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Bowls

Lawn bowler Tim Mason
First played	13th century
Characteristics
Categorization	Bowling
Equipment	Bowl/wood and jack/kitty

Bowls (also lawn bowls, variants include flat-green bowls and crown-green bowls) is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a pitch which may be flat (for "flat-green bowls") or convex or uneven (for "crown-green bowls"). It is normally played outdoors although there are some indoor venues and the surface is either natural grass, artificial turf, or cotula (in New Zealand).

It is popular in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Hong Kong and parts of the United States and more recently in Japan. It belongs to the boules game family and is related to bocce and pétanque.

History[link]

Bowls match in progress at Wookey Hole, United Kingdom

It has been traced certainly to the 13th century, and conjecturally to the 12th. William Fitzstephen (d. about 1190), in his biography of Thomas Becket, gives a graphic sketch of the London of his day and, writing of the summer amusements of the young men, says that on holidays they were "exercised in Leaping, Shooting, Wrestling, Casting of Stones [in jactu lapidum], and Throwing of Javelins fitted with Loops for the Purpose, which they strive to fling before the Mark; they also use Bucklers, like fighting Men." It is commonly supposed that by jactus lapidum, Fitzstephen meant the game of bowls, but though it is possible that round stones may sometimes have been employed in an early variety of the game - and there is a record of iron bowls being used, though at a much later date, on festive occasions at Nairn, - nevertheless the inference seems unwarranted. The jactus lapidum of which he speaks may have been more akin to shotput. It is beyond dispute, however, that the game, at any rate in a rudimentary form, was played in the 13th century. A manuscript of that period in the royal library, Windsor (No. 20, E iv.), contains a drawing representing two players aiming at a small cone instead of an earthenware ball or jack. The world's oldest surviving bowling green is the Southampton Old Bowling Green, which was first used in 1299.^[1]

Another manuscript of the same century has a crude but spirited picture which brings us into close touch with the existing game.^{[citation needed]} Three figures are introduced and a jack. The first player's bowl has come to rest just in front of the jack; the second has delivered his bowl and is following after it with one of those eccentric contortions still not unusual on modern greens, the first player meanwhile making a repressive gesture with his hand, as if to urge the bowl to stop short of his own; the third player is depicted as in the act of delivering his bowl. A 14th-century manuscript, Book of Prayers, in the Francis Douce collection in the Bodleian Library at Oxford contains a drawing in which two persons are shown, but they bowl to no mark. Strutt (Sports and Pastimes) suggests that the first player's bowl may have been regarded by the second player as a species of jack; but in that case it is not clear what was the first player's target. In these three earliest illustrations of the pastime it is worth noting that each player has one bowl only, and that the attitude in delivering it was as various five or six hundred years ago as it is to-day. In the third he stands almost upright; in the first he kneels; in the second he stoops, halfway between the upright and the kneeling position.

As the game grew in popularity, it came under the ban of king and parliament, both fearing it might jeopardise the practice of archery, then so important in battle. Statutes forbidding it and other sports were enacted in the reigns of Edward III, Richard II and other monarchs. Even when, on the invention of gunpowder and firearms, the bow had fallen into disuse as a weapon of war, the prohibition was continued. The discredit attaching to bowling alleys, first established in London in 1455, probably encouraged subsequent repressive legislation, for many of the alleys were connected with taverns frequented by the dissolute and gamesters. The word "bowls" occurs for the first time in the statute of 1511 in which Henry VIII confirmed previous enactments against unlawful games. By a further act of 1541—which was not repealed until 1845—artificers, labourers, apprentices, servants and the like were forbidden to play bowls at any time except Christmas, and then only in their master's house and presence. It was further enjoined that any one playing bowls outside his own garden or orchard was liable to a penalty of 6s. 8d., while those possessed of lands of the yearly value of £100 might obtain licences to play on their own private greens.

In 1864 William Wallace Mitchell (1803–1884), a Glasgow Cotton Merchant, published his "Manual of Bowls Playing" following his work as the secretary formed in 1849 by Scottish bowling clubs which became the basis of the rules of the modern game. Young Mitchell was only 11 when he played on Kilmarnock Bowling green, the oldest club in Scotland, instituted in 1740.

National Bowling Associations were established in the late 1800s. In the then Victorian Colony (now State of Victoria in Australia), the (Royal) Victorian Bowling Association was formed in 1880 and The Scottish Bowling Association was established in 1892, although there had been a failed attempt in 1848 by 200 Scottish clubs.

Today the sport is played in over 40 countries with more than 50 member national authorities. The home of the modern game is still Scotland with the World Bowls centre in Edinburgh at Caledonia House,1 Redheughs Rigg, South Gyle, Edinburgh, EH12 9DQ.

Game[link]

Drumoak bowling green

Lawn bowls is usually played on a large, rectangular, precisely levelled and manicured grass or synthetic surface known as a bowling green which is divided into parallel playing strips called rinks. In the simplest competition, singles, one of the two opponents flips a coin to see who wins the "mat" and begins a segment of the competition (in bowling parlance, an "end"), by placing the mat and rolling the jack to the other end of the green to serve as a target. Once it has come to rest, the jack is aligned to the centre of the rink and the players take turns to roll their bowls from the mat towards the jack and thereby build up the "head".

A bowl may curve outside the rink boundary on its path, but must come to rest within the rink boundary to remain in play. Bowls falling into the ditch are dead and removed from play, except in the event when one has "touched" the jack on its way. "Touchers" are marked with chalk and remain alive in play even though they are in the ditch. Similarly if the jack is knocked into the ditch it is still alive unless it is out of bounds to the side resulting in a "dead" end which is replayed, though according to international rules the jack is "respotted" to the centre of the rink and the end is continued. After each competitor has delivered all of their bowls (four each in singles and pairs, three each in triples, and two bowls each in fours), the distance of the closest bowls to the jack is determined (the jack may have been displaced) and points, called "shots", are awarded for each bowl which a competitor has closer than the opponent's nearest to the jack. For instance, if a competitor has bowled two bowls closer to the jack than their opponent's nearest, they are awarded two shots. The exercise is then repeated for the next end, a game of bowls typically being of twenty one ends.

