Why “Parrotface” is back to Tweet again: full page article in The Stage

For those who missed the September 18th edition of The Stage, here is the article on Freddie Davies in its feature The Archive. Click on the image above to see it as laid out in the paper or read the text below.

 Why “Parrotface” is back to Tweet again

Freddie Davies’ appearance on Opportunity Knock changed the comedian’s life. As a new autobiography charts his career, he tells Anthony Teague of the influence of his music-hall-star grandfather and how necessity is the mother of reinvention

Great Freddie interview on BBC Newcastle Radio available until 2nd October

Freddie's upcoming shows in October and November

[To avoid confusion, please note this post refers to 2014 shows - go here for details of forthcoming shows in 2015]

For psittacine fans everywhere, I bear the happy news that Freddie Davies will be doing two one man shows, telling stories from his recently published autobiography Funny Bones, in November. If you were lucky enough to catch him topping the bill on a recent variety tour this is a rare chance to experience full-on Freddie, as the publicity material for the shows explains:

Review on Chortle

Steve Bennett's review on comedy website Chortle,  here, describes the earlier part of Funny Bones as "an evocative, down-to-earth account of life for a jobbing comic at the time", going on to to praise the book's "vivid description of the scene of 50 years ago ... [it] paints an interesting picture, especially in later chapters, of a old-fashioned trouper."

Here's the full review:  

Unless you are of a certain age, the name Freddie ‘Parrotface’ Davies is unlikely to mean much to you. But the identifying nickname inserted between his given names means that, unless he’s a WWE wrestler, he could only possibly be a variety-era entertainer.

But those who do know the name will immediately conjure up an image of a wide-eyed innocent gazing our from beneath a Homburg as he spluttered, lisped and whistled his way through some preposterous nonsense. This quirky alter-ego, Samuel Tweet, made him a surprisingly big star of the the 1960s and 1970s, fronting advertising campaigns and topping the bill, selling out theatres on the strength of his psittacine fame. That’s parrot-related, a new word learned from this book.

Article about Freddie in The Stage