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Never Minded.


I was deeply shocked to hear of Sean Hughes’ passing yesterday. 

Sean Hughes performing at Hitchin Mostly Comedy at The Market Theatre (11.12.14)

Richard Herring described his death as “a punch in the soul”, which hit the nail on the head for me. He was an extraordinary comic force who could hold a room in the palm of his hand and take control of it completely, with a fire and depth that belied his laconism. He was the definition of versatility, who could act, do stand-up, write novels and poetry. He was also just 51, which is no age to go, least of all for someone with his energy; it’s hard to believe the source of such wit is no longer with us.

The strange thing was I only spoke to him via email a week ago to arrange his next appearance at Mostly Comedy, which would have been in January. The conversation was brief, but it made the news even harder to grasp. I then had the macabre task of removing him from our listings, which had a grim finality to it; I never dreamt I’d be doing that.

The first time he played our club, the kid inside me was secretly overwhelmed to be in his company. He was one of those faces who’d been a big part of my teenage years that I’d never expected to meet. Our first conversation was admittedly a little tense - he’d been given the wrong stage-time by his agent and wasn’t happy about it - but he soon mellowed after the gig and ended up staying until late in the night while we interviewed him for our podcast. He was fascinating to talk to and deeply honest; he also very generous, giving Glyn a book of his poetry and me a DVD, as well as organising comps for me to see his tour in Cambridge the following week; I think we won him over after an awkward start.

The kindness and praise heaped upon him yesterday was bittersweet. I’m sure he would have had something pithy to say about it (he wasn’t one for self-censoring). But he was a fucking good comic who leaves a huge hole in the comedy industry; he’ll be sorely missed.

Sean Hughes at Hitchin Mostly Comedy at The Sun Hotel (14.12.16)

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