Elvis McGonagall (born Richard Smith; December 22, 1960) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and

stand-up comedian Stand-up comedy is a comedy, comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke ...

who is especially notable for

poetry slam A poetry slam is a competitive art event in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges. While formats can vary, slams are often loud and lively, with audience participation, cheering and dramatic delivery. ...

performances.

Biography

McGonagall was born in

Perth, Scotland Perth (Scottish English, locally: ; gd, Peairt ) is a city in central Scotland, on the banks of the River Tay. It is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire. It had a population o ...

, and now lives in

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and ...

. His stage name combines a reference to the notoriously bad poet

William McGonagall William Topaz McGonagall (March 1825 – 29 September 1902) was a Scottish poet of Irish descent. He gained notoriety as an extremely bad poet who exhibited no recognition of, or concern for, his peers' opinions of his work. He wrote about 2 ...

with 'Elvis' "because it’s just so wrong, the wrongest name I could think of to go with McGonagall".

Poetry

Slam performances

McGonagall first performed publicly at the UK Allcomers' Slam at the

Cheltenham Literature Festival ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' Cheltenham Literature Festival, a large-scale international festival of literature held every year in October in the English spa town of Cheltenham, and part of Cheltenham Festivals: also responsible for t ...

in 2003, finishing runner-up: he went on to win the slam the following year. His career saw significant progress in 2006, in which year McGonagall won the Spokefest UK Slam Championship and the World Slam Championship at the Rotterdam Poetry International Festival. McGonagall performs at poetry events nationwide, as well as compering at the Blue Suede Sporran Club.

Media performances

McGonagall has regularly appeared on BBC Radio 4's ''Saturday Live'', beginning with contributions to the premiere episode. He has appeared frequently on other BBC Radio 4 programmes, including ''Today'', ''

Last Word ''Last Word'' is an obituary BBC radio series broadcast weekly on Radio 4. Each week the lives of several famous people who have recently died are summarised with narration, and interviews with people who knew them. The programme is normally p ...

'' and ''

Off the Page ''Off The Page'' is a British discussion programme, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Fridays at 11 pm. It is produced in Bristol. The programme features a panel of contributors who tackle a subject on which they are experts. Each panelist writes a ...

'' as well as starring in two series of his own sitcom Elvis Mcgonagall Takes A Look On The Bright Side, Radio 4 Comedy of the Week stand-up special "Full Tartan Jacket" (2021) and a documentary "My Name Is Elvis" (2021). McGonagall has also appeared on various television programmes for a number of broadcasters. His credits include BBC One's ''

The One Show ''The One Show'' is a British television magazine and chat show programme. Broadcast live on BBC One weeknights at 7:00 pm, it features topical stories and studio guests. It is currently co-hosted by Alex Jones, Jermaine Jenas, and Ronan K ...

'', BBC Two's ''

The Culture Show ''The Culture Show'' is a British magazine programme about books, art, film, architecture, music, visual fashion and the performing arts. The show was broadcast weekly on BBC Two between 2004 and 2015. Early history Launched in November 2004, th ...

'' and Channel 4's 'Random Acts'.

Works

Audio *''Gie’ It Laldy! (2018) - Elvis McGonagall & His Resurrectors'' *''One Man And His Doggerel - Live!'' (2010) Written * ''Complete & Utter Cult!'' (2020) * ''Viva Loch Lomond!'' (2017) * ''Mostly Dreich'' (2012)

References

External links

Official website
Living people Scottish poets Scottish entertainers Slam poets Poets from Dundee People from Dundee 1960 births {{Scotland-poet-stub