What The Press Said About Russell Howard Live, so far:
“completely irresistible…one of the most effective political stand-ups around, for the way he can keep any crowd on board, being didactic without being divisive… God, the man can put on a show. Howard is a brilliantly talented live performer”
Tristram Fane Saunders, The Daily Telegraph ★★★★
“you’ll not find a slicker, more personable performer the length and breadth of the land”★★★★
Mark Wareham, The Mail On Sunday
“Hilarious and Humble…established a solid international fan base thanks to years of touring and his work spreading like wildfire on the internet…wildly successful and acclaimed”
Simon Thompson, Forbes (US)
“comedy A-lister…With smart, satisfying and well-rationed callbacks, Howard builds his giddy anecdotes into a tsunami of feelgood humour, drenching the sizeable crowd in positivity. No wonder they were moved to rise to their feet.” ★★★★½
Steve Bennett, Chortle
“a humor phenomenon made in the UK, which social networks have spread around the world. Without barriers or borders, his stand-up shows have already won fans from geographies as diverse as the USA, China or Denmark. Language is not an obstacle to getting a good laugh”
Ana Pina, The Portuguese Jornal Económico
It was announced today, 4th July 2024, that Russell Howard is returning to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the first time since 2019, with 3 live Wonderbox podcast shows.
Launching in to the Top 10 Comedy Podcasts, Wonderbox has seen Russell chat to guests including John Oliver, Jameela Jamil, Shaun Keaveny, Roisin Conaty, Munya Chawawa, Jimmy Carr, Jack Whitehall, Greg Davies and Guz Khan, about personal mementos they’d keep in their Wonderbox to remind them about important moments in their lives. Clips from episodes have amassed over 80 million views on social media, with several going viral such as Jimmy Carr describing his dream cocktail (17 million views), Greg Davies on his missing Paella dish (7.9 million views) and Fatiha El-Ghorri diving into language (3.1 million views).
Now for the first time on Wonderbox, Russell is set to host special guests (to be announced) in front of a live audience at the Assembly Gordon Aikman Theatre on the 1st, 2nd and 4th August at 12.15pm.
Tickets are on general sale now and available at www.russell-howard.co.uk
After the global success of writing and starring in 182 episodes of The Russell Howard Hour (Sky) and Russell Howard’s Good News (BBC), as well as six stand-up specials, Russell’s clips have garnered over 1 billion views on social media, and he has sold 2 million tickets worldwide. Russell is currently on his fourth and biggest world tour to date with Russell Howard Live, which has seen him sell over 315,000 tickets and perform over 200 shows across the UK (including 13 sell-out shows at the iconic London Palladium), Europe, America, Australia and New Zealand. Following the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Russell is set to play Canada and The Nordic Region, ahead of returning to the U.S. for additional dates. Russell has over 9 million followers on social media.
@russellhoward @Jimmy Carr ♬ original sound – Russell Howard
For more information, please contact Victoria Wedderburn on 07557160139 or VWedderburn@avalonuk.com and Chloe Waterhouse on CWaterhouse@avalonuk.com
EDINBURGH FRINGE LISTINGS INFORMATION:
Russell Howard’s Wonderbox: Live
Venue: Assembly Gordon Aikman Theatre
Date & Time: 1st, 2nd and 4th August at 12.15pm.
Duration: 60 mins
TikTok: @russellhoward
Instagram: @russellhoward
What The Press Have Said About Russell Howard:
“one of the world’s top comedians”
Martin Hemming, The Sunday Times
“Howard is a megastar” ★★★★
Allan Radcliffe, The Times
“A joy to watch”
The New York Times
“Russell Howard is at the top of his game, his elegantly crafted observational stand-up using cunningly spun callbacks and physical comedy to flirt with controversy, domesticity, politics, sex, and Calippo ice lollies”
Stephen Armstrong, The Sunday Times
“he takes stock of the current chaos and concludes that we need more fun…. Howard says laughter brings people together. It certainly did last night.”
★★★★ Bruce Dessau, Evening Standard
“Hero’s return for the uplifting comedy king…Howard is undeniably one of the biggest names in comedy”
★★★★ Josh Stephenson, Metro
“completely irresistible…one of the most effective political stand-ups around, for the way he can keep any crowd on board, being didactic without being divisive… God, the man can put on a show. Howard is a brilliantly talented live performer”
Tristram Fane Saunders, The Daily Telegraph ★★★★
“you’ll not find a slicker, more personable performer the length and breadth of land”★★★★
Mark Wareham, The Mail On Sunday
“comedy A-lister…With smart, satisfying and well-rationed callbacks, Howard builds his giddy anecdotes into a tsunami of feelgood humour, drenching the sizeable crowd in positivity. No wonder they were moved to rise to their feet.” ★★★★½
Steve Bennett, Chortle
“Howard masterfully builds a show that is hilarious and convincing in equal manner”
★★★★ Owen Richards, The i
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Russell Howard:
- Russell wrapped filming the sixth series of ratings and critical hit The Russell Howard Hour in December 2022. The show immediately became one of Sky’s most successful entertainment series when it launched and went on to see huge success online with over 500 million views on social media.