Lawn bowls is played on grass and variations from green to green are common. Greens come in all shapes and sizes, fast, slow, big crown, small crown and so on.

Scoring[link]

Scoring systems vary from competition to competition. Games can be decided when:

• a player in a singles game reaches a specified target number of shots (usually 21 or 25).
• a team (pair, triple or four) has the higher score after a specified number of ends.

Games to a specified number of ends may also be drawn. The draw may stand, or the opponents may be required to play an extra end to decide the winner. These provisions are always published beforehand in the event's Conditions of Play.

In the Laws of the Sport of Bowls^[2] the winner in a singles game is the first player to score 21 shots. In all other disciplines (pairs, triples, fours) the winner is the team who has scored the most shots after 21/25 ends of play. Often local tournaments will play shorter games (often 10 or 12 ends). Some competitions use a "set" scoring system, with the first to seven points awarded a set in a best-or-three or best-of-five set match. As well as singles competition, there can be two (pairs), three (triples) and four-player (fours) teams. In these, teams bowl alternately, with each player within a team bowling all their bowls, then handing over to the next player. The team captain or "skip" always plays last and is instrumental in directing his team's shots and tactics. The current method of scoring in the professional tour (World Bowls Tour) is sets. Each set consists of nine ends and the player with the most shots at the end of a set wins the set. If the score is tied the set is halved. If a player wins two sets, or gets a win and a tie, that player wins the game. If each player wins a set, or both sets end tied, there is a 3-end tiebreaker to determine a winner.

Swifts Creek Bowls Club

Bias of bowls[link]

Two bowls with club stickers. The jack/kitty is sitting in front of the bowls.

Bowls are designed to travel a curved path because of a weight bias which was originally produced by inserting weights in one side of the bowl. This is no longer permitted by the rules and bias is now produced entirely by the shape of the bowl. A bowler determines the bias direction of the bowl in his hand by a dimple or symbol on one side. Regulations determine the minimum bias allowed, and the range of diameters (11.6 to 13.1 cm), but within these rules bowlers can and do choose bowls to suit their own preference. They were originally made from lignum vitae, a dense wood giving rise to the term "woods" for bowls, but are now more typically made of a hard plastic composite material.

Bowls were once only available coloured black or brown but they are now available in a variety of colours. They have unique symbol markings engraved on them for identification. Since many bowls look the same, coloured, adhesive stickers or labels are also used to mark the bowls of each team in bowls matches. Some local associations agree on specific colours for stickers for each of the clubs in their area. Provincial or national colours are often assigned in national and international competitions. These stickers are used by officials to distinguish teams.

Bowls have symbols unique to the set of four for identification. The side of the bowl with a larger symbol within a circle indicates the side away from the bias. That side with a smaller symbol within a smaller circle is the bias side toward which the bowl will turn. It is not uncommon for players to deliver a "wrong bias" shot from time to time and see their carefully aimed bowl crossing neighbouring rinks rather than heading towards their jack.

When bowling there are several types of delivery. "Draw" shots are those where the bowl is rolled to a specific location without causing too much disturbance of bowls already in the head. For a right-handed bowler, "forehand draw" or "finger peg" is initially aimed to the right of the jack, and curves in to the left. The same bowler can deliver a "backhand draw" or "thumb peg" by turning the bowl over in his hand and curving it the opposite way, from left to right. In both cases, the bowl is rolled as close to the jack as possible, unless tactics demand otherwise. A "drive" or "fire" or "strike" involves bowling with force with the aim of knocking either the jack or a specific bowl out of play - and with the drive's speed, there is virtually no noticeable (or, at least, much less) curve on the shot. An "upshot" or "yard on" shot involves delivering the bowl with an extra degree of weight (often referred to as "controlled" weight or "rambler"), enough to displace the jack or disturb other bowls in the head without killing the end. A "block" shot is one that is intentionally placed short to defend from a drive or to stop an oppositions draw shot. The challenge in all these shots is to be able to adjust line and length accordingly, the faster the delivery, the narrower the line or "green".

Variations of play[link]

Particularly in team competition there can be a large number of bowls on the green towards the conclusion of the end, and this gives rise to complex tactics. Teams "holding shot" with the closest bowl will often make their subsequent shots not with the goal of placing the bowl near the jack, but in positions to make it difficult for opponents to get their bowls into the head, or to places where the jack might be deflected to if the opponent attempts to disturb the head.

A crown green at Edgworth, Lancashire.

There are many different ways to set up the game. Crown Green Bowling utilises the entire green. A player can send the jack anywhere on the green in this game and the green itself is more akin to a golf green, with lots of undulation. Crown Green Bowls is very popular mostly in the North of England but also in Wales, West Midlands and Shropshire. The game is played usually to 21-up in Singles and Doubles format with some competitions playing to 31-up. The Panel (Professional Crown Green Bowls) is played at the Red Lion, Westhoughton daily and is played to 41-up with greenside betting throughout play. The game of Crown Green Bowls is looking to grow with the introduction of the Portuguese Masters in October^[when?] and recent interest from Sky TV to re-televise the sport.^{[citation needed]}

Singles, triples and fours and Australian pairs are some ways the game can be played. In singles, two people play against each other and the first to win to either 21, 25 or 31 shots (how many bowls of ones are closest to the white jack or kitty are shots). The controlling body sets the game to either 21, 25 or 31. An additional scoring method is set play. This comprises two sets over nine ends, an end being the completion of both players delivering all their bowls. Should a player win a set each, they then play a further 3 ends that will decide the winner.

