IT is the tale of two Glasgow comics on the fringe. They are both aged
27 and between them no love is lost: Craig Ferguson, formerly Bing
Hitler, and Gerry Sadowitz, always Gerry Sadowitz.
Last night the Craig Ferguson Hour went out coast-to-coast on MTV,
America's biggest cable network. Tonight in Edinburgh he will take over
the 3500-seat Playhouse, one of the biggest theatres in Britain, and is
staying in the Caledonian Hotel. Yet, four years ago, the boy from up
the Maryhill Road, was sleeping rough in Waverley Station, appearing
before ''half a dozen people and a dug'' at the Cafe Royal.
Sadowitz, who suffered financial damage at the hands of Hitler (Bing)
through an allegation of ripped-off material, printed two years ago in
the fringe brochure, is South-Side Jewish -- ''not so far south as
Newton Mearns or Giffnock where the rich Jewish people live'' -- claims
still to be one of life's losers. As an alternative, his name is better
known throughout Britain and he can't understand why someone with so
much fame should have so little money. His festival venue is the more
modest school hall of George Heriot's, with a one-nighter in the Queen's
Hall to follow.
Holding a media conference in a suite at the George Hotel yesterday,
Ferguson likened Sadowitz to ''a dead tortoise,'' and, as though to
emphasise that the two are not the best of friends, he added: ''No, we
don't particularly like each other.'' Sadowitz, the previous day, had
nominated as a meeting place the City Art Centre Cafe at 1pm. And he was
certainly a loser there. Every seat taken. We moved to a quieter spot.
He has been described as the comic whose bad taste starts where
others' stops. He made jokes about the London Underground disaster on
the week of it happening.
Obnoxious and foulmouthed he has been called. ''Our image could be
damaged by this sick comic,'' said the Lord Provost of Dundee, to which
Sadowitz replied: ''What image?'' He has also been described by the
Melody Maker as ''the funniest man in Britain.'' While Sadowitz suffers,
Ferguson makes 'em laugh and travels first class by widening his
horizons, finding a world beyond the Tron, biting the bullet and going
for it, making subtle changes to the material he uses.
He has been twice at the Melbourne Comedy Festival and the similar
event at Montreal, which was where he was spotted by MTV.
Ferguson admires the speed with which the American TV people operate,
having him doing an hour-long show the week after speaking to him. Had
it been the BBC, they would have ''taken a year to discuss a pilot
show.'' If the programme he has done is a success, he will have the
option on a series and there is also a Granada series in the pipeline
here.
''They didn't tell me how to do my show to suit the Americans, just
let me get on with it,'' he said. ''I was warned not to joke about
certain subjects, like Salman Rushdie, for safety reasons. When you are
playing to several million people you can be sure that one of them will
be out there polishing his rifle.''
Sadowitz the man is the exact opposite of Sadowitz the comic. He is
quietly spoken, doesn't swear, shows great concern for everyone, except,
perhaps, Ferguson. Yes, definitely not for Ferguson. His on-stage
swearing, he says, is the pent-up frustration and anger coming out. No
subject is taboo.
''The limitation of alternative comedy -- non-sexism and non-racism --
suddenly became sacred cows for me. Comedy should not be limited, but
open to everything, as long as it's funny.''
The tube disaster jokes were necessary to ''make points'' in the only
way he could make them -- ''I was very angry about it because London
Transport blamed it on a cigarette, whereas they had been warned a year
earlier that their safety standards were not up to scratch. I said I
thought it ironic that the escalator that took passengers to their death
was actually working.''
He incorporates magic in his act and is one of the most gifted
close-up card-trick practitioners in the country. He produced a deck of
cards -- ''I carry these with me everywhere, substitute worry beads'' --
and demonstrated a few cheating techniques. Doesn't play cards on same
basis that a bookmaker should not bet, a publican should not drink.
Born in America, his parents divorced when he was three and he was
brought up by his mother in Glasgow. Got into comedy through busking and
pub work. Determined to continue to live in Glasgow, he would catch a
bus to London once a fortnight to appear at the Comedy Store. Genuinely
hurt and saddened that Glasgow has not given him the recognition he has
received elsewhere, he now lives with his mother in Finchley Road.
By further irony, he booked the Edinburgh Playhouse last festival and
failed to fill it rather spectacularly. Now there are signs of the
sadness lifting. His current show -- titled Lose Your Comic Virginity!
-- is almost sold out. After Edinburgh it goes on a 25-date tour.
Sadowitz will not be seeing how Ferguson does at the Playhouse
tonight, nor will Ferguson be in the Sadowitz audience. At these
milestone moments in their careers their shows are both on at the same
time.
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