#lise mayer

[a-a-a-anon]

appreciation post for Lise Mayer!! she co-wrote The Young Ones (and The Bachelor Boys book, additional material like when they did Comic Relief, etc), which is well known. but she also wrote for other things in the alternative comedy scene like Rik Mayall and Ben Elton's comedy tour (source: BBC Breakfast Time interview)! and, something I didn't know until recently: she co-wrote/wrote for Kevin Turvey! she's not credited in his television appearances, but see below for sources.

i really loved the podcast episode she did with Alexei Sayle about TYO, you gain a lot of insight into her perspective! she also mentions misogynistic treatment like being asked to go make tea when they were doing script readings, not getting invited to a big BBC party because it was presumed she'd be Rik's plus-one, and getting groped at the BBC bar. it pissed me off on her behalf and partly prompted this post.

some specific accolades/accreditation/fun facts:

Rik crediting her with writing/conceiving the Kevin Turvey non-joke "All right, biting political satire: What do Lech Walesea and Menachem Begin have in common? They’ve both got foreign names! What do you mean it’s not funny?" (x)

Alexei Sayle in Thatcher Stole My Trousers crediting Lise with co-writing Turvey: "Lise was, like Linda for mine, a vital part of Rik’s career, co-writing both The Young Ones and Rik’s character Kevin Turvey..."

a 1987 source for Lise co-writing Turvey: "The assumption that women do not write comedy scripts was one with which Lise Mayer, co-writer of The Young Ones television series, has also had to contend. She started writing for Rik Mayall’s Kevin Turvey in the television series A Kick Up the Eighties..." (x)

Rowland Rivron (comedian who toured with The Comic Strip gang and lived with Rik and Lise) in What the f*** did I do last night?: "[Lise] also had the unenviable job of standing at the side of the stage when Rik was performing, and jotting down anything he said that was unscripted. If it got a laugh, it would be woven into the next night’s routine."

the only time i've ever seen a Rik Mayall/Ade Edmondson/Lise Mayer writing credit: for a poem called Distance which was collected in this anthology! Rik and Ade seem to have acted it out (or at least a version of it) in this 20th Century Coyote performance

Rik on Lise writing TYO: "‘She discovers different things: the comedy of embarrassment and awkwardness – she draws out the cheating and stealing that goes on in the house.’" (x) (Lise also says her "favorite comedy was always the comedy of embarrassment" in the Alexei Sayle podcast)

Rik: "... Lise Mayer wrote this great scene where I find a tampon in a handbag and it's my birthday party and I think it's a present because my character is Rick, who is such a git, he didn't know." (x)

Helen Lederer in Not That I'm Bitter, writing about being on The Young Ones: "[Lise] was known to be the brains behind it all, particularly the more surreal elements…"

she and Rik chose the bands (x)

Lise: “We’d have a table read at which point we’d discover that the script ran over an hour long, and then I’d have a sleepless night editing it.” Alexei: “You did that?” Lise: “Usually me, yeah…” (she later explains they'd present the script Monday and rehearsals were Tuesday, Wednesday-so she literally had one night to edit!) (x)

facts from the blu-ray commentary tracks:

Rick's yellow dungarees in Interesting were based off a picture of Lise in a similar pair

Lise wrote an essay about the tampon joke in Interesting so that the BBC didn't cut the scene (though they still edited it)

Paul Jackson (producer) credits Lise with arguing "you are seriously telling me that we cannot refer on television to something that happens to 50% of the population for about 30 years of their life? and we're not allowed to even refer to it" to make an executive back off about the tampon joke in a meeting

Lise came up with Neil's flowerpot covering in Nasty

Vyvyan/Vivian's name comes from Lise having lived in Vyvyan Terrace, Bristol

Lise thought of the cast switching costumes in Bambi (one of my favorite moments!!) (/end of commentary track facts)

this is guesswork, but i've seen Ben Elton and Rik Mayall's handwriting and i'm pretty sure the editing/handwriting on the bottom left on this script must be Lise's, which gives insight into what/how she wrote: (x)

i feel like it's easy for people to overlook or minimize Lise's impact, something that happens to female creators far too often. i hate when women's identities are framed around their association to a man-girlfriend to Rik in this case-which was the norm whenever i saw Lise discussed in articles/books/online discussions about TYO. it's important to know she was a writer and co-creator with her own identity and (underappreciated) contributions. The Young Ones (and Kevin Turvey, and things we don't even know she goes uncredited for) would not have been the same—or wouldn't have even existed—without her!

[slimylayne]

ive just noticed it says lise took this photo of baby rik and im going fucking insane

[neil-neil-orange-peel]

Lovely article ❤️💥

[scumbag-monthly]

Happy Birthday to Lise Mayer!

