Unlike so many comedians, Dave Allen was not a tortured soul fighting depression. He was just FUNNY. The kind of guy you could met in a pub and have you laughing after five minutes. Brilliant.
me and my mum would laugh so hard we had tears rolling down our cheeks.We both adored this guy and my mum was a bit religious but Dave Allen could get away with it
What he said is absolutely correct. I started at the age of 15 or 16 and smoked right through my entire adult life. It went to 20 or more a day, u till i decided to stop. I went cold Turkey. Went almost crazy for a week due to withdrawal symptoms. Today I'm free of smoking for about 18 years. Not a single one. I thank God and i Thank my wife.
Listening to this brilliant monologue, it all comes back to me. Back in those days, people smoked all over the place, all the damned time. It must have been hell for non-smokers, but they just didn't have a voice. Once I'd taken up smoking at 17, the idea of quitting cigarettes seemed almost like the idea of giving up eating. Dave brings it all back to life. What a truly great raconteur.
@laser325 It's still a LOT better than cigarette smoke. Here in Japan, you can still smoke in most bars. That means I virtually can't use bars here. I spent a couple of hours tonight with some friends in a bar where the owner said hardly any of his customers smoked. One guy used an electronic cigarette, apparently, but I didn't really notice: there was just a faint smell. If it had been a real cigarette I would have been seriously inconvenienced (I have COPD, due to many years of smoking myself, which ended 17 years ago, but the effects still linger).
My dad smoked a lot .We had one tv .If i moved during prime time my dad would ask where are you going?Every year my mum had to re paint the ceilling.I used to spend my youth coughing like a 40 a day man especially at night.My dad died of a heart attack when i was still young.
The first time i tried to give up smoking i went a month without a ciggie so to celebrate the achievement i bought a packet of cigarettes, that is how addiction messes with your mind. After giving up for 12 years, i went through a painful divorce and at the end of it i found i was smoking again, I dont know how it happened , i just realized i was smoking again. Smoked for another ten years and finally gave it up. But I am aware that if i go through any VERY stressful situation i have to be on my guard because once an addict always an addict, ask any recovering alcoholic or junkie.
I gave up smoking by telling myself to enjoy the pain of the cravings, I turned them into a dopamine rush, when they stopped, I actually missed them and considered smoking again, the mind is a curious thing.
my absolute FAVE!! Watched this w/my Dad in the late 70's early 80's - my first crush - and a WONDERFUL introduction to the dry wit....a thinking man's comedian! Thank you for uploading!
Stopping is a mental thing. Instead of thinking about how hard it is and finding excuses like “I’ll be bad tempered”... Stop. I had smoked for 30 years and one day I decided to stop. I went to the store and told myself that it would be the last packet. And it was. I spent about 3 months wishing for a smoke, but I persevered. Then the craving stopped. 15 years after I still put aside the money I would have spent on smokes. That is how I have bought my new gaming computer (and the last one) and the lawn mover among other things.
After my heart attack and double bypass in 2005, the surgeon who performed my operation stood at the foot of my bed and went over the chart. He looked at me with a stare I will never forget and mentioned my smoking. He said, basically, we're not doing THAT anymore, are we? That was Sept 6 or 7, 2005, and we haven't had a cigarette since. And, surprisingly, I never missed it.
Heart attack at 59 (17-11-17) never picked up a cigarette since the sheer shock of my heart attack was enough motivation for me a truly horrendous experience. Diagnosed type 2 diabetic at the same time, not overweight or obese neither.I must say i am a lot fitter now.
if i hear "comic genius" one more time i'll puke. Give up smoling if you can and smell your own shit. ever noticed how food cooking (meat) smells like human sweat? Guess it gives you an appetite.
Am i right in thinking that you smoke,if not,i stand corrected.I Smoke,about Comic Genius,Dave Allen WAS bloody good & so are many others.I,ve often thought Myself,that Genius,is just a word. Trouble Is,as its known really,that some use it often and for virtually everything. So to finish,i wish you the best,and one last thing, ive noticed when im under work pressure for example,i have been known to overeact and lash out a bit more than usual. Possibly the same with you? All the Best.
