The Diary of a Teenage Comedy Freak – and a ruddy whole lot more
Like buses you wait ages and then two come along at once. I'm referring to self published books about Rik Mayall. Mark Searby in early 2020 released his, attempting to cover Rik's whole career. But wait only a short while longer and another one comes along. This time concentrating on Rik's early years. It's these… Continue reading Early Rik: Thoughts of a Clown. Rik Mayall in the Early Eighties – Book by Chris Shields
Let me take you back to 1987. I was 12 years old, about to start secondary school and was getting really into many TV comedy shows. June that year saw the U.K Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher win her third landslide victory for the Conservative Party and was still our Prime Minister!! But earlier in February… Continue reading Hardwicke House
Thank you to: Shaun Gibson We managed to meet Rik once during the Hooligans Island tour in 1997, in Oxford. My best chum Tom and I were there for the show, but decided to make a day of it and made it a pub day, talking all things Bottom and Rik. On the way back… Continue reading Shaun and Tom take Rik from Behind!
Thank You to: Chris Marks It's always very exciting to see pictures of Rik I've never seen before. Especially when they are from the early days of Alternative Comedy and capturing a moment in time, that was only seen by a handful of people. So when Chris got in touch and sent me a few… Continue reading Rik, Ben and Chris in Ibiza
Back in March 2019, I was excited to receive an email from film critic, broadcaster and author, Mark Searby. He told me he was putting together a book about the work of Rik Mayall and had discovered my site when looking for old photos of Rik to include in his book. Over the next few months… Continue reading Rik Mayall – Comedy Genius. Book by Mark Searby
Here's a nice little story, proof that it really does pay to arrive at a venue early, because you just never know who you may happen to bump into... Thank you to: Mark It was 1995 and I went to see Bottom live 2 with the missus, in Bournemouth. It was taking place at the… Continue reading Bumping into Rik…
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… Continue reading Rik Mayall… People’s Poet… by Magenta
Back in 1993, I was really looking forward to watching Rik in his new trilogy of comedy dramas, originally titled The Rik Mayall Playhouse, then later renamed Rik Mayall Presents... I was hearing a lot about it and also collected many cuttings. At the same time there was a huge buzz about the new Bottom Live… Continue reading Rik Mayall Presents… & Bottom Live 1993
When I first launched this website, back in February 2019, Jup from Smashing Blouse Productions was probably one of the first to visit the site. Being a blogger and fan of Alternative Comedy himself, he made contact. I was very pleased he did, as he really helped me to launch the site and learn a… Continue reading Smashing Blouse Productions
Here's a special bonus story for you all. Looking back and remembering Rik on what took place exactly 5 years ago today, on the 7th May 2014. When Baz tagged me in a photo of himself with Rik Mayall on Instagram, I knew I needed to find out more. It looked like Baz had actually… Continue reading Magic Eight Ball featuring Rik Mayall
Rik Mayall Scrapbook 