Rik Mayall… People’s Poet… by Magenta

Thank you to: Magenta from Australia

Once in every lifetime comes a hero like this… a pan-global phenomenon…. an actor…. a comedian… an inspirational man with a smile who can light up a room.

It was 2002 in Australia and ABC had a television program running. A show called Believe Nothing. A comedy with intelligence and wit.  The star of the show was an actor called Rik Mayall. It was like nothing I had seen before. I was intrigued with who this Rik Mayall was. So I did some research. Then saw the TV series called The Young Ones. It was so well put together and was the funniest thing I had seen in a while. I loved every episode and went nuts when I saw Bambi for this was my first introduction to Motorhead and a number of other bands some who I still love today. What also made this show incredible was its physical humour. There has never been a show since it, with so much content put into one show.

My most prized Rik Merch… the book is my favourite.

I had grown up with British comedy and was always desperate for more. Rik Mayall gave me just that. More. More humour more characters and more laughs than I could ever imagine. His work so diverse so interesting and, I had found my hero. A man who was intelligent as well as funny as well as inspirational. I can remember seeing Drop Dead Fred with my sister. She and me finally had a movie we could both watch. Drop Dead Fred was funny but also had some very touching scenes. It was so well acted by Rik and I could not fault this performance by him.  The end part of the movie was so well acted, it deserved an award for its such a touching part where he says goodbye to Lizzy but Rik’s acting in that final scene had me in tears.

I also saw a lot of his other works over time both in movies and in television. Bottom, Comic Strip, Man Down, All About George, that ABBA video, and appearing in Blackadder, Sponge Bob, and so many others I can’t remember them all.  Every performance he did he gave 110 percent. He really worked hard at every role. I even have the song Nobel England which I listened to and enjoyed. I had my hero. He was like Thor or Superman or some sort of superhero. He was the strongest man I knew.

I felt spoilt with Rik. He gave me so many incredible performances and was such a wonderful entertainer. As a friend said once, “he lived to make people laugh”, and boy he did. Audience after audience roaring with laughter and the fans loved every minute of him being on stage.

Like all hero’s he did his best to make the fans happy, and he did so, in enormous amounts. A lot of people would tell me of how Rik has helped them through a hard time. This was also the case for me. Unfortunately in the month of June in 2014, my world was shattered. I can remember getting a message from a friend and not believing what it said, I turned on my TV and it was true. Rik was gone. That day was a blur for me.  It was everywhere.  Since this day he has remained my hero. Every year I take time to reflect on him on that fateful day and I remember Rik’s five mantras. The one that resonated with me was this “LOVE IS THE ANSWER.”  This mantra I keep with me and try to remember through out my life. Thank you Rik. Thank you for the comedy, the characters, the friends who I have made, thank you Rik for being you.

RIK MAYALL HERO TO ME 

Photo edit by Magenta

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