I Owe you an Explanation (already) I thought it would be wise to kick off this blog with the story of how it came to have the unlikely title "Laugh or be Shot." I think I owe you an explanation and I don't want you to get the idea that if my writings don't make you chuckle, I'll come round there and shoot you. I can assure you categorically that I probably won't do that. In my life, I am embarrassed to say, I've won two awards. The most recent I'll tell you about elsewhere but the first dates back to the nineteen-eighties and the Soviet Union, which was still at that time under Communist rule. I was reminded of it the other day when I was writing copy for the Fan Blog of rock and blues legend, Dave Press. I mentioned in an article that Dave found success in the 60s with the Trotsky Tsars of Minsk, whose hit “Ubil Moego Gnu Kil’ku” (“Pilchards Killed My Gnu”) won the popular Poĭte ili rasstrel (“Sing or be Shot”), the Iron Curtain equivalent of the Eurovision Song Contest. By a bizarre coincidence I myself had won the sister competition of the Poĭte ili rasstrel, theSmeh ili rasstrel (Laugh or be Shot) in 1985. That competition was held every year in Stalingrad, the Comedy Capital of the Soviet Union, at a glitzy gala dinner in the famous Hotel Gulag, replete with curtains, electricity and a five course meal involving beetroot. The bash was broadcast live to all forty five TV sets across the Soviet Union, such was its popularity and was the Iron Curtain comedy writer's equivalent of the Oscars, or the Ivans as they were known over there. The Russian people at that time valued very highly anybody who could make them laugh or even smirk a bit, mainly because they were in such short supply, having emigrated in the main to America which at that time still had a sense of humour. I was therefore lionised and feted, lavished
with carrots, driven around Stalingrad in an armoured Lada and promised the keys to Lubianka once I'd completed my five year stretch. My winning the coveted Ivan (Heavy Sarcasm category) remains one of the highlights of my career I'm sorry to say and I remember it still with great affection, although by "affection" I do of course mean disenchantment. It was no mean feat nevertheless, because that year I was up against such comedy greats as Vladimir Shovel and Leonid the Pathetic Reactionary. It was also something of a surprise because back in dear old Blighty (the UK) I hadn't managed to make anyone laugh at all. Anyway, that's the reason I call this blog Laugh or be Shot, in memory of my adventure behind the Iron Curtain. In case you were wondering how I wound up in Stalingrad, the truth of the matter is that I got on the wrong plane at Gatwick. I thought I was taking an internal flight to Newcastle and I was in Stalingrad for three days before I realised my mistake. _________________________________________________________ More articles: Is Plagiarism Dead? I. Cutandpaste looks at the art of plagiarism and finds that it is alive and well and living in cyberspace. Plagiarism - Is it Dead? Stephen Cook looks at plagiarism and finds the art living in Cyberspace and quite well.