John Robins (comedian)

Robins grew up in Bristol and was educated at The Castle School in Thornbury, Gloucestershire[2] and at St Anne's College, Oxford, where he read English, having reapplied to Oxford after an initial unsuccessful application the previous year.

After graduating from Oxford, Robins returned to Bristol, where in 2006, he shared a flat with fellow comedians Jon Richardson, Russell Howard and Mark Olver.[3][4]

Robins began performing comedy in 2005, and soon reached the semi-finals of the So You Think You're Funny competition at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In 2007, he participated in the "Comedy Zone" showcase at the festival.[1]

Robins appeared both as guest and as co-presenter on both The Russell Howard Show and The Jon Richardson Show on BBC 6 Music (2007–2010).[5]

In 2011, Robins performed stand-up on Russell Howard's Good News.[6] On television he has also appeared on Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled (twice, plus the unaired pilot), Live at the Apollo, Mock the Week, Live from the BBC, Celebrity Deal or No Deal with Sarah Millican and on the 2013 Christmas mash-up of 8 Out of 10 Cats and Deal or No Deal.

Robins also appeared on several radio programmes, including Matt Forde's Talksport show, BBC Radio 4's Word of Mouth and BBC Radio Wales's What's the Story?[7][8]

In February 2014, he started hosting the Elis James and John Robins show on XFM (now Radio X) with fellow comedian Elis James. In August 2014, the show moved to Saturdays, and was broadcast weekly 1-4pm.[9] It is also a popular podcast, with a cult following, with over 12 million downloads as of July 2017.[10]

Robins performed in New Zealand for the first time in May 2014 during the NZ International Comedy Festival, with the show Where Is My Mind?[11][12]

Robins won Best Compère at the 2015 Chortle Awards.[13] In the second half of 2016, Robins embarked on a tour show with co-host Elis James called "The Elis James and John Robins Experience".[14]

In March 2017, James and Robins won a Chortle award for their Radio X show.[15]

Robins has performed a solo show at the Edinburgh Festival every year between 2009 and 2015,[16] starting with Skinny Love.[17] His subsequent shows were Nomadic Revery (2010), Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (2011), Incredible Scenes (2012), Where Is My Mind? (2013),[18] This Tornado Loves You (2014) and Speakeasy (2015).[19] All shows were also toured around the UK. He has also performed at the Machynlleth Comedy Festival and the Leicester Comedy Festival.

In August 2017, Robins won (jointly with Hannah Gadsby) the Edinburgh Comedy Award for his show that year, The Darkness of Robins, which focused on the breakdown of his relationship with comedian Sara Pascoe and his personal life after the break-up. It was the first time he had been nominated for the award.[20] The show was later filmed by the BBC and eventually made available to watch on Netflix. Robins returned to Edinburgh in 2019 with the show Hot Shame.[21]

In June 2018, it was announced that Robins would host a new upcoming game show for Dave entitled Beat the Internet.[22] The show ran for 20 episodes and was not renewed for a second series.[23]

In February 2019 Robins launched a YouTube channel Bad Golf with friend and fellow comedian Alex Horne. As of November 2020 they have 35.5 thousand subscribers. Following the popularity of the channel, Robins likely became the highest handicapped golfer to get a kit sponsorship, with Puma’s golf brand Cobra providing him with new clubs, bag and clothing.

After five years broadcasting on Radio X (previously XFM), the Elis James and John Robins show aired its final episode on the station on Saturday 30 March 2019. On 2 April 2019, Robins announced that he and Elis James would be hosting a new show on BBC Radio 5 Live. The BBC show has been broadcast since 31 May 2019, and all episodes are downloadable as podcasts.

Robins also writes an irregular column for the Metro.

In 2012, Robins moved to London.[3]

Robins has described himself as "broadly vegan".[24] He has also described himself as left-wing, and admires socialist Labour Party politicians Tony Benn and Dennis Skinner. [25] He opposes Brexit.[26]

Robins is a fan of the rock band Queen and supported them at their 2014–15 New Year's Eve appearance. He is also a fan of Frank Zappa and Bonny "Prince" Billy and runs the Bonnie Prince Billy Quotes Twitter account.[27] He has often named his Edinburgh shows after his favourite music, e.g. Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven is a Godspeed You! Black Emperor album,[28] and "This Tornado Loves You" is a song by American singer-songwriter Neko Case.

Robins was previously in a relationship with fellow comedian Sara Pascoe.[29] They split in 2016, with both using their experience of the break-up and its consequences to create successful Edinburgh Fringe shows, Robins's show winning the 2017 Edinburgh Comedy Award.

Since 2018, he has been in a relationship with fashion designer Coco Fennell, the sister of actress Emerald Fennell and daughter of jewellery designer Theo Fennell.[30] Robins and Fennell became engaged in 2019.[31]

Robins is an experienced board game player, and once finished 11th in the British national Catan championships.[32]

• Official website
• John Robins at IMDb
• Elis James and John Robins (BBC Radio 5 Live)
• Bandcamp page which includes show recordings
• Youtube – Fringe Stories: John Robins (2013)