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Mark Olver is an English stand-up comedian from
Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
. He specialises as a compere and a warm-up act for television shows.


Early life

Olver was born in 1975 in Bristol, where he grew up in the
Brislington Brislington is an area in the south east of the city of Bristol, England. It is on the edge of Bristol and from Bath. Brislington Brook runs through the area in the woodlands of Nightingale Valley and St Anne's Wood. Brislington formerly hou ...
area. His father John was a policeman and his mother Philomena worked at a cinema in Bristol. After graduating from university in 1996, he worked as a careers adviser in prisons and young offenders' institutes.


Career

Olver started doing stand-up in the late 1990s and quickly expanded to compering. He won the
Leicester Comedy Festival The Leicester Comedy Festival is an annual comedy festival held in a number of venues across Leicester, England early in the year. History The festival started in 1994 with 40 events in 23 venues over 7 days throughout Leicestershire, attracting ...
Best New Show award in 2011. He was nominated for Best Compere at the 2015
Chortle Awards The Chortle Awards were set up in 2002 by the comedy website Chortle to honour the best of established stand-up comics currently working in the UK. A panel of reviewers draw up a shortlist, which is presented for public vote at the Chortle websit ...
. Olver performed in the live final of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
Radio New Comedy Award 2016 in Edinburgh. He ran ''Olver's Student Comedy Night'' at Jesters comedy club in Bristol for several years. While compering a gig there in 2003, Olver slipped and fell on stage, dislocating his knee and breaking his ankle. Lying on the floor, he went on compering until paramedics arrived and carried him off stage. In 2004, Olver had his first job as a warm-up comedian for the show '' Kings of Comedy'', recorded in Bristol and presented by
Russell Brand Russell Edward Brand (born 4 June 1975) is an English comedian and actor known for his flamboyant, loquacious style and manner. Brand has received three British Comedy Awards: Best Newcomer (2006), Best Live Stand-Up (2008), and the award for ...
. Since then, he has been providing warm-up for numerous television shows, including ''
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown ''8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown'' is a British comedy panel show on Channel 4. The show follows the game of ''Countdown'', but presented in a comedic panel show format seen on ''8 Out of 10 Cats'', with the show being a crossover of the two. ...
'', ''
Pointless ''Pointless'' is a British television quiz show produced by Banijay subsidiary Remarkable Television for the BBC. It is hosted by Alexander Armstrong. In each episode four teams of two contestants attempt to find correct but obscure answers to ...
'', ''
Deal or No Deal ''Deal or No Deal'' is the name of several closely related television game shows, the first of which (launching the format) was the Dutch ''Miljoenenjacht (Netherlands), Miljoenenjacht'' (''Hunt/Chase for Millions''). The centerpiece of this f ...
'', ''
Thronecast ''Thronecast'' is a British television series which aired on Sky Atlantic between 2011 and 2019. From the fifth series onwards, the show was presented by Sue Perkins and Jamie East. It is an aftershow to ''Game of Thrones'', which also aired o ...
'', ''
The Last Leg ''The Last Leg'' (known during its first series as ''The Last Leg with Adam Hills'' and in Australia as ''Adam Hills: The Last Leg'') is a British comedy and late-night television talk/sketch show that originally ran alongside the 2012 Summer Pa ...
'', '' Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled'', ''
Taskmaster (TV series) ''Taskmaster'' is a British comedy panel game show created by comedian and musician Alex Horne and presented by both Horne and Greg Davies. In the programme a group of five celebritiesmainly comediansattempt to complete a series of challenges, ...
'' and the chat shows hosted by
Jonathan Ross Jonathan Stephen Ross (born 17 November 1960) is an English broadcaster, film critic, comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He presented the BBC One chat show ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross'' during the 2000s, hosted his own radio show on ...
and
Alan Carr Alan Graham Carr (born 14 June 1976) is an English comedian, broadcaster and writer. His breakthrough was in 2001, winning the '' City Life'' Best Newcomer of the Year and the BBC New Comedy Awards. In the ensuing years, Carr's career burgeon ...
. Between 2005 and 2016, he did warm-up on about 3,000 episodes of the game show ''
Deal or No Deal ''Deal or No Deal'' is the name of several closely related television game shows, the first of which (launching the format) was the Dutch ''Miljoenenjacht (Netherlands), Miljoenenjacht'' (''Hunt/Chase for Millions''). The centerpiece of this f ...
'', which was filmed in Bristol. Olver has worked teaching comedy to young offenders. In December 2017, he came up with the idea for the ''Belly Laughs'' series of gigs when he realised local restaurants were having trouble getting enough guests in the month of January. January is also a slow month for comedians, so he thought of a way of combining the two as well as raising money for charity, by organising pop-up comedy gigs in restaurants each January since 2018. Guests pay an extra £10 that go directly to The Julian Trust, a Bristol charity that runs an emergency night shelter for homeless people and rough-sleepers. In 2019, the event was expanded to Wales, Bath and Devon. ''Belly Laughs'' got together with the food charity
Fareshare FareShare is a charity network aimed at relieving food poverty and reducing food waste in the UK, which has been running since 1994. It does this by obtaining good quality surplus food from the food industry that would otherwise have gone to wast ...
in November 2019 for two fundraising gigs at their warehouse in St Philip's, with Olver compering and
Angela Barnes Angela Barnes (born 9 November 1976) is an English stand-up comedian, mostly known for her appearances on ''Mock the Week''. Early life Barnes was born in Sidcup, London and brought up in Maidstone, Kent. She went to Invicta Grammar School t ...
and
Jon Richardson Jon Joel Richardson (born 26 September 1982) is an English comedian. He is known for his appearances on ''8 Out of 10 Cats'' and ''8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown'' and his work as co-host with Russell Howard on BBC 6 Music. He is the presente ...
headlining. The two events raised more than £5000. Olver was nominated for best compere at the 2023 Chortle Awards. In 2023 he hosted the pre show for the national lottery's big Eurovision welcome.


Personal life

Olver has previously shared houses with fellow comedians
Russell Howard Russell Joseph Howard (born 23 March 1980) is an English comedian, television presenter, radio presenter, and actor. He was known for his television show ''Russell Howard's Good News'' and is currently doing ''The Russell Howard Hour'', and his ...
, John Robins,
Jon Richardson Jon Joel Richardson (born 26 September 1982) is an English comedian. He is known for his appearances on ''8 Out of 10 Cats'' and ''8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown'' and his work as co-host with Russell Howard on BBC 6 Music. He is the presente ...
and
Wil Hodgson Wil Hodgson (born 1978) is a non-binary English comedian. They have lived in Chippenham their whole life and began performing comedy in 2003. Prior to this, they had worked part-time as a lecturer at Wiltshire College and had a stint training ...
. In 2019, he was living in the
Brislington Brislington is an area in the south east of the city of Bristol, England. It is on the edge of Bristol and from Bath. Brislington Brook runs through the area in the woodlands of Nightingale Valley and St Anne's Wood. Brislington formerly hou ...
area of Bristol, sharing a house with comedian
Mat Ewins Mat Ewins is an English actor, writer and stand-up comedian. His comedy shows are anarchic audiovisual experiences with multimedia features, including video clips and elements from computer games he programs himself. Life and career Ewins studi ...
.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Olver, Mark English male comedians English stand-up comedians Television personalities from Bristol Living people Date of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people)