Merseyside Mirth Makers - John Martin

John Martin was born in Bootle, Liverpool in 1962. He is a professional comedian and became the UK's first Government sponsored comedian when, at the age of 20, he received £40 a week under the enterprise allowance scheme.
Sir Ken Dodd on ITV's 'Parkinson' described John as "a marvelous comedian" and named him as his "personal favourite comedian today". John who had written jokes for Sir Ken for 30 years and performed at his 90th birthday party, revealed the funny man had been friends with his father, a magician / ventriloquist who once worked with the Beatles and that he inevitably grew up loving tales of show business and collecting jokes. He described writing for Sir Ken Dodd " it was like mixing the paint for Van Gogh". Over the years John has also written comedy for the likes of Jimmy Tarbuck and the late Bob Monkhouse.

John with Ken and his statue at Lime Street Station

A journalist once described John as a ‘human joke factory’ when he smashed the World Record for continuous joke telling, which lasted an amazing 101 hours 39 minutes – an incredible feat - verified by the Guinness Book of Records. A review in the magazine 'The Stage' stated…"but Liverpool can still breed great comics, with John Martin showing immense promise, with terrific material, clean and topical, delivered with an appealing air of diffidence, and showing that the gulf between mainstream and modern comedy can be crossed with ease given the right attitude".

In the early days

It was John who organised the biggest ever collection of Merseyside comedians in one show as a tribute to the late comedian Mickey Finn. He told the Liverpool Echo  "it’s going to be the biggest show ever. It will certainly be the biggest there’s ever been and I can’t see it ever happening again.When I became a comedian Mickey was very good to me. He gave me so much advice, help and time and I learned so much from him. So I want to give something back.”

He is a also a director and actor, known for 'Corky and White Shadow' in 1956, 'Click...a 'Nam War Flick' in 2003 and for the BBC comedy series 'Mrs Brown's Boys' in 2013.
Being a writer of topical comedy, Johnny is always fresh and current with his material. This originality, coupled with his encyclopaedic knowledge of jokes, makes Johnny a true master of comedy.
He travels the world, entertaining international audiences on cruise ships such as the QE2. He is one of the top comedians in the world for this type of work. So much so, he appeared on the Maiden Voyage of the super liner Queen Mary 2. His expertise in comedy was confirmed by Monarch Airlines when they chose John to present their in-flight comedy channel.

Today, Johnny is considered by many of his peers to be ‘The World’s First Interactive Comedian’. John has an extraordinary gift of ad-lib and whether it be at a corporate or cabaret performance he enjoys utilising this talent to the full, often receiving standing ovations for his razor-sharp wit. His has the ability to do this, with rapier-like speed.

see next :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2019/04/merseyside-mirth-makers-craig-charles.html?q=John+Martin