The Comedy Man — D.J. Taylor

An entertainer looks back on his life in this novel based on the rise and fall of a famous British comedy team

From the vantage point of late middle age, Edward “Ted” King -- one half of the dynamic duo Upward & King -- discovers that nostalgia isn't what it used to be. Ted met Arthur Upward in Britain's National Service. They started out doing gigs at Soho cabarets, and in the mid-sixties, they took their act on the road. By the late seventies, they were the most beloved comedians on British television, watched by ten million viewers per week. This inventive novel, narrated by Ted on the eve of the release of a documentary about their famous partnership, begins with his boyhood in the farm fields of post-war Yarmouth. The son of a shopkeeper with few aspirations, Ted soon realizes he wants to tell jokes for a living. Then, one day in a hall at the sergeants' mess, he sees Arthur perform the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.” He instantly senses the titanic influence the other man will have on his life. Ted plays the straight man to Arthur's pratfalling comic, and they go on to captivate a nation. Until it all goes wrong.
 
Crosscutting between the past and present, The Comedy Man is a poignant, funny “memoir” that reminds us how comedy is often derived from the most serious situations -- and from the inexpressible longings of the human heart.