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Jack Rooke is an English comedian, campaigner, artist and writer from Watford. His work often explores issues surrounding grief and loss, using humour and documentary film to explore the awkwardness of death.
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His debut show was entitled Good Grief which played at the Soho Theatre, earning Rooke a nomination for Best Show by an Emerging Artist in the Total Theatre Awards 2015 and a mention in The New York Times’ Top Theatre highlights of the Edinburgh Festival 2015.
He is frequently consulted on matters of bereavement by BBC Radio 1, frequently appearing on their social action programme The Surgery. In 2014 he featured in the documentary 'Radio 1's Guide To Happiness' with hosts Dan and Phil and is due to feature in Radio 1's 'Running With Grief' documentary with Clara Amfo in April 2016.
He is a resident emerging artist at Soho Theatre and comperes The Guardian Literary Institute at Camp Bestival, The Arts Amphitheatre at Bestival and previously hosted award-winning stand-up poetry night Bang Said The Gun.
Jack rooke good grief underbelly 2015 edinburgh fringe trailer
Career
Rooke became a performer after meeting Bestival founder and BBC 6 Music DJ Rob Da Bank at a BBC Blast workshop in 2009. He completed one week's work experience at Bestival before being introduced to The Roundhouse and their emerging artist programme. Rooke enrolled on a Multimedia Journalism project, becoming Editor of Roundhouse Radio's flagship arts magazine programme, RoundUp. He attained a first-class honours degree in Journalism and Documentary from University of Westminster on a full academic scholarship.
After graduating Rooke began making a documentary about the experience of losing his father in 2008. This project involved interviews with Rooke's family, exploring the hurdles of being a bereaved teenager from a working-class background in Britain. The documentary initially ran out of funding, until Arts Council England decided to fund Rooke to create a live comedy-storytelling show which featured excerpts of Rooke's documentary footage and interviews with his 85-year-old grandmother Sicely Rooke.
The show Good Grief, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2015 with venue partner Underbelly and directed by Gabriel Bisset-Smith. It was met with critical acclaim, selling out numerous dates and leading to two runs at London's Soho Theatre. The show also protested against government proposals to cut Widowed Parents Allowance, a basic weekly welfare payment for bereaved families in Britain. In collaboration with the Childhood Bereavement Network, the show aimed to raise awareness of these cuts.
Good Grief headlined Soho Theatre's first ever #SohoRising season, aiming to showcase the best ‘emerging companies, young people and brave new writing.'
Other
Rooke features in the music video for Santigold's single 'Can't Get Enough Of Myself' alongside Jay-Z, Pharrell Wiliams, Andy Samberg, Olivia Wilde and Alexander Wang.
He is an ambassador for male suicide prevention charity CALM and deputy edited their free lifestyle publication The CALMzine from 2013-2015.
As a journalist and blogger, Rooke has created work and written for The Guardian, Channel 4, The Independent, The Huffington Post, BBC London 94.9, Cosmopolitan, Roundhouse Radio and Beige Magazine.