Arthur Smith (comedian)

Arthur Smith
Impersonating Leonard Cohen in the cabaret tent at the 2008 Glastonbury Festival
Born	Brian Arthur John Smith (1954-11-27) 27 November 1954 (age 62) Bermondsey, south London, England
Occupation	Comedian, writer, actor, presenter
Years active	1977–present

Brian Arthur John Smith (born 27 November 1954) is an English alternative comedian and writer.

Smith was born in Bermondsey, south London. His brother is Richard Smith, the medical doctor, editor and businessman. He was a student at The Roan School for Boys, a grammar school, now John Roan School in Blackheath, London. He then studied at the University of East Anglia where he was chairman of the poetry society, wrote for the student newspaper and contributed sketches for the student review. He graduated with a 2:1 BA degree in Comparative Literature in 1976.

Smith was one of many stand-up performers on the alternative comedy scene in the 1980s. He still performs today in much the same manner, and has regularly attended the Edinburgh Fringe comedy festival since 1977, and still compering the long-running Hackney Empire New Act of the Year competition final. He has also written a body of serious or semi-serious work, including stage plays such as An Evening with Gary Lineker.

In addition to stand-up comedy, Smith has performed musical comedy shows such as Arthur Smith Sings Leonard Cohen (later broadcast on Radio 4). He returned to this theme for the Edinburgh Fringe in 2013 with "Arthur Smith Sing Leonard Cohen (Volume Too). He is also a radio presenter on such BBC Radio 4 programmes as Excess Baggage and Loose Ends, and appears on television comedy panel games. He took over as narrator of the TV series A Life of Grime after the death of John Peel and more recently was one of the Grumpy Old Men in the television series of that name. Both of the latter two series used "What a Wonderful World" as their theme song. For Grumpy Old Men, Smith was one of the cast members who contributed to a montage rendition of the song, providing an imitation of Louis Armstrong's closing "ohhhh yeeeah!".