Born: 29th November 1957/9, in Chicago

TV: The Young Ones; The Last Resort; Paramount City; London Underground; The Fast Show; Saturday Zoo; Casualty

Books: Bachelor Boys; People I Have Shot; The Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book; Go to Bed With Jonathan Ross; Amassed Hysteria; In Search of Happiness

[la-cosmonauta-extraterrestre]

I keep coming back to this article from 2021 because it's an important topic.

It does mention, that for a while the centre of the scientific world was in Germany and one needed to know German to be a physicist-something the Nazis ruined forever.

It talks about how the United States became the centre of the scientific world after WWII and that cemented the place of English. I think that's problematic not just because of cultural Americentrism, but also because even if many prestigious universities and research institutes are in the United States, the reality is that the American people as a whole don't care about science, and the American government does not fund science as much (scaled to population) as in many European countries, South Korea, Israel, China (probably some other countries I'm forgetting).

The position of English as the only language of physics is problematic also because so many people can't read or write scientific papers in their own language (or in some countries, learn physics in their native language), but I'm not sure what the solution is, and this article does little to suggest a solution. In the late 19th century, western physicists needed to have a working knowledge of English, French and German to do physics. Today, with people around the world collaborating on physics papers and going to conferences, and with little barriers to collaboration between western and non-western scientists, one might need to have a working knowledge of 4-8 languages just to keep up with their narrow subfield of physics were it not for everything being in English.

[banffcentrelibraryandarchives]

SEPTEMBER ARTIST BOOK DISPLAY!

CCCP Cook Book: True Stories of Soviet Cuisine. Olga & Pavel Syutkin; translated by Ast A. Moore. [London] : Fuel Design & Publishing, 2015.

The Mental Health Cookbook. Finn Cunningham. [Los Angeles, California] : & Pens Press, 2015.

Artist's Cocktails. Ryan Gander, Phil Mayer. [London] : Dent-De-Leone, 2015.

Light and Flaky : Portrait of the Artist's Mother : A Cookbook. Lise Melhorn-Boe, Pauline Melhorn. [Toronto] : Transformer Press, 1982.

The Starving Artists' Cookbook. Paul Eidia, Melissa Eidia. [New York] : Eidia Books, 1991.

The Futurist Cookbook. F. T. Marinetti. [San Francisco] : Bedford Arts, 1989.

Very Food. Silvia Ziranek. [London] : Book Works, 1987.

Recipe Written from Memory 2. Ross Angus Macaulay, Perro Verlag. [Mayne Island, BC] : Perro Verlag Books by Artists, 2012.

Folly Acres Cook Book. Sue Webster; illustrated by Tim Nobel and Sue Webster. [London] : Other Criteria, 2015.

Type Pie: (A Vaguely Erotic Recipe for Disaster). Marine Parsons, Tara Bryan. [St. John's, Newfoundland] : Walking Bird Press, 2017.

[hislopchino]

What I’ve learnt: Angus Deayton

By Fiona Lensvelt

From The Times, 27th April 2019

The actor, comedian and TV host Angus Deayton, 63, presented the panel show Have I Got News for You, until he was dismissed in 2002 after tabloid allegations about his personal life. His career, which has spanned radio, television and film, began with Radio Active, which has been revived to mark its 40th anniversary. He has a son, Isaac, with his former partner Lise Mayer, and lives in north London.

When you start appearing on television, your life changes irrevocably. For me that came quite late in life, in my mid-thirties. I had spent most of my time on the radio or touring. Then Have I Got News for You began. I remember thinking, “Oh, this must be what it’s like to be very good-looking.” Everyone sits up and takes notice. People will either pat you on the back or tell you how appalling you are.

You have to give people the benefit of the doubt. [When the scandal broke in 2002], it felt like an out-of-body experience. I remember thinking, ‘This isn’t actually me. I’m looking down on someone else’s life.’ It was traumatic. How do you cope with something like that? You go from day to day, relying on friends to carry you through. It would be nice to say I’ve learnt to trust people less, but I’m not sure you can go through life like that. You’d end up a hermit.

It would be odd if Boris Johnson became the leader of our country. I remember Boris as a guest on Have I Got News for You and it always struck me as weird that he put on this buffoon act when he was clearly an intelligent man and probably quite cut-throat, too. You’d think, why is he rolling his eyes and scratching his head and talking about “old boy”? It seemed like an act. It was a very successful act.

You can tell a lot about someone by how they behave on the football pitch. It’s the same when people get behind the wheel of a car – nice people turn into raving fascists. I love football more than anything in the world, apart from my son. I would say I am overcompetitive. Incidentally, I’ve played football with Boris – he came onto the pitch in a bobble hat and immediately rugby-tackled one of the opposition.

