1. Intro and Plot

  2. Slaves to the System

  3. Plot

  4. The Saga of Ernie Plugg's Bust  Cartoon

  5. Intro to Wychwood Benn

  6. Wychwood Benn

  7. The Taxman in the Cupboard

  8. KerryGold

  9. Attempted Saga of John the Bog

10. The Necrophile

11. The Saga of Jack, Doris and the Arab

12. Flasher Jack and Annabelle in Scarborough  Cartoon

13. Plot

14. Cafe Ole

15. More Storytime with Old Uncle Abo

16. Natasha the Flasher

17. Mr Punch

18. Hector the Dope Sniffing Hound  Lyrics   Picture of Hector

19. Plot

20. Benzedrine - Suzie Grapevine and Pusher Joe  Cartoon

21. Plot

22. WPC Sadie Stick, MacLagan and Bomber Dina  Lyrics  Cartoon  Illustration

All songs recorded live by Mark Watson in Crewe in 1978 and written, composed and arranged by Mike Absalom in the 1970's. 

Copyright Mike Absalom.  

Cover illustration by Cornelia Weinmann.

Joking to Death was one of a series of shows written and performed during the 70’s as a live entertainment for college students. These shows consisted of convoluted pun-filled plots interspersed with Mike’s songs and poems and featured lots of (primitive) technical gadgetry and fun of the fair, including pre-recorded sound effects and musical clips, the detonation on stage of ear-shattering, ceiling-cracking maroons, flash pans, bubble and fog machines, exploding speaker cabinets which flew open to reveal a rude (in the sense of not for the Mothers’ Union) Punch and Judy stage, ventriloquism and tap-dancing, garish make-up, blood capsules and rubber skulls and handfuls of supposedly mind-altering cigarettes tossed liberally into the crowd. 

Other shows were Drugula, She Must Have Big Ones (No Change Accepted), The Adventures of Hieronymous (he was small and squat and always felt higher on a mouse) and Chomsky, The Amazing Icelandic Yum Yum Kippers Again War, Doctor Hoo-Ha and the Turdis, and many more, the titles of which have disappeared into the toilets of time and the onset of middle-age and respectability from which Mike suffered chronically for about twenty- five years. Several of them however, including this gem, were recorded live by Mark Watson in situ, which is close to Wolverhampton. Mark graciously passed them on to Mike, and thus they have managed to live on to delight and amaze the straighter and narrower generations which came later, or as some might say: too late. 

The early Mike Absalom lives once again on stage in this recording.