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Austin Low – Urban Joker is an underground Comic & Writer from Aberdeen, Scotland. Standing up at the age of 15, Austin has now performed over 700 gigs, done 16 shows at 10 comedy festivals and written & acted for American & British TV. His first stand up experience was doing impressions of Mr. Bean for his family aged 10, his next was a set at One Night Stand in the Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, aged 15. Instantly addicted to comedy, Austin had to wait until he moved to Glasgow at 18 for a chance to gig regularly. He began performing at the Stand Comedy Clubs in Edinburgh & Glasgow, as well as pubs & clubs across Scotland. After only a few months he was invited to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe 2004, with 3 other Scottish comedians, in the Alive 4 Show. The run went well and Austin fell for the festival atmosphere, he had his first taste of life doing comedy every day and liked it! He moved on to join Scotland 4 Australia 1, made up of Keir McAllister, Paul Pirie, Peter Aitchison & Kieran Butler, they performed sketches, stand up & songs at the Glasgow & Edinburgh comedy festivals 2005. They were well received and had several 4 star reviews & sell out performances. Austin also co produced, wrote and acted in “Che Guevara on the Fringe: The Tour”, with Australian comic, Kieran Butler. Che Guevara on the Fringe is a drama/comedy/musical/dance/improv/walking tour show (that’s a lot of genres). To describe it in a sentence ‘A half-arsed Orwellian allegory based on 'Evita'...’ For more info on all the Che Shows click here. Post Edinburgh 2005 Austin fell out with stand up, getting increasingly annoyed with the small Scottish scene and joined Improbabble, a Scottish improv group, and performed with them during the 2006 Glasgow Comedy Festival doing improv games and sketches. He then went on to do an improv show called Causing A Scene at the Edinburgh Fringe 2006, as well as co writing and starring in “Che Guevara on the Fringe 2: The Tour”, he also worked as associate producer on the late night comedy talk show “Talk of the Fest with Paul Provenza”. Here he watched stand up Legends grace the stage every night and his passion for stand up reignited. 2007 saw Austin’s first ever solo stand up show, “Tales of an Urban Joker” at the Glasgow Comedy Festival. Attended by almost 200 people over 4 nights the show was a surprising success, most of all to the Urban Joker, who was close to hanging up his mic. Austin also did 6 nights with Improbabble during there run at the festival, and hosted Purple Comedy Live, a stage version of the Purple Comedy Podcast, of which Austin co created with John Burns. You can listen to the podcast here. "Tales of an Urban Joker" went on to Edinburgh 2007, got 4 star reviews and launched Austin's first comedy album of the same name. Get more on that by clicking here. The Fringe also saw the third part of the Che Guevara saga: "Che Guevara on the Fringe 3: Evonne Keron Strikes Back", it's most successful run ever, it earned multiple 4 star reviews, including one from the Scotsman, lovely. Austin also took part in a co-created idea called the £ 4 U Show - You Stay We Pay with Kieran Butler. Created as a reaction to free shows at the Fringe, the show promised to give all the audience members a £1 if they could stay to the end, making it the acts job to get the audience to leave. Partially an experiment in taste, partially an adventure in Nihilism the show affected Austin & everyone around it badly, comedians were attacked on stage, flyering teams were abused in the street, and Austin got cock slapped. In utter despair Austin & Kieran demanded live on stage that the venue cancel the show forever. Thankfully the request was granted. Austin returned to Glasgow in September 2007 for an usual job writing sketches and acting for CBBC in Hedz, a celebrity sketch show for children. He then joined forces with Scottish sensation Billy Kirkwood for a stand up, sketch, and video show called Smell Yer Maw as part of the Merchant City Festival. Another unexpected success, clips from the show were purchased for broadcast in America. Smell Yer Maw came to the Glasgow Comedy Festival 2008 in March for one night only, sold out and had 10 walkouts, man they’re so offensive! Austin did 3 nights of his new stand up show Urban Joker: Revolution, for more on that click here. There is that a rumour that Revolution is being made into a television show with a pilot being filmed in spring 2009....! The Urban Joker's next bust time in March 2009 where he will be performing in the Glasgow International Comedy Festival. Check him out in: Purple Comedy: The Colour of Funny Being An Adult Sucks Tonnes of Pole Smell Yer Maw 3: Smell Another Maw Keep your eyes peeled for a very special announcement from the Urban Joker expected April / May 2009 in the meantime thanks for being a beautiful audience. |
