Simon Munnery

Simon Munnery is an English comedian.

In 1987, he became vice-president with Peter Bradshaw as president.

After graduating with "a very high third", he did various menial jobs before making his big break into comedy.

He has described praise of his work as implying his work occupies a place between "unfunny comedy" and "shit art".

Munnery had a short-lived career as a video game programmer.

His most famous title was a version of Asteroids for the Commodore International VIC-20 (a game that Jeff Minter once described as a "pile of wank").

He also authored several games for the ZX81 (Road Race, Breakout and Space Invaders) and the ZX Spectrum.

The VIC-20 games he wrote were Asteroids, Cosmiads and Scramble.

While at university, Munnery took part in a stand-up double-act called God and Jesus with Stephen Cheeke.

He also worked (along with Steve Coogan, Patrick Marber, Richard Herring and Stewart Lee) at the Edinburgh Festival in a piece called The Dum Show.

Munnery was brought to the attention of a comedy community as the compere of a post-alternative comedy cabaret called Cluub Zarathustra performed originally in London and later at the Edinburgh Festival.

Cluub Zarathustra featured Stewart Lee, Kevin Eldon, Sally Phillips, Johnny Vegas, Julian Barratt, Richard Herring, Roger Mann, Jason Freeman and the music of Richard Thomas and Loré Lixenberg.

During the 1990s he made several series for BBC Radio 1, one based around his League Against Tedium character.

Others were vehicles for his Alan Parker character, including Alan Parker, Alan Parker's 29 Minutes of Truth, and Alan Parker, Road Warrior for which he won the Sony Radio Award.

A television pilot was made of Cluub Zarathustra for Channel 4 in 1996, but was never broadcast.

Munnery performs mainly to an alternative audience but has pierced the mainstream both with his BBC Radio 1 show in 1997 and his BBC2 television series Attention Scum! in 2001.

His stand-up is often satirical and political and almost always surreal.

He has performed as characters Alan Parker: Urban Warrior and The League Against Tedium.

Munnery's experimental style is reflected in his makeshift, often elaborate props.

As "The League" he often wore a hat crafted from a kettle, epaulets that contained working model tanks, and shoes covered in roses.

In Buckethead he played a character who performed the entire show with a metal bucket over his head.

Born in Middlesex, Munnery grew up in Bedmond and was educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys, where he earned four A Levels.

He read natural sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge but soon lost interest in science and joined the Footlights.

Futurtv ("Not 'Future TV', oh no. It can't be 'Future TV' – it's right now!") was a BBC production for UK Play from 1999.

There were 13 15-minute episodes.

As well as Simon Munnery, it included Kombat Opera Presents (Loré Lixenberg and Richard Thomas) and a selection of pop videos.

Munnery wrote and hosted the 1999 TV comedy game show, Either/Or.

In 1999, together with John Hegley, he made a comedy series for BBC Radio 4 called The Adventures of John and Tony.

Munnery featured as a "genius" on Dave Gorman's Genius show on Radio 4.

Munnery has returned to radio in the early 2000s, hosting Simon Munnery's Experimental Half Hour ("experimental in that it lasts an hour") and Simon Munnery Weakly Chats on Resonance FM.

Attention Scum! was a television series produced for the BBC and directed by Stewart Lee, which aired from February 2001.

It starred Munnery as 'The League Against Tedium', a character who drove around the United Kingdom in an adapted transit van, preaching to the masses with the help of an opera singer (Loré Lixenberg), a sedated vampire (Richard Thomas), and a monkey (Munnery's wife Janet).

He also wrote and performed two four-part Radio 4 series called "Where Did It All Go Wrong?", which were broadcast in the summer of 2003 and the spring of 2005.

His 2006 Edinburgh Fringe show, AGM, included the opportunity for the audience to raise questions to discuss as group (such as "is there a God?").

The experience would often continue after the main show, when he takes the audience on tours around town, taking in art galleries, drinks and visits to other shows.

Munnery also appeared in sketches in the first series of Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle in 2009, and in Lee's The Alternative Comedy Experience for Comedy Central.

In 2010, Munnery hosted a Bright Club event at the Bloomsbury Theatre.

It became the subject of a book by Robert Wringham in 2012.

Munnery's Edinburgh Fringe shows include Trilogy, Buckethead and Simon Munnery's Annual General Meeting.

In 2018, Munnery performed at Bluedot Festival at Jodrell Bank, Cheshire, UK