Mel Miller (comedian)

Last updated

Mel Miller
Born (1943-10-14) 14 October 1943 (age 79)
Medium StandUp
Television
Nationality South African
Subject(s) Folk
Politics
Everyday life
Notable works and roles
Biltong and Potroast (1976)
Joe Parker's Comedy Express
Website www.comedycv.co.uk/melmiller/

Mel Miller (born 14 October 1943 [1] ) is a South African stand-up comedian and celebrity.

With friend Mel Green, Mel Miller began his career in 1963 as the comedy duo Mel and Mel. [2] He also worked as a radio actor on the programmes Jet Jungle, The World of Hammond Innes, Marriage Lines and Squad Cars for Springbok Radio.

With the launch of television in South Africa in 1976, Miller became famous for his appearance in the comedy Biltong and Potroast. [3] In addition, he has since appeared on The Everywhere Express, Us Animals and Punchline. [4]

In the late 80's, Miller was harassed by the South African Security Police for his anti-government sentiment, and afterward withdrew from the limelight until being convinced to return to public performance by Joe Parker in 1990. [2]

Miller appeared as one of the contestant panelists on the SABC2 game show Where Were You?, from August to November, 2008. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Seinfeld</span> American comedian and actor (born 1954)

Jerome Allen Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for having played a semi-fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998), which he created and wrote with Larry David. The show aired on NBC from 1989 until 1998, becoming one of the most acclaimed and popular sitcoms of all time. As a stand-up comedian, Seinfeld specializes in observational comedy. In 2004, Comedy Central named him the 12th-greatest stand-up comedian of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Wright</span> American comedian (born 1955)

Steven Alexander Wright is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and film producer. He is known for his distinctly lethargic voice and slow, deadpan delivery of ironic, philosophical and sometimes nonsensical jokes, paraprosdokians, non sequiturs, anti-humor, and one-liners with contrived situations.

Brian Joseph Regan is an American stand-up comedian who uses observational, sarcastic, and self-deprecating humor. He is known for incorporating body language and facial expressions into his act. His performances are often described as clean as he refrains from profanity as well as taboo subject matter. Regan's material typically covers everyday events, such as shipping a package with UPS, mortgages, and visits to the optometrist. While he does not define himself as youth-oriented, Regan makes frequent references to childhood, including little league baseball, grade school spelling bees, and science projects.

Alternative comedy is a term coined in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era. The phrase has had different connotations in different contexts: in the UK, it was used to describe content that was an "alternative" to the mainstream of live comedy, which often involved racist and sexist material. In other contexts, it is the nature of the form that is "alternative", avoiding reliance on a standardised structure of a sequence of jokes with punch lines. Patton Oswalt has defined it as "comedy where the audience has no pre-set expectations about the crowd, and vice versa. In comedy clubs, there tends to be a certain vibe—alternative comedy explores different types of material."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Kay</span> English actor and stand-up comedian (born 1973)

Peter John Kay is an English actor, comedy writer and stand-up comedian. He has written, produced and acted in several television and film projects, and has written three books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louie Anderson</span> American stand-up comedian (1953–2022)

Louis Perry Anderson was an American stand-up comedian, actor, author and game show host. Anderson created the cartoon series Life with Louie and the television sitcom The Louie Show, and wrote four books, including Hey Mom: Stories for My Mother, But You Can Read Them Too, which was published in 2018. He was the third host of the game show Family Feud from 1999 to 2002 — the first host in its third run.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron White</span> American comedian

Ron White is an American stand-up comedian, actor and author, best known as a charter member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. Nicknamed "Tater Salad", he is the author of the book I Had the Right to Remain Silent But I Didn't Have the Ability, which appeared on the New York Times best seller list.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugene Mirman</span> American actor

Eugene Boris Mirman is a Russian-American actor, comedian, and writer, known for playing Yvgeny Mirminsky on Delocated and Gene Belcher on the animated comedy Bob's Burgers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell Peters</span> Canadian comedian and actor (born 1970)