Loved reruns of Dave Allen At Large on PBS? I think when I was a kid. Didn't get all the jokes but I loved watching my Irish/English Mum giggle at his humour.
should we eat or have a McDonald's. classic Dave Allen at his best. when he rationalises the cost of the fines for smoking etc. listen to it properly only Dave Allen would come up with that. he's like the funniest bloke in ALL of the worlds pubs !
It's true, my father who is an ex smoker used to know I smoked at school the moment I walked on our street. Ex smokers really are bloodhounds when it comes to cigarette smell.
+Felix Parsonson hi guys, the best results that ive had was by using the Quit Smoking Crusher (i found it on google) without a doubt the most helpful idea i've followed.
Maybe he would have been disheartened . That priceless innocence is no longer there. Where comics today have to be simple and crude to appeal to the thick spoilt generation.
Nikki Sokol It,s difficult. I did it years ago, prior to starting my family. It is so expensive now to smoke. Think of what you could buy with the money you save. Loved Dave Allens humour. He had a view on most things.
Will tell you something what may not work for you but how i did it. So please dont be mad at me. Me was a heavy smoker for years, 30-50 per day started with 14 stopped with 28 so i technically smoked half my life by that date. I did multible attemps before even with long smoke pauses. I started rolling due my financial situation, that step cut the ammount of cigs per day to ~3/4- 1/2 (+/-). Just the work to build one even if its quick done with practice... Then i switched to a "clean tobacco" with no additives in it for reasons i cant recall, i think it was the taste. You might know normal tobacco has stuff added in like brand accelerators etc. that may or may not react with the other 100`s components of the smoke and may or may not amplify the addiction. Unleaded tobacco, well, does not. Within 3 weeks i was down to like 10- 15 cigs. most if them ritualic ones. You may know it, like the cig to the morning coffee etc. One day i went out of tobacco and i was very tired all the day so i did not got my ass out of the chair to walk the 300m to the tabacconist and went straight to sleep. Next day it rained heavily - me usally giving crap about weather at all - did not raise may ass to go to tabacconists. Because water falling from the sky... I came to the conclusion that i was already a non smoker at that point and wanted to keep it that way. Physical addiction lasts only a few days you may know, getting the ritual away is the hard part. It was learned behavoiur i had to unlearn, like JUST drink a cup of coffee. JUST drink a beer with friends while they smoke was the hardest, if they offered me one i replied with "please no". This was all years ago i had a lot of stressful events that i usally had burded away with a cig - i did not, i took it like everyone else. Meanwhile i cant stand it when my neighbors smoke and the wind blows the smoke into my place... regards.
The most difficult habit to give up. I never realised just how tough it is. I've tried and failed several times. I respect anyone who suceeds and stays a non smoker.
I remember when it was smoking was banned here. It was also the last time I was in a night club...... All i could smell was people. B.O., butt crack, stail beer, vomit, etc........ Smoking neutralised all these smells..... It was the only thing strong enough to do so.
