Kate Smurthwaite: Difference between revisions
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==Comedy== |
==Comedy== |
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Smurthwaite started performing comedy and animal magic in London in March 2004. In 2008 she was a finalist in the [[Hackney Empire]] [[Hackney Empire New Act of the Year|New Act of the Year]] competition. |
Smurthwaite started performing comedy and animal magic in London in March 2004. In 2008 she was a finalist in the [[Hackney Empire]] [[Hackney Empire New Act of the Year|New Act of the Year]] competition. |
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Smurthwaite has toured internationally, appearing in [[Stockholm]], [[Sweden]], and [[Tampere]], [[Finland]], and has appeared several times at the [[Malmö]] Comedy Festival in Sweden.<ref>[http://www.malmocomedyfestival.se/ Malmo Comedy Festival]</ref> |
Smurthwaite has toured internationally, appearing in [[Stockholm]], [[Sweden]], and [[Tampere]], [[Finland]], and has appeared several times at the [[Malmö]] Comedy Festival in Sweden.<ref>[http://www.malmocomedyfestival.se/ Malmo Comedy Festival]</ref> |
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Revision as of 11:40, 9 June 2015
| Kate Smurthwaite | |
|---|---|
| File:Kate Smurthwaite at Reclaim The Night 2011.jpg Kate Smurthwaite leads the chants at Reclaim The Night, London, 26 November 2011 | |
| Born | 9 December 1975 London, England |
| Medium | Stand-up, television, radio |
| Nationality | British |
| Years active | 2004-present |
| Genres | Satire, political satire, news satire, observational comedy |
| Website | katesmurthwaite.co.uk |
Kate Smurthwaite (born 9 December 1975) is a British stand-up comedian and political activist, who has appeared on British television and radio as a pundit, offering opinion and comment on subjects including politics, religion, and feminism.
Early life
Smurthwaite was born on 9 December 1975 in London but grew up in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. She studied Mathematics at Lincoln College, Oxford from 1994 to 1997. After leaving college she worked in London and Japan[1] doing research in the finance industry.
Comedy
Smurthwaite started performing comedy and animal magic in London in March 2004. In 2008 she was a finalist in the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year competition.
Smurthwaite has toured internationally, appearing in Stockholm, Sweden, and Tampere, Finland, and has appeared several times at the Malmö Comedy Festival in Sweden.[2]
In 2011, Smurthwaite toured as support for Shazia Mirza[3] and also returned to the town she grew up in and opened the Bury St Edmunds Fringe festival.[4] She performs at many charitable benefit shows such as the No More Page Three show at the Harold Pinter Theatre,[5] and appears at regular benefits for Sex Appeal at the Bloomsbury Theatre[6][7] (organised by Brook charity) and for Eaves Housing at Soho Theatre and Bloomsbury Theatre.[8][9]
Smurthwaite also teaches stand-up comedy through the City Academy in London.[10] Smurthwaite claims to have invented the aristocrats joke, but these claims are unsubstantiated.
Edinburgh shows
- 2005 hosted Amused Moose Hot Starlets
- 2006 solo show Adrenaline at Roman Eagle Lodge
- 2007 musical show Sing-Along-A-The-Joy-Of-Sex at Mercat Bar, group show Comedy Cocktail with Lenny Peters and David Mulholland
- 2008 solo show Apes Like Me at C-Soco Urban Garden, host of political panel show Comedy Manifesto at Beehive Inn
- 2009 solo show The News at Kate at Voodoo Rooms, host of Comedy Manifesto political panel show at Beehive Inn, host of Midnight Hour variety bill show at Canons' Gait
- 2010 solo show The News at Kate 2010 at Voodoo Rooms, host of Comedy Manifesto political panel show at Beehive Inn, host of Midnight Hour variety bill show at Canons' Gait
- 2011 solo show The News at Kate 2011 at Ciao Roma, host of Comedy Manifesto political panel show at Voodoo Rooms, host of Midnight Hour variety bill show at Canons' Gait
- 2012 solo show The News at Kate 2012 at Ciao Roma, host of Comedy Manifesto political panel show at Ciao Roma, host of Midnight Hour variety bill show at Canons' Gait[11]
- 2013 solo show The News At Kate 2013: My Professional Opinion at Ciao Roma, host of The News At Kate 2013: World Inaction a political comedy chat show at Canons' Gait. Guests included Richard Wiseman, Rebecca Mordan, Peter Buckley Hill, and Danny Vermont
- 2014 solo show The News At Kate 2014: Leftie Cock Womble at Viva Mexico, solo show The Evolution Will Be Televised at Ciao Roma, host of Late With Kate late night variable bill show at Canon's Gait.
