Book review | I didn’t ask for any of this

I Didn't Ask For Any of This: Church, Comedy and Cancer (Broad Place Publishing, 2026)

by Allan Finnegan

Reviewer: Peter Crumpler

A college lecturer told trainee Baptist minister Allan Finnegan that, “preaching had had its day. ‘One person, one microphone’ as a form of communication was over.”

But Allan had just been to see star comedian Peter Kay entertain 11,000 people for more than an hour and a half. “This,” he recalled, “was essentially one person with one microphone, entertaining thousands of people who’d paid for the privilege, and them not wanting to leave.”

Describing stand-up comedy as ‘the new rock and roll,’ the former builder enrols on a comedy course to ‘compare and contrast’ preaching and stand-up comedy.

The hilarious first-hand accounts of Allan trying his hand at stand-up comedy are the backbone of this book. He even succeeds in getting on to TV’s ‘Britain’s Got Talent,’ and winning his way through to the semi-finals.

Allan is deeply uncomfortable when the TV producers ask him to wear a dog collar and perform his act from a ‘pulpit’ constructed on stage. He fails to win through to the final and is concerned that he had been asked to present a stereotypical image of a ‘vicar.’

Just as Allan thinks his comedy career may be taking off following the TV exposure, he receives the crushing news that he has a rare form of cancer, and that this is incurable.

Allan invites readers to share his cancer experiences as openly and honestly as he has described his journey towards becoming a Baptist minister and his exploits as a stand-up comedian.

I recommend this book for anyone involved in church ministry. There are lessons here about effective communication, but also the importance of ministry being rooted outside of ‘the church bubble’.

On the comedy circuit, Allan has meaningful conversations with people who would never come near the threshold of a church building. He was regularly asked, “Are you really a church minister?”

Reviewer

Rev Peter Crumpler is a Church of England minister in St Albans, Herts, UK, and a former communications director with the CofE.