There are a number of well-known British comedians who are famous worldwide. Eddie Izzard, Ricky Gervais and of course, good old Stephen Fry aka King of Twitter. But what about the many other comedians from Britain? Who else are fantastic performers who have been overlooked? This is my list of three favorite comedians.
1. Mark Watson
You might remember him from a number of famous British television shows like Have I Got News For You. Watson's the skinny, slightly jittery guy coming up with the most unexpected punch-lines. It is his comic timing as well as delivery that helps his the-sub-clause-is-really-a-main-clause jokes.
Recently, I have been listening to his comedy show on BBC4 called Mark Watson Makes the World Substantially Better. This is show went on for two series; the first part was all about human vices while the second part was dedicated to human virtues ... describing them in rather humorous manner, of course. Well, for those who are curious about this comedian, this is an excellent show to get to know his style of humor. So far every episode has been incredibly funny and very typical of Watson's style. My favorite joke from the series so far was from the Patience episode (Season 2). In it, Watson points out that Gandhi is everything we all want to be except shot.
2. Marcus Brigstocke
I first came across Brigstocke in the Giles Wemmbley Hogg series. Those were the rather mad tales of upper-class pampered boy Giles exploring the world ... and ruining side projects, one mishap at a time. In his more recent comedy shows, he has been going for the delivering jokes with a poker face look. Which rather suits his style, I would say. On television Brigstocke comes across as a rather serious minded person and thus, it is all the more unexpected when he pokes fun at something.
In the past few months I have been catching up with his latest comedy show I've Never Seen Star Wars. It's actually a sort of a talk-show where he invites famous celebrities and when their guard is down, he gets them to try something they have never tried before. Alright, it's not as nefarious as all that; he actually asks the folks beforehand what they want to try for the first time. The funny thing is the expression on most folks' face when they have to dive into their new venture. Case in point, how Steve Punt ate roadkill (cooked and nicely spiced up but roadkill nonetheless). The expression on the man's face was priceless. The best bit about this show is the down-to-earth manner in which Brigstocke conducts the interviews.
3. Ed Byrne
This is another familiar face from Nevermind the Buzzcocks. Byrne is a very expressive comedian and uses a combination of facial expressions and gestures to delivery his lines. You might think that's a bit pointless to make such an observation but remember the straight-faced humor styles of Mitch Hedberg. Byrne also makes a lot of social commentary and quips about pop culture now and then in his performances.
I haven't found any specific British show revolving around his work. Hopefully it won't be too long before he gets one. In the meantime, his most recent work that I quite enjoyed was his stand-up comedy on the Live At The Apollo series. It was his usual style of satire, poking fun at everything under the sun. The most noteworthy statement was about children dressing as adults. You know, the kids who dress inappropriately in mini-skirts, belt-like skirts and whatnot. He pointed out how he saw an eleven year old donning a pair of pants with the words Gorgeous on it. It was quite hilarious to hear how he almost approached the situation; apparently he was tempted to saunter up to the father and say "Damn right that's Gorgeous". Good point, very good point.