"Entertainment you can count on" TIME OUT
Stand Up Comedians
RHOD GILBERT | Perrier Award nominee and Multi-award-winning comic
2008 has been a phenomenal year for welsh comedy sensation Rhod Gilbert, truly cementing him as one of the leading comedy names in the UK. He was the talk of this year’s Edinburgh Comedy Festival, earning a nomination for the highly prized If.Comedy Award for his latest show ‘Rhod Gilbert & The Award Winning Mince Pie’. Widely tipped as the favourite to win the top prize (Ladbrokes had tipped him as 5/4 favourite), Awards Director, Nica Burns praised Rhod for his ‘perfectly structured, gag-packed show’ adding that it had ‘moved him into a new league’. He then went on to triumph at the prestigious 2008 Time Out Awards, winning no less than three titles: ‘Best Show of the Year’, ‘Best Breakthrough Act’ and ‘Comic of the Year’.
Rhod first exploded onto the comedy scene back in 2002, winning an unprecedented number of awards within
his first eighteen months as a stand-up. Since his hotly anticipated debut at the Edinburgh Festival back in 2005, he has enjoyed complete sell-out hits with extra dates added every single year. Building on his reputation as a first class live act, Rhod has been a permanent fixture on the UK touring circuit every year and following this year’s success, he is embarking on his biggest tour to date taking in over 70 dates nationally. The autumn leg has already been a complete sell-out, including an eight night run at the Soho Theatre. Due to overwhelming public demand, the tour continues into the spring of 2009, culminating in his hometown of Cardiff at the prestigious Wales Millennium Centre next March.
Firmly established as one of the UK’s leading comedy talents, he recently performed on the prestigious Bafta nominated Live At The Apollo which aired on BBC One in November. He also had the honour of performing at this year’s 80th Royal Variety Performance at the iconic London Palladium alongside a star-studded line- up including Peter Kay, Jimmy Carr, The Pussycat Dolls, Take That, Leona Lewis and Sir Cliff Richard to name but a few. Rhod’s performance amassed widespread critical acclaim; Jimmy Carr praised Rhod live on GMTV for his outstanding performance, and The Stage cited him as “this year’s Royal Variety discovery”, predicting that the performance would “tip him into stardom”.
Rhod recently recorded the pilot episode of his new sitcom ‘Rhod Gilbert’s Leaving Llanbobl’ for BBC Radio 2. The show is based in Llanbobl, the fictional Welsh village which has become legendary in his stand-up routines and sees him leaving his top-flight Manager’s job in Newport’s ‘Mr. Shoes’ to return to his family home and attempt to repair the damage done by his mother leaving his father in favour of Ivor Evans, the family milkman. The show airs on BBC Radio 2 on 27th December.
His weekly radio show continues to go from strength (BBC Radio Wales every Saturday 11am – 1pm) and earlier this year he was nominated for ‘Best Radio Personality’ at the Celtic Media Awards. He has also recently guested on the legendary Just A Minute and Loose Ends (BBC Radio 4) and followed in the footsteps of Michael Mcintyre, hosting the recent series of 4 Stand’s Up, also for BBC Radio 4.
Following success as a stand-up, TV and radio personality, Rhod was selected to be the ‘Voice of Wales’ and has been representing his country providing the voice-over for the Welsh Tourist Board’s national television advertising campaign since 2005. As his profile continues to soar, he has been chosen to front their nationwide TV campaign and will be gracing our screens next year in a new advert encouraging visitors to Wales.
Rhod’s international profile has also continued to soar and since 2004 he has been invited to perform at every major international festival in the world including Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Montreal, New Zealand and Cape Town. His globetrotting has also taken him to the Middle and Far East and he has also entertained British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan; performing one show in a former palace of Saddam Hussein’s.
“Simply hilarious” PARAMOUNT COMEDY
“Mightily funny” TIME OUT
