Performer
Marc Blake began his stand up career at the notorious Tunnel Palladium in Greenwich under the dubious tutelage of the late Malcolm Hardee. He rose through the ranks, becoming a finalist in the first Hackney Variety New Act of the Year Awards and a regular at the Comedy Store, Banana Cabaret, King’s Head and numerous venues nationwide. In 1990 he wrote and starred in his own ITV special – EuroComedy which was soon followed by a BBC Radio 4 Series Marc Blake’s ‘Whining For England’.
He performed at the first Comic relief at Richmond Theatre and at the Birmingham Hippodrome in ‘Full Steam A-Hudd.’ He won Sky TV’s Star Search and has appeared on the James Whale Show (Granada), After the News (TVS), Five’s Company (Channel 5), Good Morning (GMTV) The Judy Spiers Show (R2) Loose Ends (Radio 4) London Live, The Simon Fanshawe Show (LBC) Talk Radio, Viva, BBC 3 Counties, BBC Radio Birmingham, The Fred Macaulay Show (BBC Scotland) and as guest/reviewer/comedy expert on numerous shows for BBC Radio London. For reasons best known to himself he was also once a contestant on ‘Watercolour Challenge (ITV)’
In 1998 he took a sabbatical from performing in order to focus on his training and writing career.
In 2002, he produced ten hours of radio programming at Riverside studios, including two new half hours of recorded comedy written by himself – a broken comedy show, Hawking’s Half Hour and a sitcom Victor and Albert.
He returned to performing comedy in 2003 with a brand new character act – Helmut, the German Comedian. This became a full length show “Helmut’s Half Hour” performed at Edinburgh 2004. This show later appeared at the Leicester Comedy Festival and at the Jersey Arts Centre.
Marc returned to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2005 with his new show – ‘Manners.’ This show is currently touring.
Marc continues to perform across the UK and in Europe both as himself and as his alter ego, ‘Helmut’.
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