Irish Comedian, Dave Allen

My dad loved him. We still have his VHS episodes lying about.

He may have been very handsome but he played up the Irish stereotype of addiction, alcoholism and laziness.

Crushed on him pretty severely as a young lad. He had charm, looks, wit, and enormous feet I recall. Wasn't he missing a finger, or part of one?

The Phantom Piddler!

They paired him up with Benny Hill on WOR Channel 9. It was OK for what is was but had a totally different vibe. Benny had this all out British everything and the kitchen sink style(with cheap laughs, 'hot girls' and general silliness) and Allen was an all out comedian. I preferred Benny but I liked what Allen did as a sort of counterprogramming.

Allen's bits seemed to service his stories and jokes in an entertaining way. Yes the bits were not highbrow(like Benny's) but Dave was more about the joke itself.

Is any comedian casual enough to do a routine while sitting in a chair anymore?

This is such non-coke delivery: languid, with jokes full of extraneous details.

I always loved the end of his show - well, the show was usually damned funny too - but he always signed off with

"Thank you, goodnight, and may your god go with you..."

A charming comedian.

Loved him. And when younger, he was kinda hot in an offbeat way.

Always loved those comedy sketches! :-) And he looks quite fetching in that first clip.

I don’t know when it originally aired, but it started airing when I was a young adult. It never could broadcast enough for me, I loved it. I always thought it was really classy that he’d say: Good night, and May your God be with you.

It was brilliant to me, that he was respecting the fact everyone was different.

R5 I could have written your post.

We watched him here in Ontario, Canada on the Buffalo Fox channel and it took me a while to warm up to his cerebral comedy as a kid.

Oddly enough Benny Hill did a parody of him where every joke he tells offends someone until he even pisses off God.

Smutty

Dave Allen on homosexuality. 😂

R15 That man is a pg.

Relax R16, he's been dead for 13 years.

He routinely pissed off the Catholic church so for that I love him.

R18 He'd dead. And the Irish Catholic Church has just received two major body blows.

Unfortunately the Irish people still continue on in their moody, infantilised manner prone to stupidity and alcoholism.

WSBK (in Boston) aired Dave Allen on weekday afternoons.

He seemed pretty suave and debonair to me as a 10 year old.

R20 I hope he didn't lure you into the vice of smoking cigarettes!

R21 It was the early 80s, everyone around me smoke. I preferred chewing tobacco.

R22 oooh! How butch!