Arthur Smith (comedian)
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Arthur Smith (born Brian Smith in 1954) is an English alternative comedian and writer. He was born in Bermondsey, South London, brother to Richard Smith. Perhaps ironically, he describes himself as a "semi-professional" comedian.
He was one of many stand-up performers on the alternative comedy scene in the Eighties. He still performs today in much the same manner, regularly attending the Edinburgh Fringe comedy festival and still compering the long-running Hackney Empire New Act of the Year competition final. He has also written a body of serious or semi-serious work, including stage plays such as An Evening with Gary Lineker.
In addition to stand-up comedy, such as his recent hit Arthur Smith Sings Leonard Cohen (later broadcast on Radio 4), he is also a radio presenter on such BBC Radio 4 programmes as Excess Baggage and Loose Ends, and appears on television comedy panel games. He took over as narrator of the TV series A Life of Grime after the death of John Peel and more recently was one of the Grumpy Old Men in the television series of that name. Both of the latter two series used "What a Wonderful World" as their theme song. For Grumpy Old Men, Smith was one of the cast members who contributed to a montage rendition of the song, providing an imitation of Louis Armstrong's closing "ohhhh yeeeah!".
He attended the University of East Anglia, where he took the pioneering creative writing course run by Malcolm Bradbury. In 1977 he stood for Students' Union President on a "Don't vote for me" platform, and finished second out of nine candidates.
His comedy is based on observation tinged with a strong flavour of the absurd, although Smith is an expert at telling one-liner jokes. He also ventures into extreme comedy, sometimes stripping off during his performances and, during his Edinburgh shows, taking the entire audience out of the theatre for a guided tour of the city.
His near-death from pancreatitis made him teetotal, an experience which he turned into a poignant comedy monologue entitled Arthur Smith's Last Hangover. Subsequently he developed diabetes and stopped smoking (smoking is very injurious to diabetes patients).
One of Smith's routines has been set to music by Mark Beazley, aka Rothko, for a CD curated by comedian and writer Stewart Lee. The CD,The Topography of Chance was guest-curated by Stewart for the Sonic Arts Network and Arthur's track is called I've seen your arse and contains extra vocals by Caroline Quentin taken from a live recording of Smith's show, Arthur Smith Sings Leonard Cohen.
During the late 80s Smith took the role of consumer expert, testing such items as toilet paper, hangover cures and Pot Noodles on the BBC Radio 2 Nightcap show hosted by announcer and voiceover supremo Peter Dickson.
In 1989, Arthur also did voices on an Aardman Animations short called Ident with Phil Nice.
One of Smith's more unusual roles was in the sitcom Red Dwarf in the episode Backwards. He gave a speech (in reverse) blaming Kryten and Rimmer for starting a fight. If, however, the speech is played forwards, he is heard to be insulting the listener who has flipped the recording over trying to find out what he was saying ("What a poor sad life he's got").
A night in watching football with Tony Hawks ended with him challenging Hawks to beat the entire Moldovan football team at tennis. Hawks took him up on this bet, and wrote a book about it.
Smith also appeared in a cameo role in the first series of the BBC science-fiction radio comedy Married. He played an alternate-universe version of himself who eked out a living as a children's party entertainer. This role expanded in the second and third series.
In 2005 Smith turned down a lifetime achievement award from the Perrier Award organisers. He said that "Comedians rather dislike the Perrier Awards and the public aren't interested. Basically, they wanted to tell me I was old and cool; well, I know that already, and anyway, my ego is bloated enough.".[1]
In the winter of 2006 Smith travelled to Margate to host The Margate Exodus which brought together local musicians and singers to perform songs of the 10 Plagues. Such bands as NARCS and NoisePunk exponents Lips Like Oxygen took to the stage. Smith said, "Blimey, I'm exhausted just watching them!"
He currently resides in Balham, London; Smith has described himself as the "Night Mayor of Balham — I don't do days". He plans to marry his long term girlfriend Beth Kilcoyne (writer, actress, intellectual, and gymnast) in 2006.
