Sean Hughes ‘pushed body to extreme limits’ before death aged 51
EVER the brutally honest comedian, Sean Hughes knew his time on Earth would be short given his “extreme” lifestyle.
The Irishman died in a London hospital yesterday at the age of 51, having predicted a decade ago: “I honestly don’t think I’m going to live very long.”
Sean had been suffering from cirrhosis of the liver.
His final tweet read “in hospital”.
Last night tributes poured in for the funnyman, who found fame as one of the original team captains on BBC2’s panel show Never Mind The Buzzcocks.
Al Murray said: “He made stand-up look fun, glamorous and above all a creative place where you could play.”
Jason Manford tweeted: “A brilliant comic and a lovely bloke.”
Having been the youngest person to win the Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1990, Sean quickly attained top billing.
He sold out stadiums, was given his own sitcom on Channel 4 called Sean’s Show and appeared in the 1991 film The Commitments.
But in the early Noughties, he quit stand-up for several years, saying: “I found myself playing 4,000-seater venues packed with 14-year-old girls screaming at me. That wasn’t why I did comedy.”
Born in London, Sean’s Irish parents moved back to Dublin when he was six, where he was bullied for being “English”.
Sean, who was dyslexic and switched schools five times, said: “I wasn’t getting done-in all the time, but if someone was, I’d be the fella. It made me realise just how horrible people could be.”
His driving-instructor father was a heavy drinker. He would take Sean to the pub and get him to neck two pints of Guinness when last orders had been called.
Sean recalled: “My heart would sink. I had to force drinks down me in record time, like a participant in a Japanese TV show.”
Desperate to get away, he took off for London in a bid to make it as a stand-up comedian. The decision changed his life and in 1992, he started filming Sean’s Show. It featured the well-loved catchphrase “buh bye” and a skit where God would leave messages on his answerphone.
He appeared on BBC2’s Never Mind The Buzzcocks between 1996 and 2002, alongside host Mark Lamaar and rival captain Phill Jupitus. But Sean decided to quit when the show got “boring”.
When he returned to the Edinburgh Festival in 2012, he admitted he’d had a serious drink problem.
Sean said: “I liken my drinking to the kid who opens all his presents too early on Christmas morning.”
He never married or had children, explaining that he was “quite selfish” and liked things his way.
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The comic, who leaves behind his mum and two brothers, believed a funeral shouldn’t be a depressing send-off.
He said: “It should be seeing someone off on a great adventure. They should be beautiful.”
With all the laughs he gave us, Sean deserves a special final show.
Top 5 gags
- I thought when I was 41, I would be married with kids. Well, to be honest, I thought I would be married with weekend access.
- I’ve never paid for sex in my life. Which has p***ed off a hell of a lot of prostitutes, I can tell you.
- I knew I was drinking too much when I had to be put out at a party. I don’t mean I was asked to leave. My jacket was on fire.
- Bob Dylan wrote, “The times are a-changing” in 1964. It only took Ireland 20 years to pick up the message, but transportation and communication were notoriously bad back then.
- You can have sex any time but the bin men come only once a week.
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