Jimmy Carr
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Image:Jimmyc.jpg Jimmy Carr (born September 15 1972) is an English comedian known for his dry, satrical humour .
He was educated at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, which was quite a middle class establishment, where he achieved 4 A grades at A-level, before going on to receive a first in Social and Political Sciences from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. After leaving Cambridge Carr got a job with the oil company Shell as a marketing executive. Four years afterwards, he took redundancy in order to begin a career in stand up.
Carr eventually gained recognition and was recruited by Channel 4 to host game shows such as Distraction and Your Face or Mine? In 2004 he released his first stand up DVD entitled simply Jimmy Carr Live, and the following year (2005) his second was released, Jimmy Carr Stand Up.
In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.
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Television work
He was a guest presenter for one episode of Have I Got News For You and has appeared on Never Mind The Buzzcocks twice, and Stephen Fry's QI. He has also presented many 100s programmes for Channel 4: 100 Worst Pop Records, 100 Worst Britons and 100 Scary Moments.
In 2004, it was announced he would host a US version of Distraction for Comedy Central. On January 10, 2006 the second season of the US version of Distraction debuted on Comedy Central, with Carr continuing his hosting duties.
In 2005 he became the presenter of a new Channel 4 show called The Friday Night Project, and a quiz show by the name of 8 Out of 10 Cats.
During his guest appearance on the BBC motoring show Top Gear, he set a new celebrity test track lap record on the 'Star in a Reasonably Priced Car' segment. Driving the show's Suzuki Liana, he knocked Simon Cowell off the top spot. This was due to his good driving. However it has been noted by the host, Jeremy Clarkson, that Carr had "the world's luckiest lap" and is, according to Clarkson, a bad driver. He was also described as "the worst driver we've ever had" and "the luckiest man alive" by Top Gear's test driver The Stig. His time was later beaten by Ellen MacArthur.
He also was given the nickname of 'Jimmy Carr-nage'!
Carr is a prolific writer as well as performer, with writing credits including Bo' Selecta! (C4) & Meet Ricky Gervais (C4) as well as writing for Lily Savage , Frank Skinner and Jim Davidson.
Radio
He is a regular guest and interviewer on Loose Ends (BBC Radio 4) and The Fred MacAulay Show (BBC Radio Scotland). He has a Sunday morning radio show on XFM, with the mercurial comedian Iain Morris. The show has a strong emphasis on toilet humour, and regularly focuses on discussing men that Morris has 'accidentally' kissed during the previous week, despite being avowedly heterosexual. Morris also recently announced plans on air to venture into the world of male escorting, but his rates are yet to be confirmed.
In January 2006 the BBC issued an unreserved apology for remarks Carr made on the Radio 4 show Loose Ends which suggested all Gypsy women smelled. Carr, however, has not apologised.
Stand-up Comedy
2004 was a successful year for Carr's live work. In 2003 he sold out an entire month's performances of his Edinburgh Festival show Charm Offensive by the second day of the festival, and received 5 reviews from four major newspapers. In 2004 he performed sold out solo shows at Dublin's Vicar Street, Leicester's Comedy Festival, Glasgow Festival, Kilkenny Festival and the Galway Festival along with appearances at The Bloomsbury Theatre where he filmed his first live DVD. Also in 2004 he threatened to sue fellow comedian Jim Davidson for using a joke that Carr considered 'his'. The matter was dropped when it became apparent that the joke in question was an old one used for decades by many different comedians, most notably the radio shows of Victor Lewis-Smith.
He toured the country with his show, A Public Display of Affection, starting on 9 April 2005 at the Gulbenkian Theatre in Canterbury. He also appeared at the EICC during the Edinburgh Festival in August 2005 with his 'Off The Telly' show.
Later on in the year, in late November, he released his second DVD Jimmy Carr: Stand Up and also presented the second The Big Fat Quiz of the Year on Channel 4, having also presented the first.
This July, he will commence a new tour 'Gag Reflex'.
Film
Carr had a small role in the 2006 film Alien Autopsy where he played Gary's boss. And has a title role in the film Confetti, also coming out in 2006.