Sunday, May 20, 2007

Who knew?

Opera singers bouncing about in their underpants are no substitute for a radical programme for political change ....

So writes Nick in today's Observer. What next? Perhaps "purple iPods are no substitute for lemon meringue" or "the off-side law is no substitute for the Sphinx"? Nick thinks "the left" is so over and his evidence is the absurdity of ENO productions and the books he finds on the shelves of the richest people he knows. He's going to struggle for employment even at the Daily Mail at this rate.

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"No one in opera seems to have noticed that Voltaire makes an unlikely recruit to the 'it's all about oil' protesters. Rather famously, he wanted to 'écrasez l'infâme' of religious bigotry and would have had harsh words about an Islamist fanaticism that wants to subjugate women, kill homosexuals, kill Jews, kill freethinkers and establish a theocratic empire."

Apparently if one thinks the Iraq war was about oil, one also is an appeaser of religious fanaticism. This argument made no sense in 2003, and most of the Decents have abandoned it now, but it's good to see Nick is still plugging away.

5/20/2007 12:58:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't know if Voltaire ever pronounced any take on homosexuals but his violently anti-Jewish views would be known to anybody who had actually read him, rather than bandied his name about.

5/20/2007 01:55:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

he singles out lefty "millionaire comedians" - I know Rory Bremner is succesful, but is he a millionaire ?

5/20/2007 03:52:00 PM  
Blogger Anglonoel said...

I'm glad he didn't bring his dear old mum into the argument...

5/20/2007 05:00:00 PM  
Blogger Philip said...

He's going to struggle for employment even at the Daily Mail at this rate

Not in my name he won't.

5/20/2007 09:42:00 PM  
Blogger cian said...

I doubt Rory Bremner's that successful, and certainly not as wealthy as certain Observer columnists. Though he does own a house in Cambridge, so who knows. Channel 4 seem to run that show at a loss.

The only vaguely (and I do mean vague) political comedian (in the loosest sense) to be a millionaire is Ben Elton.

5/21/2007 12:24:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think Bremner makes a ton off the after dinner circuit, plus he part-owns his C4 show, plus he does quite a lot of voice overs. With that plus the normal run of property prices over the last twenty years (which is about how long he's been in show business), I wouldn't be surprised if he had more than a million quid, free and clear. But "millionaire", the Economist stylebook tells me, refers to income rather than assets, who knew, and I would very much guess that Ben Elton is the only one in that league (and hey, "isn't the Queen wonderful?" is political, in its own way).

5/21/2007 01:09:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

dsquared - you're also ignoring Elton's income from The beatuful game (the musical) and We Will Rock You (still running in the West End). On the other hand, he ought to refund his fee for Get a Grip

5/21/2007 02:10:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

oh no sorry I certainly didn't mean to suggest that Elton wasn't a millionaire; he has a load of hit novels as well, several of which have been optioned.

5/21/2007 04:04:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bremner owns his own production company - Vera - and is said at a very conservative (haha) estimate to be worth £7 million.

11/12/2007 01:47:00 PM  

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