Ismo Leikola

While studying physics and chemistry at the University of Jyväskylä, Leikola was first introduced to stand-up comedy at the campus bar where he debuted in 2002.[8] The experience inspired him to study stand-up comedy from old VHS cassette tapes containing performances from Eddie Murphy and Eddie Izzard.[13] A year and a half later, he was already performing around Finland.[8] In 2003, he received own his segment on the Hyppönen-Enbuske Experience talk show ” as a “correspondent for the City of Jyväskylä” in which he performed for several years. [14] He started performing in English in 2005 while visiting the UK.[8] [13]

In 2007 and 2008 Leikola performed at the prestigious Edinburgh Festival Fringe at Edinburgh, Scotland.[13]

By May of 2014, Leikola had performed in Scandinavia and Europe, with performances also in the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, and Estonia. [15] In the fall of 2014, he gave a performance at the International Comedy Showcase in London. Steve Bennett, the editor-in-chief of the comedy website Chortle, referred Leikola’s performance as #1 of the evening.[16] In October 2014, Leikola won the very first “Funniest Person In The World” competition organized by one the of the biggest comedy clubs in Los Angeles, the Laugh Factory.[17] Jamie Masada, the owner of the Laugh Factory, came up with the idea for the competition in early 2014 after watching Jewish and Muslim comedians performing at his club one night. At first the audience was divided into two camps but during the performances they started intermingling. People who laugh together won’t hurt each other he thought to himself and started organizing a comedy competition with the aim of increasing world peace. He began contacting international comedy festival organizers in order to find the best comedians from each country and then posting their best videos on the clubs website. After the preliminary elimination he had 10 comedians from the United States and 19 comedians from abroad. In October ten of the best comedians were invited to perform at the Laugh Factory and five were then selected for the finals in Las Vegas. The winner was selected based on an online voting system and celebrity guests.[17] Leikola received almost 160,000 online votes. The second runner-up, Saad Haroon from Pakistan received over 59,000 votes.[9] The winner of the competition was awarded $10,000 and a tour across the United States.[17] [11] [6]

In 2015, Leikola traveled across the United States with his “Funniest Person In The World” tour [11] and also in Finland with his band [11] and performed also in Europe.[18] He then started a nine-part comedy show for the Finnish Elisa Viihde. The show “ISMO” was named after him since he wrote and performed on the show. The comedy show “ISMO” was among five nominated for best Television Comedy Series at the annual Golden Venla (Kultainen Venla) gala hosted by the Finnish Television Academy.[11] In December 2015, Leikola moved to Los Angeles, California together with his wife and began focusing on his career in the United States.[13] [19]

In the spring of 2016 Leikola was touring extensively in New Zealand.[11] In October, he performed on the “Last Call with Carson Daly” -show on NBC.[20]

In 2017, Leikola performed at the “Just for Laughs” comedy festival in Montreal, which is regarded as one of the largest festivals in the industry.[21]

In January 2018, Leikola appeared on Conan O'Brien's talk show “CONAN”. He was the first Finnish comedian to appear on American talk show.[22] A video clip of his performance the show became a viral phenomenon, which boosted his career in the United States. In the video clip, Leikola jokes about the various meanings and interpretations of the English word ass.[23] The clip soon became the most-watched stand-up comedy clip in the history of the program.[22] By August 2019, it had over 70 million Facebook views.[8]

In January 2019 Leikola started to collaborate with the prestigious Merriam-Webster dictionary creating a series of videos for them about the quirks of the English language.[14] [24] In October, he made his appearance on “The Late Late Show with James Corden".[25] In November 2019 Leikola told that he was performing an estimated 250-300 shows a year.[7] In the United States, he was performing 4-5 times a night during the weekends.[7] He had been performing three years in the United States and also on nine tours in Finland.[7] Leikola has become a prominent figure in many comedy clubs in Los Angeles such as the Laugh Factor and Comedy & Magic Club.[13] [7] In 2019, he competed in the American reality television comedy competition series Bring the Funny, making it to the second round (the "Comedy Clash").

