Tickling the English

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1946309.html

another in the sub-genre of books about the English and Englishness also pursued by Jeremy Paxman and Bill Bryson (and to an extent Stuart Maconie). It struck home particularly for me because Ó Briain is an Irish man married to a very intelligent Englishwoman, a situation with which I am not unacquainted, and because I like Ó Briain's sense of humour and occasional bafflement at the surrealism of life in general. (We also have a vague personal connection via the Byrne family.)

The framework of the book is Ó Briain's tour around England (with short excursions elsewhere, particularly to Dublin but memorably also to Jersey), with anecdotes of his interactions with the crowd on each show and show more reflections on local history and various aspects of Englishness, including race and diversity . There is also a rather moving conversation with Ken Dodd (the inventor of the tickling stick referenced in the title). His main conclusion is that the English actually rather like being gloomy; that England / the UK is fairly consistently about fifth in everything, but mourns not being top. Tho that he adds that the English have a peculiar paranoia about their young people (ASBOs, etc), and some very trenchant observations about the differences between England and Ireland (the contrast between St George's Day and St Patrick's Day is particularly telling).

Looking at on-line reviews I see several who are baffled because they don't get the Irish bit (some of whom are even more baffled because they don't know much about England and had hoped in vain to learn the basics here). I see others who know Ó Briain's work too well and are disappointed that the book reflects his stage show too closely. Fortunately I am in neither category and thoroughly enjoyed it. Paxman's book is probably better (and Bryson's certainly worse) but this is the most fun. show less

Ó Briain is an Irish comedian—I grew up watching him on Echo Island—who, for the past several years, has been living and working in the UK. Tickling the English is an account of a comedy tour he undertook a couple of years back, largely around England but also with excursions to Dublin and Jersey, interspersed with accounts of how he conceives of a stand-up act, his interactions with people he met, the history of the places he travels to, and the experience of being an Irish person living in England. I can't speak to the truth of a lot of his observations, not having travelled to those particular parts of England (a friend of mine didn't really recognise his account of Sheffielders), but thought that what he had to say about show more Ireland, and the Irish abroad, was quite (though not completely) true.

(Do Irish people identify themselves by parish and county? Yes! I can tell you where the boundary lines of mine run, and it's huge by Irish standards. Do we have an unerring ability to find one another abroad and strike up in-depth conversations based solely on the familiarity of the accent? Yes! See: me in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which is about as far from Ireland as you can get.)

I enjoyed Ó Briain's sometimes wry observations on the surreality of life. If you enjoy his stand-up, I think you'll also enjoy this. show less

Part travelogue, part memoir, part social commentary, this is Dara O'Briain's account of a tour around England and his quest to figure out what makes the English tick.

Giving Bill Bryson a run for his money, I found this to be very enjoyable. Already familiar with the comedian and his version of audience interaction which involves asking those at his shows what they do for a living and other questions about their lives, I could easily hear Dara's charming voice throughout the book.

This is an affectionate look at English life which also gives the reader a good taste of the author's particular sense of humour. Recommended.

As funny as I find Dara's stand-up shows, his hosting of Mock the Week and appearances on Three Men and ... "boats", I found this book less than amusing. It was sold to me as a humourous book on the English persona (not unlike Bill Bryson's "Notes from a Small Island"), but actually it's a diary of the comic's interactions with, and observations of punters attending his shows as he tours England with the occasional jump to Dublin for a boost.

This tour diary gives a run-down of the audience members he spoke to, a description of the theatre, some snippets from the show, few of which were amusing, and then a generalisation about the English which Dara then proceeds to attempt to prove false. That's pretty much it. It was dry reading that show more felt like it dragged: I genuinely laughed about four times in the book. I will say that I have watched several of Dara's performances and appearances and much of the material in "Tickling the English" I had already encountered. Still, I really pushed myself to finish in case it got better and reflected the reviews it's received. It didn't.

I'm afraid I just can't recommend "Tickling the English". show less

I only know of Dara O'Briain from his appearances on QI and a few other UK panel shows, but I thought that this would be a funny book about an Irish man's view of the English. It's actually more like a tour diary. There were some pretty funny moments but overall, not really what I was looking for. It had a lot of references and jokes that you definitely have to be from the UK, Ireland, or a fan of football to understand and since I'm none of these things, there were more than a few moments I wanted to skip ahead. If you're a fan of Dara's stand-up you'll of course love this book, but for the casual observer, it was just a quick diversion.

A slight book. It is basically a tour diary filled out with some reflections on England and the English. Some funny anecdotes. Ó Briain is a clever and perceptive man who could have written an interesting book on how England looks to an Irish immigrant, but this isn't it.

Blah. I was bored and didn't get far. Somehow I thought it would be funnier and more interesting. I like watching the guy but I guess I'm not enthralled by his writing.