They showed us all a public information film in junior school in 1975 about the perils of smoking,around the time I was turning 11. It included cut open pictures of the inside of a baby's lung,all pink and pristine,an adult's non-smoker's lung with a bit of greying and stuff in it with all the stuff we breathe in over the years,especially in those smoggier,more industrial days than what we have now in the West,and lastly the lung of smoeone who'd been a heavy smoker,all full of horrible brown and balck tar and gunge. It also showed a smoking machine which would draw in the smoke for cigarettes and collect the smoke in a large clear glass jar. The black tar and grey and brown gunge was visible building up inside the jar. It worked on me,making me vow not to start smoking...for about 3 years until I gave in to peer pressure at secondary school and started doing it around my 14th birthday. I never let my mum know I was doing it because I thought it would upset her,but my sister who tried it once and never again after it made her feel sick (the same the first 1-2-3 times for me) caught a sniff of it and suspected I'd been doing it,and my dad told me off when I confessed to him about it. If caught at school they used to make us do chores like clean the chemistry lab or did up parts of the grounds outside - I once broke one of their gardening forks accidentally doing that. I was more of a social than a heavy smoker,I rarely ever got any much above 10 or so a day and I gave it up for 2 or years after getting puffed out too easily playing football one day in my late teens. I worked in a Department of Employment office in 1985-86 where people were puffing away to a heart's content. There was a girl about my age there who I socialised with there and bought a second hand Ford Cortina off once,who always had a big plastic ashtray with the legend Ricard on it sat prominently on her desk. In 1993-94 working at Christian Salvesen on the Wembley Stadium industrial estate there was a smoking room adjoining the works canteen that was so thick with smoke sometimes you had trouble seeing more than a few feet in front of you. I did finally give up,but not until the 90s,when I was 30. I did so for a few months,then took it up again for a few months after having a bad weekend. After the second time I packed it in,which wouldn't have happened had I not changed job to a different environment,I knew I was ready to quit for good. It was August and some of my friends,who wanted me to keep smoking,said I'd be back on them by Christmas. I knew they were wrong. I rcognise the exact same experience Dave Allen was referring to in that after a short while I had exactly the same experience of being able to smell all kind of things I hadn't been able to smell for many years,and it made me nostalgic because I associated those with times past when I was younger with few if any cares or responsibilities. I actually really liked the fresh smell you got off the roads straight after it rained. I worked out I've saved an absolute packet of course with the prices of the things going up and up - enough to fund a few holidays and who knows what else. But I've never been one to get all judgemental about other people who smoke,because having done it myself for 16 years I feel that would be hypocritical.
So my mom was a strong smoker and one day she brought a kitten with here home and after two weeks I told here the fur of the kitten was going yellow and she quit smoking that day.... I told here for 10 years that it is unhealthy for her and also for me and nothing happen but for the dame kitten she quit it from one day to another. I'm so thankful for the kitten without here my mom would properly be dead. Thank you Maxi I miss you! (The cat passed away 2 years ago)
Comedy moves with the times, but, as a comedy lover and 'enthusiast' myself? Comedy must always be viewed 'retrospectively', that is? We cannot judge yesterdays' comedy by today's standards, and vice versa. And when I look at Allen, and what he was doing at the time he was doing it in? I see a very classy, self-aware, modest but very talented comedian, who used comedy as a medium to, not only exercise his own 'experiences' as a child, adolescent and adult within the strict paradigm of 'Catholicism' and Irish society, but to, at least attempt, to provide an avenue for his generation to also laugh at their respective experiences, and to say "it's okay...we're okay", and to, almost, ALLOW his generation to look back at how screwed up it wall was, and to laugh at it in the spirit of 'shared experience'. I imagine Allen's comedy brought much laughter and relief into the lives of those who lived through, and carry the baggage of, those times. ...a wonderful comedian! Truly wonderful! And sadly missed...
Leisha Young Bang on! And it was laughter that was comfort and solace to so many during REAL hard times of true poverty, war and ill health, times most in West today know NOTHING of, even those so called poor! Interesting that as political correctness grows and comedians are told 'that's not funny' or 'you can't joke about that' mental illness, depression, suicide and general unhappiness reaches record levels in a much wealthier (humourless) West.
all of this is true, the cigarette after watching a film, after making love, before taking a decision, before writing a letter ... cigarette instead of eating, all day and everywhere so brilliant RIP Dave !
great days, all the TV programme interviewers smoked, any debates had smokers puffing away, all shows and programmes...seems so different nowadays, however there's probably still the same amount of folk smoking today!
+tomitstube Hi Tom, those figures are very heartening, I'm not sure about UK though, I seem to see so many young folk smoking especially girls here, older middle aged folk seem to be quitting as they end up with angio alarms, but despite all the concerted government efforts youngsters seem intent on puffing on ! thanks
+Barbara Stepien-Foad well I had to look it up, the u.k. is actually doing better than the u.s. in 2013 it's 19.3% who smoke, lowest number in 80 years. it was 45% in 1979. so good to see both countries are getting healthier. adieu.
at my uncle's funeral, they said "He started to smoke at four years old: his father's workmates thought it was funny to give him their butts to finish." Silence in the room (it was cancer that got him)
Unlike so many comedians, Dave Allen was not a tortured soul fighting depression. He was just FUNNY. The kind of guy you could met in a pub and have you laughing after five minutes. Brilliant.
