Jo Brand

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Jo Brand
Birth name Josephine Grace Brand
Born 3 May 1957 (1957-05-03) (age 51)
Hastings, East Sussex, England
Medium Stand-up
Television
Nationality English
Years active 1990s–present
Spouse Bernie Bourke

Josephine Grace Brand (born 3 May 1957 in Hastings, Sussex) is an English comedienne.

Contents

[edit] Career

Brand's mother was a social worker, and Brand herself worked as a psychiatric nurse at the South London Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital until the mid-1980s.[1] She was persuaded by agent Malcolm Hardee to begin a career in stand-up comedy, where she acquired the stage name, "The Sea Monster". She was central to the British alternative comedy movement, working London alternative comedy clubs, and appearing initially on the Saturday Live television show.

In 1993, she was a resident panellist, along with Tony Hawks, on semi-successful BBC monologue show The Brain Drain. Her transition into the mainstream was then confirmed when she obtained her own series on Channel 4, Jo Brand Through the Cakehole, co-written with comedy writer Jim Miller, who was already her main stand-up writer.

Her early style involved her delivering jokes in a bored monotone, one line at a time, with pauses in between. With her Doc Marten boots, and her large size and short hair, her image (and comedic material) for most of the 1980s and 1990s was inspired at least in part by radicalised feminism. But most of the apparently feminist material was in the set-up of the jokes, and was punctured by the punchline. Also, despite rumours to the contrary, she is not a lesbian.[2] She has commented that "men are fantastic – as a concept". She has also said satirically that she was reading in the newspapers that she was a lesbian for so long, she started to believe it. She was for a while romantically involved with Malcolm Hardee, who had initially persuaded her to become a comedienne. In other sectors, she has also tried her hand at straight acting and has written novels.

More recently her humour has softened and she has been a guest on such television shows as Have I Got News For You and Never Mind The Buzzcocks, and has become a semi-regular panellist on QI. She has had several solo television series, and presented shows such as Jo Brand's Commercial Breakdown. She also appeared on Star Spell, a spin off from Hard Spell, during 2004, and has acted on Absolutely Fabulous. As a fan of Countdown, she achieved an ambition when she was asked to appear in the show's Dictionary Corner as the celebrity guest. She later became a friend of the host, Richard Whiteley, and after his death in 2005 attended his memorial service at York Minster. She appeared again on Countdown in "Dictionary Corner" in February of 2007, and again from 26 November, through 30 November 2007. She also appeared on Countdown in April 2008.

She also took part in the first celebrity version of Comic Relief does Fame Academy. In 2007, Brand appeared as a celebrity contestant on Comic Relief Does The Apprentice, again to raise money for Comic Relief. She also narrated Laughter & Tears: The Les Dawson Story for BBC Radio 2, a documentary tribute to Les Dawson. The programme, made by independent company Made In Manchester Productions was broadcast on 2 October 2007.

[edit] Other work

In 2003, she was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In 2004, Brand appeared in a special episode of What Not to Wear, where fashion gurus Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine gave her a makeover. On Saturday 25 March 2006, Jo appeared on Parkinson with Daniel Day-Lewis and Jane Fonda. Brand is known to be a big fan of Crystal Palace Football Club, and has sponsored the matchball for games in the past[citation needed].

Jo Brand also delivered a guest lecture on the subject of psychiatric nursing for the University of Derby Psychology Society in 1997 in return for a donation to Derby Rape Crisis.

Brand appeared on the 25 March 2007 episode of Play It Again where she was required to learn how to play the organ in just four months. This was in preparation to perform Bach's Toccata in D Minor for an audience of 8,000 people at London's Royal Albert Hall on the 2nd largest pipe organ in the United Kingdom with 9,999 pipes. In order to practise her performance, she played at a church service, a wedding, and accompanies dancers at Blackpool Tower. Her only other experience with a musical instrument was when Brand had previously taken piano lessons at school and had a bad experience with the violin.[3]

[edit] Personal life

Brand was educated at Helenswood School, Hastings, Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School and Bexhill College. She married Bernie Bourke in 1996 and they have two young daughters, Maisie and Eliza. Jo and her family currently live in South London.

She is a supporter of the British Labour Party.[1] Despite internet speculation she is not related to John Sergeant, Russell Brand or Katy Brand.

[edit] Quotations

  • April 2006, film for BBC One's This Week - "Patricia Hewitt heckled by the very mild-mannered RCN. The last time they got that riled was when Florence Nightingale ate all the Jammie Dodgers at the Christmas party. You can heckle all you like, but getting Patricia Hewitt out of her job isn't going to bring a magic cure."[4]
  • Upon reaching the French Oral examiner during her appearance on the BBC television series "School's Out!", Jo Brand started off with "Guten Tag! Sprechen Sie Deutsch?", and then proceeded to call the examiner, in French, a "very scary cow", much to the examiner's displeasure. She also claimed to have 21 children, two of whom were named "Del Boy" and "a Gorilla". When asked if she cooked, she replied, again in French, "No, I eat! I eat a horse from time to time! I eat the entire set..." She received a score of 6 out of 20.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Jo Brand — bbc.co.uk
  2. ^ Jo Brand is one funny woman — bbc.co.uk
  3. ^ Play it Again — bbc.co.uk/music/playitagain
  4. ^ Jo Brand quote — bbc.co.uk

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Brand, Jo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brand, Josephine Grace
SHORT DESCRIPTION Comedian
DATE OF BIRTH 1957-05-03
PLACE OF BIRTH Hastings, Sussex
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Brand"
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