Pairs allows both people on a team to play Skip and Lead. The lead throws two bowls, the skip delivers two, then the lead delivers his remaining two, the skip then delivers his remaining two bowls. Each end, the leads and skips switch positions. This is played over 21 ends or sets play. Triples is with three players while Fours is with four players in each team and is played over 21 ends.

Another pairs variation, popular in New Zealand, is 242 pairs. In the first end of the game the A players lead off with 2 bowls each, then the B players play 4 bowls each, before the A players complete the end with their final 2 bowls. The A players act as lead and skip in the same end. In the second end the roles are reversed with the A players being in the middle. This alternating pattern continues through the game which is typically over 15 ends.

Short Mat Bowls is an all-year sport unaffected by weather conditions and it does not require a permanent location as the rink mats can be rolled up and stowed away. This makes it particularly appropriate for small communities as it can be played in village halls, schools, sports and social clubs, hotels and so on. where space is restricted and is also required for other purposes: it is even played on North Sea oil rigs where space is really at a premium.

Bowls are played by the blind and paraplegic. Blind bowlers are extremely skilful. A string is run out down the centre of the lane & wherever the jack lands it is moved across to the string and the length is called out by a sighted marker, when the woods are sent the distance from the jack is called out, in yards, feet and inches-the position in relation to the jack is given using the clock,12.00 is behind the jack. The world's best are a match for the best club level sighted bowlers^{[citation needed]}.

Competitions[link]

Merewether Bowling Club, Newcastle, New South Wales

The Alberta Male Junior Champion for 2007. Taken at Royal Lawn Bowling Club in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

There is a World Indoor Bowls Championships and also World Bowls Events.

Bowls is played at the Commonwealth Games; the last being held in Delhi, India, where Natalie Melmore (England) and Robert Weale (Wales) won the singles Gold Medals. 2014 sees the Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

References in popular culture[link]

• Blackball – a 2003 comedy film about a young bowls player, based upon Griff Sanders.^[3]
• Crackerjack - a 2002 Australian comedy film about a wisecracking layabout who joins a lawn bowls club in order to be allowed to use a free parking spot but is forced to play lawn bowls with the much older crowd when the club enters financial difficulty.

See also[link]

• Basque bowls
• Bocce
• Boccia
• Hastings Open Bowls Tournament
• Lawn game
• Pétanque
• Short mat bowls
• Trugo

References[link]

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bowls (sport)

• Lawn bowling at the Open Directory Project
• Short mat bowls at the Open Directory Project
• A GAME OF BOWLS (1939) (archive film of a bowling match at the Whitevale and Kingswood Bowling Clubs, Glasgow - from the National Library of Scotland: SCOTTISH SCREEN ARCHIVE)

Bryan Cranston
Bryan Cranston in 2010
Born	Bryan Lee Cranston (1956-03-07) March 7, 1956 (age 56) Canoga Park, California, United States
Occupation	Actor, voice actor, screenwriter, film director
Years active	1982—
Spouse	Mickey Middleton (1980s to late 1980s; divorced) Robin Dearden (1989— )

Bryan Lee Cranston (born March 7, 1956) is an American actor. He is also a voice actor, writer and director. He is best known for his roles as Hal, the father in the Fox situation comedy Malcolm in the Middle and Walter White in the AMC drama series Breaking Bad, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series three consecutive times. Since earning critical acclaim while starring in these television series, he has gone on to perform in many feature films.

Early life[link]

Cranston was born in Canoga Park, California, to Peggy Sell, a radio actress, and Joseph L. "Joe" Cranston, an actor and Hollywood producer.^[1][2] His great-grandmother was from County Clare, Ireland.^[3] Cranston grew up in the Los Angeles area, graduated from Canoga Park High School, and earned an associate degree in police science from Los Angeles Valley College.^[4]

Career[link]

Cranston performed as a youth, but his show business parents had mixed feelings about their son being involved in the profession, so he did not continue until years later.^[2]

1982–1999[link]

He began his acting career after college in local and regional theatres, getting his start at the Granada Theatre in the San Fernando Valley. Cranston has worked regularly since the late 1980s, mostly in minor roles. His advertising work includes commercials for Lay's potato chips, Excedrin, Honda Accord, and Coffee-Mate. His voice acting includes English dubbing of Japanese anime, under the name "Lee Stone". He was an original cast member of the ABC soap opera Loving, where he played Douglas (Doug) Donovan from 1983 to 1985.^[2] Cranston also starred in the short-lived series Raising Miranda in 1988.

His largest role prior to Malcolm in the Middle was as astronaut Buzz Aldrin in the HBO series From the Earth to the Moon. Cranston has also played astronaut Gus Grissom in the film That Thing You Do!.

In 1998, he appeared in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan as a one-armed military officer.

From 1994 through 1997, Cranston appeared in the recurring role of Dr. Tim Whatley, Jerry's dentist, on Seinfeld. Several episodes focused upon his relationship with Jerry and his paranoia about the dentist, in bizarre situations such as when he becomes obsessed with the notion that Tim and his female assistant were molesting him while he was unconscious during dental surgery, or when Whatley converts to Judaism and starts telling Jewish jokes while retaining the right to tell Catholic jokes as well (according to Jerry, Tim needs only Polish citizenship for "total joke-telling immunity").

1999 marked his second appearance for a recurring role, on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens as Doug Heffernan's annoying neighbor, Tim Sacksky. He works in marketing then in a later episode as a water purifier salesman and recruits Doug to sell them as well.

2000–present[link]

In 2000, Cranston landed a role on the series Malcolm in the Middle. He would eventually direct several episodes of the series, and received three Emmy nominations for his performance on the show.^[5] Cranston reprised his role in a cutaway gag in the Family Guy episode "I Take Thee Quagmire", killing Lois with a refrigerator door because of her incessant babbling, thus "freeing" himself and the kids.