If you both have the will for a split to be amicable, it will be. After Lise and I broke up, we remained friends. We live close to one another; we both look after Isaac; we go to our house in Italy as a family. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t if neither of us has acted badly towards the other. There was no acrimony.

Luck and fortunate breaks got me where I am today. I spent three years at Oxford thinking I was probably going to be a TEFL teacher. I had barely set foot on a stage. Then in my final year I met Richard Curtis, who invited me to join the Oxford Revue comedy group. Our show led straight to a radio series.

Acting is a test of nerves and memory. Can you remember the lines and deliver them as you’ve done in rehearsals? With presenting, you’ve got to appear unruffled when you’re thinking, “What the hell am I supposed to do now?” I remember Terry Wogan saying he used to do three chat shows a week – walking on stage was like walking into his living room. It shouldn’t be like that: you should have some nerves, otherwise you don’t perform at your best.

I don’t smoke, but apart from that, I have all the bad habits. Drinking is chief among them, probably. But it is a social vice and with a meal, it can be delightful.

Life keeps getting better. I came to the realisation recently that I’ve enjoyed every decade better than the one before. I’m in my sixties; my son is almost an adult. My living situation is much less fraught and I am happier in my own skin. I’m working but not working so much that it’s getting in the way, and I’m able to lead a comfortable life.

Radio Active is currently touring nationally and will be at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (socomedy.co.uk/artist/radio-active)

[bloomberrypint]

Angus Deayton lives North London with two videos and a toasted sandwich maker.He is the son of an English man and a Scottish woman - thereby making him both stuck up and mean

- Angus Deayton by Lise Mayer from ‘In search of happiness’ 

[kerloncollector]

The utterly utterly merry comic relief christmas book

THE UTTERLY UTTERLY MERRY COMIC RELIEF CHRISTMAS BOOK SERIES

THE UTTERLY UTTERLY MERRY COMIC RELIEF CHRISTMAS BOOK TV

MEMBER: Cambridge Footlights Club, which also produced Monthy Python's John Cleese, Eric Idle, and Graham Chapman.ĪWARDS, HONORS: Best Books for Young Adults List, American Library Association (ALA), 1980, for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

THE UTTERLY UTTERLY MERRY COMIC RELIEF CHRISTMAS BOOK SERIES

Hobbies and other interests: Purchasing equipment for recreations he would like to take up, playing acoustic guitar, scuba diving, fiddling with computers.ĬAREER: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), London, producer and scriptwriter for "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" radio and television series, beginning 1978, script editor for television series "Doctor Who," 1978-80 writer, 1978-2001. Douglas Adams complained that, as a result, considerably less money was raised for famine relief.ĭouglas Adams, Rowan Atkinson, Glen Baxter, Michael Bywater, Graham Chapman, Nobby Clarke, Ron Cobb, Richard Curtis, Angus Deayton, Adrian Edmonson, Michael Fishwick, Michael Foreman, Stephen Fry, Kim Fuller, George Harrison, Michael Heath, Lenny Henry, Ian Hislop, Caroline Holden, Richard Ingrams, Antony Jay, Guy Jenkin, Gray Jolliffe, Terry Jones, Trevor Leighton, John Lloyd, Jonathan Lynn, Thomas Mann, Rik Mayall, Lise Mayer, Michael Palin, Geoffrey Perkins, Stephen Pile, Nigel Planer, Christopher Ryan, Griff Rhys Jones, Posy Simmonds, Mel Smith, The Spitting Image Workshop, Sue Townsend, Bill Tidy, John Wells.PERSONAL: Born March 11, 1952, in Cambridge, England died of an apparent heart attack, May 11, 2001, in Santa Barbara, CA son of Christopher Douglas (a management consultant) and Janet (a nurse maiden name, Donovan, present surname, Thrift) Adams married Jane Elizabeth Belson, 1991 children: Polly Jane Rocket. Collins held the rights to print certain versions of the Bible and it was threatened that these would be withdrawn. Eventually they prevented the book from being reprinted by applying pressure on the publisher, Collins. They picketed bookshops and threatened to sue for blasphemy. Christian groups took offence, and attempted to get the book withdrawn. Nicholas Winterton MP led a campaign to ask W.H. Jesus' Birthday in which Jesus is portrayed as a grumpy and mischievous child in a modern household.The Young Ones' Nativity Play in which the characters from The Young Ones act out the nativity story in typically irreverent style.This tells the story of the nativity night from the point of view of a sheep that gets eaten as part of the celebrations, and therefore has a slightly jaundiced view of the whole affair. The Gospel According to a Sheep by Richard Curtis with additions by Douglas Adams.In line with its Christmas theme the book contained several pieces based on the Christian nativity story, including: The book has never been reprinted following its initial print run, as a result of religious censorship. The book promised that profits would be distributed "80% to SAVE THE CHILDREN FUND and OXFAM for famine relief and 20% to Charity Projects to support young people faced with the problems of drug abuse, homelessness and disability here in Britain."

