Jimmy Carr

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For the Canadian politician, see Jim Carr; for the American computer professional, see Jim Carr (US).
Jimmy Carr
Born September 15, 1972 (age 34)
Limerick, Ireland Flag of Republic of Ireland
Occupation Stand-up comedian, Television presenter

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

Contents

[edit] Early life

Carr was born in Limerick, 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, before going on to receive a first 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 chosen 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] Career

[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 placed him last in the brand new Reasonably Priced Car, 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 aggressively. 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 also hosted a highlights edition of the show.

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 and Frank Skinner.

Carr also has appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien twice, in addition to Tonight with Jay Leno (three times).

In December 2006, Carr presented the third Big Fat Quiz of the Year on Channel 4, having also presented the first and second.

Carr has also appeared on the Irish Topical News Comedy show The Panel.

[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. Up until July 2006, he had a Sunday morning radio show on XFM, with the mercurial comedian Iain Morris. The show had a strong emphasis on toilet humour, and regularly focused on discussing men that Morris '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 were never 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 catchy-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 Radio 4's Loose Ends, the punchline of which implied that Gypsy women smelled.[2] Although the BBC issued an apology, Carr refused and continues to use 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 Cat Laughs 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.

In August 2006, he commenced a new tour, Gag Reflex, for which he recently won the 2006 British Comedy Award for 'Best Live Stand up'. He also performed at the 2006 Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, as well as making a return visit to the Newbury Comedy Festival.

He was announced "Funniest Man Alive Ever I Swear" in a recent poll by the Mail On Sunday.

In 2007, a poll on the Channel 4 website for 100 Greatest Stand Ups concluded Jimmy Carr was the 12th.

A new national tour will commence in Autumn 2007 'Repeat Offender' which kicks off after this year's Edinburgh Festival.

[edit] Personal life

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] Filmography

Movie Role
Alien Autopsy Gary's manager
Confetti Antoni
Stormbreaker John Crawford
I Want Candy Video Shop Guy

[edit] Books

On 2 November Carr, together with advertising copy-writer friend Lucy Greeves, released a book called The Naked Jape (the U.S. version, was released 21 September), a discussion of the art and history of joking. It includes a selection of over 400 of the best jokes ever told.

[edit] Second Life

On 21 December 2006, Jimmy announced plans to become the first major comedian to perform in the virtual reality world of Second Life. This was confirmed on his MySpace on 3 January 2007, and a competition launched to choose a select audience from the list of his MySpace friends.[4]

Jimmy's Second Life show took place on Saturday, 3 February at 7pm, at Adam Street Bar and Members Club in central London. Fifty MySpace friends made up his live audience, with 100 virtual attendees in Second Life itself. The show was enjoyed by both sets of audiences, with excellent feedback received on both Jimmy's MySpace profile (www.myspace.com/jimmycarrlive) and within Second Life, through the organiser's avatar, Texas Arizona (created and developed by Fusion Unity - www.fusionunity.co.uk).

Jimmy hinted at the show that he may perform future shows in Second Life.

[edit] World Record

In March 2007, Laura Jackson from the Guinness Book of World Records confirmed that Jimmy had obtained the world record for being the first comedian in cyberspace, following on from his Second Life show.

[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] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

[edit] Notes

  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.
  4. ^ BBC Story on Carr's Second Life perfromance.
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