Alexei Sayle
Saturday October 4
Alexei Sayle paused in mid-rant, and looked down from his outsize lectern at the child in the middle of the front row. "Is this all right?" he asked the boy's mother. "You don't have a problem with this?" Assured that his language was causing no offence, he continued. "Only he may learn a few new words tonight." And unless gallimaufry and encomium were already part of his vocabulary, he probably did.
The audience who packed the Studio at the Gala Theatre to see Alexei Sayle were treated to the best of both worlds: on the one hand, a dedicated and accomplished author reading from his work, and on the other a performer who knows all the tricks of stand-up comedy.
Alexei Sayle the writer delivered a generous sample of his work. First he read the whole of a short story from his collection Barcelona Plates, a cynical little number about a hypochondriac who gets his come-uppance, with a sting in the tail that explains why Sayle's short stories have been compared to those of Roald Dahl. Then came a passage from his new novel, Overtaken, with accompanying scene-setting explanations in which Alexei Sayle the comedian seemed constantly on the verge of launching into a rant - about growing up as the child of communist activists, about the circus (traditional and modern), about any subject and none.
After a break for questions, in which he admitted that he no longer has time to read as much as he would like to, but that he is currently reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and that his all-time favourite author is Evelyn Waugh, there was an opportunity for the audience to buy Alexei Sayle's books from the bookstall, and to get them signed by the author.
Alexei Sayle's books are available at the bookstall throughout the Festival.
Read the title story from the collection Barcelona Plates.