He was a great sit-down comedian.
A true legend of comedy, Dave Allen will always be remembered as one of the greatest of all time !!!!!
I miss this man, he was bloody funny.
Where is he?
@@JohnDoe-pp1hf Died back in 2005
He's dead? Why?
Love watching Dave Allen...absolutely brilliant....never fails to make me burst out laughing! LOL!! RIP!!
Dave Allen, the only man who can make his toned abs show through his vest.
Brent Crude - nah, he’s just put on weight.
Looks that way lol I need me On my way! Of those suits 😂
Remember watching the Dave Allen show on TV with my Dad. The guy was a genius.
with my mum and us barely able to stay on the sofa because we were laughing so hard
@@DanielleKingdjdinosaur nice
I grew up watching Dave Allen and he was such a wonderfully funny man.
It's easy to give up smoking....... I've done it many times.
:)
@daro2096 could be a quote from anyone though right?
Ikr, I do it about 20 times a day
So true, i've given up countless times in 26 years
😂😂😂
When I was a kid, used to stay up late to watch Dave Allen Show and Benny Hill Show. I'd laugh and laugh. Thanks for posting this.
Same as
Ditto...brilliant times.
Don't forget the "Two Ronnies"....
me and my mum would laugh so hard we had tears rolling down our cheeks.We both adored this guy and my mum was a bit religious but Dave Allen could get away with it
Yes me to
What he said is absolutely correct. I started at the age of 15 or 16 and smoked right through my entire adult life. It went to 20 or more a day, u till i decided to stop. I went cold Turkey. Went almost crazy for a week due to withdrawal symptoms. Today I'm free of smoking for about 18 years. Not a single one. I thank God and i Thank my wife.
Started at 16. married at 26 and I smoked even more.
Listening to this brilliant monologue, it all comes back to me. Back in those days, people smoked all over the place, all the damned time. It must have been hell for non-smokers, but they just didn't have a voice. Once I'd taken up smoking at 17, the idea of quitting cigarettes seemed almost like the idea of giving up eating. Dave brings it all back to life. What a truly great raconteur.
yes you see this also in the old movies, I love old american movies, but OMG they smoke all so much you get a headache at watching it !
My 12 year old self asks you. "what's a non smoker?"
@laser325 It's still a LOT better than cigarette smoke. Here in Japan, you can still smoke in most bars. That means I virtually can't use bars here. I spent a couple of hours tonight with some friends in a bar where the owner said hardly any of his customers smoked. One guy used an electronic cigarette, apparently, but I didn't really notice: there was just a faint smell. If it had been a real cigarette I would have been seriously inconvenienced (I have COPD, due to many years of smoking myself, which ended 17 years ago, but the effects still linger).
My dad smoked a lot .We had one tv .If i moved during prime time my dad would ask where are you going?Every year my mum had to re paint the ceilling.I used to spend my youth coughing like a 40 a day man especially at night.My dad died of a heart attack when i was still young.
The first time i tried to give up smoking i went a month without a ciggie so to celebrate the achievement i bought a packet of cigarettes, that is how addiction messes with your mind. After giving up for 12 years, i went through a painful divorce and at the end of it i found i was smoking again, I dont know how it happened , i just realized i was smoking again. Smoked for another ten years and finally gave it up. But I am aware that if i go through any VERY stressful situation i have to be on my guard because once an addict always an addict, ask any recovering alcoholic or junkie.
a perfect examination of addiction.I love this man.
I gave up smoking by telling myself to enjoy the pain of the cravings, I turned them into a dopamine rush, when they stopped, I actually missed them and considered smoking again, the mind is a curious thing.
This sketch convinced me to pack smoking in. I didnt pack in straght away, but it is over thirty five years ago. Thank Dave, so funny..
