Tim Vine

Tim Vine
Tim Vine onstage at 100 Club
Born	4 March 1967 (1967-03-04) Cheam, Surrey
Medium	Stand up, television
Nationality	British
Website	www.timvine.com

Timothy "Tim" Mark Vine (born 4 March 1967 in Cheam, Surrey)^{[citation needed]} is an English actor, writer and comedian. He has released a number of DVDs of his stand-up comedy, as well as starring in the successful series Not Going Out with Lee Mack on the BBC. He won the award for best joke at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2010, and for the second best in August 2011.

Career

Stand up

His stand-up act consists primarily of a series of quick-fire one-liners and puns. Vine has appeared regularly at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with shows such as The Tim Vine Shambles and The Tim Vine Fiasco which won him the Perrier newcomer award in 1995. In 2006, he had a large advertising hoarding erected featuring his name and image, with a small sub-heading "...is not appearing at this year's Edinburgh Festival" Vine appeared at the Pleasance Courtyard for the first two weeks of the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe performing a show entitled Punslinger.

He appeared at the Spring Harvest festival in 2007 and 2008 alongside John Archer at Skegness and Minehead, and at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in May 2007 for a show entitled Tim Vine, Live in Concrete.

He has taken his comedy act on a tour of the United Kingdom, in tours such as Current Puns in 2006 and Punslinger in 2008. In July 2008, he recorded a performance at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London, which was released as a new DVD entitled So I Said To This Bloke... on 27 October 2008. His third tour, The Joke-amotive, took place during February and March 2010, with a DVD of the show released in November 2011.

Many of his jokes have been falsely attributed to Tommy Cooper; the West End show about Tommy Cooper actually features some of Vine's jokes.

World record

On 7 October 2004, he broke the Guinness World Record for the most jokes told in an hour with 499, beating the previous record of 362. Each joke told had to get a laugh from the paying audience to count towards the record. He held the record until May 2005, when Australian comedian, Anthony "Lehmo" Lehmann told 549 jokes.

Television

He co-launched Channel 5 with Julia Bradbury on 30 March 1997 and presented the game show Whittle on the channel. He has also presented the game show Fluke on Channel 4 and Housemates on BBC One. He also appeared on a celebrity edition of Fort Boyard as a contestant on Challenge in 2003. In 2004, he also presented Fort Boyard Takes on the World for Challenge.

He was also one of the regular team of comedians to write for and appear in the ITV comedy series The Sketch Show, which went on to win a BAFTA.^{[citation needed]}

He was also a Dubbing Mixer and a Sound Designer in the children's television shows Teletubbies and Brum, which was produced by Ragdoll Productions for the children's channel CBeebies aged 0–6.

In 2005, he appeared alongside other celebrities in Spelling Bee on ITV1. He appeared as a contestant on Comic Relief does Fame Academy in 2007, but was voted out on 9 March.

In 2006, he starred alongside fellow comedian Lee Mack in sitcom Not Going Out. The show became very popular among fans of Vine and Mack's deadpan style; it has completed three series and returned for a fourth in 2011 on BBC One, although he has announced he wants to quit the show. This was believed to be the case until he took part in an interview with television channel Dave during which he confirmed that a fifth and sixth series are now being written. The sixth series has been commissioned, even though the fifth series has yet to be filmed.

In September 2007, he appeared with his brother Jeremy on the celebrity version of ITV1's Who Wants to be a Millionaire where they raised £1000 for the Fire Services National Benevolent Fund.

On 1 January 2009, he appeared on Celebrity Mastermind, choosing Elvis Presley as his specialist subject. He went on to secure first place with a score of 28 points, donating his prize money to the Cure Parkinson's Trust.

From 20 April 2009, he began a week-long first appearance in Dictionary Corner on Countdown, returning for further week-long stints on 22 June 2009, 9 November 2009, 28 June 2010, 10 January 2011 and in June 2011.

He made an appearance on the Australian soap Neighbours broadcast in Australia on 28 July 2009, and in the UK on 29 September 2009.

He appeared as a guest comedian on Live at the Apollo on 18 December 2009 on BBC One.

He also appeared on a celebrity edition of Total Wipeout which aired on 26 December 2009.

In the 2006 edition of Channel 4's '100 Greatest Stand-Up Comedians', he was voted 100th. However in the updated list in 2010, he was voted 36th.

He also made an appearance on Soccer AM, alongside Pixie Lott and Jamie O'Hara.

Music

His musical talent, aside from the comedy songs in his act, includes playing the guitar, piano and drums. He has released an album of non-comedy songs, which he sells at pretendpopstar.co.uk.

He is a Christian and occasionally plays the drums at his church. He was in several bands, including The Flared Generation with brother Jeremy Vine. Both Tim and Jeremy were educated at Epsom College in Surrey.

Podcast

In December 2007, he launched his first podcast, 'Tim Vine Celebrates'. The first episode "Tim Vine Celebrates... Christmas" was released free on 19 December and introduces many previously unheard jokes and humorous songs, as well as an array of comedy characters, mostly voiced by himself.

Fringe award

In August 2010, he won the prize for the funniest joke of that year's Edinburgh Fringe, following a public vote from a judged shortlist. His winning joke was "I've just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I'll tell you what, never again."

On 25 August 2011, he won the prize for the second funniest joke at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. His joke was "Crime in multi-storey car parks. That is wrong on so many different levels." He was beaten by Nick Helm (returning to the Fringe for only the second time).

Personal life

He is the younger brother of Jeremy Vine, author, journalist and BBC Radio 2 presenter. He is a Christian. He also is a supporter of Sutton United F.C., stating the first game he attended was an FA Cup 3rd round tie in the 1987/88 season against Middlesbrough F.C

Books

• Sit-Down Comedy (contributor to anthology, ed Malcolm Hardee & John Fleming) Ebury Press/Random House, 2003. ISBN 0091889243; ISBN 978-0091889241
• The Biggest Ever Tim Vine Joke Book, Century, 2010. ISBN 1846058279; ISBN 978-1846058271

Stand-Up DVDs

• Live (29 November 2005)
• Live - So I Said To This Bloke (27 October 2008)
• Punslinger Live (22 November 2010)
• Jokeamotive Live (21 November 2011)

External links

• Tim Vine official website
• The British Sitcom Guide on Not Going Out