Lee Evans

Lee Evans is an English comedian, writer, actor and musician.

Evans was born in Avonmouth, Bristol, England to an Irish mother and a Welsh father, Dave Evans, a nightclub performer. He left Bristol at the age of 13 and then went to The Billericay School in Billericay, Essex. After a spell as a boxer and two years at Thurrock art college in Essex, he followed his father into entertainment. In his teens he moved to Scarborough, North Yorkshire and also played drums in a punk rock band called The Forgotten Five.

On 22 September 1984, he married Heather Nudds with whom he has a daughter, Mollie (born 1994). They live in Billericay.

Evans rose to fame during the 1990s with loud, hot, sweaty, energetic stage performances and physical observational comedy. His slapstick humour has led to comparisons with Norman Wisdom, though Evans does not regard Wisdom as an influence. In his earlier work, he used a dysfunctional character called Malcolm to illustrate unusual characters. In 1993, Evans won the Perrier Comedy Award for his work at the Edinburgh Festival.

Evans' sweatiness drenches him on stage. During most of his headlining performances, he often takes an intermission, during which he has a quick shower and changes into a different suit. He has also said that his suits are regularly thrown away after just one performance, mainly because of the sweat, with dry-cleaners refusing to handle them.

In November 2005, Evans broke the world record for a solo act performing to the biggest comedy audience, playing to 10,108 at the Manchester Evening News Arena.

Evans toured the UK in Autumn 2008 with his brand new stand-up act entitled "Big". During his "Big" tour he performed in front of over 500,000 people on 59 dates. This was scheduled to involve the first ever performance by a comedian at the O2 Arena in London until Chris Rock announced dates that would take place at the venue prior to Evans. The DVD was filmed at the O2 arena and was released on 24 November 2008 and it became the best selling comedy DVD in the UK for Christmas 2008 selling over 1,000,000 copies.

Evans also appeared on the Channel 4's Comedy Gala for Great Ormond Street Hospital on 30 March 2010. He was the last act on stage and he received a comedy award and auctioned it to the audience.

Evans toured the UK again in 2011 with a new stand-up act entitled "Roadrunner", with 50 dates starting with Bournemouth in August, running until November in Cardiff. He appeared at the Wyvern theatre, Swindon on 10 June to test his new material (reading from notes) for the "Roadrunner" tour. He then sold out Bristol's Colston Hall for 3 nights to perfect his routine in July. The tour visits most of the UK�s major cities, plus two nights in Dublin in the Republic of Ireland, and includes four nights in Wembley Arena and four in the O2 Arena, meaning around 100,000 seats in London alone. Tickets went on sale Friday 15 October 2010 at 9 am. Evans sold �7,000,000 worth of tickets the first day they went on sale and ticket sales currently stand at 267,909. Due to popular demand, there have been a further 17 dates added to the tour in Bournemouth International Centre, Brighton Centre, Capital FM Arena, Wembley Arena, National Indoor Arena, The O2, Echo Arena, Motorpoint Arena, Odyssey Arena and The O2 (Dublin). This will bring the tour up to 67 dates in 14 cities which is 8 more than the record breaking tour of 2008.