Desmond O'Connor (also known as Des O'Connor) is an English ukulele-playing cabaret host and musical comedy performer. He is a composer and lyricist and musical director/co-creator for the Twice Shy Theatre. __TOC__

Career

Des O'Connor was a member of the

Cambridge Footlights The Cambridge Footlights, commonly referred to simply as Footlights, is a student sketch comedy troupe located in Cambridge, England. Footlights was founded in 1883, and is one of Britain's oldest student sketch comedy troupes. The comedy so ...

at the same time as

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and

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. After a year away from Cambridge, he became musical director of the Footlights at the invitation of David Mitchell. At one point, O'Connor was a

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

teacher. In 2010, he was a presenter for

MTV UK MTV is a British pay television channel focusing on reality TV and music programming operated by Paramount Networks UK & Australia. The channel launched as part of MTV Networks Europe localisation strategy in 1997. MTV UK (previously MTV UK & I ...

Bestival Bestival was a four-day music festival held in the south of England. The name Bestival is a portmanteau of the words best and festival. It had been held annually in the late summer since 2004 at Robin Hill on the Isle of Wight. In 2017 the festi ...

and The Big Chill. In 2009, he was a composer, lyricist and musical director of

Scott Mills Scott Robert Mills (born 28 March 1973) is an English radio DJ, television presenter and occasional actor. He is best known for presenting the '' Scott Mills'' show on BBC Radio 1 from 2004 to 2022 and since then, on BBC Radio 2, where he has be ...

The Musical for

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, working alongside co-writer Emlyn Dodd and director

Patrick Wilde Patrick Wilde is an England, English playwright, screenwriter, actor, and director for television, film and theatre. Early work Most of Wilde's early work was centred on the classics. He played Hamlet, Mark Antony for ATC and Amnon in Tirso de ...

directed the musical ''Failed States'', written by Desmond O'Connor and Andrew Taylor, which won Best Book and Best Lyrics in the MTM UK musical theatre awards in Edinburgh in 2006. Failed States was revived this year for a run at St James' Theatre, London and at Latitude Festival, 2015, to mark the 10-year anniversary of the London bombings. He and Taylor also wrote the musical Toxic Bankers, which enjoyed an extended run at the Leicester Square Theatre in 2011.

Shows

O'Connor produced and starred in ''And the Devil May Drag You Under'' and ''Desmorphia'' which showed at the

Brighton Festival Fringe Brighton Fringe is an open-access arts festival held annually in Brighton, England. It is the largest annual arts festival in England and one of the largest fringe festivals in the world. The programme of 2018 included 1008 events at over 166 v ...

in 2009 and 2010 respectively. ''And the Devil May Drag You Under'' has also played in Berlin and at

Latitude Festival Latitude Festival is an annual music and arts festival set within the grounds of Henham Park, near Southwold, Suffolk, England. The first edition of the festival took place in 2006 and has continued annually (apart from 2020 when it was cancel ...

. O'Connor has made club and festival performances in London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Berlin and New York, and at the New York Burlesque Festival 2008. He has a growing and loyal fan base. In 2008, he was co-producer of the Ministry of Burlesque's High Tease during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and at Glasgow's Old Fruitmarket in December. In September of that year, he produced ''Fallen Angels'' with Julie-Ann Laidlaw, a show that has been subsequently produced in Berlin. With Laidlaw, O'Connor created and produced ''Vive le Cabaret'' at the Pleasance during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2010, which won Best Cabaret in the "Edinburgh Spotlight" awards.

References

Living people British burlesque performers 1973 births {{UK-entertainer-stub