John Mawer - Improvisation and Stand-Up Comedy
C.V.
Stand Up
John Mawer first performed stand-up comedy in 1995 at the now long departed Stand-up Hero's comedy club, Birmingham.
In 1999 he won the HEA Damage national stand-up competition at the Comedy Store.
By 2004 he'd run two London stand-up comedy clubs, a double act and four Edinburgh shows.
The last few years have brought jobs as resident compere at both the Ludlow Festival and St Albans Arts Funny First Mondays.
A natural comic and a likable compere John continues to gig...
Improvisation
In 1997 John performed his first Improvisation gig as part of the Laughing Cavalier at the Camden Head, Islington.
He has subsequently gone on to perform with the majority of London's major impro groups including Improper, Improvedy, Sprout and London Theatre Sports (LTS); as well as running several successful groups including Big Wednesday and The Dead Puppies society.
John is currently one of the founding members of Scratch, regularly performing both and game format and longform impro in clubs and theatres a-like.
Gig History
Venues playes last few years
2006
Stand-up
Funny First Mondays @ St Albans (residnet compere)
Impro
Scratch
2005
Stand-up
Pear Shaped (Compere)
Dropping the Soap @ Soho (stand-up and Compere)
Dropping the Soap @ High Wycombe Uni
Camden Head
The Laughter Lounge
Upstairs at the Queens Head
Impro
Improvedy
Dead Serious
2004
Stand-up
Comedy in the Backroom
The Ludlow Festival(Resident compere)
Laughing Horse @ Camden
Laughing Horse @ Soho
Laughing Horse @ Walthamstow
The Castle
Big Night Out Soho @ Glassblowers (Compere)
The Culdesac
Tunbridge-Wells Comedy
Dropping the Soap @ Soho (stand-up and Compere)
Dropping the Soap @ Jumping Jaks, Southampton
Comedy Store Gong Show
The Buzz Club
The Rocketshed
Fat Tuesday
Not another open mike night
The Wibbley Wobbley Boat
The New Purple Turtle
Bury town hall
Queens Head
Picadilly Circus Comedy Club
Impro
Jongleurs Theatre Sports
Big Wednesday
Make a Wish, Theatre Sports challenge @ Red Rose Finsbury park
Improvedy
Grand Theft Impro (guesting)
2003
Stand-up
The Rocket Shed
Camden Head
Aardvark Comedy Club
Comedy Cafe
Big Night Out Soho @ Glassblowers (Compere)
Impro
Big Wednesday Unhinged
LTS (Teaching)
Major Before 2004
| 1995 - 96 | Started stand up in Birmingham (performed at the Gag club and the Glee club) |
| 1995 | BBC New comedian award semi-finalist. |
| 1997 | Moved to London, performed open spots around the London circuit (clubs played include: Ha Bloody Ha, Up the creak, Up the Chocolate Speedway, The Comedy Cafe, The Cosmic Comedy club, The Tut and Shive, The Purple turtle, Downstairs at the kings head). |
| 1998 - 99 | Double act, The Tufty Club with Clare Angel. (clubs played include: Comedy store, Comedy Cafe, The Tut and Shive, The Purple turtle, The Cosmic Comedy club) |
| 1999 | Winner of the national HEA Damage comedy competition held at the Comedy Store, London. |
| 1999 | Jointly ran and compered Comedy on the Corner - Notting Hill Gate |
| 2000 | Three-person stand up show More George Walsh to the Edinburgh Festival. Full festival run at the Gilded Balloon. |
| 2000 - 2001 | Jointly ran and compered Comedy on the Corner - Covent Garden |
| 2001 - 2003 | two year break. |
| Edinburgh Festival 2003 | Helped run and compere Some comedians without Peter Buckley Hill at the CWU Club in Leith (full fringe run). Compered and performed at various other venues. |
| 3rd Sept 2003 | Winner of Comedy Cafe open mike night |
| June 2004 | Week long resident compere at the Gob Akimbo comedy lounge at the Ludlow festival. |
IMPRO
| 1997 - 98 | Weekly improvisational evening classes taught by John Lane. |
| 1997 - 98 | Member of the Laughing Cavaliers, improvising twice weekly at the Comedy Brewhouse, in the Camden Head, Islington. |
| 1998 | Performed live impro on Liberty radio with the Laughing Cavaliers. |
| 1998 | Ran and performed in Raging Bull Impro. Gigs include the best of the festival at the Brighton Komedia. |
| 1998 - 01 | Various improvisation guest spots with London Theatre Sports and Sprout. |
| 2001 | Ran and performed in The Dead Puppies Society at the Chapel Islington. See www.outofthegloom.com/dps for details. |
| 2001 - Now | Regular teaching at London Theatre Sports (now LTS) Tuesday night drop in sessions. |
| Nov 2003 - May 2004 | directing, organising and performing in Big Wednesday weekly improvisational show, Islington. See www.DeadSerious.biz/BigW for details. |
| Jan 2003 - Oct 2003 | Guesting with Improper in their fortnightly Covent garden show. See www.improper.co.uk for details. |
| May 2003 | Performed with Improper and visiting Chicago (Strawberry Quick) and Paris (Improbable) Groups at Soho Theatre. Also performed at Jongleurs Battersea with LTS in Londons largest Theatre Sports gig. |
| Edinburgh Festival 2003 | Guested with and assisted with improvisation tuition for This is Soap at the C venue |
| Sept 2004 | Semi final winners of the Make-a-Wish Theatresports match at the Red Rose, Finsbury park. |
OTHER
| 2000 - 02 | Wrote, Produced, directed, performed in XX Factor, a two person comedy play about the last woman on earth. Show was taken to the Pleasance theatre for the 2002 Edinburgh festival. See www.arsole.com for details. Also see www.outofthegloom.com/apocalypse for previous show incarnations. |
| 2002 | Perrier nominated* cock thanks to an appearance naked during Phil Nichols Edinburgh show "Things I like I lick". See Gallery for sordid pictures. * non official nomination, but I'm still hoping for recognition |
| 2002 | Photographed nude by David Bailey for his new collection. |
| 2002 - Now | Directing and assisting Jeff Downes motivational speaker character Larry Bernstien performing at "the Hen and Chickens" Islington. See www.arsole.com for details. Also see www.outofthegloom.com/larry for details. |
| Edinburgh Festival 2003 | Wrote and performed 7 show run of one man short play Speed Date in the 5065 Lift. Helped write and performed in short film Cross Reference, nominated best comedy as part of the 48 Hour film competition. |
Contact
You can email John on either hickslives@aol.com or webmaster@outofthegloom.com. John does not yet have representation for his comedy work.