In 2013 Smurthwaite was awarded a ThreeWeeks Editors' Award for her News At Kate shows, citing them as a "Fringe Institution".[12] In 2014 her science show The Evolution Will be Televised was nominated for a Creative Carbon Scotland Fringe Sustainable Practice Award.[13] Other Edinburgh Fringe shows Smurthwaite has appeared in include Spank!,[14] which she has hosted as well as being a guest performer, Political Animal, Nicholas Parsons' Happy Hour and SetList.
Activism and journalism
Smurthwaite is the vice-chair and media spokesperson for British NGO Abortion Rights UK[15] and a member of London Feminist Network and the National Secular Society. She is also on the board of the Edinburgh Fringe Society.[16]
In October 2009 Smurthwaite took a place on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth as part of Antony Gormley's One & Other project, impersonating with permission the Irish pro-choice campaigner Goretti Horgan who was unable to attend. She used the platform to highlight the disparity between abortion access in England, Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland.[17][18]
In July 2010 Smurthwaite protested at the lavish funeral of writer and renowned user of prostitutes Sebastian Horsley with a sign reading "Where are the horse-drawn carriages for the VICTIMS of prostitution?",[19] attracting both praise and criticism as well as indifference.[20] Smurthwaite has spoken at numerous rallies including the Rally for Free Expression,[21] the rally against Tory MP Nadine Dorries abstinence only sex education bill[22] and the abortion rights rally in London following the death of Savita Halappanavar.[23]
Smurthwaite performed at the five-year anniversary party for the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain,[24] and has hosted and spoken at a number of conferences including Feminism In London in 2008, 2009 and 2010[25][26][27] and Intersect in Bristol in 2012.[28] Recently she has given talks about sex and about the intersection between atheism and feminism for student groups and branches of Sceptics in the Pub[29][30] In June 2014 she was a guest speaker at the 50th anniversary of the Birmingham Humanists.
Smurthwaite has written for The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, The Independent, Stylist, The Scotsman, The Huffington Post, New Internationalist, The F-Word, Liberal Conspiracy, Progressive Women, Big Smoke and London Is Funny. She also has a regular column in the NUT's official magazine, The Teacher, as well as making regular posts to her own blog, Cruella blog.[31] Her writing for The Independent has included articles about her grassroots work teaching English to female asylum seekers with the group Women Asylum Seekers Together, supported by Women for Refugee Women.[32][33]
TV and radio appearances
Smurthwaite was a morning show presenter on Radio Jackie in 2006[34] and co-presented a show on Leith FM during the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe.[35] She appears regularly with Jason Mohammad on BBC Radio Wales's lunchtime phone-in show and as part of BBC London's Lady Lounge with Kath Melandri. In May 2012 Smurthwaite recorded a 15-minute program for the BBC Radio 4series Four Thought about sexism in comedy.[36]
Smurthwaite has made hundreds of appearances as a pundit on local and national TV and radio shows, mostly on publicly-funded media. In particular several appearances on BBC One's The Big Questions covering abortion, Mother Teresa and religious themes. Smurthwaite has also appeared on BBC Breakfast (including the first edition of the show broadcast from Salford[37]), ITN News, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky News. Radio appearances include BBC Radio 2's The Jeremy Vine Show, BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 5 Live's The Stephen Nolan Show, Tony Livesey Show and Richard Bacon Show, including appearing as Bacon's "presenter's friend".
