Comedy laid bare - Justin Moorhouse

Justin Moorhouse

Realising that there was more to life than sales, Manchester-born Justin Moorhouse embarked upon his comedy career at the late age of 29. “I always wanted to do something creative but I couldn’t paint and at 29 I realised that I was never going to play for Manchester United. I thought I better do something about it so I went to a few open-spot nights and it went ok!” says the ever modest Mr Moorhouse.

It went more than okay. Justin is a natural, and six years later he’s one of the most promising and brightest stars working on the British Comedy circuit. His exuberant, larger than life personality and cheeky northern charm have allowed him to quickly build a reputation on the live comedy circuit. He’s in tremendous demand and comperes regularly at The Comedy Store in both London and Manchester, and headlines at every major comedy venue in the land. He’s recently appeared in Dubai, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Bangkok (nice work if you can get it!) and has joined Jimmy Carr, Dave Spikey and John Thomson as a special guest on live shows.

Justin’s hotly anticipated debut solo show "Local Knowledge - The Smallest Tour in the World" toured the North West in the Autumn of 2004 to great critical acclaim. The show earned him a nomination for 'Best Comedy Performance' at the prestigious Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards in December 2004 alongside the likes of Bill Bailey and Ross Noble. He’ll be taking to the road once again in the Spring with his follow up show “The Difficult Second Tour” which will appear in venues around the North West from May.

The multi-talented Mr Moorhouse is making huge waves in the world of Radio since presenting his own weekday afternoon show, every day between 1-4pm on Manchester’s Key 103 (the biggest commercial station outside of London). His affable, boy-next-door style and quick witted spontaneity have proved to be a huge hit with listeners and radio industry officials alike and last year he clocked up nominations for the highly prized ‘DJ Of The Year’ Award in the prestigious 2005 SONY RADIO ACADEMY AWARDS as well as ‘Presenter of the Year’ in the COMMERCIAL RADIO AWARDS.

On TV screens, Justin is perhaps most recognisable as Young Kenny in the hugely successful, award-winning ‘Phoenix Nights’. He spent the whole of the last series with his face painted as a tiger and also made a brief appearance in the spin-of series ‘Max & Paddy’s Road To Nowhere’. Other recent TV appearances (without the tiger face) include ‘Shameless’ for E4, ‘The Live Floor Show’ for BBC 2, ‘Does Doug Know’ on Channel 4, ‘Stan The Man’ for Granada, prison drama ‘Buried’ for Ch 4 and most recently ‘The World Stands Up’ for Paramount. He also presented ‘Talk of the Town’, a late night late entertainment show transmitted on Friday nights in the Granada region. He can also be seen presenting ‘Twisted TV’ a bizarre clip show due for transmission on Challenge in the near future.

Never one to let the grass grow beneath his feet, Justin made his first foray into pantoland in 2003 making a “successful panto debut “, (The Stage) when he landed the lead comedy role in Peter Pan playing Captain Hook's sidekick Smee, alongside Paul Nicholas as Hook at the Lowry Theatre in Salford. Justin wowed critics and he was described as “A panto star”, with his performances being labeled “Hilarious” (Manchester Evening News), “Simply superb” (Liverpool Echo) and “Excellent” (Cheshire Daily Post). He completed his second panto run playing the comedy lead in the Easter production of Beauty and the Beast at Tameside Hippodrome in the Easter of 2004.

Justin’s writing credits include ‘The 11 O’Clock Show’ and after taking part on a Radio 4 comedy writing course Justin had his first play commissioned for BBC Radio 4. The comedy drama entitled “An Insurance Inspector Calls” (with a cheeky nod to JB Priestley’s “An Inspector Calls”) is set in the Belle Vue Guesthouse in Thornton Clevelys (described once as “not quite Blackpool”). Described as “a poignant comedy” in The Guardian, and “an entertaining comedy drama…warm, funny and eccentric” by the Daily Mail, the play received rave reviews and was ‘Pick of the Day’ in the Guardian, the Daily Mail, the Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph, also achieving ‘Pick of the Week’ in the Observer.

As his profile continues to rocket, Justin is in great demand within the corporate market. He has had the honour of hosting the prestigious Europa Festival event in Manchester's Exchange Square which was attended by 10,000 people. Fellow performers included Badly Drawn Boy, members of the Doves, other Phoenix Nights cast members and Coronation Street stars. Following in the footsteps of previous hosts Peter Kay and Dave Spikey, Justin has also hosted the prestigious MEN Theatre Awards and more recently The Manchester Awards.

Justin has come a long way since winning the City Life Comedian of The Year Award in October 2000 (past winners of the prestigious award have included Peter Kay, Caroline Aherne, Dave Gorman and Chris Addison, whilst John Thomson and Johnny Vegas were placed runners-up) and being placed second in the prestigious BBC New Talent Awards in Edinburgh 2001.

He’s now in great demand as a Stand-Up, Actor, TV and Radio Presenter, Voiceover Artiste and corporate performer and is busy developing several original ideas for television. This is all a far cry away from being fired from his day job in 2000 over a misunderstanding with a parking ticket, company car, and a firm of Salford bailiffs!

'…Described as a male version of Jo Brand, but funnier…the next big thing on the comedy circuit' Manchester City Life Magazine

'A big Northerner with a cruel line in observational comedy, his final routine about Englishmen largeing it in Amsterdam was a truly professional slice of stand-up'
BBC Online

'Brimming with confidence, Moorhouse exudes a likeable energy that could raise the dead …His affable character has a certain old-fashioned charm, as his is the sort of personality which you instinctively trust to make you laugh - and he doesn't disappoint…Moorhouse entertainingly recounts his tales and well-made observations… impressive indeed'
www.chortle.co.uk