Pippa Evans (born June 1982) is a British comedian, known for her work in

character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

and

improvisational comedy Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, a ...

Early life and education

Evans attended

Notting Hill and Ealing High School Notting Hill and Ealing High School is an independent school for girls aged 4 – 18 in Ealing, London. Founded in 1873, it is one of the 26 schools that make up the Girls' Day School Trust. It has a Junior Department of 310 girls (ages 4–11) ...

, an

independent school An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...

for girls, where she was

head girl Head boy and head girl are student leadership roles in schools, representing the school's entire student body. They are normally the most senior prefects in the school. The terms are commonly used in the British education system as well as in Aus ...

. She studied Drama and Theatre Arts at

Birmingham University , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

Career

After leaving university she became a member of Scratch improvisation comedy troupe, and appeared in Newsrevue, a topical comedy show at London's

Canal Cafe Theatre The Canal Cafe Theatre is a 60-seat fringe theatre venue in Little Venice, London, specialising in comedy performances. Location The theatre is above the Bridge House pub on the corner of Westbourne Terrace Road and Delamere Terrace, at the meeti ...

. In 2008, she gained second place in the annual

Hackney Empire New Act of the Year The NATYS: New Acts of The Year Showcase, previously known as The Hackney Empire New Act of the Year, is an annual industry showcase that promotes new waves of emerging Comedy and Variety acts. It ran at the Hackney Empire Theatre from 1988 until ...

competition. In her solo debut at the 2008

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

with ''Pippa Evans and Other Lonely People'', she played a number of different characters at a self-help group meeting. Evans received positive reviews from the press, with ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

'' describing her as "wicked and dark, with few gimmicks". She was nominated for Best Newcomer at the

Edinburgh Comedy Awards The Dave (TV channel), Dave's Edinburgh Comedy Awards (formerly the Perrier Comedy Awards, and also briefly known by other names for sponsorship reasons) are presented to the comedy shows deemed to have been the best at the Edinburgh Festival ...

, before performing the show at London's

Soho Theatre The Soho Theatre is a theatre and registered charity in the Soho district of the City of Westminster, in London, England. It produces and presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret, across three performance spaces. The the ...

for a limited season. Evans's best known stage character is Loretta Maine, a disturbed American singer-songwriter described by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' newspaper as "

Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album d ...

seen through the lens of

Mike Leigh Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design ...

". In 2009 she performed on the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

series '' Arthur Smith's Balham Bash'' as Loretta Maine. She returned to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2009 with another show titled ''Pippa Evans: Your Evening's Entertainment'', a variety show for an imagined audience of conference delegates where Evans plays all the characters. In an interview with ''The Scotsman'', Evans revealed "I was brought up with old time music halls and doing pantos in church halls... it was a big part of my background that always appealed to me". The show was again warmly received but it was the character of Loretta Maine which critics highlighted . In November 2009 she curated and hosted ''Pippa's Old Time New Time Music Hall'' at the Canal Cafe Theatre, introducing audiences to her contemporaries Angelos Epithemiou,

the Penny Dreadfuls The Penny Dreadfuls are a British sketch comedy troupe consisting of comedians Humphrey Ker, David Reed and Thom Tuck, often supported by Margaret Cabourn-Smith. The troupe are best known for writing and performing ''The Brothers Faversham'' a ...

and

Wilfredo Wilfredo is a given name which may refer to: *Wilfredo Alicdan (born 1965), Filipino figurative artist *Wilfredo Alvarado (born 1970), Venezuelan football defender *Willy Caballero (born 1981), Argentine football goalkeeper *Wilfredo Caraballo (bor ...

in a satire on the tradition of

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...

. In 2010 she presented an entire show at the Fringe as Maine in ''I'm Not Drunk, I Just Need To Talk To You''. ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

s critic observed "Maine belongs to a recognizable stable of bitter songstresses and swigs on a screw-topped bottle of wine, while spewing out her vitriol any which way". Evans is a core member of the improv team behind the stage show ''

Showstopper! The Improvised Musical ''Showstopper! The Improvised Musical'' is an improvised comedy, musical theatre show founded in London in 2008. It has toured the UK extensively, usually sells out at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe every year, had its own BBC Radio 4 series in ...

''. With the cast of ''Showstopper'', Evans has toured the UK and abroad. In February 2011 the show opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End, coinciding with the broadcast of a series for

BBC Radio Four BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

. She was a series regular on the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

television improv show '' Fast and Loose'' which aired in January 2011. She was also a regular in ''

Newsjack ''Newsjack'' was a British satirical sketch show which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra between 2009 and 2021. It was hosted by Miles Jupp (2009-Mar 2011), Justin Edwards (Sep 2011-2013), Romesh Ranganathan (2014), Nish Kumar (2015-2016), ...

'' in October 2011 on

BBC Radio 7 BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British Digital radio in the United Kingdom, digital radio broadcasting, radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a ...

(now

BBC Radio 4 Extra BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British digital radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the sister station of BBC Radio 4 and the p ...

) and has made guest appearances on the Radio 4 satire series ''

The Now Show ''The Now Show'' is a British radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, which satirises the week's news. The show is a mixture of stand-up, sketches and songs hosted by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis. The show used to feature regular appearances by J ...

''. On 1 December 2012, as Loretta Maine, she released the song Happy Goddamn Christmas (feat.

Matt Roper Matt Roper is a British comedian, writer and musician. Career Roper made his comedy debut in London during the late-1990s and is noted for his early work in sketch comedy at the Jermyn Street Theatre and in the satirical sketch show ''Newsrevue ...

) which peaked at No. 6 on the iTunes UK Comedy Charts. An accompanying video was released on 13 December, featuring cameos by Arthur Smith, Imran Yusuf,

Ruth Bratt Ruth Bratt is an English actress and comedian. Bratt has appeared in the BAFTA award winning BBC2 series ''People Just Do Nothing''. In 2022 she was at the Edinburgh Festival in "Starship Improvise" with the Mischief Theatre. Life Bratt was a r ...

and

Thom Tuck Thomas Tuck (born 28 March 1982) is a British actor and comedian known for being one third of comedy troupe The Penny Dreadfuls and as a stand-up comedian. He was nominated for the Best Newcomer award at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Earl ...

, via

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

. In 2013, Evans co-founded The

Sunday Assembly Sunday Assembly is a non-religious gathering co-founded by Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans in January 2013 in London, England. The gathering is mostly for non-religious people who want a similar communal experience to a religious church, thoug ...

, a monthly gathering for the non-religious. In 2015, Evans appeared as a panelist in two episodes of the

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

panel show ''

The Dog Ate My Homework "The dog ate my homework" (or "My dog ate my homework") is an English expression which carries the suggestion of being a common, poorly fabricated excuse made by schoolchildren to explain their failure to turn in an assignment on time. The phras ...

'' and in 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 (the latter at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...

, for the programme's 50th anniversary) she was a guest panelist on the long-running radio comedy ''

I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue'' is a BBC radio comedy panel game. Billed as "the antidote to panel games", it consists of two teams of two comedians being given "silly things to do" by a chairman. The show was launched in April 1972 as a parody ...

''. In 2018 Evans participated in the Improvisation Festival in

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

by giving a workshop and doing a solo show.

References

External links

Official websiteLoretta Maine – tour dates
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Pippa Living people British women comedians British women guitarists British satirists People from Ealing People educated at Notting Hill & Ealing High School British atheists 1982 births Women satirists 21st-century British guitarists 21st-century women guitarists