Tim Vine

Early life

Vine was born in Cheam, and attended Epsom College with his brother Jeremy.

Stand-up

Vine's stand-up act consists primarily of a series of quick-fire one-liners and puns. He has regularly appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with shows such as The Tim Vine Shambles and The Tim Vine Fiasco which won him the Perrier newcomer award in 1995. In 2006, he had a large advertising hoarding erected featuring his name and image, with a small sub-heading "...is not appearing at this year's Edinburgh Festival" Vine appeared at the Pleasance Courtyard for the first two weeks of the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe performing a show entitled Punslinger.

He appeared at the Christian festival, Spring Harvest, in 2007, 2008 and 2013 alongside John Archer at Skegness and Minehead, and at the Cambridge Theatre in May 2007 for a show entitled Tim Vine, Live in Concrete.

Vine has taken his comedy act on a tour of the United Kingdom, in tours such as Current Puns in 2006 and Punslinger in 2008. In July 2008, he recorded a performance at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London, which was released as a new DVD entitled So I Said To This Bloke... on 27 October 2008. His third tour, The Joke-amotive, took place during February and March 2010, with a DVD of the show released in November 2011.

Many of Vine's jokes have been falsely attributed to Tommy Cooper; the West End show about Tommy Cooper actually features some of Vine's jokes.

Theatre

Music

Vine's musical talents, aside from the comedy songs in his act, include playing the guitar, piano and drums.

He occasionally plays the drums at his church. He was in several bands, including The Flared Generation, which was described as "the most unfashionable punk band in the country" by Smash Hits magazine, alongside his brother Jeremy.

Podcasts

In December 2007, Vine launched his first podcast, 'Tim Vine Celebrates'. The first episode "Tim Vine Celebrates... Christmas" was released for free on 19 December and includes many previously unheard jokes and humorous songs, as well as an array of comedy characters, mostly voiced by himself.

Television

From 1997 to 1998, Vine presented the Channel 5 game show Whittle. From May to August 1997, Vine hosted the Channel 4 game show Fluke which he devised. Tim hosted Fort Boyard Takes on the World in 2004.

From 2001 until 2004, Vine appeared on ITV's The Sketch Show with Lee Mack, whom he later worked with on BBC One sitcom Not Going Out playing the role of Timothy Gladstone Adams from 2006 until his departure in 2012. He returned for a cameo in the Christmas 2014 episode and appeared in the series 7 finale as Lee's best man.

Vine has appeared in many Comic Relief charity specials. In 2007 he appeared in Comic Relief Does Fame Academy. In 2013 has was a finalist in Let's Dance for Comic Relief. In 2015, he competed in Let's Play Darts and was runner-up, losing out to Lee Mack. He returned in 2016 to win it, beating Mike Tindall in the final. He joined the cast of BBC comedy Blandings in series 2 as Sebastian Beach, airing in 2014.

In 2012, Vine hosted one series of teatime game show Don't Blow the Inheritance for ITV.

In 2014 and 2015, Vine appeared in the revival of Celebrity Squares as one of the resident comedians alongside Joe Wilkinson.

Radio

On BBC Radio 4, Vine presented one series of four episodes of "The Tim Vine Chat Show" in July 2016, and one episode of "The Tim Vine Christmas Chat Show" on 26 December 2016. A second series of six episodes was broadcast in September and October 2017.

Fringe Awards

In August 2010, Vine won the prize for the funniest joke of that year's Edinburgh Fringe, following a public vote from a judged shortlist. His winning joke was "I've just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I'll tell you what, never again."

On 25 August 2011, Vine won the prize for the second funniest joke at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. His joke was "Crime in multi-storey car parks. That is wrong on so many different levels." He was beaten by Nick Helm. In 2012 Vine again came second with the joke "Last night me and my girlfriend watched three DVDs back to back. Luckily I was the one facing the telly." He was beaten by Stewart Francis. In 2013 Vine came fourth with the joke "My friend told me he was going to a fancy dress party as an Italian island. I said to him 'Don't be Sicily'." The winner was Rob Auton.

Vine won the award for the second time in 2014 with the joke "I decided to sell my Hoover... well it was just collecting dust."

World records

On 7 October 2004, Vine broke the Guinness World Record for the most jokes told in an hour with 499, beating the previous record of 362. Each joke told had to get a laugh from the paying audience to count towards the record. He held the record until November 2014, when Australian comedian, Taylor Goodwin inspired by Vine told 550 jokes.

The record had been taken on two occasions prior to that date, but in both instances the record was reassigned back to him following a decision from Guinness World Record officials. An official spokesman said that Anthony Lehmann and Korukonda Ranga Rao had breached the guidelines by using cue cards during their attempts.

Personal life

Vine is the younger brother of Jeremy Vine, author, journalist and BBC Radio 2 presenter. He is a Christian who has performed at Spring Harvest Christian festivals.

He is a supporter of Sutton United F.C., stating the first game he attended was an FA Cup 3rd round tie in the 1987–88 season against Middlesbrough F.C. Vine is also a keen darts fan, having attended several Professional Darts Corporation tournaments along with Lee Mack. Some of these were televised, such as the 2011 World Championships when both Vine and Mack appeared in the crowd, live on Sky Sports. He also plays darts in his spare time.

Television

Stand-up DVDs

Feature-length films

(1h20 long) He's also made two films, though these have not yet been widely released – Library Altitude Zero and Fear Moth

Books

In 2003, Vine contributed to the Sit-Down Comedy book, but his first book was released in 2010 entitled The Biggest Ever Tim Vine Joke Book containing over 1,000 jokes and puns. Then, in 2011, Vine released a second joke book entitled The Not Quite Biggest Ever Tim Vine Joke Book, specifically for children.