Rudi Lickwood - 'Food For Thought'
Edinburgh Festival Comedy News
RUDI LICKWOOD
B.E.C.A Award Winner (Black Entertainment Comedy Awards)
Awarded status in the ‘Black 100+’ awards for the greatest Black British Achievers
Title Of Show: ‘Food For Thought’
Venue: Pleasance Courtyard – Attic
Time: 8.15pm
Dates: 5th – 31st August (except 12th & 19th)
Previews: 5th – 7th August
Rudi Lickwood makes his full length Edinburgh debut at this year’s festival, the ‘Black Entertainment Comedy Award’ winner brings his show, ‘Food For Thought’, to the Pleasance Attic. A comedy caldron of tasty hilarity – Rudi is a man that speaks his mind, struggling to be ‘PC’ with some very funny and surreal consequences.
Known as Harlesden’s No1 comedian, his parents arrived in the UK in the early 60s from Guyana South America and on tracing back their roots discovered that his slave owner was Scottish and that he is in actual fact of Ghanaian origin!
With insightful social commentary, as thought provoking as a Rene Margaritte painting, Rudi has a realistic look at his national identity. Through the eyes of a confused citizen he asks many questions including “If England is playing the West Indies in a cricket match who does he support”. For Rudi, political correctness only highlights Nationality and does not determine cultural identity no matter how many pledges of allegiance one makes to Queen and country!
Rudi left school with no qualifications to speak of and was considered a problem child, he used comedy to cheer up his mother during times of domestic abuse from his father. After losing his job as a general manager of a firm importing foods from the Caribbean he discovered the knack to make people laugh when he became a mini cab driver.
He later set up a school for comedy and has since seen an up surge black British comedians, for every 5 black comics on the circuit today 3 of them would have passed through Rudi’s hands, including MTV Base’s Kojo. Not satisfied with that Rudi quickly realised how powerful a tool comedy could be and took the course into penal system using it as a rehabilitation and educational tool for the inmates. This was proving quite successful until he discovered that one of the inmates on his course was a suspected terrorist and when the Minister of Justice, Jack Straw, found out the course was stopped!
A circuit veteran, festival virgin and a granddad, a man full of contradictions non violent and yet he has performed for the troops in Iraq Afghanistan and Bosnia. He’s a mercenary in search of belly laughs and like the milkman; he always delivers this extremely funny man is a force to be reckoned with!
His TV credits include CH4 ‘Get Me The Producer’, BBC1’s ‘Funny Business’ and also for BBC 1 ‘Hart Of Harlesden’.
THE CRITICS:
“…Observant engaging interactive comic whose routines roll out like warm custard over Spotted Dick” INDEPENDENT
“…He’s an intelligent one of a kind with something to appeal to everyone” CHORTLE
“…Irresistible he’s going to be massive” GUARDIAN
www.lickwood.co.uk
www.comicvoice.com
www.facebook.com/people/Rudi-Lickwood/692251419
