As a result the audience cringed with embarrassment. But his second show was very poor, after halfway through the show he abandoned his script written by top comedians especially for him and just regurgitated old material he'd been doing years before. In fact, it was so popular that ITV asked him to do another "Audience With" which he duly accepted. And what a good move it was - Freddie turned in an amazing 'tour de force' performance - 12 million viewers tuned in to watch. In the 90s he was offered the chance to do An Audience with Freddie Starr (1996) on ITV. Just too much for TV producers and after one series he was axed. Freddie was then once again offered his own TV show, another great chance to get back into the limelight but alas his antics were again In his autobiography Unwrapped (2001) he denied the hamster incident, pointing out that he had been vegetarian since he was a child. This was, of course, a complete fallacy, concocted by publicist Max Clifford to promote Starr's forthcoming tour, but nevertheless it caused outrage - something Freddie does best - and amazingly instead of decreasing his popularity it raised his profile and he was soon guesting on talk show after talk show and more and more people packed into clubs and theaters to watch him perform on stage. Lea La Salle, a model, claimed that he had put her live hamster (called "Supersonic") in between two pieces of bread and eaten it after he arrived home and asked her to cook him supper. On 13 March 1986, The Sun tabloid newspaper published one of its most famous front-page headlines "Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster". By the mid-eighties Freddie made a great comeback! A clever publicity stunt which received masses of mediaĪttention helped to kick him back into he public eye. To support him despite his 'lack of of sparkle'. Luckily his popularity never dwindled on the comedy circuit and his loyal fan base continued to pack out theaters and clubs around the UK Stunts concerned many television producers who thought he was just too much of a loose cannon to show to a British family audience. Television work started to become less frequent because his outrageous By the early eighties he had lost that certain spark he once had. His personal life began to suffer, too, and this is where his career took a dramatic downward turn. His workload had taken its toll - he wasn't used to all the fame and fortune and he quickly grew tired and fatigued. His popularity never wavered, but his enthusiasm did. During the mid to late seventies he continued working hard, keeping to punishing and relentless performance schedules. His popularity acquired him a small fortune and he found himself working flat out 50 weeks of the year to sell-out audiences. His handsome good looks coupled with an amazing singing voice won him the adoration of thousands of loyal fans. By the mid 1970s Freddie became a Superstar in the UK. A most animated and energetic man, Starr was both a visual spectacle and a skillful wordsmith. Variety was his forte and as well as great stand-up, he was a highly accomplished singer. He had that rare ability to just walk on stage and make people laugh without even saying a word. The variety acts he performed showcased his stand-up prowess, and no-one could touch him. People got to know about him and naturally this lead to larger audiences buying tickets to see his variety shows. At this time he was also a highly popular stand up comedian and variety act on the comedy club circuit. And that was part of his appeal, he was a good looking, charming, lovable rogue with a twinkle in his eyes and audiences loved him! The story starts in the 1970s when Starr began his short-lived television career on the ITV show Who Do You Do (1972) as an impressionist. But while some comedians would have been heckled or derided for such stunts Starr always got away with it. Invariably audiences were the target of his trademark uncouth or simply outrageous stunts. Reknowned for being a loose canon, audiences could never predict what madcap stunt Starr would pull off next. By far the most outrageous mainstream UK comedian of his generation Fredie Starr was (and to a degree still is) a unique comedy talent of If things had developed a little more slowly for him this unique talent could haveīeen one of the true heroes of British comedy. In the end his immense success led to absolute failure. The tale of Freddie Starr is a long twisting turning plot of "rags to riches" fame, ending in near destitution and self destruction.
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