Cranston wrote and directed the 1999 movie Last Chance.^[6]

Cranston has guest-starred in many television series, including The Flash where he plays a white-collar criminal searching for his estranged wife and daughter; Sabrina the Teenage Witch in which he was a lawyer attempting to free Sabrina from a contract; the sixth season episode of The X-Files, "Drive", playing a bigoted man who is being driven insane by high-pitched sonar waves; and Babylon 5 as Ericsson, the captain of a White Star vessel ordered into a suicide mission to plant misinformation within the enemy ranks. He also had a guest role in late 2006 on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, playing main character Ted's obnoxious co-worker and former boss Hammond Druthers. He more recently had a role as Lucifer in the ABC Family miniseries, Fallen.

He appeared as Nick Wrigley, the irresponsible uncle who steals Santa's sleigh to have a crazy ride to practically destroy Christmas in 'Twas the Night, a Disney Channel Original Movie that was released in the winter of 2001.

He appeared in 2007 Academy Award Best Picture nominee Little Miss Sunshine as the more successful business colleague of Greg Kinnear's character.

He has done voice acting for English dubbed anime series, including Royal Space Force – The Wings of Honneamise, Macross Plus, and Armitage III Polymatrix. In September 2008, Cranston narrated a pre-teen adventure/fantasy audiobook called Adventures with Kazmir the Flying Camel.^[7] More recent voice work includes the voice of Jim Gordon in the animated Batman: Year One.

Since 2008, Cranston has appeared in the starring role on AMC's original series Breaking Bad in which he plays Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. His character teams up with former student Jesse Pinkman, played by Aaron Paul, to manufacture methamphetamine. For his work on the series, Cranston has won the Emmy Award^[8] for lead actor in a drama series in each of the first three seasons of the show, becoming just the second person to win the award three consecutive times. The fourth season began airing in July, which was past the May 31 deadline for eligibility in the 2011 Emmy Awards. For the fourth season Cranston also became a producer for the series.

His 2010s work includes a supporting role in the drama The Lincoln Lawyer, and supporting roles in successful thrillers such as Drive and the Steven Soderbergh film Contagion. He has upcoming supporting roles in John Carter and Rock of Ages, and major roles in the Ben Affleck Iranian hostage drama Argo and the Total Recall remake, in which he plays the villain, who is the corrupted president of a fictional United States known as Euroamerica. He also participated in several episodes of the animated series Robot Chicken.^[9]

Personal life[link]

Cranston and wife Robin Dearden, September 2008

Cranston is married to Robin Dearden, whom he met on the set of the show Airwolf (1984). He was playing the villain of the week, and she played his hostage (held at gunpoint). They have a daughter, Taylor Dearden Cranston (born February 12, 1993). Cranston was previously married to Mickey Middleton, a writer.

Cranston played baseball when he was a student.^[2] He is a collector of baseball memorabilia and an avid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. In accepting his third Emmy as best lead actor in a drama series, he thanked his wife and daughter and told them that he loves them "more than baseball".

He resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico.^[10]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Bryan Cranston at the Internet Movie Database
• Bryan Cranston discusses Breaking Bad at AMCtv.com
• Bryan Cranston at Emmys.com

Reggie Watts
Watts in December 2008
Background information
Birth name	Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts
Born	(1972-03-23) March 23, 1972 (age 40)
Genres	Observational comedy, surreal comedy, electronic music, trip hop, soul
Instruments	Voice, loop sampler, piano, synthesizers
Associated acts	Maktub, Soulive
Website	reggiewatts.com
Notable instruments
Line 6 DL4 delay modeler, Electro Harmonix 2880, iPhone

Reggie Watts (born March 23, 1972) is a Brooklyn-based comedian and musician. His shows are mostly improvised and consist of stream of consciousness stand-up in various shifting personae, mixed with loop pedal-based a cappella compositions. He performs regularly on television, radio, and in live theater. His comic skills come into play in improvisational performance, as well as performance of written music.

Early life (1972–1990)[link]

Born in Germany as Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts,^[1][2] Watts is the only child of Christiane and Charles Alphonso Watts; his mother is French and his father is African-American.^[3] His father was an officer in the United States Air Force and the family lived in Germany and Spain before relocating to Great Falls, Montana, where Watts was raised and graduated from Great Falls High School.^[2] Watts also took piano and violin lessons from the age of five until he was 16.^[4]

Seattle (1990–2004)[link]

Watts moved to Seattle at age 18 where he briefly attended the Art Institute of Seattle before eventually studying jazz at Cornish College of the Arts.^[1] He went on to play in a number of Seattle bands of wildly varying styles/genres, including Hit Explosion, Swampdweller, Action Buddy, Chiarrscuro, Clementine, Smell No Taste, Wayne Horvitz 4+1 Ensemble,^[5] Das Rut, Synthclub, Elemental, Eyvand Kang Seven Nades, Free Space, etc. He became the front man for soul, rock, and hip hop group Maktub, with whom he has recorded five albums.^[6][7]

In Seattle, Watts became interested in alternative performance styles. He composed musical scores for Northwest dance choreographers KT Niehoff, Amy O'Neal, Maureen Whiting, Pat Graney and Beth Huerta. He dabbled in sketch comedy with future theatrical collaborator Tommy Smith.^[8]

Watts' genesis as a solo performer started to emerge at the beginning of 2002. While touring years earlier with the Wayne Horvitz 4+1 Ensemble, Watts was forced to downsize his effects pedal from a Roland Space Echo tape delay to a Line 6 DL4 delay modeler, a smaller device that makes it easy to travel. He began using the Line 6 in live shows with Maktub, in order to replicate the duplicate harmonies from the recorded material. Then he experimented with improvising entire songs in solo acts with the Line 6, playing initial gigs at small Seattle venues and artist bungalows. Inspired by The State and Wet Hot American Summer, he began infusing spontaneous comedic material with the beat box-driven musical compositions.^[9]

