Olaf Falafel

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Olaf Falafel
Olaf Falafel Funniest Joke Of The Fringe.jpg
Falafel with the 2019 Funniest Joke of the Fringe Award
PseudonymOlaf Falafel
Born1976-1977 [1]
Years active2012-present
Website www.olaffalafel.com

Olaf Falafel is a comedian and children's author. Falafel illustrates his own books and is the creator and presenter of Art Club, an online art channel for children. [2] He has been a stand-up comedian since 2012 [3] and is known for posting humorous videos on Twitter. [4] His humour frequently involves puns and absurdity. [5] [6]

Contents

Early life

Falafel is from Luton. [1]

Career

Falafel worked as an art director before becoming a comedian, [7] and came up with his stage name as part of a workshop at the Tringe Festival, a comedy festival in Tring. [8]

In 2014, he was nominated for the Laughing Horse Comedy Club's New Act of the Year competition. [9] In 2017 he was included in both The Guardian 's and The Telegraph 's rundowns of the funniest jokes of the Edinburgh Fringe. [10] [11] In 2018 Falafel was in Dave channel's, The Mirror 's, The Evening Standard 's, The Scotsman 's and i News's rundowns of the top jokes of the Edinburgh Fringe [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] and won an award for his festival poster. [17]

Falafel secured a three-book contract with HarperCollins in 2016, after asking for a publisher to approach him in a tweet. [7]

In 2019, Falafel made headlines by winning the Best Joke Of The Fringe. [18] He took the title with the gag: "I keep randomly shouting out 'Broccoli' and 'Cauliflower' – I think I might have florets".

In 2020, Falafel signed a two-book deal with Walker books to illustrate Unleash Your Creative Monster [19] a "funny and informative" guide to creative writing.

In 2021, off the back of his Art Club YouTube videos, [20] Falafel signed a two-book deal with Puffin to create his first middle grade chapter books called Trixie Pickle Art Avenger [21] about a child who becomes their school's version of Banksy.

In August 2022, Falafel had two jokes in the Best Joke of the Edinburgh Fringe Top Ten list.[ citation needed ]

In 2023 Falafel's picture book Blobfish won The Society Of Authors Queen's Knickers Award, [22] and the Federation of Children's Book Groups' Children's Book Award, [23] and was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation. [24]

In March 2024 Falafel won 'Best Kids Show' at the Leicester Comedy Festival, for his show 'Olaf Falafel's Stupidest Super Stupid Show (Yet)'. [25] Falafel also illustrated the map and provided the narration of penguin facts for a "Penguin Parade" sculpture trail in London, exhibited between November 2024 and January 2025. [26] [27] [28]

Live Shows

Books

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References

  1. 1 2 Logan, Brian (August 6, 2024). "'This isn't going to be sensible!' Olaf Falafel, Edinburgh fringe's king of one-liners". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved January 8, 2025.
  2. ↑ Heritage, Stuart (January 8, 2021). "From Shakespeare to drawing sausage dogs: the best TV for homeschooling". The Guardian. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  3. ↑ Moorhead, Rosy. "Comedy is the solution for maths expert Matt". St Albans & Harpenden Review. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  4. ↑ "Unilad stole my Vine! Comedians frustration as gag goes viral". Comedy News. Chortle. November 23, 2015. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  5. ↑ Bennett, Steve (August 5, 2018). "Olaf Falafel: There's no i in idiot". Reviews. Chortle. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  6. ↑ Dessau, Bruce (August 15, 2018). "Edinburgh Fringe, Olaf Falafel review: Absurdity so well-crafted that silly doesn't do it justice". Culture. The Evening Standard. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  7. 1 2 "Comic Lands a Book Deal After Asking for one on Twitter". News. Chortle. December 1, 2016. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  8. ↑ Logan, Brian (August 6, 2024). "'This isn't going to be sensible!' Olaf Falafel, Edinburgh fringe's king of one-liners". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved January 8, 2025.
  9. ↑ "New Act of the Year – Previous Winners and Finalists". Laughing Horse. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  10. ↑ Fleckney, Paul (August 15, 2017). "The 10 best jokes from the Edinburgh Fringe". The Guardian. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  11. ↑ "The 60 Funniest One Liners from the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe". The Telegraph. August 25, 2017. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  12. ↑ "Edinburgh Fringe's Top 10 Jokes Revealed". Sky News. August 20, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  13. ↑ McCaffrey, Julie (August 15, 2018). "The Best Jokes from Edinburgh Festival Fringe this Year". The Mirror. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  14. ↑ Greig, Finlay (August 19, 2019). "60 Edinburgh Fringe One-Liners that Really Deserved to Win Funniest Joke". i News. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  15. ↑ Thompson, Jessie (August 10, 2018). "Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2018 Best Jokes". Evening Standard. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  16. ↑ "The 10 Best Jokes of the Edinburgh Fringe". The Scotsman. August 20, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  17. ↑ "Olaf Falafel writes a kids' adventure". Chortle. July 2, 2021. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  18. ↑ "Edinburgh Fringe funniest joke: Vegetable gag wins top prize". BBC News. August 19, 2019. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  19. 1 2 Hackett, Tamsin (June 11, 2020). "Walker Books signs two-book deal with creative duo Andy Jones and Olaf Falafel". The Bookseller. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  20. ↑ Bennett, Steve (March 31, 2021). "'The greatest thing to happen during lockdown'". Features. Chortle. Retrieved October 1, 2021.
  21. 1 2 Hackett, Tamsin (July 2, 2021). "Puffin serves up Falafel's 'laugh-out-loud' middle-grade adventure". The Bookseller. Retrieved October 1, 2021.
  22. ↑ "The 2023 Queen's Knickers Award Winner". Society of Authors. May 8, 2020. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
  23. ↑ "Children's Book Award 2023". Federation of Children's Book Groups. February 4, 2023. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
  24. ↑ "10th Anniversary Shortlist for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize Announced". Wainwright Prize. James Cropper plc. August 10, 2023. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
  25. ↑ Bennett, Steve (March 18, 2024). "'Jenny Eclair's Officially a Legend'". Comedy News. Chortle. Retrieved March 20, 2024.
  26. ↑ "Fleet Street Quarter: Festive penguins go on display". BBC News. November 16, 2024. Archived from the original on January 8, 2025. Retrieved January 8, 2025.
  27. ↑ "A Penguin Parade Sculpture Trail Has Marched Into Fleet Street". Londonist. October 8, 2024. Retrieved January 8, 2025.
  28. ↑ "THE FLEET STREET QUARTER PENGUIN PARADE SCULPTURE TRAIL". Fleet Street Quarter. Retrieved January 8, 2025.
  29. ↑ The British Comedy Guide – Edinburgh Fringe 2015
  30. ↑ The List – Reviews
  31. ↑ The Edinburgh Reporter – Culture
  32. ↑ Chortle – Reviews
  33. ↑ Love Reading
  34. ↑ Olaf Falafel
  35. ↑ O’Connell, Alex. "Blobfish by Olaf Falafel review — fish it out, it's blobby good". ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved June 5, 2022.
  36. ↑ Falafel, Olaf (May 4, 2023). Trixie Pickle Art Avenger: Toxic Takedown.
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