THE ALTERNATIVE COMEDY EXPERIENCE showcases each act stripped across the series, appearing in a number of different episodes – with the live footage intercut with backstage clips that eavesdrop on the performers enjoying the kind of conversations about comedy stand-ups really have off stage.

These are the stand-ups other comedians slouch at the back of the room and cry with laughter at.

Phil appears in Series One

Written by Tony Roche, Holy Flying Circus was a fantastical re-imagining of the controversy surrounding The Life Of Brian, specifically the days leading up to the now famous public debate pitting Pythons John Cleese and Michael Palin against the Bishop of Southwark and Malcolm Muggeridge on Tim Rice’s 70’s talk show Friday Night, Saturday Morning.

I was cast as Terry Gilliam, the Python’s American member who is remembered best for his incredible animations and subsequent career as a visionary film director.

The cast was made up of Rufus Jones, Charles Edwards, Darren Boyd, Steve Punt, Tom Fisher and myself as the Pythons with Simon Greenall, Mark Heap, Jason Thorpe, Paul Chahidi, Tom Price, Roy Marsden, Michael Cochrane to name but a few – with a cameo from Stephen Fry as God.

Directed by Owen Harris. TRAILER

Fur TV was a comedy puppet show produced by MTV Networks Europe and aired on MTV channels world-wide voiced by Henry Trotter, Simon Greenall and me.

I played Fat Ed, a foul-mouthed, violent, beer swilling heavy metal obsessive.
Henry was Lapeño, a Brazilian sex god who is irresistible to women and Simon Greenall was Mervin, a perpetually cross-eyed, mentally retarded, perverted, self-abusing fanatic with a chronic addiction to masturbation.
Directed by Henry Trotter and Produced by Chris Wiatt for Warp X.

I played Jobraith, one half of an alien with Brendon Burns voicing the other half, Tudd, in an animated sitcom pilot set in the worst B&B in space written by British Animation Award winner Ian Carney.
Other voices included Sarah Hadland, Lewis Macleod, Greg McHugh, and Gavin Mitchell.
The show was produced by David Murdoch for Tern TV, animated by Superumami and went out on BBC One.

Here’s a link to a clip from it. Click here…

This show first aired on BBC Three in July 2006.
It revolved around the making of a comedy panel game show called Annually Retentive, hosted by comedian Rob Brydon.

I played the rather thick and insulting American Producer.
I was only seen in the first series.

In the autumn 2005 Broken News was shown on BBC Two and in Australia on SBS-TV.
The show poked fun at the world of 24-hour rolling news channels.

I played Josh Cashman, an extremely camp American Hollywood reporter on the vapid entertainment programme, So News with Lucy Porter and Philip Brodie.

Written and Directed by John Morton with Tony Roche.

A sitcom pilot with Absolutely Productions for C4 with Ed Byrne, Brendon Burns,
Nina Wadia, Steve Frost (more details to follow)

Steve Furst was Lenny Beige and The Variety Pack, produced by Richard Webb for BBC Choice, starred many house hold names such as Matt Lucas, David Walliams, Terry Wogan, Chas n Dave, Davina McCall, Claudia Winkleman & Tony Hadley.

I created many strange characters for Lenny Beige including Greasy Fist Joe, Euardo Chinchia, and Kenny Smiles – who blacks up to perform a tribute to Billie Holiday entitled Fuck the Germans.

This was a Comedy Lab in 1998 that I was cast in with co-star Rob Rouse.
The premise was that I was the older wiser flatmate teaching the younger flatmate, Rob, all about porn using a clip show format.
Lucy Porter was a roving reporter that interviewed the porn star Ben Dover.

It rated higher than any other Comedy Lab up to that point, but then again it did have PORN in the title.
Unsurprisingly, it was never made into a series!

Was a daily late-night topical comedy show hosted by John Gordillo that ran for 60 episodes until BBC Choice was rebranded as BBC Three.
I appeared weekly as an unusual character of some sort to make fun of John or wind him up.
My favourite spot was attempting to build a domino rally to find spiritual contentment.
This of course goes very wrong indeed.

titles

This was a comedy sketch show starring Alexei Sayle and directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of The Dead) which ran on BBC2 for a total of 6 episodes over one series in 1998.
I appeared briefly in a couple of sketches.

The Juice Pigs had an entire half hour to themselves on the CBC just before we split up and it shows what we could have done if we had been patient.
A creation of the Air Farce’s Roger Abbott and Don Ferguson, the show featured up and coming comedy artists, shined the light on little known comedy troupes, of which we were the most well known.

This Canadian Comedy Award nominated short comedy was very surreal, silly, and strange.
It was a perfect vehicle for Corky and the Juice Pigs.
Written and Directed by Liam Kiernan. (Would love to find a clip of this!!)

Possibly the worst sketch show ever made.

This programme was made by BBC Scotland for BBC One and was due to replace The League of Gentlemen in the schedules.

A promising cast of Kevin Gildea, Gabriel Quigley, Dawn Steele, Karl Minns and talented director Peter Boyd Maclean could not save the badly conceived and uneven script.

This was a total flop although there were some great individual performances and the odd fantastic sketch.

I played one of the wedding competition Judges in this 2006 British mockumentary/romantic comedy feature.

It was conceived and directed by Debbie Isitt and starred many acclaimed British comedians, including Jessica Stevenson, Jimmy Carr, Martin Freeman, Mark Heap, Julia Davis, Robert Webb, and Olivia Colman.

The script was entirely improvised.

If you blink you will miss me.
WATCH THE TRAILER

A short film from producer Miranda Davis (details to follow)

VIEW