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 seemed intent on making it as difficult for myself as possible to pursue my “male” career goal. I not only procrastinated endlessly, submitting my medical school application at the very last minute, but continued to crave a conventional female role even as I moved ahead with my “male” pursuits.”
—Margaret S. Mahler (1897–1985)
“They want to play at being mothers. So let them. Expressing tenderness in their own way will not prevent girls from enjoying a successful career in the future; indeed, the ability to nurture is as valuable a skill in the workplace as the ability to lead.”
—Anne Roiphe (20th century)
“Whether lawyer, politician or executive, the American who knows what’s good for his career seeks an institutional rather than an individual identity. He becomes the man from NBC or IBM. The institutional imprint furnishes him with pension, meaning, proofs of existence. A man without a company name is a man without a country.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)