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Andrew Lawrence (comedian)

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For other people, see Andrew Lawrence.
Andrew Lawrence
Born
Andrew James Lawrence

(1979-12-17) 17 December 1979 (age 44)
Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England, UK
Alma materUniversity of St Andrews
OccupationComedian
Years active2003–present
Websitewww.andrewlawrencecomedy.co.uk

Andrew James Lawrence (born 17 December 1979) is an English comedian known for his work in stand-up, radio and television.

Early life and education

Born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey Lawrence attended Tiffin School [1] and the University of St Andrews, where he began his stand-up career at a regular comedy night.[2]

Stage career

Pleasance Courtyard during the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, location of Lawrence's Fringe performances.

Lawrence's university debut led on to the Edinburgh Fringe, where he was runner up in the 2003 So You Think You're Funny competition.[3] Subsequently, he won the Amused Moose Starsearch, York Comedy Festival New Act of the Year Competition and the BBC's New Act of the Year Competition in 2004.

He presented his first hour-long comedy show at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe entitled How to Butcher your Loved Ones. It was nominated for the if.comeddie award (as it was known for that year only) for Best Newcomer. His 2007 Fringe show, Social Leprosy For Beginners & Improvers, was nominated for the main if.comedy award.[4] He has returned to the Fringe every year up to 2015.

As well as touring shows in the UK, Lawrence has performed abroad at the Just For Laughs Montreal Festival Showcase[5] and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.[6]

TV and radio career

Lawrence has featured in numerous radio and TV shows, mostly as a stand-up performer. He has also appeared on television as a comic actor, playing the builder Marco in the BBC TV sitcom Ideal.[7] He has written and performed four series for BBC Radio 4, most recently the 2015 sitcom There Is No Escape.[8]

On 25 October 2014, Lawrence wrote a lengthy post on his official Facebook page drawing attention to a perceived rise in "'political' comedians cracking cheap and easy gags about UKIP, to the extent that it's got hack, boring and lazy very quickly" and described such comedians as being "out of touch, smug, superannuated, overpaid TV comics with their cosy lives in their west-London ivory towers taking a supercilious, moralising tone, pandering to the ever-creeping militant political correctness of the BBC". Although having previously appeared on several comedy programmes on the channel, he went on to describe "liberal back-slapping panel shows like Mock the Week" as consisting of "aging, balding, fat men, ethnic comedians and women-posing-as-comedians, sit congratulating themselves on how enlightened they are about the fact that UKIP are ridiculous and pathetic".

The post, and subsequent Twitter disputes with fellow comedians such as Dara Ó Briain[9] and Frankie Boyle,[10] were covered by the UK press.[9] On 3 October 3, 2015, he qualified his political beliefs in a post on his website, stating that "I've noticed a number of journalists in comedy have taken to labeling me a 'right-wing comedian'... I don't subscribe to any political ideology and I am not in any way affiliated with any political organisation." However, he also acknowledged that he has "certainly been very critical of the resurgent hard-left wing in British politics" and "critical of left-wing hysteria on the internet, and the left-wing establishment in comedy".[11] In an October 2014 article for The Daily Telegraph, comedian Ava Vidal wrote that, counter to the impression given by Lawrence, it had never been easy for women or ethnic minorities to work in comedy and, for the latter, the situation was deteriorating. On the issue Lawrence raised of there being few contemporary right-wing comedians with a profile: "Well it’s just a hunch, but perhaps it’s because these days, the majority of people don’t like comedy that uses the most marginalised members of society as the punchline".[12]

Other work

In 2015 his first book Reasons to Kill Yourself was published.[13]

TV and radio credits

TV

Year Title Role Channel
2007–10 Ideal Marco BBC Three
2010 Michael MacIntyre's Comedy Roadshow Stand-up BBC One
2010 Dave's One Night Stand Stand-up Dave
2011 Live At The Apollo Stand-up BBC One
2012 Stand Up for the Week Regular performer Channel 4
2013 John Bishop's Only Joking Regular performer Sky 1

Radio

Year Title Role Channel
2006–07 Shipwrecked Presenter Channel 4 Radio
2010 What To Do If You're Not Like Everybody Else (Series 1)[14] Writer, performer BBC Radio 4
2011 What To Do If You're Not Like Everybody Else (Series 2) Writer, performer BBC Radio 4
2012 How Did We End Up Like This? Writer, performer BBC Radio 4
2015 There Is No Escape [15] Writer, Andrew BBC Radio 4

Awards

Year Award Result
2003 So You Think You're Funny?[3] Runner-up
2004 York Comedy Festival New Act of the Year Winner
2004 Amused Moose Starsearch 2004 Winner
2004 BBC New Act of the Year[2][16] Winner
2006 if.comedy award (Best Newcomer)[4] Nominated
2006 Sony Radio Awards Nominated
2007 if.comedy award (Best Act) [4] Nominated
2010 Chortle Award - Best UK Headline Act[17] Nominated
2011 Chortle Award - Best UK Headline Act[17] Nominated

References

  1. ^ Brian Holden, ed. (September 2007). "People" (pdf). Tiffnews: The Newsletter of the Old Tiffinians Association (233): 6. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
  2. ^ a b "BBC New Talent - Success - Andrew Lawrence". BBC. April 2007. Retrieved 2012-03-04.
  3. ^ a b "Finalists & Runners up". So You Think You're Funny. Retrieved 2012-03-18.
  4. ^ a b c Benedictus, Leo (23 August 2007). "Edinburgh comedy review: Andrew Lawrence / Pleasance Courtyard". The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
  5. ^ "Just For Laughs: New Faces". Retrieved 2015-10-27.
  6. ^ "Melbourne Comedy Festival: Andrew Lawrence". Retrieved 2015-10-27.
  7. ^ "The Healer". Ideal. Episode 1. 11 May 2009. BBC. BBC Three. Retrieved 2012-03-15. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |seriesno= ignored (|series-number= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ "What To Do If You're Not Like Everybody Else". 1. BBC. Retrieved 2015-10-27.
  9. ^ a b "Dara O'Briain reacts to 'bitter, self-delusional' Andrew Lawrence's". The Independent. Retrieved 2015-10-27.
  10. ^ "Farage Takes On Frankie Boyle And Loses, Predictably". The Huffington Post UK. Retrieved 2015-10-27.
  11. ^ "Andrew Lawrence - News". www.andrewlawrencecomedy.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-10-27.
  12. ^ Vidal, Ava (30 October 2014). "As a black female comedian, I do loathe Ukip. Promise..." The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  13. ^ Jay Richardson (18 Jan 2015). "Andrew Lawrence on the sanctimony of social media". The Scotsman. Retrieved 2015-10-27.
  14. ^ "What To Do If You're Not Like Everybody Else". 1. BBC. Retrieved 2015-10-27.
  15. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - There Is No Escape". BBC. Retrieved 2015-10-27.
  16. ^ "BBC Talent Stand Up Comedian 2004". BBC. 14 Dec 2004. Retrieved 2012-03-16.
  17. ^ a b "Chortle Awards". Retrieved 2015-10-27.
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