VIC REEVES Biography - Theater, Opera and Movie personalities

 
 

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VIC REEVES
       

Vic Reeves (born Jim Moir January 24, 1959), a British comedian, best known through his double act with Bob Mortimer.

       

Suppoedly he got the name Vic Reeves from his favourite singers Vic Damone and Jim Reeves. James Roderick Moir was born in Leeds, but at the age of five, moved to Darlington with his mother, father and younger sister Lois. In his youth he was a fan of Monty Python. He left school without qualifications. He wished to attend art school but this was unaffordable.

       

Before moving to London to pursue a career in the civil service, Jim had worked as a pig farmer, a cabbage farmer in cancer research and as a factory inspector. He also formed the Fashionable Five, a group of five friends who would follow bands like The Enid and Free onto stage and perform pranks, (including Jim pretending to have a brass hand, and following a Terry Scott lookalike around Darlington town centre in single file formation). Eventually, they formed their own band.

       

In 1983 he began a part-time course at a local art college, developed his love of painting and eventually persuaded a local art gallery to stage an exhibition of his unique work.

       

As well as working and performing in bands, in London, Jim also joined the alternative comedy circuit under many different guises. These included a loudmouth American called Jim Bell, a beat poet called Mister Mystery and, eventually, “The North-East?s Top Light Entertainer” - Vic Reeves. His stage show “Vic Reeves Big Night Out ” began life as a regular Thursday night gig at Goldsmith?s Tavern. Here he met Bob Mortimer, a solicitor who jumped up on stage one night and ended up joining the show. His growing TV profile led to the Big Night Out getting a slot channel 4.

       

Reeves is one of few comedians to have had a no 1 hit in the UK chart, which he did in company with The Wonder Stuff, singing “Dizzy” (previously a no 1 hit for Tommy Roe).

       

As well as off-the-wall comedy shows (see Vic and Bob), Reeves played Marty Hopkirk in the BBC’s 1990s revival of the comedy thriller, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), with Mortimer as Randall.

       

Although Reeves primarily is known as a comedian, he is also gaining a reputation as an artist. His drawings and paintings have been used in his television shows and is a major part of his 1999 book, Sun Boiled Onions.

       

Every now and then his appears in the British tabloids for random, bizzare acts with seemingly little intention to attract media attention. One such act included burying his vintage car i n his back garden.

       

In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest people in British comedy.

       

In 2004 he and his wife Nancy Sorrell were both contestants in the fourth series of I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.

       

His father and grandfather share the same birthday as Vic and are both called Jim Moir.