Simon Munnery & Ed Aczel Double Bill

Event information

SIMON MUNNERY

“One of the most original and inventive comedians in the country”
The Observer

Simon grew up in Watford before attending Cambridge University in the mid eighties. Early performances while at university included a double-act called God and Jesus (with Stephen Cheeke, now a Bristol University lecturer). In 1992, he appeared in The Dum Show at the Edinburgh Festival alongside Steve Coogan, Patrick Marber, Stewart Lee and Richard Herring. Though he first came to wider attention as host of experimental night Cluub Zarathustra in 1994.

Throughout the nineties, he performed lengthy sell-out runs at West End theatres (Lyric, Soho Theatre, ICA) and international festivals (Melbourne, Adelaide, Aspen, New York) of his wildly eccentric shows featuring alongside stand-up his characters including Alan Parker: Urban Warrior, The League Against Tedium and Buckethead. During this time he was nominated for the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival and the Barry Award at the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

In 1996, he starred in ITV’s flagship stand-up show Saturday Live, won a Sony Gold Radio Award for his BBC Radio 1 series Alan Parker’s 29 Minutes Of Truth and was nominated for a British Comedy Award for his BBC2 show (co-written with Graham Linehan) London Shouting. He also shot a pilot TV version of Cluub Zarathustra, entitled Club Z for Channel 4 although this was never broadcast. He built upon this breakthrough success with several vehicles for his League Against Tedium character, including a Radio 1 series in 1997, the UK Play (BBC3) series FuturTV in 1999 and, most notably, the BBC2 series Attention Scum in 2001 – which was directed by Stewart Lee and nominated for a Golden Rose Of Montreux Award. In 2003 he had his own Radio 4 series, Where Did It All Go Wrong?. He also contributed to the Sit Down Comedy book, started his own weekly radio show on Resonance FM and appeared alongside Steve Coogan in BBC2’s The Private Life Of Samuel Pepys. Simon’s other notable acting roles as historical figures include explorer Samuel Johnson (Johnson and Boswell – Late But Live, 2007) and Queen Elizabeth I (Elizabeth and Raleigh – Late But Live, 2008).

The following year, 2004, saw a second series for Radio 4 and the first of what became six consecutive years of Simon Munnery’s Annual General Meeting show at the Edinburgh Festival. During this period, and indeed to present day, Simon has continued to perform all over the world and return to London’s Soho Theatre with a new show every 18 months. His cannon of work has grown to include two DVD releases (IAMTV and Hello, both in 2007, with a third to be released in early 2011), a book of one-liners and quips (How To Live, 2005), contributions to Banksy’s book Wall & Piece (2007) and an appearance as Alan Parker on dance music group The Orb’s Grey Clouds (Distinct’ive Records, 2007). The end of 2007 saw him awarded status as one of Great Britain’s Official National Treasures.

In recent years, he has made a raft of TV and radio appearances including BBC3’s Comic Side Of Seven Days, Radio 4’s Genius, ITV2’s Comedy Cuts and, in 2010, BBC2’s Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle. 2011 sees a week-long run at London’s Soho Theatre as part of a 40-date UK tour of Simon’s latest live show, Simon Munnery: Self-Employed.


EDWARD ACZEL

“Britain’s greatest entertainer... The best hope for the future of comedy”
Time Out


Edward Aczel began performing stand-up comedy in 2005 at the age of 38. A conventional office job led him to sign up for an evening comedy course for beginners, where he caught the comedy bug and stumbled upon a talent for absurdly shambolic anti-comedy. By the end of 2005, he was the runner-up in both the prestigious BBC New Comedy Awards and in Jimmy Carr’s Comedy Idol (which was filmed for the extras on Jimmy Carr’s 2005 live DVD).

Edward is now a regular headliner on the comedy circuit, and has performed four solo shows at the Edinburgh Festival: Edward Aczel: Trust Me There Is No Hope (2007), Edward Aczel: Do I Really Have To Communicate With You? (2008), Edward Aczel Explains All The World’s Problems... And Then Solves Them (2009) and Edward Aczel: Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No Matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better. (2010).

2007’s was hailed by Jimmy Carr on BBC2’s Culture Show as “the funniest thing on the Fringe.” The following year, Edward’s show won the Malcolm Hardee Award and received Edward’s first string of five and four star reviews. Writer Zadie Smith adored Edward’s 2008 show so much that she wrote a 10-page article for the New Yorker magazine on the show and her late father. This resulted in orders from all over the US of Edward Aczel’s merchandise calendar, despite never having performed there. Edward Aczel Explains All The World’s Problems... And Then Solves Them enjoyed another string of five and four star reviews along with a sell-out run before transferring to London’s Soho Theatre (Jan, 2010) for a further four sold-out nights. This leap from an afternoon slot in a thirty-seater function room on the outskirts of Edinburgh in 2007 to a primetime slot in an 120 capacity sell-out crowd two years later was further cemented with another successful run with Edward Aczel: Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No Matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better. in 2010. ‘Ever Tried...’ toured several dates around the UK in Autumn 2010 and sold out another four nights at London’s Soho Theatre in January 2011.

Edward has performed on several radio shows including BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends, 28 Acts In 28 Minutes, Pick Of The Week and Happy Mondays. He is currently filming a BBC Comedy Online series called The Ed Lectures and writing a BBC radio show.

“One of the most original acts in years” - The Guardian

“Aczel turns unprofessionalism into an artform” - The Times