So You Think You're Funny
So You Think You're Funny? (SYTYF?) is an annual stand-up comedy competition for new acts. The competition began in 1988 in the United Kingdom. The finals are held every August at The Gilded Balloon during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Past winners include Aisling Bea, Dylan Moran, Lee Mack, Peter Kay and David O'Doherty. History ''So You Think You're Funny'' was the idea of Karen Koren, artistic director of The Gilded Balloon, in order to discover new comic talent. During the years it has developed into the most influential competition of its kind in the UK, helping start the careers of many of the country's leading comedians including Dylan Moran, Lee Mack, Graham Norton, David O'Doherty and Tommy Tiernan. Other competitors have included Ardal O'Hanlon, Johnny Vegas, Ed Byrne, Jason Byrne, Alex Zane, Reginald D Hunter, Craig Hill, Alan Carr, Rhod Gilbert, Andrew Lawrence and Russell Howard. Sponsorship from Channel 4 began in 1993 and ran until 2004, since wh ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stand-up Comedy
Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage (theatre), stage and delivers humour, humorous and satire, satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical comedy, physical acts. These performances are typically composed of Rehearsal, rehearsed screenplay, scripts but often include varying degrees of interactive theatre, live crowd interaction (crowdwork). Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke, one-liners, stories, observations, or shticks that can employ Theatrical property, props, comedy music, music, impressions, Magic (illusion), magic tricks, or ventriloquism. Performances can take place in various venues, including comedy clubs, comedy festivals, bars, nightclubs, colleges, or theaters. History Stand-up comedy originated in various traditions of popular entertainment in the late 19th century. These include vaudeville, the Stump speech (minstrelsy), stump-speech monologues of minstrel shows, dime museums, co ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Craig Hill (comedian)
Craig Hill is a Scottish comedian, TV presenter and actor known for his cheeky, irreverent and camp act. Biography Hill's first public success came at age ten when he won a local talent contest in his native East Kilbride, impersonating Cleo Laine. In 1991, he moved to Edinburgh in order to study drama at Queen Margaret University College, graduating in 1994. Hill's comedy characters as well as his ability to improvise and write material led him into stand-up. He was still an actor, working in Theatre in Education and pantomimes when a friend secretly booked him in for an 'open spot' in 1998. In 1997 and 1998, Hill performed a lead role (Jeremy Weller) in the Grassmarket Project's theatre production "Mad" at the Edinburgh Fringe. Since 2002, Hill has extensively toured with his solo comedy shows throughout Scotland, Ireland and the UK. His international work includes Montreal's Just For Laughs Festival 2008 where he hosted the prestigious Britcom series as well as Bubbling ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Leigh Francis
Leigh Izaak Francis (born 30 April 1973), who is often known by the name of a character he plays, Keith Lemon, is an English television presenter, comedian, actor, and writer. He is best known for creating and starring in Channel 4's sketch comedy show '' Bo' Selecta!'' (2002–2009) and presenting the ITV shows '' Celebrity Juice'' (2008–2022) and '' Through the Keyhole'' (2013–2019). His other comedy shows include '' Lemon La Vida Loca'' (2012–2013), '' The Keith Lemon Sketch Show'' (2015–2016), and '' The Keith & Paddy Picture Show'' (2017–2018). Early life Francis was born in Beeston, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, on 30 April 1973, and was brought up on a council estate in Old Farnley, Leeds. His father died aged 47 of cancer, whilst his mother, Pat, is still alive. Francis attended Farnley Park High School (now The Farnley Academy). He later studied at Jacob Kramer College and received a qualification in graphic design. Before making his major televisi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Avid Merrion
This is a list of characters from the television series '' Bo' Selecta!'' Main characters Craig David Craig David is one of the main ''Bo' Selecta'' characters. His catchphrases are "Proper Reet Bo" and "Proper Bo, I tell thee!". He is portrayed as having a very large chin, with a beard made with a pen. Craig has a very strong Yorkshire accent. He is known for always singing his name. He carries around a plastic Peregrine Falcon on his wrist named "Kes", possibly as a reference to the film of the same name. Kes was apparently bought off a man in Huddersfield who had a dog with one leg. He calls Kes a "bastard", often when calling her to return. Craig also wears a beanie hat, and his iconic headphones from his '' Born to Do It'' album cover. In the first series, a segment entitled "Craig David's Life Story" is featured, showing events such as David visiting the doctor to be fitted with a Urostomy bag (which he often fails to wear at night and wets the bed), and attempting to break ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Owen O'Neill
Owen O'Neill is a Northern Irish writer, actor, director, and comedian. Early life O'Neill was born, the third eldest of 16 children, in Cookstown, Northern Ireland. He has drawn on his upbringing in Cookstown for some of his more colourful characters in his standup and theatre work. Early comic influences included W. C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, and particularly Richard Pryor: "It was also poignant and heartfelt and I realised then that stand-up could be an art-form". He briefly attended Queen’s University in Belfast studying English, but dropped out and worked various menial jobs in Italy, Amsterdam, and finally London at age 21. Career O'Neill cites his career as beginning in poetry. In 1981 he entered and won a poetry competition for BBC Radio 4 and his stand-up evolved out of his poetry readings. He debuted on television in 1985 on Saturday Live. As an actor, he has appeared in the films '' Michael Collins'' and '' The General''. O'Neill is a veteran of the Edinburg ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Steve Coogan