Brooklyn/Manhattan (2004–present)[link]

Wanting to concentrate on solo comedic performance, Watts moved to the Lower East Side, New York City, in 2004. He shot comedic web shorts for Superdeluxe, Vimeo and CollegeHumor, where his video "What About Blowjobs?" became a viral hit. He also formed a theatrical collaboration with playwright Tommy Smith, and began developing web philosophy/content with online entrepreneur Jakob Lodwick, with whom he recorded the EP Pot Cookies. Moving to Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 2006, Watts started to branch out into performing for television and film, while continuing to pursue live performance and the creation of new performance technologies.^{[citation needed]}

Solo performance[link]

Watts was the opening act for Conan O'Brien on The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour, and appeared as the musical guest on the sixth, twenty-eighth, fifty-first, and 108th episodes of Conan.^[10] He also recently recorded material for his Comedy Central special Why Shit So Crazy?, released as a dual DVD/CD package.^[7]

Watts' recent solo comedic experience includes gigs at Fusebox, SXSW, Bonnaroo, Brian Eno's Luminous Festival at the Sydney Opera House, The Louvre, Montreal Comedy Festival, PopTech!, Soho Theatre (London), Vancouver Comedy Festival, CollegeHumor's "CH Live" stand-up comedy series, The Edinburgh Festival, Bumbershoot, The Sydney Festival, Sasquatch, Outside Lands Festival and cities throughout the world including Amsterdam's Boom Chicago, Paris, Cologne, Madrid, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Melbourne, Cape Town and Reykjavik, among others.

Watts frequently collaborates with performers/musicians around the globe. He appeared as part of the Ensemble cast of UK beatboxer Beardyman's Complete and Utter Shambles show at the Udderbelly during its residency at South Bank. He was the opening act for Regina Spektor on her European tour; he recorded vocals for Spektor's song "Dance Anthem of the 80s". He collaborated with French singer Camile Dalmais in a performance at the Centre Pompidou, Paris. He also contributed two tracks to DFA Records' Spaghetti Circus. He also performed with dance-punk band LCD Soundsystem during their first two farewell shows at Terminal 5 in New York City, and again at their final show at Madison Square Garden.

Watts' second stand-up special, Reggie Watts: A "Live" in Central Park, premiered on May 12, 2012 on Comedy Central in the "Secret Stash" completely uncensored.^[11]

Television/video[link]

On screen, Watts has appeared on Conan, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, HBO's The Yes Men Fix the World,^[12] Comedy Central's Michael and Michael Have Issues, Iceland TV, UK's "Funny Or Die," PBS' revamped The Electric Company and the music video "What About Blowjobs?" for CollegeHumor.^[2]

Waverly Films recently shot a one-hour special on Watts called "Why Shit So Crazy?". Created as a dual DVD/CD, the special features Watts in live performance at New York venues Galapagos, The Bellhouse and Le Poisson Rouge, bookended with brief sketches and a music video of Watts' "Fuck Shit Stack". As a composer, he wrote and performed music for comedian Louis CK's show, Louie,^[13] and created the theme songs for Key & Peele, Comedy Death-Ray Radio and Kristen Schaal's Penelope Princess of Pets. In 2010, Watts appeared on the Movie Network/Movie Central/HBO Canada produced Funny As Hell, a comedy series taped during the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, Quebec.^[14]

In 2012, Watts will co-star as the music portion of the new "Independent Film Channel" show titled "Comedy Bang Bang", based on the comedy podcast of the same name (formerly "Comedy Death-Ray Radio").^[15]

Also in 2012 Watts was in the Peter Serafinowicz directed music video for the Hot Chip song 'Night and Day' ^[16]

Theatre[link]

Starting in 2007, Watts began creating experimental multi-media theater with long-time friend and playwright Tommy Smith.^[8] They have generated four pieces, Transition, Disinformation, Radioplay and Dutch A/V. The collaborations between Watts and Smith feature a wide array of performing artists including dancer/choreographer Amy O'Neal (locust), comedian/actor Beth Hoyt, singer Orianna Herrman (Oracle), journalist Brendan Kiley ("The Stranger"), aerial artist Jeslyn Kelly (Fuerzabruta), and projected imagery by ex-Wooster Group video artist Joby Emmons.

Transition played at The Under The Radar Festival at The Public Theater, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art's Time Based Art Festival and On the Boards (Seattle); it was also the winner of the MAP Fund Award and Creative Capital award. Disinformation was seen at the UTR Festival, PICA: TBA, The Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), The Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), and ICA (Boston). Radioplay premiered at Ars Nova (New York), and played at Seattle Rep (Bumbershoot), IRT Theater (New York) and Redhouse (Syracuse). Dutch A/V, a live environmental film performance and winner of the MAP Fund Award, was workshopped at IRT Theatre (New York).

Watts and Smith also regularly host Occurrence, a cabaret of alternative performers, which has been seen at Ars Nova, Galapagos, The Tank, Leftbank (Portland) and various other venues. A recording of their show Transition at On the Boards helped launch the first-ever live performance download website, OTBTV.

