May 20, 2012

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Rufus Hound

January 31, 2012 By

Rufus Hound

Rufus Hound is a comedian, presenter, actor and the owner of a fine moustache.

He won that dance thing for Sport Relief dressed up as Cheryl Cole. Remember? And he’s on ‘Celebrity Juice’ every week, sat next to Fearne Cotton. Or as the eponymous hero of CBBC’s ‘Hounded’.

So that’s what he does. Though there’s other stuff as well.

He hosts Radio 4’s “My Teenage Diary”, took over from Anne Robinson to present the final series of ‘OutTake TV’ for BBC1 and captained the Blue Team for three series of Dave’s ‘Argumental’. Having picked the year 2000 as his funniest, Channel 4 gave him two hours one Saturday night to explain why in “My Funniest Year: 2000”, which was very nice of them.

Oh, and he’s been a guest on a lot of things too.Jonathan Ross’s radio show, Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two, The Apprentice: You’re Fired, Xtra Factor, The Five o Clock Show, This Morning… blah blah blah.

He also does loads of stand-up across the country and hosts glittering awards ceremonies.

Filed Under: afterdinner, Comedy, comedy hosts

Seann Walsh

January 31, 2012 By

Seann Walsh

Charming and charismatic, a natural motor-mouth, Brighton’s Seann Walsh is the most frighteningly precocious talent to emerge from the UK comedy circuit in ages.

Within two years of his first comedy performance in 2007, Seann became the winner of the Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year. Shortly after, other accolades included Chortle Best Breakthrough Act Nominee 2010 and Chortle Best Compere Nominee 2011.

“… funnyman SEANN WALSH had the crowd in stitches with his memories of fixing video tapes by blowing in them…” – The Sun

“…with the looks, gags and charm to become something quite special, Walsh is this generation’s Dylan Moran” – Time Out

Filed Under: afterdinner, Comedy, comedy hosts

Des Clarke

January 30, 2012 By

Des Clarke

I was born in Glasgow, a child of my mum and dad and the 1980s.  I first got into comedy when I won my school talent show, beating a Nirvana tribute band along the way.  I did a killer impression of my headmaster.  I could do it for you now but you probably don’t know him.  I got into stand-up properly when I was 19 and was lucky enough to win some nice prizes.  My mum keeps them in a cabinet for me.

It was about then I got a shout to host the breakfast radio show on Beat 106.  After that I did loads on air at the BBC then a bit at XFM and now Capital Breakfast.  Come to think of it most of my radio has been at breakfast time.  I think it’s because I go well with toast.

My big telly break was SMTV Live.  If you didn’t catch it, it was a weekly dose of ITV1 happy pills every Saturday morning.  I loved it.  It was a great gig and I was following Ant n Dec, not in a stalker way you understand. They left pretty big shoes to fill which was surprising as they have tiny feet.

Anyway it all worked out really well and I had a cracking time.  From then on I’ve done some other cool presenting stuff like BBC Scotland’s Children in Need, Club Cupid and Sportsround. Oh and I’ve met Keith Chegwin.

I’ve never given up the day job though and am still standing up most weekends and a few school nights as well.  I’ll usually amble up with a show to the Edinburgh Fringe every year and do some touring when I can too.

I’m sure there are lots of other things I’ve forgotten to tell you about but that’s what happens when you use your diary for doodling rather than writing stuff in.

Filed Under: afterdinner, Comedy, comedy hosts

Is there such a thing as the perfect after dinner speaker?

January 12, 2012 By

Is there such a thing as the perfect after dinner speaker?

Well we think there is. Our philosophy is that with the right questions and guidance you can place the right speaker to the right event.

For example:

  • Tell us about your audience…It is paramount that you know your audience and can give a good accurate description to us. This tells us an enormous amount. Be happy to keep going with your information, the more we know the more we can help.
  •  Tell us what you would like to achielve with your speaker…Do you want to leave a lasting impression, do you want media attention, do you want to deliver a message, do you purely want to leave your audience entertained?
  • Tell us about your budget…We need to know what budget you would like to keep within. There is such a wide range of speakers keeping a wide range of fees. We all have mad busy careers and this small detail will eliminate a huge amount of speakers and save a huge amount of time.

We like to be thorough when matching a speaker to your event in order that we can send you a fabulous list that is appropriate. Be prepared for many more questions like this to funnel through the process of selecting the right speaker.

Case Study: A client that thought he was looking for a TV personality. When he was asked the question ‘are your guests likely to share a common interest through their work?’ it transpired that a wonderful humorous speaker from the business sector with a passion for Formula 1 fit the bill just perfectly!

Deborah Fielding

12th January 2012

Filed Under: blog

Alun Cochrane

January 10, 2012 By

Alun Cochrane

Alun Cochrane is a no-nonsense comedian who specialises in funny nonsense. Much of his comedy begins simply as something he’s seen, heard or felt in his own life, or in the street, or the kitchen, or anywhere and from that it blossoms into a highly amusing anecdote or a strange flight of fancy.

He has recently joined Frank Skinner’s Absolute Radio Show and can be heard every Saturday morning from 8am.

Alun has several television appearances to his name, most recently Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow he’s also often seen on Eight out of ten cats, Mock The Week,  and has appeared on Soccer A.M and Live At The Comedy Store.

Radio producers are also aware of Cochrane’s talent and he’s notched up various credits from Just A Minute, 4 Stands Up, and The Now Show to Clive Anderson’s Chat Room.

At the Edinburgh festival he’s performed 6 original solo stand-up shows in the last 7 years to critical and audience acclaim.

Alun has a number of corporate entertainment clients who appreciate the ability to tailor his act to a specific group whilst still being extremely amusing and original- he owns several suits (at least 4) and now he has a child is particularly happy to wear one of them for work of this nature. Perhaps less pleasing to him is discovering he is good at work in this sector just as an enormous economic downturn strikes. Hmm.

Filed Under: afterdinner, Comedy, comedy hosts, presenters