David Armand

David Armand (born David Whitehead on September 1977)^[1] is an English comedian, actor and writer who has performed on stage, film, radio and most notably, television, where the shows he has appeared in include Fast and Loose (2011 TV Series), "Episodes", How Not to Live Your Life, Pulling, The Armstrong and Miller Show, Swinging, and Peep Show.

He is one of the writers and stars of the hit CBBC comedy shows Sorry, I've Got No Head, and Pixelface. He has also written for shows such as The Peter Serafinowicz Show and Katy Brand's Big Ass Show.

Early life and career

Born in the Northamptonshire town of Kettering,^[1] Armand was educated at Latimer Community Arts College, St Catharine's College, Cambridge^[2] and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. As a member of the sketch comedy troupe The Hollow Men, he appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe four times between 1999 and 2002, traveled to America as a participant at the 2003 US Comedy Arts Festival in the Colorado mountain resort of Aspen, and to Canada for a performance at Montreal's 2005 Just For Laughs festival. The troupe wrote and starred in their self-titled TV series for the American network Comedy Central as well as two series for BBC Radio 4.

He is well known for his mime style interpretive dance of Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn" (in character as "Austrian interpretive dance artist Johann Lippowitz"). A 2005 performance was broadcast by HBO Comedy and subsequently spread through the internet.^[3][4][5] The performance is often incorrectly labeled as "Karaoke for the Deaf".^[6][7] He performed^[8][9] his famous dance on stage live with Natalie Imbruglia at the 2006 Secret Policeman's Ball for Amnesty International. The performance started with Armand dancing with Imbruglia singing live vocals backstage, then on-stage, and concluded with Imbruglia performing Armand's dance moves alongside him.

Utilizing the "Johann Lippowitz" alter ego, he has performed several other songs, including Paul Young's "Wherever I Lay My Hat".^[10] and "Don't Look Back in Anger" by Oasis.^[11]

Armand starred in BBC Three sitcom, How Not to Live Your Life as Eddie Singh, the overenthusiastic former caregiver for the late grandmother of the show's leading character, Don Danbury (Dan Clark).^[12] He has also appeared in several online BBC comedy sketches under the title This is Wondervision.^[13]

In 2011 he appeared on BBC2's improv show Fast and Loose, where he performed an interpretive dance routine to a different song each week. Two cast members had to guess the song title based on his routine.

In February 2012 Armand appeared as John in Alan Ayckbourn's Absent Friends at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London, receiving a positive review from Michael Billington.

In July 2012, he made regular appearances on the American TV show Trust Us With Your Life on ABC, performing interpretive dance to a popular song related to some aspect of the guest celebrity on that week's show, which the celebrity (wearing noise-cancelling headphones) was challenged to guess.

^[14]

References

External links

• David Armand at the Internet Movie Database
• David Armand on Myspace
• David Armand on Twitter
• David Armand on Facebook