As a long term smoker from 11 years of age it is nice to know I have been free of smoking for the past 20 years
You're a free man! I'm sure those 20 years have been wonderful. There's no joy in being a slave.
i admire your strength Joseph Landrut. peer pressure started me smoking 40 years ago, now i only smoke when i'm drinking. dave allen comic genius
i've been drinking off a hangover since i was 18 ua-cam.com/video/e13zQ7UDC3M/v-deo.html
That glass.. was watching it the whole time :)
Absolute classic comedian :O)
David Freestone pity for the canned laughter. thank got Islam put an end to il . to all
the rest too!
can't tell how much I love Dave Allen .... it is like a brother to me !
What. The. F--- He is just. Brilliant.
this is good, i quit 53 years ago and still have nightmares about starting again,
my absolute FAVE!! Watched this w/my Dad in the late 70's early 80's - my first crush - and a WONDERFUL introduction to the dry wit....a thinking man's comedian! Thank you for uploading!
dave allen was fantastic been watching u tube he was a genius laughed more than have done for years loved him xx
This man is what you can call a comedian not like the so called comedians we have Now!
Stopping is a mental thing. Instead of thinking about how hard it is and finding excuses like “I’ll be bad tempered”... Stop.
I had smoked for 30 years and one day I decided to stop. I went to the store and told myself that it would be the last packet. And it was. I spent about 3 months wishing for a smoke, but I persevered. Then the craving stopped.
15 years after I still put aside the money I would have spent on smokes. That is how I have bought my new gaming computer (and the last one) and the lawn mover among other things.
A old classic is Dave Allen ... My father thought he was brilliant ...
Came back to watch him again. NEver missed him.... We'd rush to jump into bed and watch Dave on Chicago channel 11. He's sure missed
"Do you smoke after you make love?... I don't mean literally!" Classic :D
"Should we eat, or have a McDonalds?"
Michael Worden that’s the funniest part.
After my heart attack and double bypass in 2005, the surgeon who performed my operation stood at the foot of my bed and went over the chart. He looked at me with a stare I will never forget and mentioned my smoking. He said, basically, we're not doing THAT anymore, are we? That was Sept 6 or 7, 2005, and we haven't had a cigarette since. And, surprisingly, I never missed it.
Good on yer. I gave up in 2002, and my life has been so much better since that I'm actually fitter now, at 69, than I was when I was 49.
Heart attack at 59 (17-11-17) never picked up a cigarette since the sheer shock of my heart attack was enough motivation for me a truly horrendous experience. Diagnosed type 2 diabetic at the same time, not overweight or obese neither.I must say i am a lot fitter now.
Dave Allen is possibly the funniest SOB who ever lived. Why can't I get his show on DVD?
I bought my first pack of cigarettes when I was 5 years old after spending five years with my parents I needed a cigarette.
Everyone misses you Dave
Dave Allen was a comic genius. Todays comics are by and large really crap in comparison.
if i hear "comic genius" one more time i'll puke.
Give up smoling if you can and smell your own shit.
ever noticed how food cooking (meat) smells like human sweat?
Guess it gives you an appetite.
don't you think he his a genious ?
Am i right in thinking that you smoke,if not,i stand corrected.I Smoke,about Comic Genius,Dave Allen WAS bloody good & so are many others.I,ve often thought Myself,that Genius,is just a word.
Trouble Is,as its known really,that some use it often and for virtually everything.
So to finish,i wish you the best,and one last thing, ive noticed when im under work pressure for example,i have been known to overeact and lash out a bit more than usual.
Possibly the same with you?
All the Best.
Not really,todays comedians are great..It's just that Dave Allen can naturally tell a story ...He just naturally does is far better as an entertainer
“By and large”. Like my math teacher.
for me he was a genious, I only regret I discovered him too late ...
Loved reruns of Dave Allen At Large on PBS? I think when I was a kid. Didn't get all the jokes but I loved watching my Irish/English Mum giggle at his humour.
This is true.
Ex made me give up smoking...then cheated on me with a TWAT who smokes....!!
Lol
she wanted him to quit smoking too
oh thats harsh man
control freak was on a mission.
MGTOW
Classic, he was one of the best.
My role model.
