69 Facts About James Acaster

James Acaster has won four Chortle Awards, a Just for Laughs Award and International Comedy Festival Awards at Melbourne and New Zealand.

James Acaster was a support act for Josie Long in 2010.

James Acaster drew acclaim for his shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where he was nominated for Best Comedy Show a record-breaking five times.

James Acaster's following tour Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999 won a Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award.

James Acaster is known as a frequent guest on British television panel shows, such as series 7 of Taskmaster ; he co-hosts Hypothetical with Josh Widdicombe.

James Acaster's third book, Guide to Quitting Social Media, is a parody of the self-help genre.

The music collective Temps was formed by James Acaster and released its debut album, Party Gator Purgatory, in May 2023.

James William Acaster was born in Kettering, England, in 1985.

James Acaster's family attended a nondenominational Christian church whose Sunday sermons included humorous anecdotes, sketches recreating Bible stories, and rock music.

At a young age, James Acaster performed a sketch with his father and enjoyed the laughs it received.

James Acaster dropped out of sixth form before sitting his A-level exams and sat a BTEC in Music Practice at Northampton College.

James Acaster was a dishwasher in two kitchens but did not learn to cook in either role; the first kitchen had a culture of bullying but he was able to make friends.

James Acaster moved to Wood Green, North London, and supported himself financially by working as a teaching assistant in a South London secondary school for autistic students for nine months.

James Acaster garnered acclaim through annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows, receiving five consecutive nominations for the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Comedy Show from 2012 to 2016, a record.

James Acaster focused first on the phrase, as his style was to "get caught up in the little details", and then incorporated outrage, despite most of his material being understated.

James Acaster returned to Edinburgh in 2013 with the show Lawnmower.

The Guardians James Acaster Kettle reviewed him as a "quiet, unassuming" comedian "adept at mixing inspired whimsy with straighter observational material".

In two different years, James Acaster forgot to raise his hands to block, so the tray genuinely hit him in the face.

James Acaster appeared again in The Wrestling at the inaugural 2023 Just for Laughs festival in London, a sister event to the Canadian festival.

James Acaster assumes a fictional background for each routine, themed around the law: his character works as an undercover cop, serves on a jury, leads a honey-based scam and is put into witness protection.

The first three shows toured separately, with James Acaster writing throughout each year and performing weekly.

From January to September 2017, James Acaster toured with The Trelogy, performing the first three shows in 14 locations over three nights.

James Acaster performed them in a cycle at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

James Acaster wrote Recap while touring and began to perform it on the third night.

The recorded version ends with James Acaster returning to the setup at the start of the first performance.

Rupert Hawksley of The Daily Telegraph praised Reset as James Acaster's best show to date, with "sharp punch-lines and meticulously crafted fluorishes", albeit a slightly forced ending wherein James Acaster delivers a rant to an audience member that is actually about himself.

Mental health is a theme and James Acaster is more open about his real life.

Hecklers in his increasingly personal routine led James Acaster to want a break from performing.

In 2022, after performing occasional shows in the UK, James Acaster announced a US tour: Hecklers Welcome.

James Acaster was motivated by an aim to improve aspects of performing stand-up comedy that he did not previously enjoy.

James Acaster opined that hecklers are largely motivated by giddinness, drunkenness and a belief that it will improve the performance.

James Acaster noted that some audience members object to the heckling, which is part of the experience.

James Acaster said that he tries to match the audiences' attitude each night; some audiences choose not to heckle, while other shows are filled with one or multiple people heckling.

James Acaster has performed the show in Scandinavia and Canada.

James Acaster said in 2014 that his tour sales saw a huge spike during the broadcast of a Never Mind the Buzzcocks episode where he appeared.

James Acaster starred in series 7 of Taskmaster, wherein five contestants perform tasks that are judged by Greg Davies, with help from his assistant Alex Horne.

In 2016, James Acaster wrote a sitcom pilot for BBC Two called We The Jury, about a man who is called to jury duty for a murder trial after dreaming of serving as a juror.

Also in 2016, James Acaster wrote for and narrated a Comedy Central pilot called Funny, Furry and Famous.

Alongside Gamble, Lloyd Langford and John Robins, James Acaster created The Island, while stuck in New York City due to a snowstorm.

Khan and James Acaster had both referenced Home Alone in recent panel show appearances.

At 2023 Just for Laughs in London, James Acaster improvised as Springleaf with Nish Kumar as co-host.

James Acaster came up with the concept while performing Recognise in 2014.

The Goon Show, an audio sitcom, was an inspiration; James Acaster watched it as a child and enjoyed that the humour was tailored to the medium.

James Acaster wanted to create a story presented as a true crime podcast, with the framing device of Springleaf playing wire recordings of his most important case.

James Acaster collected over 500 albums released in 2016, such as Lemonade, Blackstar and Blonde.

James Acaster interviewed artists for the book, which he wrote at the comedian Nish Kumar's suggestion.

Jamie Atkins of Record Collector gave the book five stars, saying that James Acaster "writes about music beautifully and economically" and "skilfully intersperses" album history with his mental state in 2017.

James Acaster asks guests to discuss one of his albums from 2016.

In November 2022, James Acaster announced a new musical project called Temps, a music collective of 40 musicians.

James Acaster aimed to give as little direction to the musicians as possible, encouraging them to improvise.

James Acaster combined parts together, with a dozen additional people involved in audio engineering and distribution.

James Acaster planned to create a mockumentary with Louis Theroux's production company in which he would transition into the music industry.

Early in his career, James Acaster produced a web series mockumentary, Sweet Home Ketteringa.

James Acaster revisits his favourite parts of his hometown Kettering, including an amusement park and football club.

James Acaster speaks to locals, who do not recognise him.

James Acaster first travelled to the town in childhood with the local volunteer fire brigade.

James Acaster turned the story into a screenplay during COVID-19 lockdown, with the aim of adapting it as an independent film.

James Acaster has cited as inspirations Suzy Eddie Izzard, Josie Long and Ross Noble, all whimsical comedians who deliver unexpected punchlines.

James Acaster uses different personae across his body of work, such as an undercover cop.

James Acaster's material includes one-liners, lengthy stories and audience interaction.

James Acaster plays with the medium, for example by kneeling for a large part of one routine.

James Acaster told Nouse that his fictional material reflected his personal life unconsciously.

James Acaster described to Nouse that at work-in-progress shows, where he often tests political material, the emotional side is more successful than the humourous side.

James Acaster dated the English comedian Louise Ford until 2013; she subsequently began dating Rowan Atkinson.

James Acaster then dated the comedian Rose Matafeo; she moved from New Zealand to London in 2015 to live with him and they broke up in 2017.

James Acaster thought it would be self-indulgent to do this in his stand-up, but began doing so with Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999.

James Acaster discussed these topics in his second book, Perfect Sound Whatever.

James Acaster told BBC News that he did not label anxiety and depression as such when he was younger, or recognise his anxiety in an earlier relationship.

James Acaster's routine Represent is indirectly about losing his faith.