| John Robertson | |
|---|---|
 John Robertson at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe. | |
| Born | 12 June 1985 Perth, Western Australia |
| Years active | 2002–present |
| Genres | Insult comedy, improvisational comedy |
| Notable works and roles | The Dark Room The Little Town Of Marrowville |
| Website | www |
John Robertson is a stand-up comedian, and author born in Perth, Western Australia. [1]
Robertson began his stand-up career in 2002 at the age of 17. [2] Upon moving to the United Kingdom, after developing his stand-up career, he debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2010 with his solo show, A Nifty History of Evil. [3] He has since performed at the Edinburgh Fringe every year since, often in parallel to his live-action video game stand-up show, The Dark Room. [2]
Robertson's style of comedy can be described as insult comedy, with the majority of his set often being improvised, and targeted at the audience. [4] He is also a Puppeteer and Ukulele player, and has incorporated these skills within his act. [5]
Robertson has performed in venues as large as the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham as part of the Insomnia Gaming Festival, and at the London Film and Comic Con and MCM London Comic Con. [6] Robertson also performs at established comedy venues including The Stand Comedy Club, [7] Gilded Balloon, [8] and Komedia in Brighton. [9]
Robertson began streaming improvised comedy content on Twitch on 20 January 2020. [10] Initially streaming one night a week (as 'Monday Night Robbo'), this increased to multiple streams a week in April 2020, [10] following the closure of UK comedy clubs due to a pandemic of COVID-19 in the UK, with streams covering both British and Australian time zones. Robertson's channel has over 10,000 followers as of August 2020 with over 200 viewers on average for his most popular Saturday evening stream. [11]
Robertson's main performing outside of his stand-up work is the point-and-click 'live-action video game' The Dark Room, a comedy show where the audience compete with Robertson, in his alter ego as 'The Guardian' of a virtual Dark Room resembling a 1980s text-based Interactive fiction Video game, which the audience tries to escape. [12] Players are selected from the audience are invited to choose between multiple options on screen to advance, and escape the initial room they awake to find themselves in. [13]
Originally devised off-the-cuff as part of a set at an anime convention, [14] the positive reception lead him to develop this into a full YouTube-based game, [15] structured around individual videos linked together with clickable links embedded into the game. After going viral in 2012, and with over 4 million views, [16] its success lead to its developed as a fully-fledged video game on the platform Steam. [17] [18]
The Dark Room has previously been intended to be developed for television as of 2018, [19] however this has not yet been produced.
Robertson's first children's book, The Little Town of Marrowville was published in 2019 by Penguin Books, [20] and illustrated by Louis Ghibault. [21] The idea of Robertson writing a children's book was suggested by an editor at Penguin who had enjoyed the Dark Room show. [22]
Robertson has also written several articles on subjects ranging from video gaming, to children's book villains. [23]
Robertson first appeared on television in 2003 on Australian Idol, giving an over-the-top performance of Surfin' Bird by The Trashmen, which ended in him feigning a seizure to prank the judges. [24]
His first professional television appearance was as a guest contributor on video game review show Videogame Nation from 2014, whereupon his positive reception (with Den of Geek describing him as 'the only reason to watch the show' [25] ) lead him to become a full-time presenter, notable for his catchphrase 'hi-def, high-five! [25] ', that also ended the show's final episode in June 2016.
Further to his work in creating The Dark Room video game, Robertson has also acted as a comedy consultant for a number of AAA (video game industry) video game companies. [26]
In 2011, The Sunday Times Magazine wrote, "Robertson's charismatic, stream of consciousness, pop culture infused performances can veer assuredly between homicidal 20th century despots and, for example, a retooling of the Little Match Girl fable – she still dies, but because she's six years into a three year Communications degree, all is for the best." [27]
The Age described Robertson's 2012 show Disturbing Stories for Disturbing Bedtime as "astute, amoral comedy for the morbidly inclined," saying that "his material — whether he's dissecting modern drama or advocating the murder of The Sound of Music's Maria Von Trapp – is edgy, intelligent, and smoothly delivered, though the appearance of a ukulele feels like a hangover from an earlier show, and a late moment of sentiment is a touch too contrived." [28]
A 2017 review in The Plymouth Evening Herald admired Robertson's ability to steal an audience member's beer, and have the audience cheer him on. [29]
Robertson married fellow performer Jo Marsh (alias JoJo Bellini) [30] in June 2013, [24] and currently lives in London, United Kingdom.
