LEJ

Is the "Magical Cooper" you refer to the wonderful Tommy Cooper?

He used to wear a fez and his act was a magic act, where everything goes wrong. It was his timing, not the magic that was the act and his 'jokes' had long gone grey before they were written.

Example: A man takes a chicken back to the butcher and says " this chicken has one leg shorter than the other. The butcher replies "what do you want to do, eat it, or dance with it"?

There was a story about how his humour did not travel well to the US..... He was doing a week in Las Vegas and after the management had watched his act for the first three days, they approached him, a little worriedly and said to him "Mr Cooper, we have been watching your act and we really think that you should rehearse a little more".......

Generally I think it is a little unfair to put people into funny or unfunny as it is a hit and miss process and funny people are capable of being very unfunny. Whether unfunny ones can be funny, I'm not too sure. Monty Python is a good example, at it's best it was inspired, but in could be dire. It probably depends on how high their sights are set.

'The Life Of Brian' is Monty Python's finest moment as it is less patchy, than their other work.

Steve Martin always works for me and Parenthood, contains some of his best work. The scene where the lights go back on, just as the words, " I've found the flashlight" are said, as he is seen to be holding the host's vibrator.