Russell Dominic Peters is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, and producer. He began performing in Toronto in 1989 and won a Gemini Award in 2008. In 2013, he was number three on Forbes' list of the world's highest-paid comedians, and became the first comedian to get a Netflix stand-up special. He also won the Peabody Award and the International Emmy Award for Best Arts Programming for producing Hip-Hop Evolution (2016). He lives in Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlos Mencia</span> American stand-up comedian

Ned Arnel "Carlos" Mencía is a Honduran-American comedian, writer, and actor. His style of comedy is often political and involves issues of race relations, Latin American culture, criminal justice, and social class. He is best known as the host of the Comedy Central show Mind of Mencia (2005–2008). Around the time of the show's cancellation, several comedians accused Mencía of plagiarism and stealing jokes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell Howard</span> British comedian and presenter

Russell Joseph Howard is an English comedian, television presenter, radio presenter, and actor. He was known for his television show Russell Howard's Good News and is currently doing The Russell Howard Hour, and his appearances on the topical panel TV show Mock the Week. He won "Best Compère" at the 2006 Chortle Awards and was nominated for an Edinburgh Comedy Award for his 2006 Aberdeen Festival Fringe show. Howard has cited comedians Lee Evans, Richard Pryor, and Frank Skinner as influences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Price (actor)</span>

Tom Price is a British actor, voice-over artist, radio presenter and stand-up comedian originally from Monmouth, Wales. He is most noted for portraying Andy Davidson in Torchwood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael McIntyre</span> British comedian

Michael Hazen James McIntyre is an English comedian, writer, and television presenter. In 2012, he was the highest-grossing stand-up comedian in the world. He currently presents his own Saturday night series, Michael McIntyre's Big Show, and the game show, The Wheel, on BBC One. He also hosts the American version of The Wheel on NBC.

Mick Miller is an English stand-up comedian who has had a long career on the live comedy circuit, and has a trademark haircut of a bald head with long hair down the sides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T.J. Miller</span> American comedian and actor

Todd Joseph Miller is an American comedian and actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kliph Nesteroff</span> Canadian writer

Kliph Nesteroff is a best-selling author regarded for his vast knowledge of show business. Vice Magazine called him "The Human Encyclopedia of Comedy," and Los Angeles Magazine profiled him as "The King of Comedy Lore." The New York Times has deemed some of his theories "provocative" while Vanity Fair calls his work "essential." Nesteroff was included on LA Weekly's Best of Los Angeles list in 2016, and was dubbed the "premier popular historian of comedy" by the New York Times in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor Noah</span> South African comedian (born 1984)

Trevor Noah is a South African comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and former television host. He was the host of The Daily Show, an American late-night talk show and satirical news program on Comedy Central, from 2015 to 2022. Noah has won various awards, including a Primetime Emmy Award from 11 nominations. He was named one of "The 35 Most Powerful People in New York Media" by The Hollywood Reporter in 2017 and 2018. In 2018, Time magazine named him one of the hundred most influential people in the world. In 2023, he won the Erasmus Prize.

Mohamed Nasir Nabil Abdul Rashid bin Suleman Obineche, known as Nabil Abdulrashid is an English comedian of Nigerian descent. In 2010, at the age of 25, he became the youngest black comedian to perform stand-up at the Hammersmith Apollo.

Melinda Claire Buttle is an Australian comedian, television and radio presenter and writer. Buttle previously co-hosted The Great Australian Bake Off alongside Claire Hooper.

Daliso Chaponda is a Zambian-born Malawian stand-up comedian living in England. In 2017, he became a finalist in the variety show Britain's Got Talent, finishing third overall. In 2018 he launched a BBC Radio 4 series Daliso Chaponda: Citizen of Nowhere.

References

  1. "Comedy cv – the UK's largest collection of comedians biogs and photos".
  2. 1 2 3 "Mel Miller | TVSA".
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 July 2009. Retrieved 25 January 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. "Mel Miller | Comedians | the Comedy Club". Archived from the original on 7 February 2009. Retrieved 25 January 2009.