THE UTTERLY UTTERLY MERRY COMIC RELIEF CHRISTMAS BOOK TV

Tie-ins to popular TV comedies of the day including Yes Minister, The Young Ones and Spitting Image.A New Decade of Heroic Failures, an exclusive addition to Stephen Pile's Book of Heroic Failures.Adrian Mole's Christmas, an addition to Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole series (later included in The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole).Besides the novella Young Zaphod Plays it Safe and the short story " The Private Life of Genghis Khan", which have since appeared in The Salmon of Doubt, the book also contains Adams' short story "A Christmas Fairly Story" (written in collaboration with Terry Jones) and three supplements to The Meaning of Liff. The book is of particular interest to fans of Douglas Adams' work as it contains several items written by him which are hard to find or exclusive to the collection.

[the-tardis-in-221b-baker-street]

SUPER EXCITING NEWS! Someone bought a set of my badges and they are being sent on to none other than LISE MAYER! The badges I made are going to be in the hands who helped create the character and the world the character is from. SURREAL.

[itsblosseybitch]

Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer at the Bachelor Boys Book Launch in 1984.

[sunnysynthsunshine]

Ben Elton,Lise Mayer and Rik Mayall

[neil-neil-orange-peel]

A Blu-ray DVD of The Young Ones with a bunch of new bonus features is being released for the show's 40th anniversary! It becomes available on 28th November but can be pre-ordered now!

[scumbag-monthly]

Hey just checking you’re aware of this? https://uk-podcasts.co.uk/podcast/the-alexei-sayle-podcast/19-a-bunch-of-students-in-a-flat-the-young-ones-sp

Hello!

Yes, we were aware of this! Happy to help spread the word further. 😊 Alexei talks about TYO from time to time on his podcast, but this episode is a good one because it's the main theme (plus Lise ❤️).

- R / @neil-neil-orange-peel ❤️

[the-young-bastards]

2x1 Bambi

Mike: Right, that's it, we're going to the launderette, now!

Vyvyan: We can't Mike.

Mike: Why not?

Vyvyan: Because they don't open for another eight hours. It's midnight.

Mike: Right, that's it, we're going upstairs to bed very fast, now.

[close-up on the guys' feet as they run up the stairs. Immediately the light comes up, a cock crows, and close-up on their feet as they run down the stairs. The guys alight in the living room. The actors are all in the wrong characters and costumes.]

"Vyvyan": [Rik Mayall dressed as Vyvyan] Ah, morning! Completely brilliant! Let's go to the launderette.

"Rick": [Nigel Planer dressed as Rick] Oh, oh, so it's completely brilliant. And now we've all got to go to the launderette just because Vyvyan says so! It's like we're living in Nazi Germany. Neil, I hate you.

"Neil": [Christopher Ryan dressed as Neil] Oh, wow, don't bring me down and hassle me, Rick. I'm really confused. [to camera] I'm just not feeling myself today.

"Rick": Mike, you could do a really good joke, couldn't you, about feeling yourself!

"Vyvyan": [grabbing "Rick" by the collar] Shut up, or I'll kill you!

"Mike": [Adrian Edmonson dressed as Mike] OK, guys, come on. As the one guy said to the other guy when he was getting fed up, I'm getting fed up. I want to wash my smalls, and I don't mean dip my tiddlies in a glass of water. Let's go!

"Vyvyan": Right. [points to "Rick"'s hat] And take that stupid girly bonnet off!

["Rick" takes off his hat, and Neil's long hair tumbles out]

"Neil": Right, let's go.

[They all jump up into the air and disappear. Cut to a city street outside the launderette. The guys appear, and the actors are now back in the correct characters]

Vyvyan: Cor! That was quick!

[They enter the launderette. Vyvyan's dust-bin liner full of laundry emits green smoke. A pair of knickers is too slow in following him. Vyvyan points at the knickers.]

Vyvyan: Oi!

[The knickers fly into the launderette after him. Several people flee the launderette, choking and gagging]

[joaquimblog]

BAYREUTH 2022: DIE WALKÜRE

BAYREUTH 2022: DIE WALKÜRE

Bayreuther Festspiele 2022; Walküre; Insz. Valentin Schwarz Amb la primera jornada de l’anell arriba una certa distinció, certa només pel que fa al cast, ja que reuneix a Lise Davidsen com a Sieglinde, Iréne Therorin com a Brünhilde i George Zeppelfeld com a Hunding. Malauradament, un accident d’escena ens va deixar sense el Wotan de Konieczny havent de fer el tercer acte l’ignot…