Jimmy Carr
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Jimmy Carr (born 1973) is a British comedian. After taking a first in Social and Political Sciences at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, Carr got a job with the Oil company Shell. Soon afterwards, he quit in order to begin a career in stand up. Carr eventually gained recognition and was recruited by Channel 4 to host the game shows such as Distraction and Your Face or Mine? In 2004 he released his first stand up DVD entitled simply "Jimmy Carr Live".
In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.
His manner of smiling broadly, yet slightly unconvincingly, is similar to the BBC weather presenter Helen Willetts.
In 2004, it was announced he would host a US version of Distraction for Comedy Central.
He was a guest presenter for one episode of Have I Got News For You and has appeared on Never Mind The Buzzcocks twice, and Stephen Fry's QI. He has also presented many 100's programmes for Channel 4: 100 Worst Pop Records, 100 Worst Britons and 100 Scary Moments. He is also a regular guest and interviewer on Loose Ends (BBC Radio 4) and The Fred McCauley Show (BBC Radio Scotland). Jimmy is a prolific writer as well as performer, with writing credits including Bo' Selecta! (C4) & Meet Ricky Gervais (C4) as well as writing for Lily Savage and Frank Skinner.
During his guest appearance on the BBC motoring show Top Gear, he set a new celebrity test track lap record on the 'Star in a Reasonably Priced Car' segment. Driving the show's Suzuki Liana, he knocked Simon Cowell off the top spot.
2004 was a successful year for Jimmy's live work. In 2003 he sold out an entire month's performances of his Edinburgh Festival show Charm Offensive by the second day of the festival, and received 5 reviews from four major newspapers. In 2004 he performed sold out solo shows at Dublin's Vicar Street, & the Leicester Comedy Festival, can also soon be seen at the Glasgow Festival, Kilkenny Festival and the Galway Festival along with appearances at The Bloomsbury Theatre where he filmed his first live DVD.
In 2005 he became the presenter of a new Channel 4 show called The Friday Night Project, and a quiz show by the name of 8 Out of 10 Cats. He is also touring the country with his show, A Public Display of Affection, starting on 9 April 2005 at the Gulbenkian Theatre in Canterbury.