About Gareth Cooper
Gigging his own special brand of musical comedy with a bit of stand-up and poetry thrown in for good measure, Gareth Cooper has 16 years under his belt as a successful comedian, actor, writer, and and musician.
Having written and performed with the award-winning & critically-acclaimed sketch group, Delete the Banjax, Gareth went solo in 2015 taking his debut comedy show Mishmash up to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In 2016 he won an award from the International Songwriting Competition (Comedy category) for his track, Dead With You. In August 2017, he took his second solo comedy show, Nerd Rock, to Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of PBH’s Free Fringe. He also performs with Small Laces, a new comedy band for kids.
And comedian Gareth Cooper is pressing the giggle buttons on screen as well as on stage. He filmed a bundle of comedy shorts for the BBC for their “About Shakespeare” series (featuring a pre-Star Wars John Boyega); played “Cool Tory” in a comedy video for Sam Delaney’s News Thing, which ended up going viral, and has also filmed a myriad of music videos for his own comedy songs, along with sketches from Delete the Banjax.
WATCH GARETH COOPER’S MISHMASH
Gareth Cooper’s mash-up of musical comedy, stand-up and poetry is a delightful wrangling on life’s big issues: Good, Evil, the zombie apocalypse and egg McMuffins. With original songs covering a range of gigglesome genres and daft topics, singing stand-up Gareth Cooper embraces the unique comedy in the unashamedly un-cool.
Reviews and Awards
Gareth Cooper’s debut comedy solo MishMash was named one of the Top 6 shows of the Fringe 2017 in the International Times. In 2016 he was winner of the International Songwriting Competition Comedy Category for his track, Dead with You.
‘Hysterically funny….missing this act would be like skipping Christmas’
(Editor’s Choice Award) – ThreeWeeks
‘I left grinning from ear to ear’
British Comedy Guide
‘Bloody marvellous’
Broadway Baby
‘Inventive ideas and cleverly written skits’
Chortle
‘He cavorts, sings, jokes, and generally astounds with his dynamism and comedy/musical expertise…there’s an undeniable warmth and charm that simply demands our attention, and gets it’
International Times
Gareth Cooper Tickets
Information on comedian Gareth Cooper’s upcoming gigs can be foundhere.
Can’t wait to see him live? Stream his full show now
Biography
Starting out as an actor, training at the Birmingham School of Acting, comedian, musician and writer Gareth Cooper was encouraged from a young age to explore his creative possibilities. He told The Zunda Files “One of my earliest stage memories was playing a magician when I was about 8 years old and just thinking “yup, this is where it’s at – I’m gonna do this”. That said, now I’m slightly uncertain as to why I didn’t want to become a magician…Also, I was (and am still) lucky enough to have parents who encouraged anything and everything we (my brothers and I) were passionate about.“You want to be an actor? Well, let’s get you into some acting classes”…..”You want to be a writer? Well, let’s get you some pens to write with”….”You want to be a mathematician? Here’s the concept of infinity to consider”. Yes, very helpful parents.”
That “can-do-anything” attitude has certainly stood him in good stead. In a wonderfully varied career to date, Gareth Cooper has written the music and lyrics for a West End Musical (The Hunting of the Snark); written and performed in a critically-acclaimed, award-winning sketch group (Delete the Banjax); co-adapted a best-selling children’s book for theatre (The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch); written and performed award-winning musical comedy; toured the UK with numerous theatre companies; played the drums and guitar for several bands; voiced animations, adverts, audiobooks and podcasts; and filmed a whole host of music videos, short films, adverts, comedy shorts and live performances.
His first foray into comedy was with the award-winning comedy sketch group, Delete the Banjax, with whom he spent five years writing sketches and songs with Sam Champion, Caroline May-Jones and Daniel Cook. After two members of the group moved to Australia, Gareth began writing more solo material, specialising in musical comedy, but throwing in a bit of stand-up and poetry as well, for good measure. Gareth Cooper also plays various characters in the monthly comedy podcast by Dan Thompson and Jim Eaton, Bad Sandwich, as well as spending time writing scripts, sketches, and comedy songs for a young persons’ YouTube channel.So is a stand-up comedy career a choice for Gareth Cooper, or a calling? He told Broadway Baby“God, I wouldn’t say it’s a calling – just something I really enjoy doing! I think if you can find something you enjoy, do that, and try not to worry about things like career and money and affording to eat.”
Get More Gareth Cooper
Want more of Gareth Cooper? You’re in luck – his full stand-up comedy special is available to watch on NextUp – a digital comedy club where you can stream instantly over 120 comedy specials from some of the exciting names in comedy. Oh, and there’s a 7 day free trial.