Dave Allen (comedian)

David Tynan O'Mahony (6 July 1936 – 10 March 2005), known professionally as Dave Allen, was an Irish comedian, satirist, and actor.

He was best known for his observational comedy.

Allen regularly provoked indignation by highlighting political hypocrisy and showing disdain for religious authority.

His technique and style have influenced young British comedians.

David Tynan O'Mahony was born in the Firhouse suburb of Dublin on 6 July 1936, the son of an Irish father and English mother.

His father, Gerard "Cully" Tynan O'Mahony, was the managing editor of The Irish Times, the son of writer Nora Tynan O'Mahony, and a nephew of writer Katharine Tynan.

His mother, Jean Archer, was a housewife.

He, his brothers, and their mother spent around 18 months living in Keenagh, County Longford after leaving Dublin in the wake of the 1941 North Strand bombings: following this, they moved back to Dublin and lived at Cherryfield, a house between Firhouse and Templeogue Bridge.

He was educated at Newbridge College, Terenure College, and the Catholic University School.

His father died when Allen was 12 years old, and his mother subsequently moved the family to England when he was 14.

Allen initially followed his father into journalism, firstly joining the Drogheda Argus as a copy boy, but at the age of 19 went to Fleet Street, London.

He drifted through a series of jobs before becoming a Butlins Redcoat at Skegness in a troupe that also included British jazz trumpeter and writer John Chilton.

At the end of each summer season he did stand-up at strip clubs; for the next four years, he appeared in various night clubs, theatres, and working men's clubs.

When entertainment work was slow, he worked at a toy shop in Sheffield and as a door-to-door salesman of draught excluders.

He changed his stage surname to "Allen" at the behest of his agent, who believed that few people in the UK could pronounce "O'Mahony" correctly.

Allen agreed to the change because he hoped that a surname beginning with "A" would put him at the top of agents' lists.

Allen lost the top of his left index finger above the middle knuckle after catching it in a machine cog.

He enjoyed inventing stories to explain the loss, which became a minor part of his act.

One version was that his brother John had surprised him by snapping his jaw shut when they were children.

A further explanation he gave on his programme, Dave Allen at Large, was that he often stuck his finger in his whiskey glass and it had been eaten away by strong drink.

He also said it was worn away from repeatedly brushing the dust from his suit.

One of his stand-up jokes was that, as a boy, he and his friends would go to see a cowboy movie at the local cinema, then come out ready to play Cowboys and Indians.

Staring down at his truncated finger, he would mutter, "I had a sawn-off shotgun".

On his show he told a long, elaborate ghost story, ending with "something evil" attacking him in a dark and haunted house.

Allen grabbed and bit the attacker, the studio lights came back up, and it was his own left hand.

Allen's first television appearance was on the BBC talent show New Faces in 1959.

He hosted pop music shows in the early 1960s, including tours by Adam Faith and Helen Shapiro and in early 1963 was the compere of a tour of Britain, headlined by Shapiro that also included The Beatles.

In 1962 he toured South Africa with American vaudeville star Sophie Tucker, whom he described as "one of the most charming and delightful performers with whom I have ever worked".

Tucker was impressed with him and suggested that he try his luck in Australia.

Moving there, he worked with Digby Wolfe on Australian television, becoming Wolfe's resident comedian.

Initially becoming known in Australia in 1963 and 1964, Allen made regular television appearances in the United Kingdom from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s.

While on tour in Australia in 1963, he accepted an offer to headline a television talk show for Channel 9, Tonight with Dave Allen, which was successful.

Only six months after his television début he was banned from the Australian airwaves when, during a live broadcast, he told his show's producer—who had been pressing him to go to a commercial break—to "go away and masturbate", so that he could continue an entertaining interview with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.

The ban was quietly dropped as Allen's popularity continued unabated.

Allen returned to the United Kingdom in 1964 and made a number of appearances on ITV, including The Blackpool Show and Val Parnell's Sunday Night at the London Palladium and on the BBC on The Val Doonican Show.

In 1967, he hosted his own comedy/chat series, Tonight with Dave Allen, made by ATV, for which he received the Variety Club's ITV Personality of the Year Award.

He signed with the BBC in 1968 and appeared on The Dave Allen Show, a variety/comedy sketch series.

The BBC aired his Dave Allen Show from 1971 to 1986, which was also exported to several other European countries.

He had a major resurgence during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

His television shows were also broadcast in the United States, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Yugoslavia, Australia, and New Zealand.