I'd like to meet:
My top comedians followed by a discription (from BBC comedy guide)
Jimmy Carr
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Cambridge graduate Jimmy Carr hails from Buckinghamshire and seemed destined for a career in marketing until a comparatively early midlife-crisis saw him turn to comedy.
He gained a Perrier nomination in 2002 for his first solo show Bare Faced Ambition, and went on to win Time Out and RTS awards in 2003. He's also presented Your Face or Mine (with June Sarpong) and Distraction, for which he's been nominated for a prestigious Rose D'Or award.
An original and distinctive comedian, Carr has appeared on a variety of shows including Parkinson, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and QI. He's also been a guest presenter on Have I Got News For You.
He continues to be successful in his live work. In 2003 he performed at the Edinburgh Festival with his show Charm Offensive. He's planning a return to the Edinburgh Festival in 2004 and will also play The Bloomsbury Theatre in London where he will be filming his first DVD.
RUSSEL BRAND
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There you go Kosta, tht will keep u happy!
He kicks ASS...he trained as an actor at the italia Conti school...and a onother place 2 but i forget...he had bulaemia as a kid, and was self conscious of his body when he was little...he spent along time being a druggy and alchhoholic untill he gave it all up, alot of his first comedy consisted of mashing up dead animals and flicking them into the audience...he had a family of dead pet mice that he used for sketches, hes got alot more funny since he stopped being drugged up and has done some TRULY awesome comedy...now he practices Hare Krishna and Ashetanga yoga, and carries on being very funny! KISSES
Lee Evans
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Showbiz is in Lee Evans' blood. His dad Dave raised Lee and his brother whilst touring UK clubs and seaside towns.
After attending art school, Lee followed in his father's footsteps to the stand-up circuit. Four years at working men' clubs, and five on the alternative circuit later… Lee Evans became a huge hit at the 1988 Edinburgh Comedy Festival.
Since then Lee Evans' stand-up and live television appearances have had the nation in hysterics. Famous for his very physical brand of comedy, and tendency to play the underdog, he has often been compared to Norman Wisdom. Closer inspection of his act shows that it's just what he does best.
Evans is one of the rare UK comedians to have scored major hits at the cinema. Making his film debut in Funny Bones, he then found international fame with his role in gross-out There's Something About Mar and slap-stick Mouse Hunt.
He followed this up with a series, Lee Evans: So What Now?
Ricky Gervais
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Ricky graduated from London University with a degree in philosophy, he then went onto work at the University as entertainment manager for the university Students Union. It was here that he first started developing material for The Office along with the first incarnation of David Brent, a character called Seedy Boss.
He later took a desk job at London radio station, XFM, where he was later offered his own show. Stephen Merchant worked as his assistant until he went to the BBC to undertake a production training course. As part of the course, Stephen collaborated with Ricky to produce a film set in Ricky's old office that they gave to the BBC.
Ricky went on to be a regular contributor to Channel 4's The Eleven O'Clock Show and was soon presenting his own chat show, Meet Ricky Gervais.
Then came his lead role in The Office, a show which has received huge critical acclaim and a host of prestigious awards including Two Golden Globes, six BAFTAs, four British Comedy Awards and the prestigious American award The Peabody.
Following this huge success he embarked on his first live stand-up tour, Animals, based around his fascination with the animal kingdom. His follow-up stand-up act was called Politics.
Ricky's new BBC sitcom Extras is to be aired in July 2005. Ben Stiller, Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Stewart and Kate Winslet all perform cameos in the series.
Ricky has become the first British person to write an episode of The Simpsons.
Peter Kay
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Peter Kay was born, bred and still lives in his beloved Bolton. He left school with one GCSE in art and proceeded to drift from one dead end job to another, earning a living as a cinema usher, a steward at Manchester Arena, even a mobile disc jockey.
When Kay eventually tried his hand at stand up he found his 'wilderness years' had furnished him with an almost endless supply of characters and situations to draw on for material.
Within a year of launching himself onto stand up circuit, Kay won the 1997 Channel 4 'So You Think You're Funny?' competition. From there his rise to the top was rapid. Along the way there were Perrier nominations, the Big Breakfast, The Peter Kay Thing, sell out tours, British Comedy Awards and, his best work to date, Phoenix Nights.