Stephen John Coogan (; born 14 October 1965) is an English-Irish actor, comedian, screenwriter and producer. His accolades include four BAFTA Awards and three British Comedy Awards, and nominations for two Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. He is best known for his character Alan Partridge, a socially inept and politically incorrect media personality, which he developed while working with Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris on '' On the Hour'' (1991–1992) and '' The Day Today'' (1994). Partridge has featured in several television series, such as '' I'm Alan Partridge'' (1997–2002), and the film '' Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa'' (2013). Coogan began his career in the 1980s as a voice actor on the satirical puppet show '' Spitting Image'' and providing voice-overs for television advertisements. He grew in prominence in the film industry in 2002, after starring in '' The Parole Officer'' and '' 24 Hour Party People''. He continued to appear in films such as '' Around t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Foster's Lager
Foster's Lager is an internationally distributed brand of Australian lager. It is owned by the Japanese brewing group Asahi Group Holdings, and is brewed under licence in a number of countries, including its biggest market, the UK, where the European rights to the brand are owned by Heineken International. While Foster's is the largest-selling Australian beer brand in the world, it is not as popular and relatively rare compared with other beers in Australia, particularly when compared to current Carlton & United Breweries beers such as Victoria Bitter and Carlton Draught. History Foster's was created by two American brothers, William M. and Ralph R. Foster, who arrived in Melbourne from New York in 1886. The brothers began brewing Foster's Lager in November 1888. It was made available to the public from February 1889. The product was first exported in 1901, when bottles were sent to Australian combatants in the Boer War. In 1907, the company merged with five other br ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Comedy Central (British TV Channel)
Comedy Central is a British pay television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated. This channel is specific to audiences within the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is aligned with the original US version of the channel. The channel started as The Paramount Channel in 1995, before rebranding as the Paramount Comedy Channel in 1997 and again as Paramount Comedy 1 in 2004 before finally becoming Comedy Central on 6 April 2009. History 1995–1997 The channel was launched as The Paramount Channel on 1 November 1995. The original schedule was a mixture of comedy and drama, including such eclectic offerings as ''Beauty and the Beast'', several Japanese anime productions acquired from Manga Entertainment, and authentic Paramount archive programming such as '' The Magician'', as well as Nickelodeon's '' Ren & Stimpy'', which was shown on Paramount rather than Nickelodeon due to its rather adult nature at times. It originally aired every e ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Five (channel)
5 (formerly known as Channel 5 and Five) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's UK and Australia division. It was launched in 30 March 1997 to provide a fifth national terrestrial channel in the United Kingdom. Channel 5 was renamed Five, from 16 September 2002 until 13 February 2011. Most of this was under the RTL Group's ownership with Richard Desmond purchasing the channel on 23 July 2010 and reverting the name change.'Mini-revamp planned for Channel 5 News' ATV Network, 30 October 2010 On 1 May 2014, the channel was acquired by Viacom (now Paramount Globa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded entirely by its commercial activities, including Television advertisement, advertising. It began its transmission in 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in the United Kingdom. At the time, the only other channels were the television licence, licence-funded BBC1 and BBC2, and a single commercial broadcasting network, ITV (TV network), ITV. Originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public corporation of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which was established in 1990 and came into operation in 1993. Until 2010, Channel 4 did not broadcast in Wales, but many of its programmes were re-broadcast ther ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Russell Howard
Russell Joseph Howard (born 23 March 1980) is an English comedian, television presenter, radio presenter and actor. He has hosted his own television shows, ''Russell Howard's Good News'' and ''The Russell Howard Hour'', and appeared on the topical panel TV show ''Mock the Week''. He won "Best Master of Ceremonies#Comedy clubs, Compère" at the 2006 Chortle Awards and was nominated for an Edinburgh Comedy Awards, Edinburgh Comedy Award for his 2006 Aberdeen Festival Fringe show. Howard has cited comedians Lee Evans (comedian), Lee Evans, Richard Pryor, and Frank Skinner as influences. Early life Howard was born in Bath, Somerset, and raised in nearby Radstock, Somerset. His parents are Dave and Ninette Howard. He has two younger siblings, twins Kerry Howard, Kerry and Daniel (born 1982). Daniel has epilepsy, to which Howard sometimes refers during his act. Howard attended Hanham High School, Perins School in New Alresford and Alton College. He later studied economics at the Uni ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |