Lee Evans: Big on Tour With a total of 300,000 tickets available, 'Lee Evans - Big - UK Tour 2008' will be not only Evans largest tour to date but will make history by including the first comedy gig to grace the stage of the capitals London O2 Arena.
Date
City
Venue
Tickets
Oct 17
2008
Birmingham
NIA
SOLD OUT
Oct 20
2008
Newcastle
Metro Radio Arena
SOLD OUT
Oct 22
2008
Glasgow
SECC
SOLD OUT
Oct 23
2008
Glasgow
SECC
SOLD OUT
Oct 24
2008
Glasgow
SECC
SOLD OUT
Oct 25
2008
Newcastle
Metro Radio Arena
SOLD OUT
Oct 28
2008
Newcastle
Metro Radio Arena
SOLD OUT
Oct 30
2008
London
Wembley Arena
SOLD OUT
Oct 31
2008
London
Wembley Arena
SOLD OUT
Nov 1
2008
London
Wembley Arena
SOLD OUT
Nov 2
2008
London
Wembley Arena
SOLD OUT
Nov 4
2008
Brighton
Brighton Arena
SOLD OUT
Nov 5
2008
Brighton
Brighton Arena
SOLD OUT
Nov 6
2008
Brighton
Brighton Arena
SOLD OUT
Nov 7
2008
Brighton
Brighton Arena
SOLD OUT
Nov 8
2008
Brighton
Brighton Arena
Nov 9
2008
Brighton
Brighton Arena
Nov 10
2008
Brighton
Brighton Arena
Nov 12
2008
Manchester
Manchester Evening News Arena
Nov 13
2008
Manchester
Manchester Evening News Arena
Nov 14
2008
Manchester
Manchester Evening News Arena
Nov 15
2008
Manchester
Manchester Evening News Arena
Nov 16
2008
Manchester
Manchester Evening News Arena
Nov 18
2008
London
Wembley Arena
Nov 19
2008
London
Wembley Arena
Lee Evans Biography
Lee Evans was born in Avonmouth, Bristol, England. His secondary school was The Billericay School in Billericay, Essex. After a spell as a boxer and two years at art school in Essex, Evans decided to follow in his father's footsteps in the entertainment business. In his teens he moved to Rhyl, Wales,and played drums in a punk rock band called The Forgotten Five.
In 1984, he married Heather Evans with whom he has a daughter Mollie, born in 1993. They currently live in Billericay, Essex. Lee Evans is also a singer and musician as is shown on the Lee Evans XL Live Tour 2005. He can play Mandolin, Ukulele, Guitar, Bass, Keyboard, Piano and Drums.
Stand-up comedy
Lee Evans rose to fame during the 1990s, becoming noted for his loud, hot, sweaty, energetic on-stage performances, humorous voices and very physical observational comedy. He is regarded as having a Norman Wisdom/Michael Crawford–style of slapstick comedy acting, and in many respects has taken on Wisdom's role for a later generation.In his earlier work, he often used a dysfunctional character called Malcolm to illustrate how he viewed unusual characters in the world. In 1993, Evans won the Perrier Comedy Award for his work at the Edinburgh Festival.
One of the trademarks of Evans's performances is his sweatiness: he is usually drenched in his own sweat. During most of his headlining performances, he often must take an intermission, during which he changes into a completely different suit; he once said that this was because he was "as nervous as a nun awaiting her pregnancy test results". He has also said that his suits are regularly thrown away after just one performance, mainly because of the sweat, with dry-cleaners refusing to handle them. An opening video shown in his Big 2008 Tour parodies his sweatiness by showing Lee panicking in his dressing room before walking on-stage, resulting in his dressing room being flooded.
A second trademark is The Lee Evans Trio, which consists of him on a bare stage, in a spotlight, miming to a recording of instrumental sound; the spotlight goes out, only to reappear in another location, to which Evans has moved during the blackout, and where he is now miming playing a different instrument. He mimes in three locations, with an imaginary drum kit, double bass and piano. Click here to view
A third trademark is his apparent "stage fright". At the beginning of his act he'll often pretend to get the microphone cord tangled up or thrown over his shoulder, or even that it doesn't work (he'll begin to talk but nothing is heard, until the end of a gag or question is suddenly audible). He may spend the first few minutes rambling as if he can't remember what he came on stage for. Often he will tilt the microphone stand and pretend to machine gun the audience, again as a nervous reaction and supposed "time filler".
Evans is also known for performing music skits at the end of every gig, usually his world-famous mime to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" is performed as an encore.
In November 2005, Evans broke the Guinness World Record for a solo act performing to the biggest comedy audience, playing to 10,108 at the Manchester Evening News Arena, beating the previous record of 8,700 set by Eddie Izzard.
Evans will tour Britain with a brand new stand-up act, "Big", in Autumn 2008, with a DVD of the tour released in November. This was scheduled to involve the first ever performance by a comedian at the O2 Arena in London until Chris Rock announced dates that would take place at the venue prior to Evans.
It has also been said that he likes performing in smaller venues.Evans is currently on his Big Tour around the UK, and has played many sold out shows on this tour, such as in Birmingham, where he played 5 sold out shows in a row.
Acting
Evans has made a number of film appearances, most notably in Funny Bones, MouseHunt, There's Something About Mary, The Fifth Element, The Ladies Man, The Martins and The Medallion. Evans also provided the voice for Train in the 2005 film The Magic Roundabout.
From 1993-1994 Evans appeared in the Channel 4 late-night show Viva Cabaret!, both as a host and as a guest performer. In 1996, Evans starred in Channel 4 series, The World of Lee Evans. In 2001, he wrote a sitcom called So What Now? which was clearly inspired by Michael Crawford's 1970s TV show Some Mothers Do Ave' Em'.
In 2004 he starred as a paranoid murder suspect in his first non-comic role in the film Freeze Frame. Although warned they may never grow back, he shaved his eyebrows (as well as his hair).
From 2004 - 2005 he played Leo Bloom in the London production of The Producers along with Nathan Lane, with whom he also starred in MouseHunt, in which they played brothers.
In May 2007 he also starred in The History of Mr Polly.