Chris Moyles
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Chris began his radio career working for a hospital radio station in his hometown Leeds, before joining Aire FM at the tender age of 16. He then worked for various radio stations, including Chiltern, Luxembourg, and Capital FM, before landing his dream job at BBC Radio One in 1997, with his comedy sidekick Dave Vitty. He has worked on the early morning show during the weekdays, the weekend morning show, and the weekday drive time show for the station. He is currently presenting the Radio 1 Breakfast Show on weekdays from 7-10am.
His abrasive style has led to him upsetting most of the other Radio One DJs at some point, most notably Mark Goodier and Nicky Campbell. Chris has turned down two offers to join Virgin Radio, by its owner Chris Evans, who is a fan of Moyles. He was also offered a job presenting The Big Breakfast, but turned it down as he didn't want to give up his radio show. Chris recently made his mark on TV, with the TFI-style show - Live with...Chris Moyles, which was produced by Chris Evans, but was axed after just thirteen weeks at the end of 2002.
Rowan Atkinson
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Rowan Atkinson hails from Newcastle and took a degree in electrical engineering at Newcastle University before studying at Oxford for an MSc, where he met Richard Curtis.
Although he'd first appeared at Edinburgh when he was 17, Atkinson was spotted at the 1976 Festival by television producer John Lloyd, who went on to produce him in his first starring role - as one of the four members of the Not The Nine O'Clock News sketch team. This was followed by the huge success of Blackadder and its sequels which propelled Atkinson to star status.
He then went on to create Mr Bean. A walking disaster, Bean was purely physical comedy, the opposite of Edmund Blackadder's polished dialogue. This clumsy character was a huge success and became another national treasure.
Atkinson made his big-screen debut in 1983's unofficial James Bond picture Never Say Never Again. Despite this film receiving mixed reports, he has continued to juggle TV and film roles. In 1997 Bean came to the big screen, and Scooby Doo topped the US box office in 2002. This was followed by spoof Bond feature Johnny English in 2003.
As a long-time collaborator with writer Richard Curtis, he has regularly contributed to Comic Relief. He even played the 9th Doctor, in the 1999 Doctor Who spoof The Curse Of Fatal Death.
Steve Coogan
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After training as an actor at Manchester Polytechnic, Steve Coogan kick-started his career when he began providing voices for the satirical puppet show, Spitting Image.
He introduced his most famous character, Alan Partridge, to the nation on the BBC Radio 4 programme, On the Hour.
Alan’s sporting commentaries gathered a cult following and Steve was soon to be seen on our TV screens in The Day Today, introducing characters like Alan Partridge and Paul Calf to the viewing public.
Alan had also scored his own slot on BBC Radio with the spoof chat show, Knowing Me, Knowing You. The show transferred to television to widespread acclaim and it was followed up with the hit series, I’m Alan Partridge.
Most recently Steve has begun branching out into film, taking the lead in both The Parole Officer and 24 Hour Party People.
After a long absence, Steve Coogan’s best-loved creation, Alan Partridge, is set to return to our screens for the series, I’m Still Alan Partridge.
Rob Brydon
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Born in Baglan, near Port Talbot, Rob Brydon went to the Welsh College of Music and Drama.
He spent six years as a DJ on BBC Radio Wales. Amongst the comedy characters he created on a show with Alan Thompson were a pair called Tony and Keith - the latter becoming the prototype for Keith Barret in Marion and Geoff.
A glorious career as a voiceover artist followed. Highlights included Toilet Duck and the voice of a whimpering bondage man for Tango.
Six, ten-minute episodes of Marion and Geoff went out in 2000 to critical acclaim, and garnered multiple awards including a Best Television Comedy Newcomer award for Brydon at the British Comedy Awards. Later that year, Human Remains achieved similar accolades and scooped him a Best Television Comedy Actor gong at the 2001 Awards.
He had a cameo in the 2001 feature film 24 Hour Party People, and went on to appear in Murder in Mind, I'm Alan Partridge and Black Books in 2002. Brydon also starred in Cruise of the Gods with Steve Coogan as part of the BBC's Christmas 2002 highlights.
In 2003 Marion and Geoff was back, with a series of half-hour episodes of bittersweet, painfully comic tales from the eternal optimist (and now chauffeur), Keith. He also appeared on stage as Keith with the one-man show Making Divorce Work.
February 2004 saw the pilot for The Keith Barret Show, in which Keith is cast as the host of a chat show about relationships. Brydon has also starred in the critically-acclaimed ITV series, Director's Commentary as the voice of Peter De Lane.
