Alexei Sayle: The Godfather of British Alternative Comedy
A Marxist from Anfield in a suit two sizes too small, shouting at the audience above a Soho strip club in 1979. How Alexei Sayle set the tone for a revolution in British comedy, and what he did next.
Alexei Sayle is the Liverpool comedian, actor and writer who became the first compère of London's Comedy Store when it opened in 1979, and in doing so set the template for British alternative comedy. Loud, political, surreal and visibly furious, he was the opposite of the mother-in-law gags of the working men's clubs, and a whole generation, from Rik Mayall to Stewart Lee, came up in the world he helped build.
A communist childhood in Anfield
Sayle was born in Anfield, Liverpool, on August 7, 1952. His parents were committed members of the Communist Party: his father worked on the railways and his mother came from a Lithuanian Jewish family. He has described a childhood of party meetings and family holidays to Eastern Bloc countries, which he turned into the first volume of his memoirs, Stalin Ate My Homework (2010). That upbringing gave him two things that defined his comedy: a reflex hostility to authority and complacency, and an outsider's eye for the absurd.
He went to art school, including Chelsea School of Art in London, and worked in left-wing fringe theatre in the 1970s.
The Comedy Store, 1979
In May 1979 Peter Rosengard and Don Ward opened the Comedy Store in a room above a strip club in Soho, inspired by the Los Angeles club of the same name. It was an open stage where anyone could try their luck, and audiences used a gong to get rid of acts they didn't like. Sayle became its compère.
His act was unlike anything else in British comedy at the time. He wore a too-tight suit and a pork-pie hat, spoke in a heavy Scouse accent, and ranted at high speed about class, politics, Liverpool, and anything else that caught his eye. The material mixed Marxist argument with sudden surreal tangents and a lot of swearing. He was also aggressive with the audience and with hecklers, which suited a room that could turn on performers in seconds.
Most important was what he refused to do. The British stand-up mainstream of the 1970s, in clubs and on TV, was dominated by jokes about women, mothers-in-law, and racial and ethnic groups. Sayle and the comics he introduced rejected that material on principle. That rejection is, more or less, the original definition of alternative comedy in Britain. Our history of British alternative comedy from 1979 to today traces how it spread.
The Comic Strip, 1980
In 1980 Sayle left with Peter Richardson to set up a new venue, the Comic Strip, at the Boulevard Theatre inside Paul Raymond's Raymond Revuebar in Soho. Sayle was the compère; the regular acts included Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, Richardson and Nigel Planer, and Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. The club quickly became the place to see the new comedy. When the troupe moved into television with The Comic Strip Presents... on Channel 4 from 1982, Sayle appeared in several of the films, and later co-wrote and starred in Didn't You Kill My Brother? (1987), playing twin brothers.
The Young Ones and TV fame
On the BBC Two sitcom The Young Ones (1982–84), written by Mayall, Ben Elton and Lise Mayer, Sayle played members of the Balowski family, most famously the students' sinister landlord Jerzei Balowski. Each appearance was essentially a short burst of his stand-up character dropped into the sitcom, and it made him a household name.
In 1984 he had a top-20 hit with the novelty single "'Ullo John! Got a New Motor?", a fast, shouty piece of Cockney-pastiche satire. He also had film roles, including the Sultan of Hatay in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
Alexei Sayle's Stuff
His own BBC Two sketch series, Alexei Sayle's Stuff (1988–91), combined stand-up with surreal sketches and running parodies, and won an International Emmy. It is one of the more inventive British sketch shows of its era and a clear influence on the absurdist shows that followed. He followed it with The All New Alexei Sayle Show in the mid-1990s and Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round in 1998.
The writer
In the mid-1990s Sayle gave up stand-up and concentrated on writing. He published the short-story collections Barcelona Plates (2000) and The Dog Catcher (2001), and novels including Overtaken (2003), The Weeping Women Hotel (2006) and Mister Roberts (2008). They are darkly comic and well reviewed, a different side of the same sensibility. His memoirs, Stalin Ate My Homework (2010) and Thatcher Stole My Trousers (2016), cover his childhood and then the birth of alternative comedy, and the second is one of the best first-hand accounts of the Comedy Store and Comic Strip years.
The comeback
After roughly sixteen years away, Sayle returned to stand-up in 2011, including a set at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London in December, and in early 2012 compèred stand-up nights at the Soho Theatre. He then toured new material. The anger is still there, now aimed at a new set of targets, and he has remained an outspoken left-wing voice on British politics. He has also presented comedy on BBC Radio 4, including Alexei Sayle's Imaginary Sandwich Bar.
- 1952
Born in Anfield, Liverpool
Into a communist family.
- 1979
Comedy Store compère
The first MC of the club that launched British alt comedy.
- 1980
The Comic Strip
Co-founds the new club with Peter Richardson.
- 1982
The Young Ones
Jerzei Balowski and family; the Comic Strip arrives on Channel 4.
- 1988
Alexei Sayle's Stuff
His own BBC Two sketch series.
- 2000
Barcelona Plates
First book of fiction.
- 2011
Back on stage
Returns to stand-up after about sixteen years.
Legacy
Sayle's influence is less about specific jokes than about permission. He proved that a British comedian could be openly political, refuse cheap targets and still be wildly funny to a rowdy room. Later comics who blend politics with formal invention, such as Stewart Lee, have acknowledged the debt that generation owes to those first Comedy Store nights. For the debate about who deserves the title of founding father, see the father of alt comedy.
Frequently asked questions
What was Alexei Sayle's role at the Comedy Store?
He was the club's first regular compère (MC) after it opened in Soho in 1979. His aggressive, political, surreal hosting set the tone for the alternative comedians who came through the room.
Why is Alexei Sayle called the godfather of alternative comedy?
Because he was the first defining voice of the London scene that became known as alternative comedy: he compèred the Comedy Store from 1979, helped launch the Comic Strip in 1980, and rejected the racist and sexist club comedy that dominated British stand-up at the time.
Who did Alexei Sayle play in The Young Ones?
He played various members of the Balowski family, most memorably the landlord Jerzei Balowski, in the BBC Two sitcom. He usually appeared in a single scene per episode, often as a different Balowski.
When did Alexei Sayle return to stand-up?
After about sixteen years away, he came back in 2011, including an appearance at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London that December, and compèred stand-up nights at the Soho Theatre in early 2012.
Has Alexei Sayle written books?
Yes. Besides two memoirs, Stalin Ate My Homework and Thatcher Stole My Trousers, he has published short-story collections and novels, starting with Barcelona Plates in 2000.