Author(s): Gordon Young

Art History

Laid out in front of Blackpool Tower in England's famous seaside resort, the Comedy Carpet is the largest work of public art in Europe. Thousands of jokes and quotations by more than 850 comedians and writers from the early days of variety to the present day are set in 2200 square meters of granite and concrete in a design inspired by theater posters and bill stickers. From Tommy Cooper, Mae West and Bob Hope to Frank Carson, Groucho Marx and Ricky Gervais, the Comedy Carpet is a unique celebration of comic genius as well as an extraordinary feat of design and construction in a town that still lives and breathes laughter. Blackpool has been the British home of variety for more than a hundred years. A treasure trove of comic cultural history, with two essays, one by the artist and the other by bestselling author Graham McCann writing about the relationship between Blackpool and comedy, the book also shows the complete layout of the "carpet," which was created by artist Gordon Young with designers Why Not Assorciates who helped design the typography.