Ismo Leikola

Ismo Mikael Leikola (born 22 January 1979), sometimes known professionally as ISMO, is a Finnish stand-up comedian, musician, author, screenwriter, and YouTuber.

Leikola was born in Jyväskylä in 1979 and lived his childhood in Kuohu, a village near Jyväskylä.

Prior to a career in stand-up comedy, Leikola studied at the University of Jyväskylä with physics as his main subject and philosophy as secondary.

While studying physics and chemistry at the University of Jyväskylä, Leikola was first introduced to stand-up comedy at the campus bar Ilokivi where he debuted in 2002.

The experience inspired him to study stand-up comedy from old VHS cassette tapes containing performances from Eddie Murphy and Eddie Izzard.

A year and a half later, he was already performing around Finland.

In 2003, he received his own segment on the Hyppönen-Enbuske Experience talk show as a “correspondent for the City of Jyväskylä” in which he performed for several years.

He started performing in English in 2005 while visiting the UK.

In 2007 and 2008, Leikola performed at the prestigious Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Leikola made his United States debut in 2014, when he won "The Funniest Person in the World" competition organized by the comedy club Laugh Factory.

By May 2014, Leikola had performed in Scandinavia and Europe, including performances in the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, and Estonia.

In the fall of 2014, he gave a performance at the International Comedy Showcase in London.

Steve Bennett, the editor-in-chief of the comedy website Chortle, referred to Leikola's performance as #1 of the evening.

In October 2014, Leikola won the first “Funniest Person In The World” competition organized by the Laugh Factory.

The winner was selected based on an online voting system and celebrity guests.

Leikola received almost 160,000 online votes.

The runner-up, Saad Haroon from Pakistan, received over 59,000 votes.

The winner of the competition was awarded US$10,000 and a tour across the United States.

In 2015, he made comedy series ISMO for Finnish television and moved to the United States.

In 2015, Leikola traveled across the United States with his “Funniest Person In The World” tour and also in Finland with his comic band Muusikot.

He then started a nine-part comedy show ISMO for the Finnish Elisa Viihde.

The comedy show was among five nominated for best Television Comedy Series at the annual Golden Venla (Kultainen Venla) gala hosted by the Finnish Television Academy.

Leikola was also invited to the Finnish Independence Day Reception at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland.

At the end of 2015, Leikola moved to Los Angeles.

In October 2016, he performed on the Last Call with Carson Daly show on NBC.

Leikola has performed at internationally known festivals, such as the Edinburgh Fringe, Just for Laughs 2017, and Melbourne International Comedy festival.

Leikola has also toured New Zealand twice and performed at New Zealand International Comedy Festival.

In 2022 Leikola performed for 45,000 people in Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles as an opening act for Gabriel Iglesias.

Leikola uses his outsider's point of view to find humor in ordinary things.

He gained more recognition after his appearance on the Conan talk show in 2018 and has since toured internationally.

He has a YouTube channel with over 360,000 subscribers.

In January 2018, Leikola appeared on Conan O'Brien's talk show Conan.

He was the first Finnish comedian to appear on an American talk show.

A video clip of the interpretations of the English word ass became the most-watched stand-up comedy clip in the history of the Conan O'Brien's show.

By August 2019, it had 70 million Facebook views.

In 2019, Leikola started to collaborate with the prestigious Merriam-Webster dictionary, creating a series of videos for them about the quirks of the English language.

In October 2019, he made his appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden.

In 2019, Leikola had been performing three years in the United States and also on nine tours in Finland and performing an estimated 250–300 shows a year.

In the United States, he was performing four or five times a night during the weekends.

Leikola has become a regular performer in comedy clubs in Los Angeles such as the Laugh Factory and Comedy & Magic Club.