John Sessions hate


I was wondering what did John Sessions do to start being disliked by fans or become the butt of jokes amongst the cast?

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Hi

I'm not sure. I do remember Paul Merton making some comments about him on WLIIA.

No doubt others will let you know :)






"Talk to the hand 'cos the wrist is p*ssed!"

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He was almost universally seen as a stage-hog. Plus, I imagine his greater knowledge of literature and university education might've distanced himself from the other participants.

I find him much more at home on QI these days though. It's definitely more his area of expertise.

---
"Just deal with your girlfriend's cheesy feet. She puts up with your cheesy face." - Jack Dee

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He looked a bit creepy to me

"half your dresses are so short you need two hairdos to wear them"

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He was a selfish show-off and not a team player, and must've been a nightmare to do a scene with. I remember him reguarly committing the cardinal Improv sin of "blocking" a lot - where you deliberately don't go along with the other player's actions in a scene just to get a cheap laugh and look funnier. WLIIA got so much better when he was asked to leave the show.

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I certainly wasn't a fan of his on QI, either - very arrogant and a bit of a show off, it seemed. Certainly competetive; didn't seem to get the fact that QI is supposed to be good fun!

Twelfth Night: http://www.almataverntheatre.co.uk/theatreWhatsOn.php?month=02&yea r=2008


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I find him much more at home on QI these days though. It's definitely more his area of expertise.

Seconded. I used to cringe at his performances on WLIIA, not because he wasn't funny, but because it was clear that in his mind it was All About Him. I actually always felt the same about Clive Anderson - I just wanted him to shut the hell up and let the guys perform. Nowadays I find them both enormously appealing as panellists on QI. Maybe they feel more relaxed and less compelled to be centre stage now their names are not in the title: the behaviour of elegant guests. Plus, Stephen Fry will always be able to one-up a guest who is getting bigheaded. Remember him saying, "We have to applaud Johnny Sessions for [knowing so much]. We also have to hate him, as well." I love the Luvvie Alarm that was instituted solely to take the edge off Sessions' constant name-dropping, and Sessions himself seems to take it in good humour.

It's perhaps telling that whenever WLIIA is repeated, even back when Paramount was repeating it or even Channel 4 themselves, they rarely show the very early episodes when Sessions was the star. I wish they'd show that one episode with Jonathan Pryce - Sessions is hamming his socks off to little effect, Pryce can't seem to get a word in, and after Sessions completes his soliloquy, Pryce addresses Clive: "If I'd known it was such a small part I wouldn't have bothered".

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Yes, that was a great moment. Couldn't help thinking the audience were thinking the same thing. The first time I watched it I was waiting for Jonathan Pryce to say something, because he had been contending with his frustration for most of the game - he looks at Paul Merton twice and shakes his head before he makes his comments, as of course Merton found him equally as irritating. John Sessions seems surprised when Pryce makes his remarks to the point that he suddenly seems to come round and apologise, as if he wasn't aware of how over the top he was becoming. I think, genuinely that he never really noticed, he just got majorly carried away. At least Pryce takes it in good humour - quipping afterward "This time I'll go first, Sessions!!" - but he must of been so annoying to work with at those sort of moments. Whats great is that Pryce steals the scene from John Sessions afterwards - and with relative ease also.

There doesn't seem to be any major animosity between them - they even pat each other on the back at the end of the game - but he certainly seemed to be quite a irritant amongst the WLIIA regular team.

He often seems nice enough in person, and I've never heard anything that wasn't favourable about him outside of Whose Line, but he has an air of arrogance to him, that is even noticeable in QI. He is a great actor, and had many, many good moments in Whose Line, but by the time of Series 3 when he was asked to leave it must have been a welcome relief to the Whose Line team.

Sad thing is, the less selfish he was on the Whose Line set the much more likeable he was - so had he remained giving the kind of restrained performance he gave in the first ever episode he probably would have been with the show to the end.

But it is certainly true, that the show got much better without him.

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I've grown to love him on the show, and definitely think it lost something after he left, although how he would've gone down during the populist latter years, I'm not sure.

I admit he was smugger than smuggery, but his intelligence, and the way he actually made it funny, is extraodinary.

Another couple of funny moments was when him and Griff were both being Griff reading the credits, and Griff gives up with an exasperated look. Also, when theres the FIlm and Theatre Styles when him and Jonathan Pryce are pirates, and Pryce "takes out" Sessions' teeth and puts them in his own and starts flouncing around.

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Yeah, he is truly talented - and a great actor and improviser - just don't like the fact he got more and more smug as the series progressed. He worked really well with Jonathan Pryce and later Mark Cohen as well. Certainly had many good moments.

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Amazing with Griff as well! The film and theatre styles when Griff eats John's sock is one of the best moments.

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[deleted]

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Pryce is in at least 2.

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Definitely in his last appearance, the one with Mark Cohen, he was very much in the group spirit. Shame the dynamic was beginning to shift as he could've carried on nicely.

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He wasnever popular with Paul and he just tried to take over too much. When he's paired up with someone the partner barely speaks.

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He wasnever popular with Paul and he just tried to take over too much. When he's paired up with someone the partner barely speaks.

I personally think that he had his moments. Much of it was his imitations. They were epic, especially his Leonard Cohen impression (even though he disses Cohen unreasonably) and when he played "Couples" with Enn Reitel. (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtPPqC3URzs&feature=search).

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John was my second favorite, after Tony. Always will be (Greg Proops is my #3).

Did he have a monumental ego? Sure.
Did he hog the stage? Sure.
Was he still the finest, most resourceful improviser in TV history? I think so.
He may have been hell to work with (I didn't get that impression watching the show, and I sure as hell didn't "cringe" at anything he did, including the terrible rapping). It didn't matter to me. He's what held the show together the first couple sessions. When they had weaker guests (like Sandy the midget, or Betty Thomas), he came through to make is wholly worthwhile.

Long live John Sessions!

"I'm Glad" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQP9QjNjeR4

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"Was he still the finest, most resourceful improviser in TV history? I think so"

Maybe on his own. In a dark room. By Himself. But not generally with other team members.

Just seen Session's awful turn in the fine film Dagenham Girls - and he still manages to be the Worst Thing in that too! His crappy portrayal of Prime Minister Harold Wilson is APPALLING - looks/sounds nothing like him - and all the same old self-indulgent Sessions rubbish.

Someone please stop this man before he dies agains :(

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Well, for my money, the only one that stopped the show dead in it's tracks was Ryan Stiles. I'm not saying that to be perverse, I know many people like him best - personally, I don't get it. He's never funny in the early episodes where he guest'd, and was frequently a painfully obtuse, egomaniacal drag. Worse than John Sessions by far, and Not Funny. Personal verdict, as I said: I know a lot disagree, for whatever reason.

I have no idea what 'Dagenham Girls' is, and I doubt I'll find out. Sure that wasn't a nightmare you had after some tainted curry?!

"I'm Glad" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQP9QjNjeR4

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Nightmares always happen after seeing Sessions in typical unbearable self-indulgent luvvie mode. Curry isn't to blame though - a small stodgy old Ham is.

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Better nightmares than someone who makes you feel utterly indifferent.
(<crickets>...<the hounds bay "Sandi Toksvig ">....)


"To be or not to be." That's not really a question.- Jean-Luc Godard

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John is a talented performer, not least according to himself. I think that if he had been able to work with others, he could probably have stayed on regular rotation.

He seems to have mellowed over the last 20 years, as you can see on QI, where he almost looks embarrassed when he realises that he is showing off again.

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"John is a talented performer"

That much is true. Best actor on the cast. Was he funny ? Not at all.

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