Channel 4 to pilot sitcom about studio warm up comic
As part of the forthcoming Comedy Lab season, Channel 4 will screen a new sitcom pilot called The Warm Up Guy. It's a comedy about a struggling studio warm up comedian suffering from delusions that he is a superstar in the making.
The show will star up-and-coming comedy actor Tom Davis as Iain Bodkin (pictured), a delusional dreamer who is on the lowest step of the entertainment ladder, but in his child-like world he is the biggest talent out there.
The pilot, written by Davis and James De Frond, observes the actual reality of the central character's situation. Only working at the studio one day a week means Iain still has to live at home with parents and is forced to get a job at ASDA, but he only sees this new job as an opportunity to practice his warm up act on the shop customers.
Other characters include weary Job Centre advisor Andy, who Iain thinks is his showbiz agent; and nerdy loner Marty, an audience usher at the studio, who Iain recruits as his driver and assistant.
The Warm Up Guy also features stand-up comedian Will Smith as a rival warm up comic, and George Lamb as the host of a new panel show that Iain is trying to appear on.
Tom Davis has spent most of his adult life as a market trader and scaffolder, but has since switched to performing comedy. The 6'7" comedian is currently probably most widely recognised for starring alongside Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott in sketch comedy series The Morgana Show, which aired on Channel 4 in November last year. Aside from The Morgana Show and his stand-up comedy performances, Davis has appeared in the Michael Jackson Bo Selecta! special as a caricature of director John Landis, and gate-crashed the Big Brother Celebrity Hijack house with Leigh Francis.
Tom Davis will also be appearing in The Hunt for Tony Blair later this year, which is the new Comic Strip Presents special that will star, amongst others, Rik Mayall, Jennifer Saunders, Robbie Coltrane and Harry Enfield.
The Warm Up Guy will be broadcast as part of the Comedy Lab strand, Channel 4's annual search for new talent and comedy formats. This year's Comedy Lab season will start on Channel 4 in late August or early September, and the full-line up of shows is expected to be announced soon.