Identity Crisis

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I'm finally beginning to say something," says Elton, visibly upset. "I haven't said anything for 30 years. But it's been wearying. It just keeps coming around, every interview – 'So do you feel you've sold out?' Tell me what – apart from that Stewart Lee, whoever he is, thinks I have – might make you ask that?" Ah, yes. Conversation has come around – as come around it must – to the "sellout" accusation. The idea that Elton – by writing musicals with Tory supporter Andrew Lloyd Webber, by MC-ing the Queen's golden jubilee concert, by allowing his song to score the inauguration of George W Bush – has betrayed the principles for which he once stood. "Which is quite simply," he says – blue touch-paper lit – "the most utterly unreasonable and wounding and extremely unhelpful narrative that has ever bedevilled a minor, middle-ground celebrity."

Identity Crisis by Ben Elton | Goodreads Identity Crisis by Ben Elton | Goodreads

I never know when people don't like me, and I never expect them not to. So I've always been surprised when I irritate people When I started as a comedian, standup was very, very rough. That was proper scary. If I hadn't had my cornflakes by 8am on the day I was compering at the Comedy Store, there was no way I was going to eat Toby was rendered momentarily speechless. Was the minister out of his mind? Was this man seriously suggesting that political debate should return to the days of actual discussion of the issues? Was he literally raving tonto?”

I’ve never given such a low rating to a Ben Elton book but I would’ve given up on it if it wasn’t written by him. I was hoping it was going somewhere, but unfortunately not really. Britain’s most talked-about and much-loved TV show was now linked irrevocably with the enablement of sexual abuse. Whether people agreed with that view or not was irrelevant.” Ben Elton was born on 3 May 1959, in Catford, South London. The youngest of four, he went to Godalming Grammar school, joined amateur dramatic societies and wrote his first play at 15. He wanted to be a stagehand at the local theatre, but instead did A-Level Theatre Studies and studied drama at Manchester University in 1977.

Identity Crisis by Ben Elton Review - Blogger ComicAlly: Identity Crisis by Ben Elton Review - Blogger

If you say something controversial on social media, YOU DIE! At least that’s what literally happens to the beleaguered characters in Ben Elton’s latest novel, Identity Crisis. You don’t have to be a Brit to find this a good read, but it helps because there are some side characters (with satirical names) who are stand-ins for political figures well-known in the UK.

Ben Elton: ‘I don’t do trivial observations any more. I’ve run out of them. And I assume everybody’s covered everything by now.’ Photograph: Don Arnold/WireImage Mean that you actually want to kill them. It’s more like “Oh, I disagree with you. Maybe you should think things through more”, that sort of thing.” MyHome.ie (Opens in new window) • Top 1000 • The Gloss (Opens in new window) • Recruit Ireland (Opens in new window) • Irish Times Training (Opens in new window) Julian and his team of copy-writers had noted that the phrase ‘Lest we forget’ had so far been reserved for fallen soldiers. In minutes they had created a viral post accusing ‘crazed trans multi-cultural zealots’ of claiming that a dead transsexual was as much an English hero as the fighter pilots who had died during the Battle of Britain. Malika’s algorithms then swiftly sent the message to the people most likely to be annoyed by it.” Instead it comes off less satirical and more simply reflective of everyday life (which I suppose is a commentary in itself of just how absurd things have gotten at this point!). Elton hasn’t got anything to say about it all except “Bit bonkers, innit?”, which, duh. It’s just not funny.