The first lady of stand-up?
QUESTION Is the Amazon TV show The Marvelous Mrs Maisel based on a true story? Who is considered to be the first female stand-up comedian?
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel stars Rachel Brosnahan as a Fifties Jewish housewife who, when she is dumped by her husband, discovers that she has a talent as a standup comedian.
It is not based on a true story, but comes from the imagination of New York writer, director and producer Amy ShermanPalladino, founder of Dorothy Parker Drank here Productions and creator of the comedy drama The Gilmore Girls.
Sherman-Palladino was inspired by her father Don Sherman, who was a standup comedian.
he was the warm-up act for jazz singer Dinah Washington in the Fifties, became head writer on The Joey Bishop Show in the Sixties and was for many years a popular cruise liner performer.
Brett Singleton, Chelmsford, Essex. WhIle many observers point to the wildhaired U.S. comedian Phyllis Diller, a star of the Fifties, as the first female stand-up comedian, this does a disservice to the many that came before her.
Nellie Wallace (1870-1948) was a British actress, comedian, dancer and songwriter who became one of the most famous and best-loved music hall performers.
The essence Of eccentricity, as she was known, Wallace developed her frustrated spinster act in the late 1890s. By 1910, she was given billing at the london Palladium. her trademark was her hat, in which she wore a lone daisy, feather, fishbone or even a lit candle.
She would begin her set by singing ribald songs such as Under The Bed, let’s have A Tiddley At The Milk Bar and Mother’s Pie Crust.
As in classic stand-up, the laughter came from her personality. Take, for instance, the tale of her invalid father, who is ordered by doctors to visit the seaside for the sake of his health. Because the family can’t afford the trip, they stay at home and ‘fan him with a kipper’! Wallace would banter with the audience and indulge in physical comedy: she would wear skirts so tight that she would have to lie down on stage and shuffle back and forth on her back to pick up whatever she had contrived to drop.
Other pioneers of British stand-up who started in the music hall include Joyce Grenfell and the inimitable hylda Baker.
Harriet Moore, Twickenham, Middx.
QUESTION What was the first film sequel? Which film has spawned the most sequels?
The first film sequel was also a book adaptation. Motivated by the box-office success of David Griffith’s controversial The Birth Of A Nation in 1915, writerdirector Thomas Dixon Jr decided to adapt his own novel to follow it — The Fall Of A Nation.
Though a critical and commercial flop on its release in 1916, it didn’t deter the film industry’s love of sequels, and throughout cinema’s golden era they were ubiquitous.
Between 1916 and 1960, there were 31 Tarzan films. Since Universal Pictures released Dracula in 1931, there have been more than 200 films featuring Bram Stoker’s vampire Count Dracula.
The fictional character most frequently adapted to film is Sherlock holmes. According to Guinness World Records, more than 70 actors have portrayed holmes in 200 films. From 1921 to 1923, there were 45 short films and two featurelength films based on the Baker Street detective.
The longest continuously running film franchise is Toho Studio’s Godzilla, based on a fictional prehistoric monster, which began in 1954 and has spawned more than 30 films.
Using subsequent films to cash in on the original has been so successful that as well as straightforward sequels, we have reboots — discarding the original to re-imagine the characters and story — remakes, prequels, origin stories and spin- offs, where a minor character is given top billing in their own film.
Emilie Lamplough, Trowbridge, Wilts.
QUESTION Why do opera singers’ voices have to be so wobbly?
FURTheR to the earlier answer, which described the use of vibrato in opera and touched upon technical flaws that cause a pronounced wobble, as a professional singer I’d like to elucidate further.
Most professional singers breathe from the diaphragm area when performing. This means the space behind the nose fills with air and prevents strain on the vocal cords. It also helps them project.
Sadly, many singers don’t learn to breathe correctly when training. Strain on the vocal cords can even lead to throat problems, as suffered by The Sound Of Music star Dame Julie Andrews.
Opera singers tend to have more powerful voices than pop singers, but while women’s voices tend to go higher and mature with age, men’s break.
I started as a low-voiced singer in 1990 when I was 16 and began training privately the following year, turning professional and running a business in 2013. But now I am coming up to 44, my voice has risen much higher. My voice has matured as a cheese would in the fridge.
The ‘wobble’ is annoying, and the fault lies with not taking a big enough breath to fill the nose space, so there is a loss of smoothness on longer notes.
Sometimes even nerves or being cold can cause ‘wobble’ — I discovered this while singing at my brother’s wedding in a sleeveless bridesmaid’s dress in the lincolnshire snow. Mrs Frances-Mary Pratt,
Carterton, Oxon.
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