Tony Allen (comedian)
| Tony Allen | |
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| Born |
4 March 1945 Hayes, Middlesex, England |
| Website | "New Agenda Arts Trust" |
Tony Allen (born 4 March 1945) is an English comedian and writer. Best known as one of the original "alternative comedians", Tony Allen's artistic career had taken many radical turns before he temporarily abandoned his Speakers' Corner "Full-Frontal Anarchy Platform" in May 1979 for the stage of London's Comedy Store. Two months later he founded Alternative Cabaret with Alexei Sayle and ran a regular "Alt Cab" Club night in the back bar of the Elgin pub on Ladbroke Grove.
In 1973 he was co-founder with John Miles of Rough Theatre and co-wrote and performed in all five of its productions. The most memorable was Dwelling Unit Sweet Dwelling Unit (1973) - which he later adapted for BBC Radio 4's Thirty-Minute Theatre (1977) - and Free Milk and Orange Juice (1976), which had a short run at the ICA.
During the seventies Allen wrote three more radio plays including an Afternoon Theatre play, Two Fingers Finnegan Comes Again, co-written with Vernon Magee and bespoke for the actor Wilfrid Brambell. He went on to devise and write over twenty plays for fringe and community theatre, most memorably, Metropolitan with Ken Robinson, for the Young People's Theatre Scheme at The Royal Court Theatre; and various productions at The Theatre Royal, Stratford East, including their Christmas panto Robin Hood (1975), which he co-wrote with Heathcote Williams. He later co-wrote a television play with Ken Robinson - Que Sera for TVS's Dramarama.
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