After great success at the Edinburgh Festivals of 1993 and 1994 with a one-man theatre piece, Omid became a festival favourite with a string of sell-out comedy shows. It started in 1995 with ‘Short Fat Kebab Shop Owner’s Son’, then in 1996 in ‘Arab & The Jew’. In 1997 it was ‘Omid Djalili Is Ethnic’, his least favourite year spawing the legendary lines from his manager Nigel “There’s no business like no business”.

In 1999 he went back to Edinburgh and had another hit show,  ”The Iranian Ceilidh” with Kamal Mazlumi. ‘Warm to my Winning Smile’ then followed in 2000, and in 2002  ‘Behind Enemy Lines’. All three of these shows became Edinburgh’s hottest ticket. ‘Behind Enemy Lines’ received an astonishing six 5-star reviews. In 2005 Omid returned to the festival with his most successful show to date, ‘No Agenda’, with record breaking sales on the fringe totalling 16,500; this show then transferred to a total sell-out nationwide 40 date tour, including 2 shows at the London Palladium in 2006. He is one of the funniest, freshest and most original comedians in Britain today.

His international appeal is vast, having performed in recent years in Australia, Austria, the USA, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Slovakia and most recently he performed in Qatar for the Emir where he shared a stage with Bill Clinton.

2006 saw Omid playing major parts in ‘Alien Autopsy’ with Ant & Dec and in ‘Over The Hedge’ alongside Bruce Willis, William Shatner and Wonder Sykes playing ‘Tiger’, and last year Omid was in a film for the BBC, ‘My Family & Other Animals’, starring alongside Imelda Staunton.

In 2005 he was invited to perform at the televised Tsunami Benefit alongside comedy luminaries Jonathan Ross, Lee Evans, Johnny Vegas, Dawn French and Alistair McGowan to name but a few. He also performed a half hour special on ‘Jack Dee Live At The Apollo’ for BBC One at the end of 2004, which was repeated in 2005. In June 2004 he recorded an HBO special in New York, the first British comic to do one since Eddie Izzard.

QUOTES

‘Omid Djalili is simply magnificent’ – DAILY MAIL

‘Hilarious and painfully funny, Omid Djalili is unmissable’ – THE INDEPENDENT

‘His explosive and wide-eyed humour comes bursting out of nowhere, sending the audience into fits’ – THE SCOTSMAN

‘By far the most entertaining comedy night’ – THE TIMES

‘His jokes are remarkable’ – THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘Djalili blows you away with a blizzard of gags’ – THE OBSERVER

‘Demonstrates a confiding intelligence, a rare and warm sense of self-mockery and the distinctive outsider’s view of our culture. One felt very happy to be in his engaging, off-beat presence.’ – DAILY MAIL

‘Burly but surprisingly athletic’ – THE SCOTSMAN

‘His Show’s about cultural bridges. Omid builds ‘em up, knocks ‘em down and we fall about’ – THE HERALD

‘Multi-ethnic confusion’ – THE INDEPENDENT

‘Cult favourite’ – THE TIMES

AWARDS

Perrier Award Nominee ~ Best Comedian
South Bank Award Nominee ~ Best Comedy of the Year
Gemini Award Nominee (Canada) ~ Best Comedy Performance
Emma Award ~ Best Stand Up Comedian
Time Out Award ~ Best Stand Up Comedian
LWT Comedy Award ~ Best Stand Up
One World Media Award ~ For his Ch 4 documentary ‘Bloody Foreigners’
European TV Award Nominee ~ For his Ch4 documentary ‘Bloody Foreigners’
Royal Television Society Award Nominee

FILMS

Over The Hedge – May 2006 Release
Alien Autopsy – April 2006 Release
Casanova – February 2006 Release
Deadlines – February 2006 Release

Modigliani
Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow
Calcium Kid
Cross My Heart
Anita & Me
Spy Game
Mean Machine
Gladiator
The Mummy
Notting Hill
James Bond – The World Is Not Enough
Mad Cows

TELEVISION
Little Britain ~ BBC
My Family and Other Animals ~ BBC
Chopratown ~ BBC
Frank Skinner Show ~ ITV
London Today ~ ITV
Breakfast News ~ BBC
Top Gear ~ BBC
HBO Comedy Special ~ HBO (America)
Jack Dee, Live at the Apollo ~ BBC One
One Night Stand ~ US TV
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross ~ BBC One
Comic Relief (Celebrity University Challenge) ~ BBC Two
Comic Aid ~ BBC One
Room 101 ~ BBC Two
Late Night with Conan O’Brien ~ NBC (USA)
Whoopi ~ NBC (USA)
Have I Got News For You ~ BBC Two
Jason & The Argonauts ~ Channel Four
Bloody Foreigners ~ Channel Four
They Think It’s All Over ~ BBC One
The Royal Variety Performance ~ BBC
Lenny Henry In Pieces ~ BBC One
Small Potatoes 2 ~ Channel Four

Small Potatoes ~ Channel Four
Coming Soon ~ Channel Four
Heaven and Earth ~ ITV
Edinburgh Nights ~ BBC 2
Black Books ~ BBC 1 & 2
Merry-Go-Round ~ Channel Four
Barking ~ Channel Four
The Comedy Store ~ Channel Five
The Stand Up Show ~ BBC One
Live at Jongleurs ~ Cable
Edinburgh Nights ~ BBC Two

RADIO

Being Mussolini ~ Radio 4 (6pm, 14th Jan, 2006)
Jonathan Ross Show ~ Radio 2
Steve Wright in the Afternoon ~ Radio 2
Five Live ~ Radio 5
Loose Ends ~ Radio 4
Festival News ~ Forth FM
Christian O’Connell Show ~ XFM

“Perfect game show host. Tiggerish energy that could power the National Grid” –

Funny and adorable Irish/Iranian/Teessider comedian Patrick Monahan knows how to work a room and engage an audience with a strongly skilled blend of ad lib banter and stand up.