Exactly what I was looking for, thx!
should we eat or have a McDonald's. classic Dave Allen at his best. when he rationalises the cost of the fines for smoking etc. listen to it properly only Dave Allen would come up with that. he's like the funniest bloke in ALL of the worlds pubs !
It's been almost 4 months for me and it's still hard.
Youll feel better in about 10 years-truly
Your swallowing Viagra instead of Nicotinel :p
Yes, giving up smoking certainly improved my smell, I can smell someone smoking 400 metres away!
Happened to me with chocolate... I can smell chocolate 400 yards away lol. XxX
It's true, my father who is an ex smoker used to know I smoked at school the moment I walked on our street. Ex smokers really are bloodhounds when it comes to cigarette smell.
best ever thanks for the moment
Some say Dave Allen invented humour
I say he lived it.
Love Dave Allen! ❤️🇳🇪
I still quote this today to people when I talk to them about justifying an addiction.
I watched this and was inspired to pack in myself. Thirtyfour years ago. Good job Dave Allen never gaveup the booze though.
Spot on! Superb. Thank you .
'You've got a cigarette in your mouth'
'I know, I've been smoking for years. It's the only way I know'
🚬 😂
The audiences back then were a lot better. They didn't clap for 30 seconds after each joke.
+Felix Parsonson hi guys, the best results that ive had was by using the Quit Smoking Crusher (i found it on google) without a doubt the most helpful idea i've followed.
They also didn't have the stupid whistlers who want to make sure everyone hears them behaving badly.
Mj Laneta we
Felix Parsonson They were also alot more conservative with their laughs and wouldn't laugh at shit jokes...
They also didn't laugh for every word that left his lips. :D
Great raconteur and sorely missed for sure!!
I'd love to see what he made of this modern world....
Maybe he would have been disheartened . That priceless innocence is no longer there. Where comics today have to be simple and crude to appeal to the thick spoilt generation.
True that
Been nearly 9 years for me - from a 30 a day smoker.
You tried Champix?
kevin williams
oh god that would be so great.
Great to see this, now I go look for the older stuff, with the cigs.
Trying to give up the habit myself and can understand what he went through. Sorry I ever started.
Nikki Sokol It,s difficult. I did it years ago, prior to starting my family. It is so expensive now to smoke. Think of what you could buy with the money you save. Loved Dave Allens humour. He had a view on most things.
Will tell you something what may not work for you but how i did it. So please dont be mad at me.
Me was a heavy smoker for years, 30-50 per day started with 14 stopped with 28 so i technically smoked half my life by that date. I did multible attemps before even with long smoke pauses.
I started rolling due my financial situation, that step cut the ammount of cigs per day to ~3/4- 1/2 (+/-).
Just the work to build one even if its quick done with practice...
Then i switched to a "clean tobacco" with no additives in it for reasons i cant recall, i think it was the taste.
You might know normal tobacco has stuff added in like brand accelerators etc. that may or may not react with the other 100`s components of the smoke and may or may not amplify the addiction.
Unleaded tobacco, well, does not.
Within 3 weeks i was down to like 10- 15 cigs. most if them ritualic ones.
You may know it, like the cig to the morning coffee etc.
One day i went out of tobacco and i was very tired all the day so i did not got my ass out of the chair to walk the 300m to the tabacconist and went straight to sleep.
Next day it rained heavily - me usally giving crap about weather at all - did not raise may ass to go to tabacconists. Because water falling from the sky...
I came to the conclusion that i was already a non smoker at that point and wanted to keep it that way.
Physical addiction lasts only a few days you may know, getting the ritual away is the hard part.
It was learned behavoiur i had to unlearn, like JUST drink a cup of coffee.
JUST drink a beer with friends while they smoke was the hardest, if they offered me one i replied with "please no".
This was all years ago i had a lot of stressful events that i usally had burded away with a cig - i did not, i took it like everyone else.
Meanwhile i cant stand it when my neighbors smoke and the wind blows the smoke into my place...
regards.
Nikki Sokol pink pantherr
Bill Klätsch my friend’s dad smoked 5-6 packs a day everyday for 65 years until his death at 91. I smoke in his memory. I smoke less than 5 a day
The most difficult habit to give up. I never realised just how tough it is. I've tried and failed several times. I respect anyone who suceeds and stays a non smoker.
