Paul Foot

Paul Foot (born 24 December 1973) is an English comedian.

Foot is known for his musings, rants, "disturbances" and apparent aversion to pop culture.

The Daily Express likened him to "a rare exotic bird", and six national newspapers including The Independent and The Age have described him as "a comedy genius".

Foot was born and raised in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, and has a younger brother.

He studied mathematics at Merton College, Oxford.

It was during his studies that he first started performing stand-up.

Graduating from Oxford in 1995, Foot was head-hunted by a computer software company in the run-up to the dot-com bubble, but he loathed the industry: "I had to read manuals on HTML and just write websites from scratch. None of us really knew what we were doing".

He started to pursue a career in comedy by doing open mic slots at various venues.

He is openly gay.

He has been described as "a little bit vegetarian", but has said that occasionally he does return to eating meat due to nutrition-related health issues.

He has stated on his video log that he has face blindness.

Foot frequently performs live, with resident slots at various London comedy clubs, and his fans sometimes demand shows in particularly obscure parts of Britain.

In Jan 2003 he often performed at London's Bearcat Comedy Club.

In 2003, Foot and Russell Brand appeared in a double act at Cafe Royal.

Foot's style of comedy had a strong influence on Brand, who was inspired by Foot's eccentric hair, quirky mannerisms and love for florid language.

In The Guardian, Paul MacInnes wrote about their similarities in an article that explored the notion of "copycat comedians".

Bruce Dessau made similar observations in The Standard.

Although a sector of Foot's fan base felt Brand had stolen Foot's act, the two were amicable at the time.

In September 2006, Foot started a regular London-based solo variety show called Paul Foot's Comedy for Connoisseurs.

The title comes from the name given to his fans and significant cult following, "The Guild of Paul Foot Connoisseurs", for whom Foot arranges "secret" events advertised only via his official website and mailing list.

In the secret shows, Foot often enters a surreal territory, taking on the personae of his own character creations such as "Penny" and "Skeleton Johnson", and sometimes improvising elaborate mini-dramas in which he plays all of the parts.

Some of Foot's characters feature on his website which also has a secret page for his Guild of Connoisseurs.

He usually takes a show to the Edinburgh Fringe such as By the Yard (2009), Ash in the Attic (2010) (which was directed by Noel Fielding) and Words (2013).

Following Edinburgh, Foot usually tours Britain with his current show before taking it to Australia after Christmas for the Australian festival circuit.

He has also given runs at Montreal Comedy festival as well as selling out at venues in Sweden.

Foot's 2010 Edinburgh show Ash in the Attic was directed by comedian Noel Fielding and enjoyed two sell-out runs at London's Soho Theatre in February 2011.

As of 2011, Foot has refused to discuss his years at Oxford or former pursuits as a mathematics student.

Ash in the Attic was then taken to Melbourne for the 2011 Melbourne International Comedy Festival as part of the official gala selection where it received a 5-star review in The Age.

Australian Chortle wrote in its review that Ash in the Attic was "One of the best comedy shows ever to have been performed in Melbourne".

A CD of the show was released, and can be bought from his website, standard online shops, and from Foot at tour shows.

Foot performed eight secret London previews for his 2011 Edinburgh show Still Life before taking it to the Fringe where the show had a sell-out run at the Underbelly.

Foot toured the UK in autumn 2011 with Still Life starting at the Soho Theatre on 26 September.

In 2012, Brand made a special appearance at one of Foot's Secret Shows and they improvised a play in which Brand played Foot and Foot played actress Angela Lansbury.

Foot took Still Life to the 2012 Melbourne International Comedy Festival where he starred in the Comedy Festival Gala on Australia's Network Ten and was nominated for a Barry Award.

Still Life also featured at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal.

The poster image for Still Life is an original artwork, a portrait of Foot amidst various fruits, by Victoria Brook.

Foot's 2012 Edinburgh show was called Kenny Larch Is Dead.

As ever with Foot, the show had nothing to do with the title.

Following the Fringe the sell-out show toured Britain, before being taken to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

The show won the Best of Fest award at the Sydney Comedy festival, and Best International Show at the Perth comedy awards.