Lesson 3 My Favourite Comedian
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Mr Bean
Mr Bean is an internationally recognised comedy character in films and TV series. He has a reputation for constantly encountering awkward situations, which greatly amuses audiences of all nationalities and cultures. His humour is made clear through a series of simple and funny acts that rely purely on body language that is universal.
One of my favourite episodes was Mr Bean in a fancy restaurant. After being seated at his table, Mr Bean takes out a card, writes a few words on it, puts it in an envelope and places it on the table. After a moment, he looks back at the envelope but this time he looks surprised, as if he did not know it was there. He opens it to find a birthday card and very happily puts it on the table for everyone to see.
When he looks at the menu, an astonished look quickly appears on his face. He takes all the money out of his wallet, counts it and puts it in a saucer. He then looks from the menu to the money with concern until he finds one thing that makes him smile. Then he orders a dish called “steak tartare”. When the dish arrives, he is shocked to discover that “steak tartare” is actually raw hamburger. He makes an attempt to eat it, but it is clear from the look on his face as he is chewing that he finds the taste truly awful. He cannot hide his feelings, except when the waiters ask if everything is all right. When this happens, he smiles and nods, indicating that everything is fine. When the waiters are not looking, however, he busies himself hiding the raw meat anywhere he can reach — the sugar bowl, the tiny flower vase, inside a bread roll and under a plate. He becomes so desperate in the end that he even hides some inside the purse of a woman sitting near him and throws some down the trousers of the restaurant's violinist!
I like to watch Mr Bean on TV but I wouldn't want to meet someone like him in real life, and I certainly wouldn't want to have dinner with him!
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The Contemporary Chaplin
Rowan Atkinson is an English actor, comedian and screenwriter. In Britain, Mr Atkinson is mostly famous for many successful TV shows but internationally we know him best as the awkward, clumsy, but always amusing Mr Bean. If you think that Rowan Atkinson is anything like his famous creation, then you are in for a surprise. On the contrary, he is nothing like Mr Bean.
Rowan was born on 6 January, 1955. He grew up on a farm with his parents and three older brothers. His father was very strict and did not believe in the value of television.
Rowan had a very successful academic career. At the age of 13, he was awarded a scholarship to a boarding school. Later, he studied at Newcastle University where he attained the highest marks in his year. At Oxford, he obtained his master's degree in electrical engineering. This may explain why he loves fast cars, of which he has many.
When Rowan was young, he had a stutter and to make his speech clearer, he began to speak very carefully. This may be why some of his characters have unusual ways of speaking.
As early as primary school, Rowan had already shown a talent for acting, but it was only later at university that he decided to become an actor. A key event occurred one day in 1976 when he was playing around and pulling a face in the mirror. “I discovered my face,” he said later.
John Lloyd, who worked as a producer for BBC Television, says that one rarely meets someone with such genius, and that when he worked with Atkinson he became convinced that Rowan would be more famous than Charlie Chaplin.