because i love biographies here are more anecdotes about this Phenomenon. it kills me that they all remembered and independently commented on THIS part of the comic strip when according to alexei no one he asked could even remember what the first opening night was like. that stench was bad 😭

alexei sayle, thatcher stole my trousers:

All the core performers had instinctively begun wearing suits though throughout the following year none of us had thought to get these suits cleaned ever, so pretty soon they were all stiff and stinking with sweat. Rik and Ade had bought their outfits at a discount place called the Houndsditch Warehouse. They had been made in Communist Romania out of what looked like cheap purple carpet and cost £10 each which wasn’t a lot of money even back then.

jennifer saunders, bonkers:

All the boys are squashed into the other [dressing room], next door. We do go in and hang with them sometimes, but, to be honest, it stinks. They are always dripping with sweat when they come offstage, and the only facility to wash in is a sink which is always filled with bottles of beer. Their stage suits are hung up, wet with sweat, and left to dry out before being worn the next night. The funk of BO and fags is heavy in the air, spiced up with a whiff of old doner kebab, chips from the night before and the odd fart. It hums.

dawn french, dear fatty: