A genuine original. Poetical, philosophical, humane, completely charming and funny to boot Guardian
We need him The Scotsman
Award winning stand-up comedian and poet ROB AUTON (Dave’s Funniest Joke Of The Fringe award winner, Glastonbury’s ‘Poet In Residence’), returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to perform The Hair Show at Just The Tonic’s Fancy Room for the first time from 3rd -26th August at 3.55pm.
For the past five years Rob has used his command of words and heart-filled offbeat humour to explore seemingly mundane subjects: sleep, water, faces, the sky and the colour yellow. These shows have given rise to an underground cult status at the Fringe with people queuing up to pack out the 60 capacity cave. This year’s show sees Rob cast an introspective eye over the world of hair, underpinned by leaving his head hair and beard to its own devices until he has performed The Hair Show for the final time. With tour dates booked in at the Stand comedy venues for April 2018, Rob is already halfway to Tom Hanks in Castaway. The Hair Show is an exploration into the importance of appearance and how people react to someone who looks like he has checked out. This show is suitable for people who have, or have had hair and hairs.
York-born Rob has continued to build an audience through having ideas, writing them down and standing up and saying things at comedy, poetry and theatre nights since quitting his job in advertising in 2008. Rob recently released spoken word album At Home With Rob on SCROOBIUS PIP’S record label Speech Development Records, adding to two collections of writing and illustrations published by Burning Eye books and having his poetry turned into short films which were shown on Channel 4. His unique world view has been acknowledged through being shortlisted for the prestigious Spoken Word Award by the Arts Foundation, receiving a Best Short Film nomination for the The Peamaster, which he co-wrote and starred in, at the Milan Film Festival and taking on Glastonbury Festival’s official ‘Poet in Residence’ role in 2014.
Alongside performing solo, Rob hosts the best poetry gig in the UK (voted by The Times) Bang Said The Gun. Starting as an antidote to dreary poetry and even drearier poetry nights, the spoken-word night’s raucous and anarchic spirit attracts a rich mix of new talent and some of the most established names in poetry/music including SIR ANDREW MOTION, KATE TEMPEST and JARVIS COCKER.
In 2013 Rob won the Dave Funniest Joke of The Fringe award with a gag about Chinese Wispas. On the day the news broke, he spoke to VANESSA FELTZ on BBC Radio 2, the conversation resulted in her saying “that’s just sad” a quote that will stick with him forever.
What The Press Said
He is entirely compelling to watch. He’s a poet/writer/talker and it’s funny in parts but that’s not the point – there is something else happening, I’m not entirely sure what it is but it’s great and it wallops you in the belly Daniel Kitson
A genuine original The Guardian
Funny, baffling, and deeply moving The Telegraph
I haven’t seen anything else quite like it, or him Stage
Few artists have ever managed to consistently provide me with such joy and pleasure as Rob Auton Scroobius Pip
Charming, eccentric and uplifting, Auton is a talent to watch The Independent
His absurd brand of stand-up and poetry is exactly what the country needs right now Huffington Post
LISTINGS INFORMATION
ROB AUTON – The Hair Show
Venue: Just The Tonic, Fancy Room
Dates: 3rd -26th Aug (not 14th)
Time: 3.55pm
Website: www.robauton.co.uk
For more information please contact: Victoria Wedderburn, Florrie Sheehan or Nathan Dean on 0207 598 7222 or victoriaw@avalonuk.com / florries@avalonuk.com / nathand@avalonuk.com
