James Anthony Patrick Carr Jr (born September 15, 1972 in Isleworth, London) is an English comedian, known for his deadpan, satirical, and often dark humour. He is a successful stand-up comedian, television presenter, book writer, radio presenter and actor.
Carr was born in Isleworth, London, England to Irish parents who were originally from Limerick. They then moved to Slough where Carr was educated. He holds dual citizenship with Ireland and the United Kingdom. He was educated at Burnham Grammar School in south Buckinghamshire and later at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe where he achieved 4 A grades at A-level, before going on to receive a 2:1 in Social and Political Sciences from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. After leaving Cambridge, Carr was hired by the oil company Shell as a marketing executive, a job which he described as "technically the easiest job on the planet". Less than two years afterwards, he took redundancy and joined JC Productions Ltd in order to begin a career in stand-up comedy.
Whilst working at JC Productions with his father, Carr made his first film at Pinewood starring Craig Charles and Roy Dotrice. The film, The Colour of Funny, was a flop and this failure motivated him to try his hand at comic writing and stand-up. Carr eventually gained recognition at the Royal Variety Performance, and was chosen by Channel 4 to host game shows such as Distraction and Your Face or Mine? In 2004 he released his first stand up DVD titled simply Jimmy Carr Live, and the following year (2005) his second was released, Jimmy Carr Stand Up. A third DVD Jimmy Carr - Comedian was released late 2007 with a fourth, Jimmy Carr In Concert, scheduled for late 2008
Carr was a guest presenter for one edition of Have I Got News For You; later he joined Ian Hislop's team in the edition of the show first shown 23rd November 2007, chaired by Ann Widdecombe with whom he “flirted” outrageously. Widdecombe later vowed "I will never appear on Have I Got News for You again." He has appeared on Never Mind The Buzzcocks twice, as well as on Stephen Fry's QI. He has presented many 100s programmes for Channel 4: 100 Worst Pop Records, 100 Worst Britons, 100 Greatest Cartoon Characters, 100 people who look most like Jimmy Carr (although this was a spoof) and 100 Scary Moments, which have made him the butt of related jokes by comedians, members of the public, and even himself.
In 2004, it was announced Carr would host a United States version of Distraction for Comedy Central. On January 10, 2006, the second season of the United States version of Distraction debuted on Comedy Central, with Carr continuing his hosting duties. Carr was shortlisted for the 2006 Rose d'Or award for best game show host. He currently hosts the quiz show 8 Out of 10 Cats.
During his guest appearance on the BBC motoring show Top Gear, Carr set a new celebrity test track lap record on the 'Star in a Reasonably Priced Car' segment. He was described as "the worst driver we've ever had" and "the luckiest man alive" by Top Gear's test driver The Stig. His re-appearance on Top Gear in May 2006 placed him last in the brand new Reasonably Priced Car, with the slowest time ever. Carr also hosted a highlights edition of the show.
Carr is also prolific writer as well as performer, with writing credits including Bo' Selecta! (C4), Meet Ricky Gervais (C4) and material for Lily Savage and Frank Skinner.
In the United States, Carr has appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien twice and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno three times. In December 2007, Carr presented the fourth Big Fat Quiz of the Year on Channel 4, having also presented the first, second and third. Carr has also appeared on the Irish news comedy show The Panel.
He appears at the end credits of Ross Noble's Randomist DVD, where he punches Ross on his way back to the dressing room. The joke was that Ross said in his show how Jimmy only performed for a "weak" 1 hour 20 minutes, as opposed to Ross's 2 and a half hour show. He can also be seen for a few seconds in the audience for Dara O' Briain's live DVD.
In January 2008 Carr appeared on E4 show Big Brother Celebrity Hijack as a hijacker for the day, and also presented the new series of Commercial Breakdown.
Carr is a regular guest and interviewer on Loose Ends (BBC Radio 4) and The Fred MacAulay Show (BBC Radio Scotland). In January 2005, Carr hosted 'It's Been a Terrible Year' — a comedy review of 2004, on BBC Radio 2. Up until July 2006, he had a Sunday morning radio show on XFM, with the mercurial comedian Iain Morris. The show had a strong emphasis on toilet humour, and regularly focused on discussing men that Morris 'accidentally' kissed during the previous week, despite being avowedly heterosexual. Morris also recently announced plans on air to venture into the world of male escorting, but his rates were never confirmed.
