| Robin Ince | |
|---|---|
| Born | 20 February 1969 |
| Medium | Stand-up, Television, Radio |
| Nationality | British |
| Years active | 1990 - Present |
| Influences | Carl Sagan, John Peel, Richard Feynman |
| Notable works and roles | Book Club, The Infinite Monkey Cage, Nerdstock |
| Website | http://www.robinince.com |
Robin Ince (born 20 February 1969) is an English stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for presenting the BBC radio show The Infinite Monkey Cage with physicist Brian Cox.[1]
Contents |
In 1990, Robin first appeared at Greyfriars Kirkhouse at the Edinburgh Festival where Eddie Izzard was running a venue. At the time Ince was performing in a play called 'Shadow Walker' by Trevor Maynard. He had appeared at the Cafe Royale as part of the Edinburgh Fringe show 'Rubbernecker', alongside Stephen Merchant, Jimmy Carr and Ricky Gervais in 2001.
As a close friend of Ricky Gervais, Ince opened as a support act for his Politics tour in 2004 and his Fame tour in 2007. He also appears on the DVD and often appears in Ricky's video podcasts, mainly being mocked, teased and tormented by Gervais.
In 2005, Ince began running the Book Club night at The Albany, London, where acts are encouraged to perform turns of new and experimental material. The club gets its name from Ince's attempts to read aloud from - and humorously criticise - various second-hand books which the audience and himself have brought in for the occasion. The Book Club proved to be so successful that Ince took it on a full UK tour in 2006, the same year he won the Time Out Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy.[2] In 2010, Ince published a book entitled Robin Ince's Bad Book Club about his favourite books that he has used for his shows.
Throughout 2008, Ince had residency at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre trying out new material for his upcoming shows. In late 2008 he released a live stand up DVD entitled Robin Ince is as Dumb as You, released by Go Faster Stripe.[3] Then between January and April 2009, Ince performed his UK tour Bleeding Heart Liberal, with 51 dates, touring the country. During this time Ince began touring a new show, Robin Ince vs. the Moral Majority.
Ince started his career as a comedy writer, working on The 11 O'Clock Show, for which he also performed as an impressionist, including an impersonation of John Peel. He also appeared in The Office as failed interviewee Stuart Foot. Ince has also appeared on clip shows on British television, where he and other comedians appeared as talking heads.
Ince and the physicist Brian Cox present the science series The Infinite Monkey Cage on BBC Radio 4.[4] The programme won a Gold Award in the Best Speech Programme category at the 2011 Sony Radio Awards.[5][6]
He presents a podcast for Paramount Comedy, Show & Tell (which is now called Utter Shambles), but can be heard more often on BBC Radio 4 Extra's Serious About Comedy. Ince had presented this discussion programme since 2005, until its end in November 2007. Regular panellists in the show include Book Club performers Josie Long, Howard Read and Natalie Haynes, comedy critics Bruce Dessau and Stephen Armstrong, and many others from the British comedy industry.
Robin has acknowledged that he is an atheist and supports the Rationalist Association via New Humanist magazine by organising events at the Bloomsbury Theatre and at the Hammersmith Apollo featuring scientists, musicians and comedians. The first of these was Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People in Christmas 2008,[7] and more recently he has fronted a Night of 40 Billion Stars. Regular contributions come from Josie Long, Chris Addison, Ricky Gervais, Richard Dawkins, Simon Singh and Philip Jeays. In 2009, Ince organised two events with Josie Long, called Darwin's Birthday Spectacular, marking both the scientist's 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species'. He was recently made a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.
On 15 September 2010, Ince, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.[8]
Robin has appeared at several science events, including the line-up of UCL's Bright Club in both 2009 and 2010,[9][10] and took part in the Cheltenham Science Festival in June 2011.[1]
He's also is a great supporter of the yearly festival Pestival which showcases science, music and comedy and is a regular attendee of the Latitude Festival where he performs a mixture of his current stand-up show and Book Club.
Ince was also lead singer in alternative rock combo TheReg from 1992-1994.