Career
Following his days as a stand-up poet and fringe actor ("Supple-limbed… expressive … effortless" What's On), Waen started out performing bizarre experimental monologues at the early Cluub Zarathustra, touring with spoof techno band and Edinburgh sell-out The Pod ("The future of techno comedy" Guardian; "The musical comedy event of the festival" NME), hosting the underground cabaret Gritty Fingers and smashing up Cornish pasties in the guise of ranting Northern madman William Whicker.
He graduated from Oxford University in 1993, with a degree in Philosophy and Psychology.
Waen went on to co-write and narrate award-winning animation The Wolfman (screened on Channel 4 and subsequently transformed into a "Third Place" ad for the Sony Playstation), before writing, directing and starring in his own animation Origen's Wake for Channel 4's Comedy Lab series.
Since then, Waen concentrated on building an arsenal of comedy characters on stage, partly through his work as one half of Shepherd & Farnaby ("Brilliant" Comedy Lounge; "Pleasingly surreal, theatre of the absurd as scripted by Vic and Bob" Evening Standard) in their shows Animal Pie and Peterford Golf Club ("Waen Shepherd's Peterford Golf Club Chairman, tin-tray head-beating Stuart Ogilvie, is a comedy legend in the making" Fringe Report), and partly through his solo work on the comedy circuit, notably at clubs such as The Comedy Store, Jongleurs, The Stand Comedy Club (Edinburgh), The Comedy Box (Bristol) and The Stoke Pub in Guildford.
In 2003 Waen created a deluded monster in the form of Gary Le Strange, melding his love of composing ("Bombastic… difficult to ignore" Sound on Sound) with his natural ability to create truly original comedy characters. He went on to win the Perrier Award Best Newcomer (2003) for that debut performance.
He has achieved cult success, with many worldwide fans owning his albums and attending "Club Le Strange" at The Albany in London, an evening hosted by Gary Le Strange and boasting the cream of British left-wing, alternative comedy talent.
Waen enjoys portraying exaggerated or absurd characters, and he can be seen in two series of BBC2's science fiction comedy, Hyperdrive, as Captain Helix.
He can be heard on BBC Radio 2 on Saturday's Out to Lunch programme.
In 2007, Waen appeared in a short film by Tim Plester entitled World of Wrestling, in which he played 'Exotic' Adrian Street, a wrestler with the flamboyance of a drag queen. He also has had two roles in Series 1 of We Are Klang as 'The Juggler' and a Hungarian prince. Waen played the role of deluded teacher, Mr "Paedo" Kennedy, in the award-winning second series of The Inbetweeners.
Waen has been cited as one of the Top 50 British comedians by The Times and he is included as one of the Top 50 Cult Comedian Icons in the Rough Guide series of books.
Read more about this topic: Waen Shepherd
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“I doubt that I would have taken so many leaps in my own writing or been as clear about my feminist and political commitments if I had not been anointed as early as I was. Some major form of recognition seems to have to mark a woman’s career for her to be able to go out on a limb without having her credentials questioned.”
—Ruth Behar (b. 1956)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)