Malcolm Hardee (5 January 1950 – 31 January 2005) was an English comedian and comedy club proprietor.

His high reputation among his peers rests on his outrageous publicity stunts and on the help and advice he gave to successful British alternative comedians early in their careers, acting as "godfather to a generation of comic talent in the 1980s". Fellow comic Rob Newman called him "a hilarious, anarchic, living legend; a millennial Falstaff", while Stewart Lee wrote that "Malcolm Hardee is a natural clown who in any decent country would be a national institution"

Hardee was also a compère and talent-spotting booker at his own clubs, particularly The Tunnel Club in Greenwich, South East London, which gave early exposure to up-and-coming comedians during the early years of British alternative comedy. In his obituary, The Times opined that "throughout his life he maintained a fearlessness and an indifference to consequences" and one journalist claimed: "To say that he has no shame is to drastically exaggerate the amount of shame that he has". and setting fire to a Sunday school piano because he wanted to see "holy smoke". in 1967, he escaped from Gaynes Hall Borstal dressed as a monk. He also had convictions for arson and once infamously stole a Rolls-Royce

Hardee decided to turn to showbusiness as a way of staying out of trouble, saying: "There are only two things you can do when you come out of prison and you want immediate employment. You can either be a minicab driver or you can go into showbusiness" Arguably his most infamous confirmed stunt there was in 1983 when, performing at The Circuit venue – a series of three adjoining tents in a construction site with a different show in each tent – he became annoyed by what he regarded as excessive noise emanating nightly from Eric Bogosian's neighbouring performance tent. Hardee obtained a nearby tractor and, entirely naked, drove it across Bogosian's stage during his performance. At the Fringe in 1996, The Independent reported that he attempted to sabotage American ventriloquist David Strassman's Edinburgh show by abducting the act's hi-tech dummy, holding it to ransom and sending it back to Strassman piece by piece in return for hard cash. The plan failed.

left|thumb|Hardee at the [[Glastonbury Festival 2013|2003 Glastonbury Festival]]

Perhaps the most-quoted anecdote concerning Hardee was that, on 9 October 1986 his house was searched by the police – who were looking for crumbs – two days after

Collaborator John Fleming said of him that "At home, he occasionally put a live goldfish in his mouth to get attention – I saw him do it twice. It was often said of Malcolm, with a lot of justification, that he never had a stage act – his life was his act."

The claim for which Hardee was arguably best known throughout his performing life was that he was said to have "the biggest bollocks in show business" and he became renowned for a rarely performed but vividly unforgettable act in which he would use his own spectacles atop his genitals to create a unique visual impression of French President Charles de Gaulle with his testicles representing the politician's cheeks; this act pre-dated the Australian show Puppetry of the Penis by several years. and Jo Brand, with whom he had a two-year affair His advice to comics who were concerned that a joke might be offensive to an audience was: "If you think it's funny, then fuck 'em."

thumb

In 2001, after he sold his percentage in Up The Creek, Hardee took over a floating pub, The Wibbley Wobbley, on a converted Rhine pleasure cruiser in Greenland Dock, Rotherhithe, by the River Thames.

left|thumb|Flyer for 2006 memorial show

Police constable Martin Spirito told the court that, on 2 February: "The search commenced at 10:00am. At 10:24am one of the officers came up and said he had found a lifeless body. I followed the officer's line down. Six metres down I saw a white male. The male had a bottle of beer clenched in his right hand." Police sergeant Roy Dawson, in charge of overseeing the dive, told the court: "The bottle was held in his right hand. It fell from his hand on the ascent." He was cremated at Lewisham Crematorium in southeast London.

In June 2005, there were two tribute shows at the Glastonbury Festival; in July, a BBC Radio 4 documentary tribute; and, in August, two tribute shows at the Edinburgh Fringe. There were five-hour tribute shows at the Hackney Empire theatre in London on 5 February 2006 and 28 January 2007 to commemorate the anniversary of his death.

