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The comedian, who always wanted to be a pop star, is finally getting the chance with his new show paying homage to the King
If you were to list the comedians who would rather be a rock star, who would you pick? Tim Minchin and Nick Helm seem dead certs. In his show Reset, James Acaster suggests there was a musical road not taken.But pun-meister general Tim Vine would be near the bottom of my list . After all, to pun is to be clean and wholesome, witty and precise – not exactly rock’n’roll is it? The phrase isn’t “sex, drugs’n’clever wordplay”.
Yet, it turns out that Vine is a hound dog for Elvis Presley – so much so that he is taking an Elvis tribute act on tour this spring, complete with five-piece band, quiffed wig and a plastic suit that’s entirely unbreathable. But before we get on to Vine’s Elvis obsession – and it is an obsession – it must be noted that this brief pivot to music makes perfect sense to Vine. He speaks wistfully about his galloping youth when he was a prolific songwriter, and his cache of unreleased songs that is vast enough to make Prince look creatively constipated. Continue reading...