Awards[link]

He is winner of the 2005 Malcolm Hardee "Oy Oy" Award, the 2006 Andy Kaufman Comedy Award, and the 2006 Seattle Mayor's Arts Award.^[17] He was also awarded the 2008 MAP Fund and the 2009 Creative Capitol Grant for the performing arts, and won the 2009 ECNY Award for Best Musical Comedy Act.^[6]

Personal life[link]

Author Alice Walker is Watts' second cousin^[1] but he has not met her.^[18]

Discography[link]

• Simplified (2004)
• Pot Cookies (EP) (2008)
• Why Shit So Crazy? (2010)^[19]
• Live At Third Man (2011)^[20]
• A Live At Central Park (2012)

With Wayne Horvitz

• 4+1 Ensemble (Intution, 1996 [1998])
• From a Window (Avant, 2000)

Filmography[link]

• Tell Your Friends! (2011) as Himself
• The Yes Men Fix the World (2009) as Himself^[12]
• Steel of Fire Warriors 2010 A.D. (2008) as Mutantzoid Underling in Bar

References[link]

External links[link]

• Reggie Watts Website
• Reggie Watts at the Internet Movie Database
• Reggie Watts on Twitter
• Official "Fuck Shit Stack" video
• Official "What About Blowjobs?" video
• ReggieWatts/TommySmith Theatre

Bo Burnham
Burnham performing at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, March 19, 2009 (2009-03-19).
Background information
Birth name	Robert Burnham
Born	(1990-08-21) August 21, 1990 (age 21)
Origin	Hamilton, Massachusetts, USA
Genres	Comedy, satire[1]
Occupations	Singer–songwriter, actor, rapper, comedian[2]
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, electric piano, ukulele[3]
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Comedy Central Records
Website	BoBurnham.com

Robert "Bo" Burnham (born August 21, 1990 (1990-08-21))^[4][5] is an American comedian, singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and Internet celebrity. Writing comedic and satirical songs with a politically incorrect slant, he achieved fame when his YouTube videos took off and received more than 70 million views by October 2010.^[2] Comedy Central Records released his first EP (Bo Fo Sho, June 2008) and his first two full-length albums (Bo Burnham in March 2009 and Words Words Words in October 2010). On January 29, 2011, it was announced that Burnham finished #1 overall in voting in 2011's Comedy Central Stand-up Showdown.^[6]

Personal life[link]

Bo Burnham was born the youngest of three on August 21, 1990 to Patricia and Scott Burnham.^[1][7]

In February 2008, Patricia was a staff nurse at Burnham's school, and Scott owned a North Shore, Massachusetts construction company. Their two older children, Pete and Samm, were concurrently enrolled in their third and second years at Cornell University and Suffolk Law School, respectively.^[1]

Burnham attended the all-boys' Catholic high school, St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers, Massachusetts, where he was on the school honor roll and was involved in theatre and the campus ministry program. The school's assistant principal, Wendy Olson, remarked in a February 2008 interview that while "[t]he Bo on YouTube is not the Bo we see around here, [...] no one at St. John's is surprised at his creativity or that he's pursuing his dream, which is to make a name for himself." Burnham graduated from St. John's in Spring 2008.^[1][7]

Burnham applied to New York University (NYU), University of Southern California (USC), and Yale University,^[1] and was accepted to NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.^[8] Although expected to begin attending in Autumn 2008,^[9] he deferred his enrollment for a year to focus on his burgeoning media career.^[4][10] Burnham later related that his first year on tour while friends had gone to college made him "[want] to fucking die. I'd be on the road, in South Dakota, looking on Facebook at all my friends at parties."^[11]

As of August 2010^[update], Burnham was reported to be dating a girl from "a nearby suburban town".^[12] Subsequently, in an interview conducted at the 2011 Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Kilkenny, Burnham revealed that he has a "girlfriend of five years".^[13]

Home-grown music[link]

Burnham was performing skits ("Bo Shows") in his home by age three, and grew up listening to boomer-generation comedians like George Carlin and Richard Pryor.^[1]

As detailed by Burnham himself, 2006 was the beginning of what would become his musical comedy career. Rehearsing a play at St. John's that summer, Burnham began writing songs about teenage angst and debuting them to his fellow high school thespians. He then videotaped himself performing two songs and posted them to the video-sharing website YouTube in December 2006,^[9] so that his older brother Pete could watch them from college. While response to his videos on YouTube ("My Whole Family... " and "My 'little' secret...") was initially unexceptional, when they were copied to Break.com they became an overnight sensation, with traffic to his videos multiplying over 111 times.^[1]

Accompanying himself on guitar or electric piano, Burnham continued to release self-described "pubescent musical comedy"^[9] songs and videos online as his fame and recognition grew. Described by The Boston Globe's Joseph P. Kahn as "simultaneously wholesome and disturbing, intimate in a folksy-creepy sort of way," Burnham wrote and released R-rated songs about white supremacy, Helen Keller's disabilities, homosexuality, and more.^[1] All of Burnham's home-released videos were self-recorded in and around his family's home in Hamilton, Massachusetts, most in his bedroom. Occasionally jokingly addressing his audience in his videos, ("Hello, Internet pedophiles,") Burnham rarely changes expression or camera angle while performing—simply setting the video camera on a stack of books.^[1][7] Speaking with The A.V. Club in 2009, Burnham expressed his intent to give his productions a "do-it-yourself [feel], almost like voyeurism".^[14]

In Autumn 2007, Douglas Edley, a talent agent from The Gersh Agency,^[15] had Burnham recommended to him by his assistant. The next day Edley called Burnham and told him: "I gotta represent you." Said Edley in a February 2008 telephone interview: "He's definitely the youngest comedian I've worked with - he was getting ready for his SATs when I called - but the quality of his writing is amazing."^[1] It was this call from Edley—whom Burnham had initially thought to be "a very advanced Internet predator"—that was Burnham's wake-up call as to his potential professional success.^[10] In addition to Burnham, Edley also represents several top-tier comedians, including Drew Carey and Dave Chappelle.^[1]

Career[link]

Represented by Douglas Edley, Burnham recorded a performance in London for Comedy Central's The World Stands Up in January 2008 (aired June 30, 2008 (2008-06-30)),^[1][15] and signed a four-record deal with Comedy Central Records.^[16] Comedy Central Records released Burnham's first EP, the six-song Bo Fo Sho, as an online release-only album on June 17, 2008 (2008-06-17).^[8][9] Burnham's first full album, the self-titled Bo Burnham, was released by Comedy Central Records on March 10, 2009 (2009-03-10).^[17]