Richard Keith Herring is an English stand-up comedian and writer whose early work includes the comedy double act Lee and Herring. He is described by The British Theatre Guide as "one of the leading hidden masters of modern British comedy".
The Glee Club is a chain of independent live stand-up comedy and live music venues in the UK. The first Glee Club was opened by Mark Tughan in Birmingham's Chinese Quarter in 1994, the first dedicated comedy club to open in the United Kingdom outside London.
Norman Lovett is a British stand-up comedian and actor best known for his portrayal of Holly, the ship's computer in Red Dwarf.
Simon Marc Amstell is an English comedian, writer and director. He wrote and directed the films Carnage (2017) and Benjamin (2018). His work on television has included presenting Popworld and Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
Tony Law is a Canadian stand-up comedian. Originally from Lacombe, Alberta, he has been based in London, United Kingdom since the age of 19.
Mark Andrew Watson is an English comedian, novelist and producer.
Patrick Condell is a British writer, polemicist, and former stand-up comedian. In his early career, he wrote and performed in alternative comedy shows during the 1980s and 1990s in London, winning the Time Out Comedy Award in 1991. He was also a regular panelist on BBC Radio 1's Loose Talk programme.
Livestreaming, live-streaming, or live streaming is the streaming of video or audio in real time or near real time. While often referred to simply as streaming, the real time nature of livestreaming differentiates it from other non-live broadcast forms of streamed media such as video-on-demand, vlogs and video-sharing platforms such as YouTube and Twitch (service).
Iain Andrew Stirling is a Scottish comedian, writer, television presenter, narrator and Twitch streamer from Edinburgh, Scotland.
Ben Rufus Green is an actor and comedian from Canterbury, Kent, England, known for playing David in The Cockfields, and his own sketch comedy videos online, under the alias greensville.
Katherine Louisa Ryan is a Canadian comedian, writer, presenter, actress and singer. She has appeared on British TV and radio panel shows, including 8 Out of 10 Cats, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, A League of Their Own, Mock the Week, Would I Lie to You?, QI, Just a Minute, Safeword, and Have I Got News for You. In 2015 she replaced Steve Jones as the presenter of Hair on BBC Two. As an actress, Ryan has appeared on several television sitcoms in the UK, including Campus, Episodes, and her Netflix show The Duchess.
Me1 vs Me2 Snooker with Richard Herring is the world's longest running snooker podcast, presented by stand-up comedian Richard Herring. First published in December 2011 it peaked at number one in the iTunes charts of the same month. In each podcast Richard Herring performs against himself in a game of snooker.
John Michael David Robins is an English stand-up comedian and radio presenter.
Matthew Thomas Parker is an Australian recreational mathematician, author, comedian, YouTube personality and science communicator based in the United Kingdom. His book Humble Pi was the first mathematics book in the UK to be a Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller. Parker was the Public Engagement in Mathematics Fellow at Queen Mary University of London. He is a former teacher and has helped popularise mathematics via his tours and videos.
Steve McNeil is a British comedian, Twitch streamer, author, and TV host who is best known as co-creator and team captain on video-game comedy TV show Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit. Steve has also created content for Ginx TV, and is one half of the Go 8 Bit spin-off project WiFi Wars, a live interactive video-game comedy show.
The live streaming of video games is an activity where people broadcast themselves playing games to a live audience online. The practice became popular in the mid-2010s on the US-based site Twitch, before growing to YouTube, Facebook, China-based sites Huya Live, DouYu, and Bilibili, and other services. By 2014, Twitch streams had more traffic than HBO's online streaming service, HBO Go. Professional streamers often combine high-level play and entertaining commentary, and earn income from sponsors, subscriptions, ad revenue, and donations.
Samay Raina is an Indian stand-up comedian, printing engineer, YouTuber, and chess enthusiast. He was the co-winner of the second season of the stand-up comedy contest Comicstaan. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he began streaming chess games along with multiple comedians and chess masters. He has raised substantial amounts of money for various causes through his YouTube channel, including help for waste pickers, and relief for West Bengal and Assam flood victims.
The Delightful Sausage are a comedy double act, created by Amy Gledhill and Christopher Cantrill. In 2019 and 2022 they were nominated for 'Best Show' at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Thomas Michael Simons, better known as TommyInnit, is an English YouTuber, Twitch streamer, comedian and author. He produces Minecraft-related videos and live streams, including collaborations with fellow YouTubers and streamers in the Dream SMP.
Alasdair Beckett-King is an English stand-up comedian, video game writer, and actor from Durham. He won the 2017 Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year, and Chortle's Breakthrough Comedian of the Year in 2023.