Edward Aczel is a British stand-up comedian known for his "anti-comedy" style of clumsy delivery presenting as uninterested and lacking belief in both his material and performing skills.

His 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival show, "Do I Really Have to Communicate with You?", was described by Zadie Smith in The New Yorker as "one of the strangest, and finest, hours of live comedy I’d ever seen".[1] James Kettle in The Guardian called him "perhaps Britain's greatest living anti-comedian".[2]

Winner of the 2008 Malcolm Hardee Award,[3] he was the runner-up in the 2005 BBC New Comedy Awards[4] and in Jimmy Carr's Comedy Idol (which was filmed for the extras on Jimmy Carr's 2005 live DVD).

His 2010 Edinburgh show featured in the BBC Comedy Collection.[5]

In 2020, he appeared in an episode of the soap opera EastEnders.

References

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  1. ^ "Dead Man Laughing". The New Yorker. 22 December 2008.
  2. ^ Kettle, James (23 January 2010). "This week's comedy previews". The Guardian. London.
  3. ^ Young, Kevin (23 August 2008). "Stand-up Aczel wins comedy award". BBC.
  4. ^ "Actor scoops BBC New Comedy Award". BBC. 13 December 2005.
  5. ^ "Edinburgh 2010 - Show Four". BBC.
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