Your favourite joke from a comedian?

Quote: cod'ead "The "old pro" comedians or comics as they preferred to be known, were masters at the craft of identifying their audience and modifying their act to suit. Monkhouse not only had a vast collection of gags, he also had an incredible memory, this enabled his ability to quickly change to his surroundings, like a chameleon.

During the early 70s I worked at Centre Bar in Hull and the hotel was contracted to provide the accommodation for the local Bailey's nightclub. I consider myself fortunate to have met most of the top comics of that era, the vast majority of whom were down to earth and naturally funny people.'"

...the second division of which was the working mens club circuit on which a semi-professional (ie "I've got a day job) performer could earn a nice little top-up to the weekly wage with a couple of bookings every weekend and with the sheer number of clubs in any given district could play a different club every weekend and not repeat a booking for at least a year, by which time it was time to book them all again, often with the same act.

My dad loved his working mens clubs, was an amatuer comedian/singer himself and never needed asking twice to get up on stage, Saturday and Sunday evenings in our house when I was a kid were spent with him browsing "The Club Book", a monthly booklet for the district in which every club listed their "turns" for that month, he'd pick from several dozen clubs in the Leeds district book to see a desired act, for free - for free, I emphasise that bit because with his CIU membership (a couple of quid a year) he could get into any of the clubs, free, to watch an act, for free - try doing that now

He also served his time as a concert secretary and so knew many of the comedians (his chosen forte) on the circuit at that time, the best of whom were every bit as good as any comedian playing the arenas today (and becoming millionaires in the process) that you care to name, to pick just two Paul Shane (of Hi-de-hi fame) and Bobby Knut (no spelling mistake intended) both from Rotherham, both well crafted stand-up comedians, both toured West and South Yorkshire WMC's for years and years doing basically the same act on a twelve month rotation, both knew exactly how to play their audiences because they'd learned the hard way decades ago by standing in front of a rowdy audience with crap jokes and being either boo'ed off or paid off, Paul Shane may have been a crap actor on TV (and he admitted the same) but he was by far the best stand-up on the circuit for many years.