This is a message we got from a wonderful comedian called Steve Philp. Plagiarism is a constant problem in stand up. Usually comedians bitch about it but what lies beneath is a fine example of politeness on Steve's behalf and a window into the life of a comedian. Check him out, he's on myspace.

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Steve Philp
Date: 25 Jun 2007, 05:54 PM

Hey Guys, it's never nice when this shit happens but it's been happening alot to me lately.I saw you on rove last week which meant i heard you do a gag of mine! The bottled water joke i was doing when i supported you on those 3 sydney nonstop tom gigs...i write down a set list for every gig i do and looked back thru and it was in my set for all 3 shows...i'd be quite happy to show you! It was almost word for word the same bit...that i can never do again!!
Cheers Steve

----------------- Replied Message -----------------
I'm so sorry. we don't remember you doing it but we would of heard you doing it, then forgot it, then later thought we made it up again. We did talk about pouring bottled water back into the reservoir as a mic break on MMM in 2005. But maybe We then assimilated your wording?

Either way, we know it's too late, but we won't do the bit anymore. You should go back to doing it. No one remembers a TV spot that was on at the same time as Greys Anatomy.

If anyone tells me that you've nicked our bit we'll set them straight.

Thanks for telling us about it.

Jason + Andy

This is really weird cos we've just noticed that this same thing just recently happened to Tom Gleeson, you can read about it here:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=91152115&blogID=281040576