Lewis Schaffer

Lewis Schaffer
Born (1957-03-30) March 30, 1957
Brooklyn, New York
Nationality American
Other names Brian Simpson
Occupation Stand-up comedian
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Website www.lewisschaffer.co.uk

Lewis Schaffer is an American comedian based in Nunhead southeast London where he moved in 2000. He currently hosts his own weekly radio show on Resonance FM 104.4FM in London entitled "Nunhead American Radio with Lewis Schaffer" and tours Britain with his show "Lewis Schaffer is Free until Famous". He was the first comic to tour a "free admission" show across the United Kingdom. In 2015 he performed at over 45 theatres and art centres in Britain.

"Free until Famous"

Lewis Schaffer is known for performing free shows around Britain. His show "Free until Famous" at the Source Below in Soho ran until April 2014 and afterwards at The Rancho Grill in Mayfair, London. His show was the "longest running solo stand-up show in London and perhaps all of Britain", running in excess of 400 performances since its inception in October 2008.[1] He visited 47 British art centres and theatres in 2015 with his pay-what-you-want touring show. [2]

"Lewis Schaffer: Free until Famous, £10"

Lewis Schaffer performed his show "Lewis Schaffer: American in London" every Sunday at the Leicester Square Theatre in London for over three years until June 2014, making it the longest solo comedy residencies at the theatre. In December 2015 he is to perform a run of 12 dates at the Museum of Comedy under the show title "Lewis Schaffer: Free until Famous, £10".

Edinburgh Fringe Stunt

In 2009, he announced as a publicity stunt that he would be sponsoring the Edinburgh festival comedy awards that had previously been called the if.comedy or Perrier awards.[3] He claimed he had purchased the naming-rights to the awards for "£99 with his mother as a judge". This was reported as fact in various publications[4] and lead to threat of a lawsuit from the award's rights holder[3] and being fired by his theatrical agents.[5]

Nunhead American Radio

Lewis Schaffer has hosted Nunhead American Radio with Lewis Schaffer on Resonance 104.4FM London since 2009. It is the only radio program for Americans living in Nunhead and is broadcast live every Monday at 6:30PM GMT. Guests have included comedians Russell Howard, Richard Herring, and Stewart Lee.

Awards

In 2009, he won the Malcolm Hardee Cunning Stunt Award for best publicity stunt at the Edinburgh Fringe[6] and, in 2010, he was nominated for the Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality.[7]

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 2/5/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.