I am now 5 months quit from 22 years of smoking... and this is spot on! Yup, the food is tasteless... thank god for old bay
jeiskael well done
Pure class
8 or 9 kids in each toilet cubicle in the school toilets- it looked like the industrial revolution: genius.
Bloody Judas.(48 secs) Lol.Love it.Dave Allen a truly funny man.
I remember when it was smoking was banned here. It was also the last time I was in a night club...... All i could smell was people. B.O., butt crack, stail beer, vomit, etc........ Smoking neutralised all these smells..... It was the only thing strong enough to do so.
smoke machines helped
Last line is missing on clips.
He said 'So far I 've smoked up all 'til 26. December 1987 .
The line ironically used in Allen Carr's easy way to stop smoking book lol
Thanks
The man was a genius, one of the greats
I miss him. He was great. Stop smoking is easy I have done it many times.
L O L - CLASSIC . R . I . P MR ALLEN
Loved this man... he was a genius xxx
Brilliant.Nice memories.
They showed us all a public information film in junior school in 1975 about the perils of smoking,around the time I was turning 11. It included cut open pictures of the inside of a baby's lung,all pink and pristine,an adult's non-smoker's lung with a bit of greying and stuff in it with all the stuff we breathe in over the years,especially in those smoggier,more industrial days than what we have now in the West,and lastly the lung of smoeone who'd been a heavy smoker,all full of horrible brown and balck tar and gunge. It also showed a smoking machine which would draw in the smoke for cigarettes and collect the smoke in a large clear glass jar. The black tar and grey and brown gunge was visible building up inside the jar. It worked on me,making me vow not to start smoking...for about 3 years until I gave in to peer pressure at secondary school and started doing it around my 14th birthday. I never let my mum know I was doing it because I thought it would upset her,but my sister who tried it once and never again after it made her feel sick (the same the first 1-2-3 times for me) caught a sniff of it and suspected I'd been doing it,and my dad told me off when I confessed to him about it. If caught at school they used to make us do chores like clean the chemistry lab or did up parts of the grounds outside - I once broke one of their gardening forks accidentally doing that. I was more of a social than a heavy smoker,I rarely ever got any much above 10 or so a day and I gave it up for 2 or years after getting puffed out too easily playing football one day in my late teens.
I worked in a Department of Employment office in 1985-86 where people were puffing away to a heart's content. There was a girl about my age there who I socialised with there and bought a second hand Ford Cortina off once,who always had a big plastic ashtray with the legend Ricard on it sat prominently on her desk. In 1993-94 working at Christian Salvesen on the Wembley Stadium industrial estate there was a smoking room adjoining the works canteen that was so thick with smoke sometimes you had trouble seeing more than a few feet in front of you.
I did finally give up,but not until the 90s,when I was 30. I did so for a few months,then took it up again for a few months after having a bad weekend. After the second time I packed it in,which wouldn't have happened had I not changed job to a different environment,I knew I was ready to quit for good. It was August and some of my friends,who wanted me to keep smoking,said I'd be back on them by Christmas. I knew they were wrong. I rcognise the exact same experience Dave Allen was referring to in that after a short while I had exactly the same experience of being able to smell all kind of things I hadn't been able to smell for many years,and it made me nostalgic because I associated those with times past when I was younger with few if any cares or responsibilities. I actually really liked the fresh smell you got off the roads straight after it rained. I worked out I've saved an absolute packet of course with the prices of the things going up and up - enough to fund a few holidays and who knows what else. But I've never been one to get all judgemental about other people who smoke,because having done it myself for 16 years I feel that would be hypocritical.
Yes plus anyone who used to smoke knows the grip it gets on you.
So my mom was a strong smoker and one day she brought a kitten with here home and after two weeks I told here the fur of the kitten was going yellow and she quit smoking that day.... I told here for 10 years that it is unhealthy for her and also for me and nothing happen but for the dame kitten she quit it from one day to another.
