Kai Humphries

Kai is a happy-go-lucky, supremely funny Geordie comedian and compere. Since bursting through the ranks as a 2009 finalist in comedy’s prestigious So You Think You’re Funny? competition, his infectious enthusiasm and high-octane delivery of genuinely hilarious, surreal and delightfully optimistic material has firmly established him as one of the UK’s most in demand and popular stand-ups. Kai has, to date, performed in 55 countries across the globe on tour with Daniel Sloss, has released his first book and appeared on numerous TV and radio shows.

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Biog continued

In April 2010, he recorded a set for Comedy Central’s The Comedy Store alongside some of the biggest names in comedy—barely 18 months after his very first time ever on stage. He made his solo hour-long debut with a four-week run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe of his show Kai Humphries—Evolution and subsequently supported Rhod Gilbert and Daniel Sloss on tour. His reputation rapidly escalated and, less than six months later, Kai was able to fulfil his dream to quit his day job and go full-time in comedy.

2011 began with Kai supporting more Daniel Sloss tour dates, produced by Live Nation who subsequently booked him to support that autumn’s national tour. In June, he was given a talent deal by the BBC’s 2 Entertain DVD label and Kai premiered his second solo Edinburgh Fringe show Bare-faced Cheek in August.

In 2013, Kai was invited back onto Comedy Central’s The Comedy Store and he made his Australian debut with seasons at both the Melbourne and Sydney International Comedy Festivals. His third new show at Edinburgh’s Fringe, Shameless, attracted rave reviews and a lot of media attention over its death-defying (true) ending about how Kai had narrowly escaped serious injury or worse when he was run over by the entire pack of bulls in Pamplona that previous June.

In 2014, Kai returned to the Melbourne Comedy Festival and made his debut at the Adelaide Festival Fringe. His fourth solo show Stuff Protocol premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe in August with a four-week run, followed by 120 tour dates with Daniel Sloss in the autumn, including three-weeks across Europe (performing 20 shows in 15 countries), and culminating in two shows at the Elgar Rooms in London’s Royal Albert Hall. In 2014, he also co-wrote (with Daniel Sloss) a six-part, internet sitcom M.U.F.F.. Filmed guerrilla-style the following year, Kai and Daniel starred, along with a number of other well-known comedians.

2015 saw Kai and his brother Gavin roll out their North-East comedy club, “Punchdrunk”, into multiple cities, a community-based venture that not only brings the biggest headlining comedians each month to some of the UK’s most deprived areas but that also serves those communities, with charity fundraising, special events and outreach.

Kai’s 2015 Edinburgh Fringe smash-hit show How To Be Happy featured the spectacularly filthy 50 Shades of Blythe parody, a beautifully scripted Blyther’s take on the popular novel. His show-stopping performance of it at the Radio Forth charity gala in the Edinburgh Playhouse was one of the highlights of the night.

That same year, Kain became resident host of the renowned improvised stand-up show SET LIST at the Edinburgh Fringe and supported Daniel Sloss on his massive DARK tour, performing for 70+ dates around the UK and across 16 countries in Europe.

In February 2016, Kai and Gavin’s Punchdrunk presented Fight for Kian, a unique fundraising evening, which brought together 20 of the biggest and best comedians from the UK comedy circuit and which was hosted by Rhod Gilbert. A sold-out audience of 800 packed into the biggest local sporting arena to cheer on the professionally staged event (by Millennium Martial Arts) to raise money for pioneering and life saving neuroblastoma treatment urgently needed by a young local boy, Kian Musgrove, but which was only available in America and would cost over a half-a-million dollars. The headline fight on the card saw the two brothers pulling on their boxing gloves and fighting in front of their home crowd, against each other. This extraordinary and quite literally life-saving night was later crowned the best comedy event of 2016 at the annual Chortle Awards.

In August 2016, Kai premiered his new show In Full Colour at the Edinburgh Fringe, as well as hosting the season of SET LIST, before embarking on the massive Daniel Sloss SO? tour around UK and Europe. Kai performed at the Altitude Snowboarding and Comedy Festival in Mayrhofen in Austria as well as Glastonbury and supported Jim Jeffries on several UK and European dates of his Freedumb tour.

