Elvis McGonagall (born Richard Smith; December 22, 1960) is a Scottish poet and stand-up comedian who is especially notable for poetry slam performances. [1] [2] [3]
Elvis McGonagall (born Richard Smith; December 22, 1960) is a Scottish poet and stand-up comedian who is especially notable for poetry slam performances. [1] [2] [3]
McGonagall was born in Perth, Scotland, and now lives in Stroud in South West England. [4] His stage name combines a reference to the notoriously bad poet William McGonagall with 'Elvis' "because it’s just so wrong, the wrongest name I could think of to go with McGonagall". [5] [6]
McGonagall first performed publicly at the UK Allcomers' Slam at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in 2003, finishing runner-up: he went on to win the slam the following year. [7] His career saw significant progress in 2006, in which year McGonagall won the Spokefest UK Slam Championship and the World Slam Championship at the Rotterdam Poetry International Festival. [7]
McGonagall performs at poetry events nationwide, as well as compering at the Blue Suede Sporran Club. [8]
McGonagall has regularly appeared on BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live, beginning with contributions to the premiere episode. He has appeared frequently on other BBC Radio 4 programmes, including Today, Last Word and Off the Page as well as starring in two series of his own sitcom Elvis Mcgonagall Takes A Look On The Bright Side, Radio 4 Comedy of the Week stand-up special Full Tartan Jacket (2021) and a documentary My Name Is Elvis (2021). [7]
McGonagall has also appeared on various television programmes for a number of broadcasters. His credits include BBC One's The One Show , BBC Two's The Culture Show and Channel 4's Random Acts . [7]
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Events from the year 1960 in Scotland.
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