Topic: RIP Tom O'Connor

[Timbo's Goals]

Tom 'OConnor passed away yesterday.

Condolences to his family and friends who evidently include daughter-in-law Denise Lewis, something I didn't know.

Younger board members may probably have never heard of him at all whilst the not so young will remember him solely as  the amiable and pleasant yet rather bland game show host on Name That Tune and other similar quiz programmes in the late 70's and 80's.

However, those more ancient Scouse souls such as myself will have spent our early adult life encountering Tom and his comedy genius on the Saturday night chicken in the basket theatre club circuit across Liverpool and Merseyside where he was by far the most popular local comic act. Some feat in this area when you consider the omnipresence of Ken Dodd and the comic genius of Eddie Flanagan and the plethora of other local comics at that time.

For a period in the '70's it seemed you could virtually catch Tom's act most weekends. He'd be on any one of a host of clubs such as Maghull Country Club, Allinsons, The Montrose, Wooky Hollow, Russells, Titos, The Shakey. You name it. I think we must have seen him almost as many times as I've seen Bruce Springsteen for god's sake. Well maybe not quite.  And the beauty was he seemed to have so much fictional anecdotes his routines often had different material no matter how often you saw him. And, from what I know, his material was all his own and is missus's.

Tom O'Connor wasn't a naturally 'funny man' like Doddy or Eddie Flanagan or even one of those natural scouse comics you'd meet every day in work or the ale house with that impromptu scouse wit and repartee. Tom's act was rather all about building an anecdotal image of that sort of quick witted scouser either in his own environment or more amusingly when encountering folks from outside the city.

Being from Bootle and from a family of dockers he'd have had a plentiful supply of ammunition upon which to build his imaginary characters. The secret of his huge local popularity in the end was I guess in convincing his local audience that the scouse protaganists in his anecdotes were real even though the situations and encounters were usually so hugely exaggerated and often absurd they were clearly nonsense. It didn't matter though one jot. Because it worked like a dream and his audience was drawn into this wonderful escapist world of Tom's fictional scousers. His delivery of those generic Scouse voices, male or female, making them instantly recognizable to his fellow Scousers ensured he pulled off pulling off the trick every time.

So there we are. Another Liverpool legend sadly leaves us. But what a great legacy he also leaves us too.

RIP Tom. You gave us some amazing Saturday nights out and I can still picture my dear arl fella pleading with you to stop as he convulsed with laughter one night at Allinsons when seeing you for the first time.

Link is to a show at Maghull Country Club. Includes the Oink Peterson gag

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN-HzavIdtM

[Red Beret]

RIP Tom. Glad to see a thread dedicated to him, after all the confusion spread elsewhere. A sad loss to Liverpool

[WhoHe]

RIP Tom.
Went with my Dad and best mate to see him in a Fathers Day Special at the Green Room one afternoon in summer 2014, the head doorman is from Netherley and I have worked on the door with him in the past and he sorted us a boss table right at the front, air con and table service, lovely.

He was very good but we would listen to tapes (this was the 70s) of him when we were kids and so we already knew some of his stuff, think he could have taught some recent comics that simply swearing in itself isn't actually that funny and its the jokes that count.

[Stubbins]

Very sad loss. Funny, but by all accounts a thoroughly nice bloke as well. RIP Tom.

[Dr. Beaker]

Was often on at the Sportsman too.

"There'll be no sparks off this brush pal".

RIP

[vivabobbygraham]

My brother, God rest his soul, was taught by Tom at St. Anne's I think, could be wrong, off Marsh Lane. He always spoke fondly of him as a teacher who took an interest in all his pupils, talked to them instead of at them. We had a couple of his vinyl's that were well worn. Tom was a very funny man. Not jokes but stories; one that springs to mind of the scouser on a round the world cruise on the QE2 that has stayed with me. The way he built his narrative was genius, pure comedy gold. He never rushed his stories, instead he built them, brick by brick. Brilliant live with an audience that was always warm. Never lost his roots, proper scouser and one that will be sadly missed

RIP Tom. God bless you.

[Son of Spion]

RIP Tom.

I always enjoyed watching him when I was younger.

[smutchin]

Ah, RIP Tom. Very much a proper old-school entertainer. Always came across as very likeable and wholesome.

Never a cross word.

[Cormack Snr]

I can remember me and my Mum and Dad and four brothers laughing like mad at a tape of his in the 1970's after we had just come in from playing out on a Friday night and one story I can remember is that a fella walks into a doctors surgery and the Doctor says " I will be with you in a minute, I am just a little stiff from Rugby. The fella says " Hurry up then, I'm a big hard case from Liverpool..

[kavah]

^ ha ha 

RIP Tom

[Timbo's Goals]

I can remember me and my Mum and Dad and four brothers laughing like mad at a tape of his in the 1970's after we had just come in from playing out on a Friday night and one story I can remember is that a fella walks into a doctors surgery and the Doctor says " I will be with you in a minute, I am just a little stiff from Rugby. The fella says " Hurry up then, I'm a big hard case from Liverpool..

 

There's so many of Tom's like that. Another dead simple one that always makes me smile even after all these years

It's the Scouse couple going abroad for the very first time and they're just going down the steps from the plane to be greeted by this friendly Spanish official...

"Bienvenido y buenas noches mis amigos"

"What's he saying Jimmy" says the missus

"I dunno" jimmy says  "but I'm takin' no chances, I'm gonna belt 'im in the mouth"

 

[Dr. Beaker]

The arl fella who gets a job in the local engineering factory. They just give him a job sweeping the floor. First day comes, they give him his brown overcoat and his brush, then they give him his protective goggles. He says, "What are these for". They say, "Its to protect your eyes from the sparks". He says, "There'll be no sparks from this brush pal".