In addition to the winning 2016 Chortle Award for Event of the Year, Kai was honoured to receive the 2016 Forth Fringe Award.

2017 saw Kai touring Australian comedy festivals for four months, make a welcome return to Glastonbury to host the Comedy and Cabaret Stage and premiere his seventh new hour-long solo show Punch-Drunk at the Edinburgh Fringe, before going back on tour with Daniel Sloss around the UK and across 25 European countries.

This extraordinary and life-affirming show told the true story how a life-changing accident in 2013 led Kai and his brother Gavin to create one of the country’s most prestigious comedy chains—”Punch-Drunk Comedy”—and how Punch-Drunk’s regular stand-up events, along with their associated food-bank collections, community outreach programmes, as well as the now infamous and actually life-saving Comedians Boxing charity fundraiser “Fight For Kian”*, brings some of the biggest names in live comedy to working men’s clubs in the North-East of England and has both reignited and rejuvenated a community’s spirit.

Critics and audiences alike loved it and the show was picked up for a run of dates in London’s prestigious Soho Theatre.

2018 saw Kai premiere new show Team Smug at the Edinburgh Fringe, perform across 26 European countries and across the UK in the autumn with the Daniel Sloss: X, support Doug Stanhope on tour, and tie the knot on a Spanish island, the hilarious story of his elaborately planned, but nearly botched, proposal having found its way into his show.

The Daniel Sloss: X tour became a global phenomenon after Sloss made his Netflix debut, and, throughout 2018 and 2019, Kai supported the tour for 300 dates in 40 countries, with extra dates selling out as fast as they could be added. The X tour saw Kai make his North American debut supporting Daniel Sloss for 30 shows across USA and Canada and making his New York solo debut with a season off Broadway.

In 2019, Kai also returned to Australia with seasons at the festivals in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney. He appeared on BBC’s hit radio panel show The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected, and, the same year, began his now-popular online knitting streams on Instagram.

In 2020, he moved his livestreams to the Twitch platform and, during the global pandemic, managed to still perform stand-up—live on stage with Daniel Sloss at the UK’s first post-lockdown permitted outdoor Drive In shows on 3rd, 4th and 5th July, online as part of the Saturday Night at the Stand livestream comedy series, and then supporting Daniel Sloss for what turned out to be the first indoor comedy tour anywhere in the world from the start of September into November. The shows sold out as fast as they could be added to the tour, ending only after the UK issued its second major lockdown order. Ranging from performing to 100 people in a comedy club to 250 in large theatres (performing two back-to-back shows most nights), and then, miraculously, to 1000 people as was permitted at the London Palladium shows, all shows were licensed, safe, socially distanced, with full COVID-secure protocols in place and it was an extraordinary achievement at a time when large numbers of venues were still closed and live performances were still effectively impossible.

Kai is currently developing a scripted comedy project. In 2014 the Huffington Post had published his 18-part blog about their on-the-road adventures on the first Daniel Sloss European tour, and, in 2020, Kai published his first book Inside Daniel Sloss: Psychoanalysis Of Daniel Sloss: Tour Journal 2014.

Kai is in demand to perform at all the biggest clubs in the UK and Ireland, and is the regular UK host of the improvised comedy show The Set List.

“Fight For Kian” brought together 20 of the biggest and best comedians from the UK comedy circuit and was hosted by Rhod Gilbert. A sold-out audience of 800 packed the biggest local sporting arena to cheer on the event (under the watchful eye of Millennium Martial Arts) which was staged to raise money for pioneering and life saving neuroblastoma treatment urgently needed by local lad Kian Musgrove, which was only available in America and would cost no less than half a million dollars. The headline fight on the card saw the two brothers pulling on their boxing gloves and fighting in front of their home crowd, against each-other.

(This show was recorded on Kai’s birthday on 2017 and is available to buy on USB direct from the artist—there is a very special moment in the show when Kai opened a very large gift wrapped box—and out sprang… well, lets just say for once he was left totally speechless)

CONTENTS OR PARTS THEREOF MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION.

