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Marcus Brigstocke

Marcus started his comedy career at Bristol University where, alongside Danny Robins and Dan Tetsell (of We Are History / Club Seals fame), he performed stand up and character shows and soon won the BBC New Comedian of 1996. He has since emerged as a major comedy, writing and acting talent, performing in the UK and beyond and has become a regular voice on BBC Radio with an impressive list of TV and film credits.

The Edinburgh festival has been a regular haunt for Marcus, and has seen him receive a great deal of critical acclaim. His shows include:

1996 - Club Seals Revue, Southside (Bristol University sketch show).

1997 - Club Seals Late Night, Pleasance (with D. Robins & D. Tetsell - sketch show)

1997 - Marcus Brigstocke Stand Up, Gilded Balloon (an hour of new stand up)

1998 - The Best Of So You Think You're Funny, Gilded Balloon (Marcus hosted this show for the month)

1999 - Help Yourself, Gilded Balloon (Hilarious character comedy based on the theme of self help and therapy).

2000 - Get A Life, Assembly Rooms (follow up to Help Yourself).

2002 - Club Seals: The Museum Of Everything, Pleasance Dome (Museum based sketch show, now a 6 part series for Radio 4)

2002 - The Award Winning Show, Pleasance Two (an uproariously vicious satire of the preposterous nature of award shows - with Andre Vincent and Gresby Nash).

2004 - Will see a new hour of topical stand up at The Assembly Rooms.
His Television credits include the now famous 'Have I Got News For You' with Bruce Forsythe, many appearances as a stand up on 'Live from the Comedy Store', 'Live from Jongleurs', 'The Hole in the Wall Gang', 'The BBC Stand up Show', and 'The World Stands Up' on Paramount and Comedy Central. In character as Giles Wemmbley-Hogg on 'Edinburgh Nights' and 'The 11 O'Clock Show'. A regular panellist on the short lived 'Casting Couch', Co-host of the 'Q Awards' with the shouting Davina McCall, a sketch writer and performer on Channel 4's 'Barking', the 'A-Z of Music' and 'The Apocalypse Tube'. The huge cult success of 'We Are History' has bought him to the attention of many an adoring fan and the odd angry archaeologist. In the spring of 2001 he played the lead role (Adam Savage) in Simon Nye's BBC 1 sitcom - 'The Savages' along side Geoffrey Palmer.

Radio 4 has become a second home for Marcus as he is rarely off the 6.30 slot in one form or another. He is the regular angry young man on the topical 'Now Show' with Punt and Dennis. He plays Ryan Packer, head of Unthinkable Solutions in 'Think The Unthinkable' (currently recording it's third series). Appears on the 'Newsquiz', 'The Motion Show', 'Beat The Kids' and the wonderfully silly '99p Challenge' as contributor, debater, teenage brat and panel idiot respectively. He played a starring role in the first series of '2000 Years Of Radio' and 'The Museum Of Everything' with Club Seals. Marcus also made 'Risking Everything' a serious investigation in to the world of insurance. His most proud radio creation however, is 'Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off' (Series one - now available on BBC CD). Series two was another huge hit and there are plans to release it on CD later this year, along with a third series of adventures for Giles recording in the Autumn.

The big screen beckons too with Marcus appearing in a modest role in Richard Curtis' movie 'Love Actually' - he plays a Radio Watford DJ interviewing the wonderfully jaded Billy Mack (Bill Nighy). This year he has been in Berlin with Kevin Spacey filming for 'Beyond The Sea' - the life story of Bobby Darin, with Spacey in the starring role and directing. 'Piccadilly Jim' is also out this year where Marcus appears in a scene in an understairs cupboard with Sam Rockwell, Tom Wilkinson and Lucy Brown. He also played a desperately ambitious and tragically unable arts presenter in 'A Short Film About John Bolton' - soon to be available on DVD - for Ska Films.

Marcus now lives in South London, happily married to his university sweetheart, and may well be the proudest dad in the world. He is committed to non-violence and is an active campaigner for 'Campaign Against Arms Trade' and CND. He once had a #11 chart smash as the voice on DJ Dee-Kline's, Don't Smoke Da Reefa. Without wishing to scrape the barrel further it is worth saying that Marcus very briefly worked as a podium dancer, and also on an oil rig in the North Sea (although not as a dancer). He is fanatical about snowboarding - so much so he has set up a stand up tour in the Alps - adores music and movies, and was thrilled to have once met Jack Nicholson. Marcus can be seen in venues across the country delivering his award-winning stand up, on screens large and small in many different guises and heard on Radio 4 more frequently than the shipping forecast.