I'm so thankful for the kitten without here my mom would properly be dead. Thank you Maxi I miss you! (The cat passed away 2 years ago)
Brilliant
Ok, I must stop.
If Dave Allen could do it, so can I.
I miss comedians like him
Nope, you won't stop.
" so take those eight today " ...... absolutely fabulous !
Brilliant.
Absolute genius Dave allen
good laugh always helps !
Undeniably PRICELESS.
I don’t know why he never made it big in America because he is without a doubt a genius of comedy !
Class.
There is no one like him around today. Why?
I finally quit 25 years ago very glad I did your longs or your life support system
Brilliant comedian my favourite of all time along with Dennis Leary
WHAT A LOSS TO US GREAT SHOWMAN
For me.. Still the best.
The best commedian ever by miles
Awesome comic. Tells it as it is
Comedy moves with the times, but, as a comedy lover and 'enthusiast' myself? Comedy must always be viewed 'retrospectively', that is? We cannot judge yesterdays' comedy by today's standards, and vice versa. And when I look at Allen, and what he was doing at the time he was doing it in? I see a very classy, self-aware, modest but very talented comedian, who used comedy as a medium to, not only exercise his own 'experiences' as a child, adolescent and adult within the strict paradigm of 'Catholicism' and Irish society, but to, at least attempt, to provide an avenue for his generation to also laugh at their respective experiences, and to say "it's okay...we're okay", and to, almost, ALLOW his generation to look back at how screwed up it wall was, and to laugh at it in the spirit of 'shared experience'.
I imagine Allen's comedy brought much laughter and relief into the lives of those who lived through, and carry the baggage of, those times.
...a wonderful comedian! Truly wonderful! And sadly missed...
Leisha Young
Bang on! And it was laughter that was comfort and solace to so many during REAL hard times of true poverty, war and ill health, times most in West today know NOTHING of, even those so called poor! Interesting that as political correctness grows and comedians are told 'that's not funny' or 'you can't joke about that' mental illness, depression, suicide and general unhappiness reaches record levels in a much wealthier (humourless) West.
Eloquently stated and exactly right. Thank you.
The ending joke is fuckin brilliant!
all of this is true, the cigarette after watching a film, after making love, before taking a decision, before writing a letter ... cigarette instead of eating, all day and everywhere so brilliant RIP Dave !
great days, all the TV programme interviewers smoked, any debates had smokers puffing away, all shows and programmes...seems so different nowadays, however there's probably still the same amount of folk smoking today!
+Barbara Stepien-Foad in america (government numbers) smoking has been cut by more than half. in 1964 42% smoked, it's 20% as of 2014.
+tomitstube Hi Tom, those figures are very heartening, I'm not sure about UK though, I seem to see so many young folk smoking especially girls here, older middle aged folk seem to be quitting as they end up with angio alarms, but despite all the concerted government efforts youngsters seem intent on puffing on ! thanks
+Barbara Stepien-Foad well I had to look it up, the u.k. is actually doing better than the u.s. in 2013 it's 19.3% who smoke, lowest number in 80 years. it was 45% in 1979. so good to see both countries are getting healthier. adieu.
+tomitstube thank-you so much for your time and trouble...good news !!
Genius
Legend
Liked Dave Allen since I was a child, thing is, he would probably be non PC today.
+loosewheels1000 I don't think he was a rude man. He would be great today. Timeless comedy.
EVERYTHING is PC incorrect today. Mel Brooks, one of the funniest geniuses ever, recently said the ubitquitous PC police are the end of comedy.
SIMPLETRUTHS2012 I'd agree with him. Too many people out there are pretending to be offended for attention.
Still relevant ❤
wow !
Love the 3 piece suit.
...And may your God go with you.
at my uncle's funeral, they said "He started to smoke at four years old: his father's workmates thought it was funny to give him their butts to finish." Silence in the room (it was cancer that got him)
45 years later... Same old.🚬
Mr. Tesla invented AC, Mr. Dave invented humor.
Tesla didn't invent AC, he described it
Dave Allen didn't invent humor, he lived it.
Thanks for the line of thought cheers
A true BBE not appreciated in back here in the Bridge.