Burnham has performed his music in the United States, including Cobb's Comedy Club, YouTube Live in San Francisco,^[10] Caroline's Comedy Club in New York City,^[8] and internationally in London and Montreal. In August 2010, Burnham was nominated for "Best Comedy Show" at the 2010 Edinburgh Comedy Awards—"the world’s most prestigious comedy prize" with a £10,000 cash prize—after his inaugural performance (of Bo Burnham: Words, Words, Words) at the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.^[18] He was instead awarded the "Panel Prize"—carrying a £5,000 prize—for "the show or act who has most captured the comedy spirit of the 2010 Fringe." ^[19][20]

Compared to Ben Folds, Eminem, and Andrew Dice Clay, Burnham's music and performances tackle such taboo subjects as race, gender, human sexuality, and sex.^[21] Burnham describes his on-stage persona as a "more arrogant, stuck-up version [of] himself."^[22] When speaking with The Detroit News about his rapping, he expressed his intent to honor and respect the perspective and culture of hip-hop music.^[2]

Uphill[link]

As Burnham progressed through his initial popularity to more mainstream audiences and venues, he received pushback from fellow comics who viewed his ascension via YouTube popularity as illegitimate.^[11]

Burnham's first experience with controversy regarding his music came on March 3, 2009 (2009-03-03), when fifteen Westminster College students (members of the campus' Gay-Straight Alliance, Black Students Association, International Club, and Cultural Diversity Organization) protested his concert there that evening. Of the controversy, he said, "It's so ironic because gay bashers were the ones labeling me in high school, [...] I try and write satire that’s well-intentioned. But those intentions have to be hidden. It can't be completely clear and that’s what makes it comedy." The Columbia Daily Tribune related that at the end of his Westminster performance, Burnham was approached by a paraplegic fan. While Burnham was plainly uncomfortable and nervous, given that his music mocks the handicapped, the young fan instead related a blonde joke to the teenaged musician. Despite the college's admission that they had booked Burnham while ignorant of his content, dean of students John Comerford praised the opportunities for discourse the controversy brought the school.^[21][23]

Tours[link]

• Fake I.D. – Autumn 2009^[24][25]
• Bo Burnham and (No) Friends – Autumn 2010^[26]
• Bo Burnham Live (UK Tour) – June 2011^[27]

Film[link]

While performing at the Montreal Just for Laughs festival in 2008,^[8] Burnham met with the award-winning director and producer Judd Apatow. That September, Burnham negotiated with Universal Pictures to write and create the music for an Apatow-produced comedy film which he describes as the "anti-High School Musical",^[7][28] although Burnham insists the script isn't a parody of the Disney musicals, but an attempt to emulate the high school he attended. Hoping to star in the film he's writing, Burnham told Wired magazine that he's naming the star "Bo" in a "not-so-subtle hint [he] want[s] to be in it".^[29] In a March 2009 (2009-03) interview with Boston's Weekly Dig, Burnham elaborated on his work with the film. When he isn't performing, Burnham spends eight hours a day writing the music, and his nights writing the script, of which he's finished the first draft.^[30] Co-writing the screenplay with Burnham is his high school friend Luke Liacos.^[12] Burnham explained the script-writing opportunity is a boon to his comedy career, as the comedian had been having complications with censors and learning that his material wasn't well-suited to television. "It would work much better in a 90-minute format."^[29] In August 2010, Burnham told The Guardian that his script had been submitted.^[11] In an October 2010 interview with MTV, Burnham admitted that he doesn't know anything about the future of the project, and that it's all effectively up in the air as far as he knew.^[31]

In May 2009 (2009-05), viral marketing began appearing for Funny People, in which Burnham stars in a NBC sitcom called Yo Teach!. In the "promo", Burnham stars opposite Jason Schwartzman, as a student in the latter's English class.^[32]

On May 21, 2010, Burnham taped his first one-hour stand-up special entitled Words Words Words for Comedy Central from the House of Blues in Boston as part of the network's new "House of Comedy" series of stand-up specials.^[33][34] The special aired on Comedy Central on October 16, 2010. It was released on October 18, 2010.^[35][36]

Television[link]

On September 7, 2010, Variety magazine reported that MTV had ordered a half-hour long television "put pilot" from Burnham "about a kid fresh out of high school who's pursing [sic] the new American dream of being a celebrity without having any talent." Burnham will write and executive produce alongside Dan Lagana, Luke Liacos, and Dave Becky.^[37][38]

Awards[link]

At the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, he was nominated for the main Edinburgh Comedy Award and won both the Edinburgh Comedy Awards' panel prize and the Malcolm Hardee 'Act Most Likely to Win a Million Quid' Award.^[39]

Performance credits[link]

Discography[link]

• Bo Fo Sho (2008), Comedy Central Records – Released as an online-only EP^[8][9]
• Bo Burnham (2009), Comedy Central Records – Double-disc set containing the Compact Disc album, and a DVD with his Comedy Central Presents special, all of his YouTube videos, and other performances^[17]
• Words Words Words (2010), Comedy Central Records – A live performance paralleling the one hour special of the same name, also includes two studio tracks, "Words Words Words" and "Oh Bo".^[40]

Filmography[link]

• Comedy Central Presents (March 27, 2009 (2009-03-27)), Himself^[21] – As of July 2009^[update], Burnham is the youngest comedian to be featured thereon^[41]
• American Virgin (2009)^[42]
• Funny People (2009) – Yo Teach! Cast Member^[42]
• Bo Burnham: Words, Words, Words (2010) – Himself^[33]
• Hall Pass (2011) – Bartender^[43]
• Sin Bin (2012) – Villainous student liaison^[44]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bo Burnham

