Johnny Bassett

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For other persons named John Bassett, see John Bassett (disambiguation).

John Bassett (born 1935) is the person credited with putting together the talent for the Edinburgh International Festival revue, 'Beyond the Fringe', in 1960.

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[edit] The Beginnings

Jazz days: Dudley Moore (centre) with John Bassett (second left) and band
Jazz days: Dudley Moore (centre) with John Bassett (second left) and band

As a student at Wadham College, Oxford, John Bassett led a traditional jazz ensemble, called the Bassett Hounds. Fellow student, Dudley Moore, attending Magdalen College on an organ scholarship, played piano in Bassett's band. The band performed regularly on Saturday evenings in the Union cellars (a part of the Oxford Union buildings and grounds).

After graduating from Oxford, Bassett was hired by Robert Ponsonby as an assistant. Ponsonby, himself an Oxford man and organ scholar, was artistic director for the Edinburgh International Festival, in 1960, when he recommended a different type of late evening festival programme. For this time slot, he suggested to Bassett they put on their own revue "to beat [the clever undergraduates from Oxford and Cambridge, on The Fringe] at their own game."

Bassett's first choice for the revue was his Oxford bandmate, Dudley Moore, who had become an outstanding cabaret performer as well as accomplished musician. The multitalented Moore was an obvious choice to Bassett. Moore had already appeared in the Fringe in the 1958 Oxford revue. Bassett asked Moore to recommend others. Moore who had shared billing with Alan Bennett, in turn, recommended him. Bassett booked Bennett after seeing him in a bit of cabaret. Bassett also cast a Cambridge graduate and medical student, Jonathan Miller, who had been a star of Cambridge Footlights shows a few years earlier. Miller embraced the opportunity to join in the venture as a way to escape the strains of medical work. Miller turned out to be the talent scout for the last member to be recruited for the revue. This final addition was first spotted by Miller in London performing in a series of sketches he'd written for Michael Codron called, Pieces of Eight. The writer/performer was Peter Cook. Cook would become the principal writer for the Edinburgh revue imbuing it with a sensibility, in Miller's words, "at right-angles" to all known comedy at the time.

[edit] What Ensued

The first meeting of the major talent selected for Ponsonby's challenge to The Fringe was taciturn, according to Bassett. The ice was finally broken when Moore did an imitation of Groucho Marx in the restaurant where they met. "He got up in this Italian restaurant and followed one of the waitresses through the swinging doors to the kitchen and immediately came out of the swinging doors with another waitress." Bassett considered this moment the birth of Beyond the Fringe.

Bassett claims that finances rather than talent, were the driving force behind the formation of the revue. Louis Armstrong had been booked in the time slot eventually alloted to the revue. Unfortunately, Armstrong's agent couldn't keep to the commitment having failed to book other gigs in the UK, and therefore couldn't justify the trip to Edinburgh. This cancellation forced Ponsonby's decision to put together the revue at the last minute.

[edit] Beyond 'Beyond the Fringe'

By the time Beyond the Fringe opened in London, Bassett was no longer involved. However, he kept in touch with his friend, Moore, until the latter's death in 2002.

Bassett has also been credited with involvement in the television programs, That Was the Week That Was and Late Night Line-Up.

[edit] References