Legendary comedian Sir Ken Dodd has been getting his teeth into entertainment for more than 60 fun-filled years. Michael Alexander braved the wrath of the ‘tickle stick’ to learn about his forthcoming trip to Dunfermline, his love for ‘The Wee Cooper of Fife’ and why he has great affection for Dundee.
When Ken Dodd was knighted at Buckingham Palace in March, he confessed he was “highly tickled” to become a Sir.
The 89-year-old Liverpudlian, from Knotty Ash, was honoured by the Duke of Cambridge for his comedy career and charity work.
But in an interview with The Courier ahead of his famous ‘Happiness Show’ visiting the Alhambra Theatre in Dunfermline on Sunday, the man famed for his wild hair, buck teeth and tickling stick insists titles will never change him.
“A lot of journalists say ‘has you being a sir made any difference to you?’” he says, speaking from his home in Liverpool where he is in the midst of feeding his pet poodle Rufus.
“I say ‘no it hasn’t made the slightest bit of difference. I’m still Kenny Dodd, comedian of Knotty Ash.’
“What it has done is effect the way other people regard you. Men being very comical usually bow and say ‘Sir Ken’while ladies curtsey. The only thing about that is you have to help them up again!
“Being made a ‘Sir’ is only a word. But it’s quite a thing to be highly tickled with. At the moment I’m being measured for a suit of armour and I’ve got to buy a white horse – to be a proper knight!” he laughs.
Born the son of a coal merchant in 1927, Sir Ken made his professional debut at the Nottingham Empire in 1954 and has performed on radio and TV ever since.
While finding it increasingly “exhausting”, he still drives himself to shows – despite the “lunatics” on the roads.
But he reveals he has Dundee-based DC Thomson & Co Ltd – the publishers of The Courier – to thank for getting him into show business at a young age.
“I have great affection for Dundee,” he says, “because DC Thomson produced the Wizard, the Hotspur, and the Adventure – boys story books all about heroes.
“On the back page of the Wizard there was always a big full page advertisement for a place in London where they sold itching powder, stink bombs and seebackroscopes. That was a small plastic device with a little two way mirror inside it.
“You could put it like a monocle in your eye, and you could see if an assassin was creeping up behind you – which is a very useful thing for a lad of seven or eight to have!
“Also one day there was an advert of a man with a big box on his back saying ‘Help. Fool your teachers! Amaze your friends! Send sixpence in stamps. Become a ventriloquist’. So I did! That started my career in show business.”
Ken, who was brought up on a diet of Scottish comedians, and once sang with his Diddymen about ‘The Wee Cooper of Fife’, also has great affection for the “wonderful audiences” in Dunfermline – the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie – who provided the library in his home city.
“I’m very very much looking forward to coming to Dunfermline, ” he adds.
“And it’s not a one man show. It’s the Ken Dodd Happiness Show.
“We bring a big supporting show with us.”
Ken describes his late father as a “very funny man” who loved jokes and used to take the whole family to variety theatres. It was at the Shakespeare Theatre of Varieties in Liverpool that he was exposed to a host of Scots comics, English comics, Irish comics and Welsh comics – all with individually distinct senses of humour.
But despite the passage of time, Ken insists an audience will never see the same show twice.
He adds: “In 60 years I’ve been performing as a comedian, I’ve never done the same show twice. It’s impossible. Ask me why? Because every audience is a permutation of different characters with different personalities.
“Psychologically every audience is composed with people of different ideas of what is funny.
“They do love to laugh.
“Any audience that loves to laugh is okay by me.
“As far as inspiration goes, there’s a comical thing happening very day.
“Every day someone does something daft. I just love the sound of laughter!”
*The Ken Dodd Happiness Show, Alhambra Theatre, Dunfermline, July 2.
www.alhambradunfermline.com
