Alexei Sayle
| Alexei Sayle | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Alexei David Sayle |
| Born |
7 August 1952 Anfield, Liverpool, England |
| Medium | Stand up, television, film, radio, print |
| Nationality | British |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Genres | Black comedy, physical comedy, surreal humour, parody, alternative comedy, character comedy |
| Spouse | Linda Rawsthorn (m. 1974) |
| Notable works and roles | Alexei Sayle's Stuff, The Comic Strip Presents..., The Young Ones, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Gorky Park |
| Website | www |
Alexei David Sayle (born 7 August 1952) is an English stand-up comedian, actor, author, former recording artist, and was a central part of the alternative comedy circuit in the 1980s. He was voted the 18th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-ups in 2007. In the updated 2010 poll he came 72nd.
Much of Sayle's humour is in the tradition of Spike Milligan and Monty Python, with riffs based on absurd and surreal premises. His act is noted for its cynicism and political awareness, as well as physical comedy.
Sayle was born and brought up in Anfield, Liverpool, the son of Molly (Malka) Sayle (née Mendelson), a pools clerk, and Joseph Henry Sayle, a railway guard, both of whom were members of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Sayle's mother was of Lithuanian Jewish descent, and some members of his mother's family were very devout Jews, as he mentioned when he nominated Palestinian rights advocate Edward Said on the BBC Radio 4 programme Great Lives. In the aftermath of the May 1968 French uprising, he joined the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist).
In later years he has said that, while no longer active in left politics, "I still would adhere to those philosophical and economic ideas of Marxism that I got when I was sixteen. ... it's seemed to me as true now as it did then". From 1964–69 he attended Alsop High School in Walton, and was expelled halfway through sixth form. After that, Sayle took a foundation course in art at Southport, before attending Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. He attended Garnett College, Roehampton, a training college for teachers in further education.
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