In July 2012 Smurthwaite appeared as a comedy teacher in the Channel Five reality series The Bachelor, in an episode which culminated in the contestants performing a comedy roast for bachelor Spencer Matthews.[38]
On 25 October 2013 Smurthwaite took part in the 100 Women event hosted by the BBC. The day featured debate and discussion on radio, television and online, in which the participants were asked to give their opinion on the position of women in the 21st Century.[39] It was during this conference that Smurthwaite was famously slammed by a nun, Mother Teresa Forcades, who used sensible logic and adult words to outwit Kate's ill thought out, childish arguments.[40]
Smurthwaite was a credited writer on the second series of The Revolution Will Be Televised, which was first broadcast on BBC Three on 10 November 2013.[41]
Smurthwaite appeared as a panellist on Question Time on 30 January 2014[42] which was broadcast from St. Andrew's Hall in Norwich. The other panellists on the show were Ken Clarke, Emily Thornberry, Lord Oakeshott and Mark Littlewood.
Awards
- Hackney Empire New Act of the Year finalist 2009
- Platform 51 award April 2011[43]
- ThreeWeeks Editors' Award 2013
- Largest Forehead of the Year Award 2014
Personal life
Smurthwaite married American comedian and journalist David Mulholland in 2010. The couple separated in 2012.
References
- ^ Metropolis Magazine, Life In Japan
- ^ Malmo Comedy Festival
- ^ The British Comedy Guide, The News at Kate 2011
- ^ East Anglian Daily Times, Festival of arts kicks off with comedy acts
- ^ Not All Who Wonder Are Lost, Stand Up To Sexism and No More Page 3: How one night of comedy proved sexism is still no laughing matter
- ^ Look To The Stars, Al Murray Has Sex Appeal For Charity
- ^ Sex Appeal II: Come Again
- ^ Eaves Charity, Eaves and comedian James Mullinger to host comedy night
- ^ Eaves Charity, Comedy night raises over £3,500 for Eaves
- ^ City Academy, Profile
- ^ Chortle Profile
- ^ ThreeWeeks,ThreeWeeks Editors' Awards Presented
- ^ EdFringe, 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Award Winners
- ^ YouTube, Kate Smurthwaite takes on some drunk hecklers at Spank
- ^ The Huffington Post, Profile
- ^ The Edinburgh Fringe Society, Board of Directors
- ^ BBC Living Forgery
- ^ The F-Word, Kate on Fourth Plinth in abortion access protest
- ^ Too Much To Say For Myself, 1 misogynist down, but so many more to go….
- ^ Mumsnet, Kate Smurthwaite of Cruella Blog pickets Sebastian Horsley's funeral
- ^ YouTube, Comedian Kate Smurthwaite on Free Expression
- ^ YouTube, Kate Smurthwaite at the Stop Dorries Sex Education Bill Rally 20/01/2012
- ^ Irish Times, Husband highlighted 'barbaric laws'
- ^ YouTube, taking a mickey out of god - Kate Smurthwaite - CEMB's 5th anniversary - June 2012
- ^ Feminism in London, ...speakers at Feminism in London 2008
- ^ Feminism in London, ...speakers and workshop facilitators at Feminism in London 2009.
- ^ Feminism in London, ...speakers and workshop facilitators at Feminism in London 2010.
- ^ Intersect
- ^ Tunbridge Wells SitP, Why Good Sex Matters and How We Can All Have It
- ^ Wherevent, Cambridge University Atheist and Agnostic Society (CUAAS), Kate Smurthwaite: Why atheism needs feminism and feminism needs atheism
- ^ Cruella-blog
- ^ Progressive Women, Women for Refugee Women
- ^ The Independent, Blogs, Asylum seekers: When the questions tell us so much more than the answers
- ^ Radio Jackie
- ^ Chortle , Laugh Tracks 2011: The playlist
- ^ BBC, Radio 4, Four Thought
- ^ The Daily Mail, Well that's one way to end the London bias on BBC Breakfast! Now the show is dominated by the North-West
- ^ Cruella-blog, The Bachelor and Me!
- ^ BBC News, 100 Women: Who is taking part?
- ^ [1], Nun Teresa Forcades vs atheist Kate Smurthwaite
- ^ BBC, The Revolution Will Be Televised: Episode 1 broadcast dates
- ^ BBC, Question Time episodes
- ^ Platform 51, Woman of the week
External link
