Andrew Lawrence
Alma materUniversity of St Andrews
OccupationComedian
Years active2003–present
Websiteandrewlawrencecomedy.co.uk

Andrew Lawrence is an English comedian who works in stand-up comedy, radio and television.

Early life and education

Lawrence attended Tiffin School[1] and the University of St Andrews, where he began his stand-up career at a regular comedy night.[2]

Stage career

Lawrence's university debut led to appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe; he was runner up in the 2003 So You Think You're Funny competition.[3] Later, he won the Amused Moose Starsearch, York Comedy Festival New Act of the Year Competition and the BBC's New Act of the Year Competition in 2004.

He presented his first hour-long comedy show at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe entitled How to Butcher your Loved Ones. It was nominated for the if.comeddie award (as it was known for that year only) for Best Newcomer. His 2007 Fringe show, Social Leprosy For Beginners & Improvers, was nominated for the main if.comedy award.[4]

As well as touring shows in the UK, Lawrence has performed abroad at the Just For Laughs Montreal Festival Showcase[5] and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.[6]

TV and radio career

Lawrence has featured in numerous radio and TV shows, mostly as a stand-up performer. He has also appeared on television as a comic actor, playing the builder Marco in the BBC TV sitcom Ideal.[7] He has written and performed four series for BBC Radio 4, most recently the 2015 sitcom There Is No Escape.[8]

Reasons to Kill Yourself

In 2015 his first book, Reasons to Kill Yourself, was published.[9] The book is based on his stage show of the same name, which was largely about anything that annoyed him and with a particular focus on the state of the stand-up comedy landscape.[10][11] Writing for Chortle, reviewer Jay Anderson wrote that "The poetic precision and rancid, colourful vocabulary of his stand-up are missing on the whole, the dense passages of escalating, poisonous adjective becoming increasingly less punchy as the book wears on."[12]

Political views

On 25 October 2014, Lawrence wrote a lengthy post on his official Facebook page drawing attention to a perceived rise in "'political' comedians cracking cheap and easy gags about UKIP, to the extent that it's got hack, boring and lazy very quickly" and described such comedians as being "out of touch, smug, superannuated, overpaid TV comics with their cosy lives in their west-London ivory towers taking a supercilious, moralising tone, pandering to the ever-creeping militant political correctness of the BBC". Although having previously appeared on several comedy programmes on the channel, he went on to describe "liberal back-slapping panel shows like Mock the Week" as consisting of "aging, balding, fat men, ethnic comedians and women-posing-as-comedians, sit congratulating themselves on how enlightened they are about the fact that UKIP are ridiculous and pathetic".[13]

The post, and subsequent Twitter disputes with fellow comedians such as Dara Ó Briain[14] and Frankie Boyle,[15] were covered by the UK press.[14] On 3 October 2015, he commented on his political beliefs in a post on his website, stating that "I've noticed a number of journalists in comedy have taken to labelling me a 'right-wing comedian'... I don't subscribe to any political ideology and I am not in any way affiliated with any political organisation." However, he also acknowledged that he has "certainly been very critical of the resurgent hard-left wing in British politics" and "critical of left-wing hysteria on the internet, and the left-wing establishment in comedy".[16]

2021 controversial comments

In July 2021, following the defeat of the England national football team in the final of the UEFA Euro 2020 competition on penalties to Italy, Lawrence tweeted that "All I'm saying is the white guys scored🤷‍♂️", in reference to the skin colour of the players who had scored in the penalty shootout. After a backlash, he quote tweeted his original tweet, stating that "I can see that this has offended a lot of people, and I'm sorry that black guys are bad at penalties. 🙏". Following the incident, multiple venues cancelled his upcoming shows and publicly denounced his comments as racist. He was also dropped by his agent.[17][18] In November 2021, Lawrence broke his silence on the subject and posted an explanatory video to YouTube.[19]

