Arthur Smith (comedian)

Brian Arthur John Smith (born 27 November 1954) is an English alternative comedian, presenter and writer.

Early life

Smith was born on 27 November 1954 in Bermondsey, south London. His eldest brother is Richard Smith, a medical doctor, editor and businessman. His younger brother is Nick Smith, a civil servant who was also a stand-up comic but in recent years has turned to amateur dramatics. Arthur was a student and school captain at The Roan School for Boys, a grammar school, now The John Roan School in Blackheath, London. He then studied at the University of East Anglia, where he was chairman of the poetry society, wrote for the student newspaper and contributed sketches for a student revue. He graduated with a 2:1 BA degree in Comparative literature in 1976. Arthurian legend returns to his comic roots at UAE
Uea.ac.uk, Retrieved 8 October 2013

Career

Smith was one of many stand-up performers on the alternative comedy scene in the 1980s, and still performs today in much the same manner. He has regularly attended the Edinburgh Fringe comedy festival since 1977, and still comperes the long-running Hackney Empire New Act of the Year competition final. He has also written a body of serious or semi-serious work, including stage plays such as ''An Evening with Gary Lineker''.

In addition to stand-up comedy, Smith has performed musical comedy shows such as ''Arthur Smith Sings Leonard Cohen'' (later broadcast on Radio 4). He returned to this theme for the Edinburgh Fringe in 2013 with "Arthur Smith Sings Leonard Cohen (Volume Too). He is also a radio presenter on such BBC Radio 4 programmes as ''Excess Baggage'' and ''Loose Ends'', and appears on television comedy panel games. He took over as narrator of the TV series ''A Life of Grime'' after the death of John Peel and was one of the '' Grumpy Old Men'' in the television series of that name. Both of the latter two series used "What a Wonderful World" as their theme song. For ''Grumpy Old Men'', Smith was one of the cast members who contributed to a montage rendition of the song.

One of Smith's routines has been set to music by Mark Beazley, aka Rothko, for a CD curated by comedian and writer Stewart Lee. The CD, ''The Topography of Chance'' was guest-curated by Stewart for the Sonic Arts Network and Smith's track is called "I've Seen Your Arse" and contained extra vocals by Caroline Quentin taken from a live recording of Smith's show, ''Arthur Smith's Last Hangover''.

In December 1985, Smith and Phil Nice made a short series of parody documentaries for Channel 4 television network called ''Arthur and Phil Go Off''. One episode, titled "Nessie – Real or Pretend" about the Loch Ness Monster, was aired in America on the A&E cable channel in 1986. None of these shows has officially been released to any video format.

During the late 1980s, Smith took the role of consumer expert, testing such items as hangover cures and Pot Noodles on the BBC Radio 2 ''Nightcap'' show hosted by Peter Dickson.

In 1989, Smith provided voices for an Aardman Animations short called ''Ident'' with Nice and later. In 1989 he appeared in ''The Bill'' ("Quiet Life"). In the mid and late 1990s, he lent his voice to some television animations including the TV short ''The Animal Train'' as Jim Jam (veteran voice actor Rick Jones voiced the character in the US version), the BBC
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