I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down. Copyright: BBC
I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down

I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down

  • Radio documentary
  • BBC Radio 4
  • 2013
  • 1 episode

Rich Morton talks to some of Britain's best-loved stand-up comics about their memories of the nightmare gigs. Features Rich Morton, Jo Brand, Tim Clark, Jack Dee, Mike Gunn and more.

Press clippings

While one doesn't like to laugh at other people's misfortunes, that was pretty much encouraged during I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down, in which comedian and musician Rich Morton chatted to a variety of stand-ups about those nightmares gigs that remain impossible to forget.

While this was a thoroughly entertaining half-hour, Morton rarely gave any of his interviewees a namecheck, which became frustrating for the listener. At the top of the show, we were told he was going to be talking to Jo Brand, Tim Clark, Jack Dee, Milton Jones, Lucy Porter and Ian Stone. True, it was easy to know when Dee, Brand and Porter were contributing, but the rest of the time it was a bit of a guessing game.

However, aside from this hiccup was a stream of amusing anecdotes about disastrous corporate gigs - prompting one comedian to try to escape by hiding in a dumb waiter - horrible hecklers and that one person in the audience who doesn't laugh.

Dee was in particularly good form, describing how if a Comedy Store gig went wrong in the early days of his career, he would tackle the challenge of walking through the audience in order to leave the venue by wearing his motorcycle helmet, as if he had just delivered a pizza.

Lisa Martland, The Stage, 5th November 2013

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