TV and radio credits

TV

Year Title Role Channel
2007–10 Ideal Marco BBC Three
2010 Michael MacIntyre's Comedy Roadshow Stand-up BBC One
2010 Dave's One Night Stand Stand-up Dave
2011 Live at the Apollo Stand-up BBC One
2012 Stand Up for the Week Regular performer Channel 4
2013 John Bishop's Only Joking Regular performer Sky 1
2016 The Outcast Comic Documentary Sky Arts

Radio

Year Title Role Channel
2006–07 Shipwrecked Presenter Channel 4 Radio
2010 What To Do If You're Not Like Everybody Else (Series 1)[20] Writer, performer BBC Radio 4
2011 What To Do If You're Not Like Everybody Else (Series 2) Writer, performer BBC Radio 4
2012 How Did We End Up Like This? Writer, performer BBC Radio 4
2015 There Is No Escape[21] Writer, Andrew BBC Radio 4

Awards

Year Award Result
2003 So You Think You're Funny?[3] Runner-up
2004 York Comedy Festival New Act of the Year Winner
2004 Amused Moose Starsearch 2004 Winner
2004 BBC New Act of the Year[2][22] Winner
2006 if.comedy award (Best Newcomer)[4] Nominated
2006 Sony Radio Awards Nominated
2007 if.comedy award (Best Act)[4] Nominated
2010 Chortle Award – Best UK Headline Act[23] Nominated
2011 Chortle Award – Best UK Headline Act[23] Nominated

References

  1. ↑ Brian Holden, ed. (September 2007). "People: Andrew Lawrence (1998)" (PDF). Tiffnews: The Newsletter of the Old Tiffinians Association (233): 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 April 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2011.
  2. 1 2 "BBC New Talent – Success – Andrew Lawrence". BBC. April 2007. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  3. 1 2 "Finalists & Runners up". So You Think You're Funny. Archived from the original on 2 March 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 Benedictus, Leo (23 August 2007). "Edinburgh comedy review: Andrew Lawrence / Pleasance Courtyard". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  5. ↑ "Just For Laughs: New Faces". 23 July 2009. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  6. ↑ "Melbourne Comedy Festival: Andrew Lawrence". Archived from the original on 31 May 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  7. ↑ "The Healer". Ideal. Series 5. Episode 1. 11 May 2009. BBC. BBC Three. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  8. ↑ "What To Do If You're Not Like Everybody Else". 1. BBC. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  9. ↑ Jay Richardson (18 January 2015). "Andrew Lawrence on the sanctimony of social media". The Scotsman. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  10. ↑ "Andrew Lawrence: Reasons To Kill Yourself". Fest Magazine. 14 August 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  11. ↑ Bennett, Steve. "Andrew Lawrence: Reasons To Kill Yourself : Reviews 2014 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". www.chortle.co.uk. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  12. ↑ "Reasons To Kill Yourself by Andrew Lawrence : Book reviews 2015 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". www.chortle.co.uk. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  13. ↑ "What a rant! : News 2014 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide".
  14. 1 2 "Dara O'Briain reacts to 'bitter, self-delusional' Andrew Lawrence's". The Independent. 4 November 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  15. ↑ "Farage Takes on Frankie Boyle And Loses, Predictably". The Huffington Post UK. 29 October 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  16. ↑ "Andrew Lawrence". andrewlawrencecomedy.co.uk. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  17. ↑ Bennett, Steve (12 July 2021). "Andrew Lawrence: Now his agent drops him : News 2021 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". Chortle. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  18. ↑ Brewis, Harriet (12 July 2021). "This comedian is seeing his shows cancelled thanks to his hideous racist tweets". indy100. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  19. ↑ "Why I'm banned from live gigs". YouTube.
  20. ↑ "What To Do If You're Not Like Everybody Else". 1. BBC. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  21. ↑ "BBC Radio 4 – There Is No Escape". BBC. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  22. ↑ "BBC Talent Stand Up Comedian 2004". BBC. 14 December 2004. Retrieved 16 March 2012.
  23. 1 2 "Chortle Awards". Retrieved 27 October 2015.
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