Phil Cool

Phil Cool
Born	Philip Martin April 1948 Chorley, Lancashire, England
Occupation	Comedian, impressionist, author, musician, songwriter

Phil Cool (born Philip Martin, April 1948) is a retired English comedian, impressionist and musician, perhaps best known for his television series Cool It (1985–1990), Cool Head (1991) and Phil Cool (1992). He performed as a touring comedian until his retirement in 2013.

Writing for the BBC in 2003, author Mark Lewisohn said: "Cool was an amazing talent...able to contort his features into a caricature semblance of the intended victim. Sometimes so uncanny was this facial transformation that he didn't need traditional sketch material."

Born in Chorley, Lancashire), Cool discovered that he had a skill for pulling faces when he was a 12-year-old at school. Once he left school he worked briefly in a warehouse and as an electrician before turning professional as a comedian and impressionist.

Whereas many of his impressionist peers concentrated on mimicking the voice of the target and changing in and out of a succession of make-up and costumes, Cool instead placed an emphasis on thrusting his eyebrows, lips and even, seemingly, his ears into the positions required of the part.

Cool's debut television appearance was in the short lived comedy show Rock With Laughter, it was round about this time that he made a career-defining performance at Jasper Carrott's Folk Club "The Boggery". Carrott was impressed with Cool's act and decided to take an active hand in furthering his career. In 1983 he appeared as a regular on the O.T.T. spin-off Saturday Stayback and, in 1984, he became one of the voice artists for the satirical show Spitting Image, impersonating Boy George, Holly Johnson and Mick Jagger for the first two series. It was during his time on Spitting Image that a producer for the BBC spotted him, and got him work on Pebble Mill at One.

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