“He has the dark looks and stubble of the Middle East, married to the charm of the Irish and the sense of fun of the Teessider. Omid Djalili meets Dave Allen you might say.” – Daily Mail

Patrick has worked his way up the comedy circuit ladder and is now a regular MC and headlining act at the top London and UK comedy clubs. He has performed at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival for a number of years at the Gilded Balloon.

Patrick has spent the last 2 years developing his theatre touring shows and in the past year he has toured the UK as well as performed a run at the Adelaide Comedy Festival (2011) with his family show and also an evening stand up show.

Due to his extremely clean and highly accessible material Patrick has developed a solid footing on the Corporate Circuit as an After Dinner speaker as well as a Awards Host.

Patrick’s TV appearances over the years have included The Comedy Store (Paramount Comedy Channel), That’s So Last Week (Zig/Zag/Five), Mervyn Bragg’s Travels In Written Britain (ITV), Comedy Decades, (BBC), Comedy map Of Britain (BBC), Playing Away (Tyne Tees/ITV Presenter of Travel Series), Most Annoying…(various), (BBC), Sorcerer’s Apprentice (CBBC), Mega Melai (BBC2).

Patrick has a wealth of TV studio warm up experience which covers both live and pre-recorded productions. As resident studio warm up Artiste for a number of seasons on ‘The Paul O’Grady Show’ (C4) Patrick also appeared on numerous occasions in front of the camera hosting mock quizes, modelling false bums and finally as a guest on the sofa!

Patrick appears at this year’s Edinburgh Comedy festival, Gilded Balloon in his Hug Me I Feel Good stand up show at 8pm for the whole of the Festival.

QUOTES:

“He is simply the nicest person ever born” – Time Out London

 “a Star-In-the-making” – Daily Telegraph

 “Born to be a stand up” – Metro

“the funniest show in Edinburgh” – The Guardian

“twinkl-toed, mischievous…Monahan raised the roof” – The Sun

“Bright young talent…High energy and conviction, his material is great; he’s going to go far” – Sunday Times

“Has a fascinating story to tell, married to one of the warmest, most engaging performance styles I have seen” The Observer “Britain’s best young female comic by any yardstick” – The Guardian

The daughter of an exiled writer and comic from Iran, Shappi’s upbringing has been in no way conventional. From mental illness to opium dens, it’s all gone on in the Khorsandi household and now she recounts it all the only way she knows how, with wit, warmth and hilarity.

Feisty, flirty and effortlessly funny she handles every subject with a razor sharp wit, softened only by her deliciously dizzy delivery and endless charm.

“Britain’s best young female comic by any yardstick” – The Guardian

Shappi took her one women show Carry on Shappi to the 2008 Edinburgh Festival and then on to The Soho Theatre.

In 2007, Shappi won Best Breakthrough Act at the Chortle Awards. That same year, she took her show Carry on Shappi to the Fringe when she was eight months pregnant, enticing at least one critic to plead ‘go and see her before her waters break!’ She was back in early 2008, taking Carry on Shappi to the Soho Theatre in London.

Shappi’s 2006 show, Asylum Speaker was an Edinburgh sell-out, followed by an extended run at The Soho Theatre.

“Asylum Speaker is both adorable and daring, a rare combination… Khorsandi has star quality” – The Independent

TV and radio

Shappi has appeared on Have I Got News For You, on BBC1′s Lenny’s Britain and BBC4′s Never Mind the Full Stops. She’s a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4 programmes such as Quote… Unquote, The Now Show, Just a Minute, and also contributed to From Tehran With Laughter. Shappi has also taken part in BBC4′s The Big Read.

Shappi is a sought after cultural commentator appearing on ITV’s Sunday Edition, BBC Radio 4′s Woman’s Hour, Radio 5 Live, BBC World Service & LBC and also in The Guardian, The Independent, Metro and on BBC News website. She was also a panellist on BBC’s Question Time. Shappi has presented a series for Open University and is a regular roving reporter for BBC South’s Inside Out.

She has gigged internationally in the United States, the Middle East, Singapore, Australia and Amsterdam.

Comedy is a family business for the Khorsandi’s. In Los Angeles, Shappi performed in a seven week sell-out run with her brother in a show called How to be Iranian as well as starring in her own one hour show. Other work in America included a month-long tour supporting her father in his extremely popular stand-up show.

MORE QUOTES

“…the show combines insight and intense emotion while being guffaw funny…” - Sunday Times

“…being a female iranian stand up she may call herself the box ticker but her comedy stands alone…” Mail On Sunday

“…quick witted… a persuasive mix of the personal and the political…” – The Times

“…comedy gold” – Evening Standard

“…a remarkable show…” - Independent On Sunday