LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

Reviewing Peter Stothard’s book, Natalie Haynes began with what she claimed to be a showbiz classic legend:

Spartacus is a figure so embedded into our culture that, even now, he can command a group of disparate people to rise up in rebellion. Kirk Douglas had a son, the little-remembered Eric Douglas [1958-2004], who was an actor and stand-up comedian. He once came over to the UK to do some gigs and inadvertently created one of British comedy’s finest legends. Eric wasn’t having a great gig at a London club; he was going down the pan. His opening line, I seem to remember, focused on the fact that he lacked the cleft in his chin possessed by his father and brother. The audience was not in the least interested. Their indifference eventually overwhelmed him and he finally shouted: “Do you know who I am? I’m Kirk Douglas’s son!” The room looked on in silence, then someone in the audience stood up and said: “No, I am Kirk Douglas’s son.” He was swiftly followed by several more. Within seconds the entire audience was on their feet, all claiming to be Kirk Douglas’s son, in a pitch-perfect parody of the scene in Spartacus. That, by anyone’s standards, is a tough gig. 1

Reviewing the TV series Spartacus: Blood and Sand, critic AA Gill reprised and compounded this sad humiliation of what he described as “failed actor and successful drug addict” Eric Douglas, adding, “There are many ways to get crucified by an audience”. 2

REFERENCES 1. Times, 23 January 2009. 2. Sunday Times, 30 may 2010.