I was born, and then a lot of stuff happened. For thirty years most of it happened in rural Gloucestershire, in a town famous for making park benches and dustbins and for pissing J.K.Rowling off. To make matters worse, we're a Scottish family. Growing up Scottish surrounded by the English is a sure fire way to create a few personality defects, and I've got a whole bagful. But as I always say, normality is overrated.
Anyway, I'm back to my roots now, living in Edinburgh after stop-offs along the way in London, Brussels and Dublin. My 19 year-old daughter, aka the pink-haired hellcat, lives with me, and my two teenage sons live with their mother down south. My girlfriend lives in Ireland. I travel a lot.
About three years ago I had my first book published. It's called London Correspondence , and it's really good, and you should buy it . My second book, A Grim Almanac of Edinburgh, has just come out and is in all good bookshops now. Or you can buy it here . I am also an editor of Ripper Notes Magazine .
I've done some acting and directing in the theatre, ran my own company for a while, and now I perform stand-up comedy. I reached the semi-final stage of So You Think You're Funny in 2008, and run the Absolute Beginners open spot night at the Beehive Inn in Edinburgh's Grassmarket every Monday night at 8.00pm. I performed throughout last year's Edinburgh Fringe in a show called The Absolute Best of Absolute Beginners. In this year's Fringe I will be performing with two other comedians, Jason C. Murphy and Scott Forbes, in The Fabulous Furry Freakshow at Madogs at 6.30pm each evening. Other upcoming gigs are listed below.
Quotes:
"Will live long in the audience's mind so well drawn and graphic were the mental pictures he drew." - Edinburgh Evening News
"Sanity and intelligence was what was required and Alan Sharp was just the man to do it.... a nice wee bit of self-deprecating material.... subtle writing." - Ha Ha Comedy review.
"Hey, great show, man!" HBO/Comedy Central star Gary Gulman