- Selling over 300, 000 tickets, Russell’s third world tour, Respite saw him play a UK arena run, plus a second national leg including 5 Hammersmith Apollo dates, culminating with taping his second Netflix special Lubricant which is streaming now.
- The two-part Netflix instalment features his stand-up special striving to make sense of a world that is spinning out of control, Lubricant and documentary mapping his attempts to keep performing throughout the Covid 19 pandemic, Until The Wheels Come Off. With this release, Russell became the first comedian to debut a special alongside a documentary on Netflix and the sole comedian to have two of the top ten most-streamed specials across all platforms in the UK
- Russell became the first stand-up comedian from the Northern Hemisphere to perform in New Zealand and Australia after the global lockdown in 2021.
- Whilst on tour in New Zealand and Australia, Russell filmed a new 3 x 60 min travelogue, Russell Howard Stands Up To The World, airing in the UK on Sky in New Zealand on TVNZ in 2021.
- During lockdown in 2020, Russell was on our screens twice a week presenting a new Sky One show, Russell Howard’s Home Time, from his childhood bedroom for which he donated his fee to NHS Charities Together and The Trussell Trust.
- Russell Howard and his mum Ninette were on our screens with the fourth series of Comedy Central’s Russell Howard & Mum: Globetrotters in 2019. The first three series reached 4.2M individuals, with the first series being the highest rated new commission on the channel the year it launched. After achieving as much as +241% on the 16-34s slot average and +172% on the adult’s slot average, series three and four were commissioned with extended episodes.
- A Netflix special of Russell’s previous critically acclaimed world tour titled Recalibrate launched worldwide in December 2017.
- Russell’s 2017 sell-out international tour, Round the World saw him play a total of 87 dates with runs in the UK, USA, Canada, Europe, China, New Zealand and Australia. This tour also saw a record-breaking 10-night run at the Royal Albert Hall, overtaking eight in a row jointly held by Frank Sinatra and Barry Manilow, and performing the biggest ever stand-up show in China.
- Whilst Russell was touring Round The World in 2017, his previous stand-up show Wonderbox (2014) went viral with 15 million views in China (with Mandarin subtitles) and 55 million views worldwide. Russell Crowe and Stephen Fry are amongst some of the Twitterati who shared the heart-warming story of Russell and a sick fan’s triumph over adversity.
- Russell Howard’s Good News is available around the world via a YouTube channel launched in 2014 – allowing fans to watch full episodes of the show (without piracy) in countries where the show wasn’t already broadcast – and has had over 48 million views and been watched in 180 countries (including North Korea and Vatican City)
- Christmas 2015 saw Russell’s first comedy-drama with the premiere of, A Gert Lush Christmas (BBC Two). As well as co-writing the special, Russell starred for the first time along-side his sister Kerry Howard (Him & Her, BBC Three), Greg Davies (The Inbetweeners, Man Down, Channel 4), Neil Morrissey (Men Behaving Badly, Waterloo Road, BBC1), and Sophie Thompson (EastEnders, BBC1).
- Russell’s stand-up series, Russell Howard’s Stand Up Central, which aired from April 2015 on Comedy Central (UK) achieved viewing figures of 159% above the slot average for its first episode.
- Episodes of Russell Howard’s Good News have even been subtitled and uploaded to Chinese video site AcFun, where the show has also been watched over 4 million times.
- 10 series of Russell Howard’s Good News saw Russell write and star in 96 episodes.
- Russell Howard’s Good News was regularly the most watched show on iPlayer across all BBC Channels.
- Russell’s 2014 Wonderbox tour saw him perform to over 285,000 fans at 40 shows across the UK and Ireland, including four consecutive nights at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
- Russell extended his 2014 Wonderbox tour across the world following over 17,000 suggestions from his fans after he asked them via Facebook where they’d most like to see him perform. The extra sold out dates saw Russell travel to New York, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington DC, Denver, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Auckland.
- Russell’s tour in 2011, Right Here, Right Now saw him perform to over 240,000 fans across the country, including three sold out dates at London’s O2 arena.
- Russell Howard has four bestselling stand-up DVDs, 2014’s Wonderbox Live, 2011’s Right Here, Right Now, 2008’s Russell Howard Live and 2009’s Russell Howard Live – Dingledodies, which have sold over 619,000 DVDs and all been in the top 5 DVD comedy chart.
- Russell made 58 appearances on Mock The Week between 2006 and 2010.
- Russell Howard’s fifth ever stand-up gig got him to the final of Channel 4’s So You Think You’re Funny.
- In 2006 Russell Howard was nominated for the Edinburgh Fringe Comedy Award for his show Wandering, which followed with a nationwide sell-out tour.