The Annual Malcolm Hardee Awards (2005–present)

The Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality are awards given annually at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival "for comic originality of thought or performance". Previous winners:

  • 2005 – Reggie Watts
  • 2006 – No award presented
  • 2007 – Doktor Cocacolamcdonalds
  • 2008 – Edward Aczel (nominees: Aindreas de Staic, The Fringe Box Office, Peter Buckley Hill, Otto Kuhnle)
  • 2009 – Otto Kuhnle (nominees: Three Gaga Heads, Tim Key, Joey Page, George Ryegold)
  • 2010 – Robert White (nominees: Doctor Brown, Bo Burnham, Lewis Schaffer, Bob Slayer)
  • 2011 – Johnny Sorrow (nominees: Doctor Brown, James Hamilton, Bob Slayer)
  • 2012 – The Rubberbandits (nominees: James Hamilton, Simon Munnery)
  • 2013 – Adrienne Truscott (nominees: Ursula Burns, Red Bastard)
  • 2014 – Candy Gigi (nominees The Birdmann, Michael Brunström)
  • 2015 – Michael Brunström (nominees: Richard Gadd, The Story Beast, Mr Twonkey/Paul Vickers)
  • 2016 – Mr Twonkey/Paul Vickers (nominees The Baby (in Come Look at The Baby), Foxdog Studios, Arthur Smith)
  • 2017 – Terry Alderton (nominees: Rob Kemp, Elf Lyons, Mark Dean Quinn.
  • 2020 - (No Award made/ No Edinburgh Fringe because of the Covid pandemic)
  • 2021 - (No Award made/ No Edinburgh Fringe because of the Covid pandemic)
  • 2022 - The Flop: A Band of Idiots (nominee: Mr Chonkers)
  • 2023 - Phil Ellis (nominees: Stephen Catling, Ivor Dembina, Mark Silcox)
  • 2024 - Mark Dean Quinn (nominees: Vinay Sagar, the Duncan Brothers; Elliot Wengler; Garry Starr; Nate Kitch; Paulina Lenoir; Neil Davidson)
  • 2025 - Paul Campbell (nominees: Alan Resnick, Johhny White Really-Really, Joz Norris, Liebenspiel, Lucy Pearman, Nate Kitch, Stephen Catling)

The Malcolm Hardee Cunning Stunt Award is given for the best Fringe publicity stunt of the year. Previous winners:

  • 2008 – Gill Smith, awarded retrospectively in 2009, for nominating herself for a Malcolm Hardee award and putting "Malcolm Hardee Award Nominee" on her posters
  • 2009 – Lewis Schaffer, after convincing several publications he was sponsoring the Edinburgh Comedy Awards (or "Lewies") for the modest sum of £99 (nominees: Manos The Greek, Arthur Smith)
  • 2011 – Kunt and the Gang and Bob Slayer, for getting fans to put stickers depicting penises on the posters of rival acts (nominees: Tim FitzHigham, Sanderson Jones)
  • 2012 – Stuart Goldsmith, for YouTube videos about the censorship of his show Prick (nominees Nathan Cassidy, Chris Dangerfield)
  • 2013 – Barry Ferns, for printing fake copies of Broadway Baby which gave his show 6-out-of-5 star reviews and reported that his show had been nominated for the Fosters Comedy Awards, in both the main category and the newcomer category. (nominees: Richard Herring, Lewis Schaffer, Gareth Morinan)
  • 2014 – Christian Talbot, for using his 12-year-old daughter Kate to go up to strangers, looking sad, asking them, "Have you seen my daddy?", and if they said "No" she would hand out flyers to them. (nominees Luke McQueen, Mark Dean Quinn)
  • 2015 – Matt Roper, for hacking into the Facebook account of Malcolm Hardee judge Kate Copstick and posting fake messages "bigging himself up". (nominees Miss Behave, Abigoliah Schamaun)
  • 2016 – Becky Fury, for claiming on her flyer she was a 'Last Minute Comedy finalist' - implying it was for the last minute.com awards when, in fact, it was for a Hertfordshire comedy club contest
  • 2018 - no award presented
  • 2019 - President Obonjo (Nominees Candy Gigi, Catherine Cohen, Sophie Duker and Tom Crosbie)
  • 2020 - (No Award made/ No Edinburgh Fringe because of the Covid pandemic)
  • 2021 - (No Award made/ No Edinburgh Fringe because of the Covid pandemic)
  • 2022 - Jerry Sadowitz
  • 2023 - Julia Masli (nominees: Sam Campbell, Larry Owens, Seymour Mace, Natalie Perlin
  • 2016 - Cat Call, performed by Cally Beaton and Catherine Bohart

Writing

  • I Stole Freddie Mercury's Birthday Cake (autobiography; co-writer John Fleming) Fourth Estate, 1996. .
  • Sit-Down Comedy (anthology, ed Malcolm Hardee & John Fleming) Ebury Press/Random House, 2003. .

Hardee also wrote a number of columns in comedy magazines in which he gave tips and told anecdotes about life as a comic.

References

  • His website: obituaries, tributes and newspaper articles
  • Sit Down Comedy website