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A comic monologue is a poem that tells a funny story. Before the age of film or television in the late 19th or early 20th century, comic monologues were a popular form of entertainment in theatres or at private parties. Someone would stand up and recite a long poem that told a story that made people laugh.

The language in a comic monologue is usually simple, because lots of people had to understand it straightaway or there would be no laughs.

Poor Albert

The comic monologue Albert and the Lion was written in 1932 by a Scottish writer called Marriott Edgar. It tells the story of an unfortunate encounter between a young boy called Albert Ramsbottom and a lion called Wallace.

Albert's parents take him to the zoo, where something quite terrible - but also very funny - happens.

Edgar wrote his comic monologues to be performed on the stage in a theatre. The monologues were quite long and the stories told slowly to get maximum comic effect. Albert and the Lion has 18 verses, each four lines long. In each verse, the second and fourth lines rhyme.

A bit of background

Albert and the Lion is told in a north of England regional accent, where the letter 'h' at the start of a word is sometimes not pronounced. Albert has a walking stick with a horse's head at the end. In the monologue this becomes a stick with 'a 'orse's 'ead 'andle'.

The story takes place in the coastal town of Blackpool, a famous holiday resort. Albert's surname is 'Ramsbottom', which is funny because a ram is a male sheep, and your bottom is the part of your body you sit down on. So, let's meet Albert Ramsbottom.

There's a famous seaside place called Blackpool,

That's noted for fresh air and fun,

And Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom

Went there with young Albert, their son.

The Ramsbottoms decide to visit the zoo, where ...

There was one great big lion called Wallace,

His nose was all covered with scars.

He lay in a somnolent posture,

With the side of his face to the bars.

Now Albert had heard about lions,

How they were ferocious and wild.

And to see Wallace lying so peaceful,

Well, it didn't seem right to the child.

So, to wake Wallace up and make him appear a bit livelier, Albert pokes him with his stick ...

You could see that the lion didn't like it,

For, giving a kind of a roll,

He pulled Albert inside the cage with him

And swallowed the little lad whole!

Chaos now follows ...

And you can listen to various comic actors performing the monologue if you search for Albert and the Lion on YouTube.

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