The Hollow Men are an English

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...

group consisting of

David Armand David Armand (born David Robert Whitehead in September 1977) is an English comedian, actor and writer who has performed on stage, film, radio and most notably, television, where the shows he has appeared in include '' Fast and Loose'', ''Episo ...

, Nick Tanner, Rupert Russell, and Sam Spedding. ''The Hollow Men'' is also the title of their

TV show A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed betw ...

broadcast in the United States by

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

. The show follows the kind of silliness from sketch comedy shows like ''

Monty Python's Flying Circus ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, who became known ...

'' and ''

The Kids in the Hall The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy troupe formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1989 to 1995, on CBC, in C ...

''. The six-episode series aired in early 2005. In 2006 they broadcast a

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' ...

sketch show, also of the same name. The radio show was recommissioned and a second series was aired in September 2007, along with a special broadcast from the Edinburgh Festival. Both series also featured

Katy Brand Katherine Frances Brand (born 1979), known as Katy Brand, is an English actress, comedian and writer, known for her ITV2 series ''Katy Brand's Big Ass Show'' and for Comedy Lab ''Slap'' on Channel 4. Early life and education Brand was born in ...

. The group performed extensively as a live act with shows in London, Edinburgh, Los Angeles, Montreal and New York.

History

The four members met when they were students at

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. The group's big break came when they appeared at the

Edinburgh 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 ...

festival in 2002, which led to gigs in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and a slot at the

U.S. Comedy Arts Festival The Comedy Festival, formerly known as the US Comedy Arts Festival, was a comedy festival that ran from 1995 to 2008. The festival included stand-up comedy performances, appearances by the casts of television shows, and has a film component calle ...

Aspen, Colorado Aspen is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 7,004 at the 2020 United States Census. Aspen is in a remote area of the Rocky Mounta ...

, in 2003, where they received the HBO Comedy Jury Award for best sketch/alternative act.

References

'Hollow Men' picks up on kids' vibe
''The Knoxville News-Sentinel'', page E-5, March 10, 2005

External links

*
The Hollow Men Website on Comedy Central

The Hollow Men on MySpace

The Hollow Men on BBC Radio 4
British comedy troupes Sketch comedy troupes Quartets {{comedy-tv-prog-stub