Rich Davenport, a comedy poet and stand-up comedian from exotic Bolton, has published his second book ‘Horsetrousers’ – with a big chunk of change from every sale being donated to the ME Association.
His humour is all there in all it’s gory, bodily-functioned warped glory. Some of the rhymes and internal rhythms are so cleverly done that you have to read them twice to fully appreciate the way they twist into the narrative.
Rich, now nudging his 50th year, gigged with the likes of Micky Flanagan, Dave Spikey and John Bishop before his ME took a turn for the worse and he was forced to take a break from comedy.
The Morecambe-based West End Playhouse and Spotlight Lancaster were instrumental in encouraging to return to comedy during the first year of covid in 2020 – with the help of that old friend of the performance arts called Zoom.
“Things have improved in the last 20 years but I’ve still been forced to fight against ignorance and disability discrimination in work situations, and in a lot of other areas of life”, he said this week. “The MEA have given me invaluable support and information – most recently in trying to get access to the Covid vaccine, and the research they do is crucial.”
Rich first met Minty B, the artist who illustrated the book, when they both worked at Waterstones in Bolton. They’ve gone from selling books to writing two of their own.
His online comedy show won Best Local Comedy at the Morecambe Fringe Festival on 2020. Kate Fox described his set at this year’s Morecambe Poetry Festival as “a hint of Peter Kay, a touch of Victoria Wood and Henry Normal. Had the audience in the palm of his hand.”
Tony Britton, our fundraising and PR manager, said: “I knew there would be belly laughs when the first email I ever received from Rich was headed ‘I’ve never heard of me either!’ and he’s never let me down. If you like down-to-earth humour, very much so, I do recommend a dip into ‘Horsetrousers’. It puts this crazy world into proper perspective.”
‘Horsetrousers', Rich’s second book, is priced at £6.99. Buy it here:
Tony Britton
Senior Fundraising Consultant, The ME Association
tony.britton@meassociation.org.uk Mob: 07393 805566
