Craig Hill
After experimenting with a Boots home bleach kit on the front of his hair in an effort to look like David Sylvian from Japan in the 80's and obsessing with his cousin's Girls World for most of his childhood, Craig eventually gave in to his passion and became a hairdresser. Much as he loved the patter and the reward of perming an otherwise dull, flat bob he then went on to explore his real passion- performing!
At 20 he enrolled at Langside College in Glasgow and had a ball playing 'Scrooge', 'Haemon' in the Greek Tragedy 'Antigone' and an excitable man with Tourettes! This whetted his appetite and he went on to train as a professional actor at Queen Margaret College in Edinburgh
Three years of stretching, dancing, singing, acting, and exploring ‘your inner self' (he was in heaven- and he and his inner self got on really well) he then went out into the big bad world of acting. Several roles later in Panto, short films and Theatre including the Edinburgh Grassmarket Project's Festival show 'Mad', he was then bitten by the comedy bug! Ow!
After years of Sunday afternoons in The Blue Moon Cafe reading out the Sunday Post letters page to amuse a bunch of his friends, one of them decided to do something about it! Fully aware if she left him to it, it would never happen, his friend Sinead booked his first gig for him and sprung it on him 2 days before! The fear was overwhelming but not as much as the curiosity. The cat was killed, the gig was booked and a new comedian was born!
Craig very quickly started doing gigs and was encouraged to enter The Comedy Store's 'Stand Up For Hooch' competition where he was first runner up. Yippee! He was gobsmacked that after only 3 gigs his 4th was at 'The King's Theatre in Glasgow and 5th was at London's famous 'Comedy Store'! He was hooked!
2 years having fun doing Julie Andrews singing Punk songs and Shirley Bassey singing The Smiths followed, when BBC Scotland picked him up to join 4 new comedians for their much loved Friday night stand up show 'Live Floorshow'. 2 series later it went National and Craig was joined by Al Murray, Men In Coats, Reverend Obadiah Steppenwolfe III and a host of comedians and bands for 10 weeks on BBC 2 and loved it.
This lead to stints on the BBC's coverage of the 'T In The Park' music festival where he interviewed such luminaries as Pink, Alison Goldfrapp, The Scissor Sisters and The Darkness.
Later on this interviewing practice was to pay off when he got his own Friday night comedy show on BBC 1, 'Craig Hill's Out Tonight', a chat show cum what's on guide to the best of Scottish entertainment. This was followed by the BBC Radio Scotland series 'Craig Hill's Passionate Encounters' (a quirky look at people and their passionate hobbies!)
While he was having all this fun, Craig managed to do the Edinburgh Festival every year for the last 10 years, with such memorable titles such as 'Craig Hill's Alive With The Sound Of Music', 'Kilty Pleasures' and 'Craig Hill Makes Your Whole Week!'
Craig regularly tours throughout the UK as well as appearing at International Festivals as far afield as Sydney, Cape Town, Montreal, New York, Switzerland, Madrid and Paris!
So what next? Having just returned from Sydney Comedy Festival and a month’s touring in Malaysia doing gigs 'for ex-pats (women who used to be called Patricia!), Craig is very excited to be bringing his brand new show ‘Blown By A Fan!’ to The Edinburgh Festival in August!
