Comedian Sean Lock dies aged 58

[Celerity]

Bill Bailey, Lee Mack, Harry Hill and Diane Morgan are among the fellow comics who have paid tribute to Lock, ‘an absolute genius’, who died at home from cancer, surrounded by family

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/aug/18/comedian-sean-lock-dies-aged-58

Tributes have been paid to the comedian Sean Lock, who has died of cancer at the age of 58.



Bill Bailey told the Guardian that Lock was as “brilliantly funny” off the stage as on, and that their daft conversations would leave him “helpless with laughter”. Bailey described him as a kind and generous man who was rigorous in his approach to writing comedy. In a writers’ room, said Bailey, Lock “spurred you on to find a better joke, a new line, the sweet spot of a perfect gag”. When the results worked, Lock would let out a “great gale of laughter”, Bailey recalled.

Celebrated for his carefully crafted surreal content and imaginative observational wit, Lock was nominated for the Perrier comedy award at the Edinburgh fringe in 2000 for his show No Flatley, I am the Lord of the Dance. He achieved television success with a long run as a team captain on Jimmy Carr’s Channel 4 comedy panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats and the spin-off, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, and also wrote and starred in the popular BBC sitcom 15 Storeys High. The often deadpan absurdist, whose timing was described by one writer as “second only to the Greenwich Meridian”, toured extensively around the UK. His stage shows included Lockipedia, also released on DVD, in which he improvised on a number of topics suggested by his audiences: in what he described as a game of “audience battleships” he would call out a seat number and ask its occupant to give him a subject to riff on.

His agent, Off the Kerb Productions, said Lock died at home surrounded by his family: “Sean was one of Britain’s finest comedians, his boundless creativity, lightning wit and the absurdist brilliance of his work marked him out as a unique voice in British comedy. Sean was also a cherished husband and father to three children. Sean will be sorely missed by all that knew him.”

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A Tribute To Sean Lock