Features, of varying popularity, have included:
In January 2006, Carr made a joke on Radio 4's Loose Ends, the punchline of which implied that Gypsy women smelled. Although the BBC issued an apology, Carr refused and continues to use the joke during his acts.
Jimmy is also a regular guest on The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1.
Recently, his voice can be heard in Lloyds TSB adverts.
2004 was a successful year for Carr's live work. In 2003 he sold out an entire month's performances of his Edinburgh Festival show Charm Offensive by the second day of the festival, and received 5-star reviews from four major newspapers. In 2004 he performed sold out solo shows at Dublin's Vicar Street, Leicester's Comedy Festival, Glasgow Festival, Kilkenny Cat Laughs and the Galway Festival along with appearances at The Bloomsbury Theatre where he filmed his first live DVD. Also in 2004 he threatened to sue fellow comedian Jim Davidson for using a joke that Carr considered 'his'. The matter was dropped when it became apparent that the joke in question was an old one used for decades by many different comedians, most notably the radio shows of Victor Lewis-Smith. He toured the country with his show, A Public Display of Affection, starting on 9 April 2005 at the Gulbenkian Theatre in Canterbury. He also appeared at the EICC during the Edinburgh Festival in August 2005 with his Off The Telly show. Later on in the year, in late November, he released his second DVD "Jimmy Carr: Stand Up".
In August 2006, he commenced a new tour, Gag Reflex, for which he won the 2006 British Comedy Award for "Best Live Stand up". He released his third DVD, "Jimmy Carr: Comedian" in November 2007. He also performed at the 2006 Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, as well as making a return visit to the Newbury Comedy Festival. In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In 2007, a poll on the Channel 4 website for 100 Greatest Stand Ups concluded Jimmy Carr was the 12th. A new national tour commenced in autumn 2007 named Repeat Offender, which began at the Edinburgh Festival that year. Since Autumn 2008, Carr has been touring his new show, entitled "Joke Technician". As with his previous tour, he performed many shows at the Edinburgh Festival, even adding an extra date due to ticket demand.
His new DVD, "Jimmy Carr: In Concert" will be released on 3rd November 2008.
In March 2004, Carr's father Jim, a self-made millionaire, was arrested by the Metropolitan Police after Jimmy Carr and his brother Colin accused their father of harassment. Mr. Carr Sr was later acquitted of all charges and awarded costs by the Court. Mr. Carr's acquittal was followed by a written apology from the CPS. Later the Metropolitan Police also apologised and paid him substantial damages in an out of court settlement of the false arrest and false prosecution charge.
Jimmy is unrelated to the comedian Alan Carr. He said in an interview in June 2007 that "I am getting tired of this. I am not his brother and I'm not older. The jokes are getting old." In an edition of Big Fat Quiz Of The Year 2007, he made light of this by saying as a joke "If you've never watched Channel 4 before, then hello! I'm Jimmy Carr. Basically, I run the place with my brother Alan."
During an appearance on BBC's "Would I Lie to You?" (Season 1, Episode 3), Jimmy Carr revealed it as true that he lost his virginity at 26 years of age, mainly due to some strict religious beliefs he held until that age.
He has a long-term girlfriend, Karoline Copping.
On November 2, 2006, Carr, together with advertising copy-writer friend Lucy Greeves, released a book called The Naked Jape (the U.S. version, re-titled Only Joking, was released on September 21, 2006), a discussion of the art and history of joking. It includes a selection of over 400 of the best jokes ever told.
On December 21, 2006, Jimmy announced plans to become the first major comedian to perform in the virtual reality world of Second Life. This was confirmed on his MySpace webpage on January 3, 2007, and a competition launched to choose a select audience from the list of his MySpace friends.
Carr's Second Life show took place on Saturday, 3rd February at 7pm, at Adam Street Bar and Members Club in central London. Fifty MySpace friends made up his live audience, with 100 virtual attendees in Second Life itself. The show was enjoyed by both sets of audiences, with excellent feedback received on both Jimmy's MySpace profile and within Second Life.
Carr hinted at the show that he may perform future shows in Second Life.
In March 2007, Laura Jackson from the Guinness Book of World Records confirmed that Jimmy had obtained the world record for being the first comedian in cyberspace, following on from his Second Life show.
