Everything about Tommy Cooper totally explained
Tommy Cooper (
March 19,
1921 –
April 15,
1984) was an
Anglo-Welsh prop comedian and
magician. He is known for making an art of getting magic tricks wrong, although he was actually an accomplished magician. He has been the subject of efforts by people in
Caerphilly to publicise the town as his birthplace.
Despite his purported inability to perform conjuring tricks, Cooper was a member of
The Magic Circle. Famed for his red
fez, his appearance was large and lumbering at 6ft 3in (1.91m) and more than 15 stone in weight. He had a range of facial expressions and would also say things like, "I must say you've been a wonderful audience" or "Have we got time for more?" immediately after he walked on stage that would convulse audiences with laughter. He had a host of
catchphrases such as "Spoon, jar, jar, spoon!!" and "Whisky, sample, sample, whisky, sample...". His most quoted catchphrase "Just like that" has never been on film. He once stood for minutes behind the curtain at the start of a televised show, and the audience, knowing he was there, was laughing hard before he even appeared. "People were laughing, just standing in line, for the tickets to see him" has often been quoted.
Biography
Born Thomas Frederick Cooper, in
Caerphilly,
Wales, he was delivered by the woman who owned the house in which the family was lodging. Cooper's parents were
Welsh-born army recruiting sergeant father Tom, and his
English-born mother Gertrude from
Crediton,
Devon. In light of the heavily polluted air and the offer of a job for his father, the family moved to
Exeter, Devon when Cooper was three and gained the
West Country accent that was part of his act.
The family lived in a house at the back of
Haven Banks, where Cooper attended Mount Radford School for boys, and helped his parents run their
ice cream van, which attended
fairs on the weekend. At 8 an aunt bought Cooper a magic set and he spent hours perfecting the tricks.
World War Two
After school, Cooper became a
shipwright in Hythe, Hampshire, and in
1940 was called up as a
trooper in the
Royal Horse Guards regiment of the
British Army in
World War Two. He served initially in
Montgomery's Desert Rats in
Egypt. Cooper became part of the
NAAFI entertainment party and developed an act around his
magic tricks interspersed with comedy. One evening in
Cairo, during a sketch in which he was supposed to be in a costume which required a
pith helmet, having forgotten the prop Cooper reached out and borrowed the
fez from a passing waiter which got huge laughs. After this he used to deliberately make a mess of his act
Act development
When he was demobbed after 7 years of military service, Cooper took up show business on
Christmas Eve,
1947 — he'd later add a popular
monologue about his military experience as "Cooper the Trooper." Cooper worked variety theatres around the country, and at
London's
Windmill Theatre he performed 52 shows per week. Cooper was survived by his wife, Gwen (whom he called 'Dove'), and two children,
Thomas and Vicky. Thomas died just four years later from
cirrhosis of the liver.
Examples of Cooper's humour
His friend and biographer John Fisher said of Cooper's humour: 'On anyone else's lips, it would have been hopeless. Delivered by Tommy, with all his childlike innocence and charm, it would make an audience roar.' Bob Monkhouse recalls seeing Cooper in a dressing room dangling a bath tap on a piece of elastic. "It's a gag," Cooper said, explaining that he was going to come on, dangle it up and down a few times and then say, "Tap dance!" Monkhouse advised him the idea was terrible, the worst joke he'd heard and advised him not to perform it. Cooper went ahead and brought the house down.
Cooper's comedy carried over to his private life. He once went into a tailor's shop to buy a suit. Trying it on he asked a member of staff if he could take it for a walk round the block. When they consented he took a block of wood from his pocket, put it on the floor and walked around it before saying, "Fine. I'll take it." He continued this in life with his wife, Gwen reporting frequent instances of rubber spiders, snakes that sprang out of tins and books that burst into flames. A visitor recalled screams from the maid; she'd discovered a 'severed hand' in the laundry basket. Cooper was a caring father and used his comedy to effect. There was the time his son was caught having stolen a ball of string and pen-knife from the local
Woolworths. Gwen was distraught but Cooper maintained silence until the evening when he took his son aside and said, in fierce tones, "If you ever, ever steal again .... get me a packet of my favourite cigars." The boy never re-offended.
Cooper turned his comedy to his illnesses. He had chronic indigestion and his daughter Vicky described how he'd drink milk of magnesia then jump up and down because he'd forgotten to shake the bottle. And despite his upset when his wife was taken ill, the flowers he presented her squirted water in her face.
A selection of Cooper's jokes
"I slept like a log last night; I woke up in the fireplace".
"Man walks into a bar. Didn't half hurt. It was an iron bar".
"I've got the best wife in England; the other one's in Africa".
"I had a ploughman's lunch the other day; he wasn't half mad".
"My dog took a big bite out of my knee the other day and a friend of mine said, "Did you put anything on it? I said, No, he liked it as it was."
"I think inventions are marvellous, don't you? Wherever they put a petrol pump they find petrol".
"I'm on a whisky diet; I've lost three days already".
"I backed a horse today at 20:1. It came in at twenty past four".
"I was in Margate last year for the summer season. A friend of mine said, "You want to go to Margate, it's good for rheumatism". So I did and I got it."
"A man walked into the doctor's, he said "I've broke my arm in several places". The doctor said "Well don't go to those places".
"I went to the nurse the other day and I told her, "My arm hurts whenever I do that" (does arm gesture). She said, "Well, don't do that then".
"Police arrested two kids yesterday, one was drinking battery acid, the other was eating fireworks. They charged one and let the other one off".
"A woman told her doctor, "I've got a bad back." The doctor said, "It's old age." The woman said, "I want a second opinion". The doctor says, "OK. you're ugly as well."
"You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on the windscreen, it said "Parking Fine". So that was nice.
In 1961 Cooper had a minor hit record in Britain with "Don't Jump off the Roof, Dad" on Palette Records: 'Don't jump off the roof, Dad/You'll make a hole in the yard/Mother's just planted petunias/The weeding and seeding was hard/If you must end it all, Dad/Why don't you give us a break/Just go down to the park, Dad/And then you can jump in the lake.'
Honours
In a 2005 poll The Comedians' Comedian, Cooper was voted the sixth greatest comedy act ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. He is commonly cited as one of the best comedians of all time, with several polls placing him at number one.
Jerome Flynn has toured with his own tribute show to Cooper called Just Like That.
Statue
A statue of Tommy Cooper was unveiled in his hometown of Caerphilly on 23 February 2008 by Sir Anthony Hopkins, who is patron of The Tommy Cooper Society.
Film biography
In February 2007, The Independent reported that Andy Harries, a producer of the Academy Award winning The Queen, was working on a dramatization about the last week of Tommy Cooper's life. Harries described Cooper's death as "extraordinary" in that the whole thing was broadcast live on national television.
Miscellaneous
'Tommy C' is a track by UK music artists Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip which discusses Tommy Cooper's humour, performances and death.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Tommy Cooper'.
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