JOHN SMITH

I started performing in London 2005, appeared in finals and semi-finals of the new act competitions and quickly graduated to doing paid weekend gigs nationwide at the likes of Up the Creek, Frog & Bucket, The Stand, Alexanders, Baby Blue.

Performed at The Pleasance, Edinburgh 2007 with Bound & Gagged compilation show XXX (now AAA Late).

In 2008 I set some gigs up in Newcastle under the 'Grinning Idiot' brand, where I was resident MC. The gigs were great fun, I had a fantastic, loyal audience and attracted some of the best, along with some of the most well known acts in the country:

(Adam Bloom, Alun Cochrane, Angelos Epithiemou, Brendon Burns, Diane Morgan, Gary Delaney, Geoff Norcott, Jeff Innocent, Jen Brister, Jo Caulfield, Michael McIntyre, Mick Ferry, Mike Gunn, Norman Lovett, Paul Sinha, Phil Nichol, Reg D Hunter, Sarah Millican, Simon Munnery, Steve Hughes, Tom Stade etc).

However, it pushed me into financial difficulty and I packed it all in and moved back to London, giving up on comedy entirely in 2013. Turns out the drunk hecklers at some of the UK's roughest gigs were proferring sound financial advice, when shouting out 'Don't give up your day job'.

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Now in 2025, a culmination of a few coincidences has led me to grab the microphone again, feeling a 2nd wind after the sabbatical and I'm writing new stuff and enjoying performing again.

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I'm aiming to gig regularly and bring my original, dark, punchy material to the masses.