• Official website
• Bo Burnham at Comedy Central
• Bo Burnham's channel on YouTube
• Bo Burnham at the Internet Movie Database

Patton Oswalt
Oswalt at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con
Born	(1969-01-27) January 27, 1969 (age 43) Portsmouth, Virginia, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, television, film
Nationality	American
Years active	1988–present
Genres	Observational comedy, surreal humor, black comedy
Subject(s)	Pop culture, American culture, Current events
Influences	Jonathan Winters, Richard Pryor,[1] Emo Philips, Bugs Bunny, Bill Hicks, Blaine Capatch, Bobcat Goldthwait, Jay Leno, Sam Kinison, Steve Martin,[2] Louis C.K.[3]
Spouse	Michelle Eileen McNamara (2005–;[4] 1 daughter)
Notable works and roles	Spence Olchin in The King of Queens Remy in Ratatouille Frat Aliens, and Ezekiel in Aqua Teen Hunger Force Werewolves and Lollipops
Website	PattonOswalt.com

Patton Oswalt (born January 27, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor and voice actor known for roles such as Spencer Olchin in the popular sitcom The King of Queens, and voicing Remy from the film Ratatouille and Thrasher from the Cartoon Network original series Robotomy.

Early life[link]

Oswalt was born January 17,^[5][6] 1969^[7] in Portsmouth, Virginia, to Carla and Larry J. Oswalt, a career United States Marine Corps officer.^[4] He was named after George S. Patton.^[8] While a military brat, he later lived in Ohio and Tustin, California, before settling in Sterling, Virginia.^[9] He is a 1987 graduate of Broad Run High School in Ashburn, Virginia and later attended the College of William and Mary, where he majored in English and was initiated into the Alpha Theta Chapter of the Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Oswalt first began performing standup comedy in the late 1980s or early 1990s, by his own reckoning.^[10] After writing for MADtv and starring in his own 1996 comedy special for HBO, he went on to garner notable roles in films and television shows. His most prominent and long-running role was as Spence Olchin on The King of Queens. His first starring film role was as the voice of Remy, the lead character in the 2007 Pixar film Ratatouille. He has also appeared in smaller roles in such films as Magnolia and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. He lent his voice as in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as a caller on the WTCR show "The Tight End Zone", and was the voice of a caller on "Chatterbox" on LCFR in the game Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. He was also the voice of a reporter on "New World Order", a radio show on VCPR in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. He supposedly lent his voice as Randall Tugman in the zombie game Dead Rising 2, although he denies this. The character Randall Tugman is credited to have been voiced by John Murphy.

Oswalt wrote the comic book story "JLA: Welcome to the Working Week", a backup story in Batman #600; a story for Dwight T. Albatross's The Goon Noir #01 and a story for Masks: Too Hot for TV. Expanding his voice artist repertoire, he began voicing the villainous character "Tobey" on PBS Kids GO! series WordGirl in 2007. He also appeared on the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner. In August 2007, he appeared on the Comedy Central Roast of Flavor Flav. In 2007, he appeared on an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, "The Original Fry Cook", as Jim. He also appears as Carl, the Corndog Hut's mascot in American Hi-Fi's music video for "Another Perfect Day". He also appears in an episode of Static Shock. On June 27, 2007, Oswalt was a special guest on the Emeril Live program on the Food Network to promote Ratatouille. Other recent appearances include an episode of Venture Bros. where he voiced an aging boy adventurer Robin parody. In 2008 Oswalt moderated a reunion panel of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 cast at the San Diego Comic-Con International.

In 2009, Oswalt played Paul Aufiero, the leading role in Robert D. Siegel's 2009 directorial debut, Big Fan. He was to star in a 2010 Broadway revival of Lips Together, Teeth Apart.^[11] However, the show was postponed then eventually canceled due to Megan Mullally's departure from the production when the director denied her request to replace Oswalt due to his lack of stage experience.^[12]

He starred in the Showtime drama The United States of Tara as Neil, an employee of Four Winds Landscaping. He also provides the voice of Thrasher, a robot protagonist from the new Cartoon Network show, Robotomy.

In January 2011, Oswalt released his first book, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland.

In November 2011, Oswalt played the role of Hurlan Heartshe in the surrealist comedy miniseries The Heart, She Holler on Cartoon Network's late-night programming block, Adult Swim. In 2011, Oswalt also played the role of Matt Freehauf in Jason Reitman's black comedy Young Adult.

Stand-up comedy[link]

Patton Oswalt at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International.

Oswalt's stand-up comedy covers topics ranging from pop culture frivolity such as comic book supervillains and 1980s glam metal to deeper social issues like American excess, materialism, foreign policy and religion. He also discusses his atheism in his stand-up. In 2004, Oswalt released a comedy album entitled Feelin' Kinda Patton and later that year a longer, unedited version of the same performance entitled 222 (Live & Uncut), both through the United Musicians collective, and a stand-up special, No Reason to Complain. He is also on a split EP called Patton vs. Alcohol vs. Zach vs. Patton with Zach Galifianakis and is featured on two Un-Cabaret compilations, "The Un & Only" and "The Good, the Bad and the Drugly". On July 10, 2007, Patton released his second CD Werewolves and Lollipops on Sub Pop records.

In 2004, Oswalt put together the Comedians of Comedy tour, made up of modern alt-comics Zach Galifianakis, Brian Posehn and Maria Bamford. The tour performed at smaller, more intimate indie rock venues instead of traditional (and expensive) comedy clubs. The Fall 2004 tour was documented in a 2005 film of the same name, and was followed by a six-episode Comedy Central series based on the Summer 2005 tour. This tour featured special guest appearances from comedians such as Blaine Capatch, David Cross, Rob Gasper, Bobby Tisdale and Todd Barry. Subsequent incarnations of the tour have included Eugene Mirman and Morgan Murphy.