curtain started to fall.
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It started to come down slow at first, then sped up. Everyone thought that
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it was going to come down in front of him and be part of the skit. However
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he was standing directly beneath it. Finally someone in the front yelled,
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"Look out!" and Rowan managed to get out of the way just in time. He put
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on a really strange face and said, "Well, I didn't expect THAT to happen"
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and then went on with jokes about the curtain as it related to the skit.
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Below is the flier that was given out at the show:
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HBO's 'On Location' taping of
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Rowan Atkinson
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Britain's Most Popular Comic Actor
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December 19&20
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Rowan Atkinson was born on the twelfth night of Christmas in 1955 (his middle
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name is Sebastian after Shakespeare's character in Twelfth Night). He studied
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Electrical Engineering at Newcastle and Oxford. He gained the critic's
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attention playing the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with the Oxford Review in
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1977. In 1978 he joined the BBC's Award winning _Not the Nine O'Clock News_
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(which would later become _Not Necessarily the News_ in the United States) and
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in 1981 became the youngest person ever to have a one-man show in London's
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West End.
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In 1983 he began working with Richard Curtis on the 'situation tragedy'
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_The Blackadder_ for BBC television.. Over the next seven years, the
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Blackadder spawned four successful television series: _The Blackadder_ (1983),
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_Blackadder II_ (1986), _Blackadder the Third_ (1987) and _Blackadder Goes
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Forth_ (1990). The Blackadder series has won three ACE awards for Best Comedy
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on American Cable television and Blackadder Goes Forth won the 1990 Best Comedy
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Series Award from the British Academy.
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After retiring Blackadder in 1989, Atkinson created a new character,
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Mr. Bean which has subsequently launched a popular comedy series. _Mr. Bean_,
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_The Return of Mr. Bean_, and _The Curse of Mr. Bean_ have been widely honored
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with awards including the 1990 Golden Rose of Montreux, and won 1991
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International Emmy award.
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His stage appearances include the title role in Larry Shue's _The Nerd_
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in 1985 in the West End and Broadway in 1986 in a one-man show called _Rowan
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Atkinson at the Atkinson_. In 1989 Rowan Atkinson completed a six month run
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_The Sneeze_ a collection of humorous one-act plays my Anton Chekov in the
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West End.
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On film, Rowan Atkinson appeared as the British Consul in the Sean
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Connery James Bond hit _Never Say Never Again_ in 1982. He was recently seen
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in Steven Wright's 1989 Oscar Award Winning Best Short Film _The Appointment
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of Dennis Jenning's_, _The Tall Guy_ with Jeff Goldblum and Nick Roeg's film
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_The Witches_.
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Angus Deayton - Writer/performer Angus Deayton has worked with Mr. Atkinson as
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his stage partner for over five years, taking him to Australia, New Zealand,
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th Middle East, Broadway and London's West End with different Atkinson revues.
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He has numerous television and radio credits in the United Kingdom including
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eight series of the award-winning BBC comedy show _Radio Active_ and current
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television comedy series KYTV and _Alexis Sayles Stuff_. He is the presenter
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of the hugely successful topical quiz show _Have I Got News For You_ (BBC).
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Howard Goodall - Musical Director Howard Goodall's stage work includes Rowan
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Atkinson in Revue 1977-91 in the United Kingdom and on World Tours. He has
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also worked with Comic Relief 1986 and prductions of _As You Like It_ and
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_King Lear_ with the Oxford Stage Company. For television, Mr. Goodall credits
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include the four _Blackadder_ series and _Not the Nine O'Clock News_.
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Richard Curtis - Writer Richard Curtis started working with Rowan Atkinson in
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1976 as one of the main writers of _Not the Nine O'Clock News' and went on
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the write the _Blackadder_ series for BBC television. He is the screenwriter
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for the Jeff Goldblum, Emma Thompson and Rowan Atkinson film _The Tall Guy_.
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He continues his work with Rowan Atkinson as one of the writers of the
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_Mr. Bean_ series.
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Director - Tommy Schlamme
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Set Designer - Will Bowen
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Lighting Designer - Alan Branton
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Theatre Lighting Consultant - Mark Henderson
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