Am Yow The Comic?: Memoirs of a Black Country Comedian

What an entertaining insight into a bygone age of stand-up comedy, and into the fascinating alter ego of my stern and brilliant English master.I was extremely privileged to win a place at King Edward VI Grammar School, Stratford-Upon-Avon, and thereby benefit from the author's splendidly traditional, disciplined, highly effective and rewarding teaching technique. If the likes of Mr Bullock and the other masters (we did not have androgynous 'teachers' at my school) of his ilk who taught me were teaching in schools today, this country would be a more literate one.

The back cover mentions that the author taught for 20 years at Shakespeare's school in Stratford upon Avon. Indeed, I was one of his pupils, hence my interest in the book. Strangely, the book itself does not even refer to this time, only very briefly mentioning the start of his teaching career.The author undoubtedly has an interesting story to tell. Alas, the book is so short it never has a chance to get going. It's 48 pages long, starts on page seven, and there are at least ten full pages of photographs. It rather feels as if the author wrote something longer, but it has been stripped right back by the publisher, keen to keep print costs down. The story is consequently told in rather a mechanical fashion and reveals little about the author's feelings or emotions beyond his nostalgia for now, largely forgotten, old-time comedians and variety acts.For those of us who were taught by the author an interesting question - unanswered in the book, of course - is why his teaching style was so at odds with this other part of his life. In the classroom he was notoriously strict, demanding military discipline at all times and handing out detentions galore. Ironically, he was known for shouting at many a terrified schoolboy: "What's the matter with you? Wipe that smile off your face before I wipe it off for you." Humour was most definitely not part of his classroom act.