Jimmy Carr

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Jimmy Carr
Jimmy Carr
Born September 15, 1972
Limerick, Ireland
Occupation Stand-up comedian, Television presenter

James Anthony Patrick "Jimmy" Carr (born September 15, 1972) is an Irish comedian known for his dry, satirical humour.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Carr was one of three wise menLimerick, Ireland to Irish parents [1]. He was educated at Burnham Grammar and later at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe where he achieved 4 A grades at A-level (although one was in General Studies, an auxiliary subject), before going on to receive a second class degree in Social and Political Sciences from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. After leaving Cambridge, Carr was hired by the oil company Shell as a marketing executive, a job which he described as "the easiest job in the world". Less than two years afterwards, he took redundancy and joined JC Productions Ltd in order to begin a career in stand-up comedy. Whilst working at JC Productions with his father, Carr made his first film at Pinewood starring Craig Charles and Roy Dotrice. The film, The Colour of Funny, was a flop and this failure motivated him to try his hand at comic writing and stand-up. Carr eventually gained recognition at the Royal Variety Performance, and was recruited by Channel 4 to host game shows such as Distraction and Your Face or Mine? In 2004 he released his first stand up DVD entitled simply Jimmy Carr Live, and the following year (2005) his second was released, Jimmy Carr Stand Up. He currently presents 8 Out of 10 Cats on Channel 4.

In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.

[edit] Television work

He was a guest presenter for one episode of Have I Got News For You and has appeared on Never Mind The Buzzcocks twice, as well as on Stephen Fry's QI. He has also presented many 100s programmes for Channel 4: 100 Worst Pop Records, 100 Worst Britons 100 Greatest Cartoon Characters and 100 Scary Moments.

In 2004, it was announced he would host a US version of Distraction for Comedy Central. On January 10, 2006 the second season of the US version of Distraction debuted on Comedy Central, with Carr continuing his hosting duties. Carr was shortlisted for the 2006 Rose d'Or award for best game show host.

In 2005 he co-hosted the first series of the Channel 4 show The Friday Night Project, and quiz show 8 Out of 10 Cats.

During his guest appearance on the BBC motoring show Top Gear, he set a new celebrity test track lap record on the 'Star in a Reasonably Priced Car' segment. Driving the show's Suzuki Liana, he knocked Simon Cowell off the top spot, with a time of 1:46.9, despite having been quoted by host, Jeremy Clarkson, that Carr had "the world's luckiest lap". He was also described as "the worst driver we've ever had" and "the luckiest man alive" by Top Gear's test driver The Stig, which also apparently said that he never met anyone who "dicks about" as much. His time was later beaten by Ellen MacArthur. He also was given the nickname of 'Jimmy Carr-nage' and 'The Carrminator' (referring to The Terminator). His re-appearance on Top Gear in May 2006 in the brand new Reasonably Priced Car actually placed him in last place, with the slowest time ever (even slower than the late Richard Whiteley), due to a spin entering the Gambon corner caused by attacking the second-to-last corner too agressively. All his appearances had, ironically, Carl Orff's "O Fortuna" playing in the background, with the finale being played when Clarkson announced the lap time.

Carr is a prolific writer as well as performer, with writing credits including Bo' Selecta! (C4) & Meet Ricky Gervais (C4) as well as writing for Lily Savage, Frank Skinner and Jim Davidson.

Carr also has appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on a few occasions.

[edit] Radio

Carr is a regular guest and interviewer on Loose Ends (BBC Radio 4) and The Fred MacAulay Show (BBC Radio Scotland). In January 2005, Carr hosted 'It's Been a Terrible Year' — a comedy review of 2004, on BBC Radio 2. He has a Sunday morning radio show on XFM, with the mercurial comedian Iain Morris. The show has a strong emphasis on toilet humour, and regularly focuses on discussing men that Morris has 'accidentally' kissed during the previous week, despite being avowedly heterosexual. Morris also recently announced plans on air to venture into the world of male escorting, but his rates are yet to be confirmed.

Features, of varying popularity, have included:

Goth Classics — Item lasting about four weeks in which The Sisters Of Mercy track 'This Corrosion' was played twice.