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Press Quotes

✶ WINNER 2016 FORTH FRINGE AWARD
✶ WINNER 2016 CHORTLE AWARD—EVENT OF THE YEAR
✶ 2017 VOICE MAGAZINE WINNER PICK OF THE FRINGE

I did not expect a stand-up comedy to become one of the most inspirational and emotional shows I’d ever seen… something incredible… It’s intensely emotional, incredibly inspirational and wonderfully told, and still littered with Humphries’ brilliant humour … Kai Humphries: Punch-Drunk surprised me in so many wonderful ways, and I cannot sing its praises enough.
✶✶✶✶✶ Voice Mag

Phenomenally funny… Humphries has put together a seriously worthwhile hour of comedy. In his set, he manages to combine a truly meaningful message with a fat load of side-splitting jokes. Most importantly, he manages to feel authentic. He’s a fantastic comic who is smart, funny, and crude all at once. His show is not to be missed… Brilliant!
✶✶✶✶ Broadway Baby

It’s always an awesome experience when a performer just nails it—this Geordie comedian gets it so right from the very beginning, it’s an amazing experience… massive laughs… a festival highlight.
✶✶✶✶✶ Australia Times

Happy, original and surreal… Caustic, rapid-fire wit… An immensely gifted stand-up.
– Skinny

A refreshingly traditional stand-up routine consisting of classic storytelling. Telling tales of his marriage, stag-do, and his dirty grandpa; every second of the show is an absolute delight.
– RadioHaHa, Australia

Glows with positive vibes… massively funny… See this show, it’s four stars and five tissues. You may actually feel a little punch drunk when you come out—but you’ll be grinning like a loon.
✶✶✶✶ Scotsman

This is a touching, lovely comedy show and also a glowing testament to people doing good things in bad times. Warning, you may just get something in your eye when you see some of the clips onscreen towards the end. If a film producer is not already making a movie version they really ought to get their skates on.
✶✶✶✶ Beyond The Joke

A life-affirming true story about boxing, sibling rivalry, brotherly love and how it really is possible to boost community spirit
– Metro

Beautifully heart-warming and upliftingâ€¦ Do yourself a favour and see this wonderful show.
– Squirrel Comedy

Kai Humphries is a lovely Geordie comic and this set wasn’t just funny; it was like being cuddled for an hour, bathed in his sunny friendliness and impossible likeability that makes his rude humour feel mischievous and thoroughly inoffensive. His humour is unpretentious and charming, and makes you feel like you’re having a hilarious night with your mates in the pub… Humphries makes for some totally childish, good (if not quite clean), cheeky fun.
✶✶✶✶ Three Weeks

Boundless energy and good natured banter. He kept the laughs coming thick and fast… Excellent
theatrepeople.com.au, Melbourne Comedy Festival

Enormous fun, warm and positive… This is a wee cracker of a show. Kai Humphries has matured into a charming and grounded performer who has harnessed his energy to deliver a focused, considered and well-structured show, that is also light hearted, invigorating and very funny.
✶✶✶✶ Chortle.com, Edinburgh 2013

Geordie Kai Humphries is a very naughty boy… His stories are a hoot, taking us from the streets of Blyth to the alleys of Pamplona… Humphries is a teddy bear in human form. But one with a wicked tongue. He also goes further than any comic I’ve seen to ensure his show has a top ending. Shameless indeed.
–Scotsman, Edinburgh 2013

Outrageously Funny… The Spanish say that there is always one English idiot that dies at the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona and this year it was almost Humphries. This traumatising yet hilarious experience has given Humphries a new zest for life, making this daredevil’s performance very real and uplifting as well as outrageously funny.
–Broadway Baby Edinburgh 2013

Endearing and funny
–Edinburgh Evening News

Chatty and easy-going, Humphries is impossible to dislike. The material is definitely witty, and there are moments which are side-splittingly funny.
– Fest

Well crafted and extremely funny writing… A likeable guy with a huge personality… Humphries will be a big star in the future playing spaces far bigger than he is currently, so to catch an emerging superstar early grab the chance while you can.
✶✶✶✶ One 4 Review

Humphries had the crowd laughing hard with a loveable accent, silly stories and an exit joke, too rude to print, that had his audience in stitches
– Fife Free Press

Winner Forth Fringe Award 2016 and as seen on tour with Daniel Sloss, Jim Jeffries & Steve O (Jackass)

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