Dave Allen (comedian)

David Tynan O'Mahony (6 July 1936 – 10 March 2005), better known as Dave Allen, was an Irish comedian.

Overview

Initially becoming known in Australia during 1963–64, Allen made regular television appearances in the United Kingdom in the later 1960s and 1970s. His career had a major resurgence during the late 1980s and early 1990s. At the height of his career he was Britain's most controversial comedian, regularly provoking indignation at his frequent highlighting of political hypocrisy and his disregard for religious authority. He also became known in the United States and Canada through broadcasts of his shows on television there.

Act

Allen's act was typified by a relaxed, rueful and intimate style. He sat on a high bar stool facing his audience, smoking and occasionally sipping from a glass of what he always allowed people to assume was whiskey, but in fact was merely ginger ale with ice. Literally and metaphorically, he was a sober-minded man who, though sometimes appearing deliberately crotchety and irritable on stage, always gave off an air of charm and serene melancholy both in his act and in real life. Each day, he pored over newspapers, scribbling notes and ideas for his routines.