John Cooper Clarke

John Cooper Clarke is quite possibly the coolest human being walking the earth and performing on it's stages today. He is the English language's premier punk rock poet who started out in his verbal vocation in the late 1970s performing in clubs with the Sex Pistols, The Buzzcocks, Elvis Costello and Joy Division. For a brief period he lived with Nico from Velvet Underground. He invented the street where street credibility is earned and received.    I first met John in Edinburgh during the Fringe festival in 1999. I went to see his show with Greg Proops and Greg's wife Jennifer. They knew John Cooper Clarke and we all got to hang out together drinking and laughing all night. I have been quoting for years some of the whip crack smart lines I heard John perform that night.    Cut to October 2014 and I am doing the Galway International comedy festival with John Cooper Clarke and we got to rekindle our friendship and get back to our main business of laughing and joking all night.    Born in 1949 he is getting up there in age which makes it even more powerful that he is playing to sold out rooms full of young people hanging on his every word and screaming their heads off with laughter.    He is the personification of cool and his poems always pack a punch that make you howl with laughter.    He is the man that I want to be when I am older, he's got style, a love of life and and an impeccable style of dress.    In November 2014 he came to Los Angeles to film a music video for MacArthur Park and I got to hang out with him for a few days while he was in town staying at the London hotel for his first paid work visit to Hollywood.   I'm proud to call him a friend and you will be happy to know him too if you are unaware of his existence. He is historically important to performance art, comedy and spoken word performance and it is my pleasure to present to you now the one and only John Cooper Clarke.     Intro song: Cutting Room (Hot Pants) – Oceanliners 1 Clip from YouTube: The First Televised Oscars Opening in 1953 2 Movie clip from YouTube: James Cagney in White Heat - Top of the World - COLORIZED 3 Song from YouTube: Shombalor - Sheriff and the Ravels - HQ 4 Poem from documentary’ BBC - Evidently... John Cooper Clarke’:  Kung Fu International – John Cooper Clark 5 Poem from documentary’ BBC - Evidently... John Cooper Clarke’:  The Pest – John Cooper Clarke 6 Song from YouTube: The Velvet Underground - Sister Ray (MONO, Best Sound) 7 Poem from documentary’ BBC - Evidently... John Cooper Clarke’:  Things Are Gonna Get Worse – John Cooper Clark 8 Poem: Beasley Street - John Cooper Clarke 9 Song from YouTube: RIO BRAVO My Rifle, My Pony, and Me/Cindy - Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan (legendado) 10 Movie clip from YouTube: Evidently Chickentown - The Best Sopranos Ending Ever 11 End Song: I Wanna Be Yours - Arctic Monkeys 12 Clip from YouTube: Bob Hope Christmas Special (1967) Recorded in West Hollywood, CA. December 2014.