h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A mental image has been haunting me for DECADES. It is of a lugubrious man with a skull face and a bald head wearing a spangly jacket with massive shoulder pads, performing one of the most bizarre and individual standup comedy acts I've ever seen. I saw him on television just once, on Saturday Live in the 1980s.

Until very recently I had absolutely who this man was or how to find out, since googling the vague description above (which was all I had) wasn't going to get me anywhere.

Then, by chance, a month or so ago, Robin Ince was in conversation on a podcast with Stewart Lee and Josie Long, and he MENTIONED THIS MAN! YES!!!! So now I have a name. Specifically, I have two names.

I have his REAL name - Andrew Bailey - and I have the name of his lugubrious alter ego - Freddy Benson.

Problem is, Freddie Benson was an actor in something called "iCarly", and was also a character in the movie "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels". And Andrew Bailey, when he wasn't Chief Cashier of the Bank of England, was a baseball pitcher.

Literally the only thing I can find about the man is this:

http://www.comedycv.co.uk/andrewbailey/index.htm

Now... SOMEWHERE there is, I am sure, a link to the Freddie Benson performance. I have to see it again. It'll cause a major Proustian rush. Can anyone help? Does anyone else remember this genius?

Don't ask me how I found this, but on page 29, under the article "The song and gag man", under the listings for Saturday, you'll find a description of Bailey's Frederick Benson character:

http://hillsborough.independent.gov.uk/repository/docs/PRE000000580001.pdf

{Andrew Bailey is a performer who is dangerously unpredictable; as Frederick Benson his act in the past has had him blowing up rubber gloves with an oxygen cylinder and then jettisoning the cylinder onto the tables in front of him. With Hattie Hayridge, The Nice People, Ian Cognito, and compere Ivor Dembina at the Red Rose Cabaret, 129 Seven Sisters Road, N7 (263 7265) pounds 3.50, concs pounds 2.50; 8.30pm.}

This is from Tuesday 18th April, 1989.

Icy

If you search for 'andrew bailey comedian', you're more likely to get links for the man you're looking for than if you just type 'andrew bailey'. I did a search for video clips and also checked Youtube. Came up empty, but I tried.

Is this the man?

http://www.thecomedyclub.co.uk/comedians/andrew-bailey.html

Maybe the website hosts, should you call them, can help you?

Y.

That is the man, yes, and there seems to be just the one picture of him. And yes, I've googled "Andrew Bailey comedian" but it didn't help. There simply has to be a video of him somewhere on the net...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billzpickz/6189054040/in/set-72157627077129642

Not a video yet but I found another pic - this seems more like your description than the other photo?

Have you got this photo yet?

http://www.cheekycomedy.co.uk/2003-december2nd-comedy.html

That is definitely the guy. I need to see this act again, but mainly I HAVE to find a copy of his Saturday Live appearance!

Perhaps it will eventually appear on YouTube. I had the exactly same "need to see again" about the Spitting Image video "Every Bomb You Make" by Sting aka the Grim Reaper. I only saw it once, it lasted 1½ mins but it stayed in my memory. I found it on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFrvr7EB66g and now I've written it up for h2g2's edited guide.

GB

I don't know whether this is the performance you're looking for, or whether the clip is still available (no price is quoted when ordering):

http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITVProgs/1987/03/28/9L79235/?s=kinnock

Perhaps it will take you somewhere.

Wow. That is definitely the performance I'm looking for.

And it looks like it's going to cost me a fiver for a download of the whole show. Worth every penny if it's right.

Thank you very much indeed - and what a resource! I had no idea that was there.

Wow, this means I saw Paul Merton on Saturday Night Live in the 80s. How do I not remember this?

(I guess its timing was such that I was probably half whenever it was on )

Well done Rudest Elf

Now I know who to go to when I want something

Enjoy the show, Hoo

Oh yes, and extremely well found

I had a look myself the other day and it beat me.

Produced by Geoffrey Perkins, I see.

It's come full circle

I'm now interested in whether you will find it as good as you did then, or whether it has grown in your memory. Do let us know!

GB, if only I'd known - I'm sure that song is on the Spitting Image tape we have - official product too, as in not recorded off the TV.

Unfortunately we no longer have a VHS player so I can't check ...

Mol

I should've asked on Ask

Never mind, it'll soon be h2g2 history and there for others to find

"Now I know who to go to when I want something"

I'd love to help you out, Galaxy Babe, as long as you realise that there would be consequences......

Enjoy the show, Hoo. I'll be sending the boys over to square accounts in due course...