Leikola has performed at many internationally known festivals, such as the Edinburgh Fringe,[26] Just for Laughs[21] and Melbourne International Comedy festival.[27] Leikola has also toured New Zealand twice [28] and number of other countries.[7]

Leikola is unique in how he uses his outsider's point of view to find humor in the most ordinary things. Prior to a career in stand-up comedy, Leikola studied philosophy[7] and natural sciences.[8] His comedy often has philosophical and science-based subtext, and his jokes often end with a silent question mark.[7] Leikola is interested in the great questions of life as well as logic, the absence of logic and the dismantling of concepts.[7] Early on Leikola noticed his fondness for puns and parodies when reading Mad magazines.[13] In his comedy he often analyzes the Finnish and English languages, like in his take on the Finnish multipurpose expression “No Niin”. His Youtube video on this has been watched nearly 1.5 million times by August 2019.[14]

Leikola believes his strength as a comedian derives from his sense for timing and rhythm, both in Finnish and English.[13] Leikola has said that he always admired American comedian George Carlin, who drew inspiration for his comedy from the analysis of language.[14]

Leikola filmed three DVD specials from 2008 to 2016.

• "Good Gig and Hell of Extras" (2008) - sold platinum.
• "Ismo Leikola Grows as a Person" (2013) - sold gold right after its release.
• Pendolino - single (2013)
• Mitä jos me silti voitetaan - single (featuring Pirjo Heikkilä) 2013
• Moottoritie on kesken - single (2015)

Leikola has appeared in

• Conan (TV series, 2018), Conan O'Brien's talk show[7]
• James Corden's talk show, The Late Late Show with James Corden (2019) [25]
• NBC’s “Last Call with Carson Daly" (2016)[7]
• the television show Bring the Funny (2019)[7]

Some of the television shows Leikola has been in

• Talk show Hyppönen-Enbuske Experience / later Tuomas & Juuso Experience, performer and writer in show's stand up-section as The Correspondent for the City of Jyväskylä (2003–2006, Nelonen)[14]
• Act!One – stand up, sketch writing and performing (2004, TV2)[37]
• Komiikkatehdas (Comic Factory), stand up-comic (2006, TV 2)[14]
• Suomi Myytävänä (Finland for Sale), co-host, writer, actor (2009, TV 1)[38]
• Kansallisaarre (National Treasure), host (2010–2011, TV 2)[39]
• Elixir, losing weight and hosting (2011, Nelonen)[39]
• Uutisvuoto (Have I Got A News For You), guest panelist (2011, TV 1)[14]
• Hyvät ja huonot uutiset (The Good and Bad News), guest panelist (2012, Nelonen)[14]
• Totuus Rakkaudesta (The Truth about Love) (2013, TV 1)[40]
• Naurun tasapaino (Show Me the Funny Finland) (stand up-competition for beginners), guest star judge in 2013 and 2014 and special performance in the final 2013 (2013–2014, TV2)[41]
• Rakkauden FAQ (Love FAQ), panelist (2014, Liv TV)[42]
• Ismo - Self titled comedy series about Leikola's fictional life (2015, Elisa Viihde)[43]
• Suomen huutokauppakeisari - guest star (2015, Nelonen)[44]

• Bolt the movie, voice actor (2008)[45]
• Veljeni Vartija (My Brother’s Keeper), as himself (2018) [46]

Leikola currently lives in Los Angeles and performs at the comedy clubs there as well as around the US.[7] He has sold out numerous concert halls and theatres across the UK and Finland. He has been gaining attention at the biggest comedy festivals around the world, including Just for Laughs in Montreal,[21] the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2007 and 2008 [13] as well as 2018[26] He has toured twice in New Zealand and performed at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival.[28][24] In 2018, he debuted his one-man show "Words Apart" at the Melbourne Comedy Festival.[27] Over the years Leikola has done more than nine tours in Finland.[7]

Leikola has also performed at many Just for Laughs comedy festivals such as Montreal,[21] Toronto in 2018,[47] Sydney and Bermuda.[24] He lives in Los Angeles and performs at the comedy clubs there as well as around the US.[7]