My Comedy Hero

Scott Agnew discusses his comedy heroes

Billy Connolly, Doug Stanhope, Johnny Vegas and Jackie Gleason are among his heavy-drinking heroes

31 May 2012

It struck me as I was drawing up my list of comedy heroes that not only did I admire their comedy, I wanted to doff my cap to their lifestyle as well. My list of four have all been spectacular drunks. As a Glaswegian, obviously reformed boozer Billy…

Jimeoin on his comedy heroes

Mitch Hedberg, Stewart Francis and Tommy Cooper are among the Irish comic's favourites

16 Apr 2012

I’ve been doing comedy for 22 years now. Mostly in Australia but as of late thanks to McIntyre, Live at the Apollo and the Royal Variety Show, I’ve started to get an audience when I tour in the UK. But this is on the back of a lot of blood, sweat and…

Daniel Sloss on his comedy heroes, Ed Byrne and Tom Stade

The Fifer names his most influential comics

26 Mar 2012

I’d go for Ed Byrne. He did his own style of comedy which was a mixture of one-liners and stories and gags, a really beautiful mix which always had audiences in the palm of his hand. He could tell stories which might not have many gags in them but they…

Craig Hill talks about his comedy hero Victoria Wood

'It’s all about delivery, tight writing and use of language'

28 Feb 2012

There are a few comedians who inspire me because I like their style. One of them is Ross Noble who I think is an off-the-cuff genius; the first time I saw him I thought how is he able to do this, he’s connecting all these subjects as though he knew them…

Keara Patricia Murphy: My comedy hero - Billy Connolly

'He destroyed me. No one else comes close'

2 Feb 2012

I first heard Billy Connolly on a record of my dad’s when I was seven. He was talking about welly boots and the Barras and telling funny stories about Jesus being born in the Gallowgate and not Galilee. He created a magical world outside my window that…

Janey Godley: My comedy hero - Jerry Sadowitz

The chatty comedian booked the hate-fuelled magician in the early 80s

5 Jan 2012

My comedy hero is Jerry Sadowitz and always has been, ever since the day my slightly mad (now deceased) brother Jim brought him into my bar in the early 80s and begged me to ‘put him on’. Which we reluctantly did. I have yet to see anyone as…

Comedian Carey Marx on his heroes

Woody Allen, Lennny Bruce, Mitch Hedberg and Louis CK are among the former magician's idols

15 Nov 2011

When I started out in comedy I was a magician and my act largely consisted of pulling vegetables out of people’s ears. I didn’t have any heroes because there is a dearth of vegetable-based magic acts. As I moved into pure stand-up (I like to think what…

Mark Nelson's comedy hero: Doug Stanhope

One charmingly profane comic praises another

18 Oct 2011

Naturally being Scottish, I have always regarded Billy Connolly as an inspiration and probably the inventor of modern stand-up. Growing up I always loved Jack Dee and Frank Skinner and now as a comedian myself there are comics I work with whom I…

Carl Donnelly

The comedian tells us about his comedy hero Mitch Hedberg

13 Sep 2011

Picking one comedy hero is much harder than it sounds, especially for me as I don’t seem to have had the standard path to becoming a stand-up myself. Comedians tend to talk about how they grew up listening to Richard Pryor albums but I actually watched…

My Comedy Hero: Andi Osho on her comedy idols - Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy

17 May 2011

My comedy heroes are always changing. I remember Jackie Mason being big in this country for a while and other influences have been Jack Dee and Victoria Wood. And Russell Brand was for a spell, but now that he’s moved off into a different sphere of…

My Comedy Hero: Mock The Week's Milton Jones discusses Rowan Atkinson

14 Apr 2011

Growing up I was inspired by people in sitcoms such as Ronnie Barker and Leonard Rossiter. But, the hero I’d pick would be Rowan Atkinson. I became aware of him when he used to do sketches on Not the Nine O’Clock News and it was clear that he was the…

Jo Caulfield on why Joan Rivers is her comedy hero

27 Oct 2010

Joan Rivers is like The Rolling Stones: you may not like what she’s turned into but her early work will blow your mind. She was the first female comic I really connected with. She made me laugh LOUD and HARD: ‘A man can sleep around, no questions asked…

Isy Suttie: My Comedy Hero

7 Sep 2010

I think Tim Minchin and Tom Basden are brilliant, but I find it more difficult to watch musical comedy because I’m more critical of it, or I think, ‘Oh god, why didn’t I think of that?’ But the way that Tim Minchin can flip from one thing to another is…

Danielle Ward - My Comedy Hero: Chris Morris

24 Jun 2010

My comedy hero is Chris Morris. Many people assume the only point of a comedian is to make people laugh, but an ambitious comic realises there is much more potential than that. Chris Morris is an artist rather than a tradesman, creating things rather…

Andrew Maxwell - My Comedy Hero: Patrice O’Neal

14 May 2010

I was quite torn with this. The person who makes me truly laugh is Patrice O’Neal, he really cracks me up. Then obviously there’s Connolly and obviously there’s Richard Pryor. But Dave Allen was just a revelation when I was a kid. He was lampooning the…

My Comedy Hero: Stephen K Amos on Richard Pryor

19 Jan 2010

The first time I stepped inside a comedy club was when I decided to do stand-up, so I didn’t have any comedy heroes and didn’t have a voice. But having done it for two or three years, I started looking at more and more comedy and got to know a few names…

Jason Cook - My Comedy Hero

30 Oct 2009

My comedy heroes? That is a toughie as there are so many: the spontaneous genius of Ross Noble; the cutting one-liners of Frankie Boyle or Jimmy Carr; the measured calm of Stewart Lee or Sean Collins. Everyone has their own thing that makes them a…

Al Pitcher - Phil Kay My Comedy Hero

19 Feb 2009

Al Pitcher: 'Have you ever seen a comedian try to capture lightning in a bottle? Go and see Phil Kay. I first saw him at the Red Rose Comedy Club in London. I hadn’t tried comedy at the time and was greeted by the strange pre-show sight of a bearded and…

Paul Sinha

7 May 2007

MY COMEDY HERO

My Comedy Hero - Alex Horne

Alex Horne

9 Apr 2007

MY COMEDY HERO Before I start, I want to stress that, while I admire people like Woody Allen, Peter Cook and Bill Hicks, I actually grew up watching a lot of Hale and Pace and Russ Abbot so my genuine options here are unfortunately somewhat limited.

Robin Ince

11 Nov 2006

MY COMEDY HERO I’m an enormous fan of Alistair Sim and no one has been a better Scrooge than him. There’s something very real and humane but also very otherworldy too, which few comic actors have. It would be ridiculous not to include Laurel and…

Michael McIntyre - My Hero

Michael McIntyre

12 Oct 2006

MY HERO The nominations for my comedy hero are Billy Connolly, Larry David, Woody Allen and Richard Pryor. And the winner is … Woody Allen. But it was close. Connolly is fantastically naturally funny and a benchmark for my own comedy while David has…