Simon Munnery
Simon Munnery, also known as 'The League Against Tedium', is a British comedy writer and experimental standup comedian. He performs mainly to an alternative audience but has pierced the mainstream both with his BBC Radio 1 show in 1997 and his BBC2 television series, Attention Scum! in 2001.
Munnery's experimental style is reified through his sartorial appearence: his tragically unfashionable glasses, homemade clothes (or clothes apparently donated to him by comedian Jeff Green), giant animated hats, and dramatic facial hair. As 'The League' he often dons a hat crafted from a kettle and one of his standup shows is performed entirely with a metal bucket over his head.
His standup is perhaps best described as often satirical, often political and almost always surreal. Munnery plays harmonica and his dialogue is full of quotable remarks, inviting comparison with Oscar Wilde, ("If you've only ever read one book in your life... I strongly recommend that you keep your mouth shut").
While at university, he took part in a standup double-act called God and Jesus alongside Simon Cheek. He also worked (along with Steve Coogan, Patrick Marber Richard Herring and Stewart Lee) at the Edinburgh Festival in a piece called The Dum Show.
Munnery was brought to the attention of a comedy community as the compere of a post-alternative comedy cabaret called Cluub Zarathustra performed originally in London and later at the Edinburgh Festival. Cluub Zarathustra featured the talents of Stewart Lee, Kevin Eldon, Sally Phillips, Johnny Vegas, Julian Barratt, Roger Mann, Jason Freeman and the music of Richard Thomas and Lori Lixenberg. A television pilot was made of Cluub Z for Channel 4, but was never broadcast.
During the 1990s he made two series for BBC Radio 1, one based on his League Against Tedium character, and another called Alan Parker's 59 Minutes of Truth.
Perhaps his crowning achievement, Attention Scum! was a television series produced for the BBC and directed by Stewart Lee. It involved Munnery as 'The League Against Tedium' driving around the United Kingdom in an adapted transit van and preaching to the masses with the help of an opera singer (Lori Lixenberg), a sedated vampire (Richard Thomas), and a monkey (Munnery's wife Janet). He has also entered the public eye with his musical and comedy work such as Alan Parker: Urban Warrior on the stage, and for writing and hosting the 1999 TV comedy game show, Either/Or.
Recently, Munnery has been working in radio, and hosts Simon Munnery's Experimental Half Hour ("experimental in that it lasts an hour") on Resonance FM. He also wrote and performed two four-part Radio 4 series called "Where Did It All Go Wrong?", which were broadcast in the summer of 2003 and the spring of 2005. His latest television appearance was on the BBC Three show, The Comic Side of 7 Days.
Munnery often can be seen at The Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh and performs one-man shows there during festival time, as well as at the Glasgow counterpart of the same club. Some recent Munnery festival shows include Trilogy, Buckethead and Simon Munnery's Annual General Meeting. Also, Munnery can still be seen at small venues, where his poetry usually takes precedence.
External links
League Against Tedium - An unofficial but pretty well researched fan site.
Comedy CV - A small write-up on Munnery with good picture.
A blog entry in which comedy writer Richard Herring relates a personal Munnery anecdote.