Mark Lamarr
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mark Lamarr (born Mark Jones on January 7, 1967) is an English comedian and a presenter on radio and television.
Lamarr was born in the Park South area of Swindon and has three elder sisters. He passed five O-Levels and dropped out of school at 17. Plucked from obscurity after writing the poem "Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Work" (published in 1987), his act developed from poetry to stand-up comedy. He was spotted on the touring circuit for the launch of Channel 4's The Big Breakfast in 1992 and co-presented The Word.
He was the host of Never Mind The Buzzcocks, a comedy pop quiz, and was a team captain in the first three series of Shooting Stars (1995–1997), where he displayed a mixture of dour boredom and contempt towards hosts Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer who, in turn, mocked his "50's throw-back" appearance.
Talking about his TV career to Jo Brown of Cheers Magazine, Lamarr said "'The Word' was no fun at all, it was a horrible, horrible, repulsive environment to work in, mainly due to the company, they were just very…just an obnoxious group of people to deal with and I think that came across in the shows they ended up producing. And 'Shooting Stars' was strangely no fun what-so-ever, because I was sort of playing a particularly moody, almost mute character and you end up just doing that. ... I mean it was always fun with Vic and Bob because they are old friends and it was nice working with them, but no, it wasn't fun."
On radio, Mark has presented his own show on BBC GLR, BBC Radio Five Live & has presented occasional shows on BBC Radio 1.
On July 20, 1998, Lamarr launched his popular radio show on BBC Radio 2 called Shake, Rattle and Roll, where he plays tracks from his own sizeable record collection of obscure rock and roll gems. He also presents The Reggae Show series and Mark Lamarr's Alternative 60s, where he presents lesser known tracks from the 1960s.
At the end of 2005, it was announced that Mark Lamarr was to take a break from Never Mind The Buzzcocks after 150 episodes to concentrate on other projects. The first series in 2006 was hosted by guest presenters. It now appears Lamarr has left the show permanently. He has been replaced by Simon Amstell, one of the guest presenters from the early 2006 series.
On April 22, 2006, Mark began a new show on Radio 2 airing Friday Nights/Saturday mornings from 12am - 2am. The show recently became a three hour show and can now be heard from 12 - 3. During the show, he plays a variety of music from the past 70 years.
[edit] External links
| Never Mind the Buzzcocks | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Episodes, Intros Round, Identity Parade |
| Hosts: | Mark Lamarr, Simon Amstell, Guest hosts |
| Captains: | Phill Jupitus, Sean Hughes, Bill Bailey |
