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Robin Ince started his comedy career as a writer, working on shows including Alistair McGowan's Big Impresison, V Graham, Norton and Meet Ricky Gervais, his first of many collaborations with the Extras star.

Ince appeared with Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Jimmy Carr in the 2001 Edinburgh show Rubbernecker, and regularly supports Gervais on tour. He also appeared in one episode of The Office, playing interviewee Stewart Foot.

That role inspired his tongue-in-cheek solo Edinburgh debut in 2004, and he has returned to the Fringe every year since. In 2005 he started erudite comedy night The Book Club, loosely based around bad literature, which won him the innovation award at the 2006 Chortle Awards as well as the outstanding contribution to comedy accolade at that year's Time Out awards. In 2007, he was named best compere at the Chortle Awards.

On TV, he has appeared as John Peel on Channel 4's 11 O'Clock Show as well as countless panel games and 'talking heads' shows, including Channel 4's 100 Greatest Musicals (2003), BBC Three's The State We're In (2003), Celebdaq (2004), BBC Two's Mock The Week (2006). He has also appeared on Radio 4's Now Show, Just A Minute and Mitch Benn's Crimes Against Music.

In 2006, he co-wrote his first feature film, Razzle Dazzle, about children's dance contests in Australia.

Original Review:

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Saw him a couple of years ago on a whim; cheap tickets, so why not? I could not have been more pleasantly surprised, it was one of the best shows I've seen. Highly recommended.

Jamie McIntyre, July 2011

Tries very hard to be funny. Unfortunately, he just isn't.

Tom, November 2010

Smug tedious hectoring know all. Buy The Guardian and be bored in the comfort of your home rather than waste money to see him. Or wait for one of his many yawn inducing BBC appearances. Probably alongside Marcus Brigstocke, the only man in the world more who's more of a "Student Grant" than this prat.

Robert, December 2009

I watched Robin Ince as part of Josie Long's Underbelly show. For me he was the highlight of the night. Truly engaging, surprising, and funny. His frantic delivery built to a intelligent outburst that really was fantastic. I can't wait to see more.

Jay Cowle, July 2009

Ince is a very Radio 4-friendly, charming, harmless act. Saw the ‘Bleeding Heart Liberal’ show in Tunbridge Wells. This was a ‘show of two halves’. The first half was around 20 minutes of mostly non-amusing observation of what happened to him on the way to the theatre, armed with a notebook. This was filler, as was a musical act featuring a Jacques Brel-inspired front man backed up with guitar, drums and double bass, singing existential songs about a blind man’s dog, uniformed, uninformed idiots and Cupid. Post-interval Ince was better. At the end, he said he’d missed out a lot of the ‘good stuff’, which suggests that he should beef up a weak first half with some of that. His self-awareness and realisation that he is not Eddie Izzard is acute and a little grating, but Ince is good when angrily attacking the media, religious leaders, and hypocrisy. With his ‘highbrow-books-on-a-table’ props and ‘top three’ lists of physicists, Ince is trying perhaps a bit too hard to cut out a persona of the intellectual. Ince repeatedly says 'I am a Marxist' but he fails to explore this and, as such, comes across as the shallow, comfortable, suburban Guardianista par excellence. An adequate two hours entertainment. With a bit more structure, Robin could lift his act from average to good.

Tim Probert, January 2009

Robin is one of Ricky Gervais's best mates which explains how this unfunny so called comedian gets work. It's obviously a case of it's not what you know it's who you know.

vectra owner, January 2009

Terrible comedian, whenever I see him him sat there in silence, he doesn't even get a smile from me from his so called jokes. *Yawn*

Bert Stein, November 2008

Pedantic,childish and a complete waste of a night. Never have so many been so bored by so few.

ted crilly, October 2008

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