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Your support makes all the difference.Phil Jupitus, chummy Essex beer-boy and avowed West Ham fan, is the latest stand-up performer to be hauled off the comedy circuit by Radio 1FM and let loose in a studio. This increasing trend towards sit-down comedy has seen the emergence of joke jocks such as John Shuttleworth, Alan Parker, Urban Warrior and Lee & Herring - about to become the next "next Newman & Baddiel" on BBC2 this Thursday.
Parker and Shuttleworth both found success on air by incorporating the personae of their live acts, but Jupitus, not having a stage character to draw from, has been forced to take more of a risk. Live he is an awesome performer, energising his 18 stone from the moment he takes the stage - "Two fat blokes walk into a pub... me and me dad had a great night." But in the more muted surrounds of a radio studio, without the visual impact that his comedy relies on, he is up against it. Slices of Life (9pm R1) broadcasts from the Jupitus home (he told the radio bosses "I don't leave my home for less than five grand," so that's where he stays) and introduces us to his co-habitants - an Essex tart, a master builder, a Net-surfing cybernerd and so on.
The show feels as though it's been thrown together in a rush and unless it can pick up, its anaemic humour will leave Jupitus a needless victim of Radio 1's all-consuming appetite for comedy.
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