Now That's What I Call A Jukebox — Long running item invented by Iain Morris where a number of songs are selected from a Now That's What I Call Music album, and are put to a vote. The song with the most votes is played.

The Songs You Should Like And The Songs You Do Like (But You Like The Song You Should Like As Well) — This catchily titled item consists of playing in sequence one credible but underrated or overlooked song (The first was 'Touch Sensitive' by The Fall) and one guilty pleasure (Liberty X's 'Just A Little Bit' followed) On the 9th of July 2006, the item was renamed 'A Song to Patronise, A Song To Sanatise.'

Traditionally, items are carried out with little professionalism, presumably to match the rest of the show content.

In January 2006, Carr made a joke on Loose Ends, the punchline of which implied that Gypsy women smelled.[2] Although the BBC issued an apology, Carr refused and has repeated the joke during his acts.

[edit] Stand-up comedy

2004 was a successful year for Carr's live work. In 2003 he sold out an entire month's performances of his Edinburgh Festival show Charm Offensive by the second day of the festival, and received 5-star reviews from four major newspapers. In 2004 he performed sold out solo shows at Dublin's Vicar Street, Leicester's Comedy Festival, Glasgow Festival, Kilkenny Festival and the Galway Festival along with appearances at The Bloomsbury Theatre where he filmed his first live DVD. Also in 2004 he threatened to sue fellow comedian Jim Davidson for using a joke that Carr considered 'his' [3]. The matter was dropped when it became apparent that the joke in question was an old one used for decades by many different comedians, most notably the radio shows of Victor Lewis-Smith.He toured the country with his show, A Public Display of Affection, starting on 9 April 2005 at the Gulbenkian Theatre in Canterbury. He also appeared at the EICC during the Edinburgh Festival in August 2005 with his 'Off The Telly' show.

Later on in the year, in late November, he released his second DVD Jimmy Carr: Stand Up and also presented the second The Big Fat Quiz of the Year on Channel 4, having also presented the first.

In August 2006, he commenced a new tour, Gag Reflex. He also performed at the 2006, Just for Laughs festival in Montreal.

[edit] Film

Carr had a small role in the 2006 film Alien Autopsy where he played Gary's boss, and a role in the British mockumentary film Confetti. He also starred as Crawford in the film adaptation of Anthony Horowitz's novel, Stormbreaker.

[edit] Books

On the 2nd November Carr, along with fellow comic Lucy Greeves, released a book called The Naked Jape (Only Joking, the U.S. version, was released September 21), a discussion of the art and history of joking. It includes a selection of over 400 of the best jokes ever told.

[edit] Quotations

   
“
 He also assumes that his audience is sophisticated enough to know that he personally doesn't hold the prejudices that he mocks. But he treads a fine line. Why is it that when he tells a joke about, say, a disabled person, I will probably laugh, but if Jim Davidson told the same joke I would almost certainly cringe? "The way to tell whether a joke is taboo or not is whether you have to look over your shoulder before telling it. If you have to, then don't tell the joke. I imagine Jim Davidson has to look over his shoulder a lot. There's no need for an announcement at the beginning of my show: 'Postmodern irony will be used throughout, please pay close attention. The comedian you are about to watch is neither racist nor homophobic nor misogynistic. He has a liberal arts degree.'"
   
”

—The Telegraph, November 2005

[edit] Awards

[edit] Miscellanous

In March 2004, Carr's father Jim was arrested by the Metropolitan Police after Jimmy Carr and his brother Colin accused their father of harassment. Mr. Carr senior was later acquitted of all charges and awarded costs by the Court. Mr. Carr´s acquittal was followed by a written apology from the CPS. Later the Metropolitan Police also apologised and paid him substantial damages in an out of court settlement of the false arrest and false prosecution charge. [1].

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Classic Carr", The Irish Times, 9 September 2006.
  2. ^ "BBC apologises for joke about Gypsy women on radio show", Guardian Unlimited, 5 January 2006.
  3. ^ "Stand-ups square up over fat joke", BBC News, 5 August 2004.
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