Edward Aczel began performing stand-up comedy in 2005 at the age of 38. A conventional job in an office led him to sign up to an evening comedy course for beginners, where he caught the comedy bug, at that point he had not been to a stand up gig for years. By the end of 2005, he was the runner-up in both the prestigious BBC New Comedy Awards and in Jimmy Carr’s Comedy Idol (which was filmed for the extras on Jimmy Carr’s 2005 live DVD).
Edward is now a regular headliner on the comedy circuit, and has performed four solo shows at the Edinburgh Festival: Edward Aczel: Trust Me There Is No Hope (2007), Edward Aczel: Do I Really Have To Communicate With You? (2008), Edward Aczel Explains All The World’s Problems... And Then Solves Them (2009) and Edward Aczel: Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No Matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better. (2010).
2007’s was hailed by Jimmy Carr on BBC2’s Culture Show as “the funniest thing on the Fringe.” The following year, Edward’s show won the Malcolm Hardee Award and received Edward’s first string of five and four star reviews. Writer Zadie Smith adored his show the follow year so much that she wrote a lengthy article for the New Yorker magazine about the show and her late father. Despite never having performed in the US, this exposure resulted in orders from all over the US of Edward Aczel’s merchandise calendar. Edward Aczel Explains All The World’s Problems... And Then Solves Them enjoyed another string of five and four star reviews along with a sell-out run before transferring to London’s Soho Theatre (Jan, 2010) for a further four sold-out nights. This leap from an afternoon slot in a thirty-seater function room on the outskirts of Edinburgh in 2007 to a primetime slot in an 130 capacity sell-out crowd two years later was further cemented with another successful Edinburgh Festival run in 2010.
Edward has performed on several radio shows including BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends, 28 Acts In 28 Minutes, Pick Of The Week and Happy Mondays. He is currently filming a BBC Comedy Online series called The Ed Lectures and writing a BBC radio show.
Edward takes Edward Aczel: Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No Matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better. to Brighton and Cambridge in Autumn 2010, and returns to London’s Soho Theatre for four nights in January 2011. He still to this day, works full-time in an office.
(Last updated: November 2010)
“Turns unprofessionalism into an artform. A real Fringe attraction” The Times
“Aczel references Beckett in his latest hour of bumbling fun” The Herald | Link
“An original and clever piece of comedy deconstruction” Daily Express | Link
“A paradoxically high level of quality. Its clear this man know his art” Fest | Link
“Somehow incredibly funny without trying” The List | Link
“A wonderful hybrid of delight and dispondency” Three Weeks | Link
“The number one comedian who should be famous” Dave Online | Link
“Edward Aczel is perhaps Britain’s greatest living anti-comedian” Guardian | Link
“Aczel is a man who is completely in control of the art of comedy” Londonist | Link
“Edward Aczel is absurding charming” Bruce Dessau, Evening Standard | Link
“One of the most entertaining oddities to emerge in recent years” Metro | Link
“Aczel is a shambles of comic success” The Independent | Link
“A real breath of fresh air, so charmingly simple, brilliantly pitched” National Student
“One of the most inventive and memorable comics working today” The Scotsman | Link
“Perhaps Britain’s greatest living anti-comedian” The Guardian | Link
http://www.edwardaczel.com/public_html/EDWARD_ACZEL.html
On twitter at @edwardaczel