Rob Newman (comedian)

{{Infobox person

| name = Robert Newman

| image = Robert Newman, The Trade Secret Reading and Signing, Islington Waterstones (8642564536) (cropped).jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Newman at a reading and signing for his novel The Trade Secret in 2013

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1964|07|07|df=y}}

| birth_place =

| death_date =

| death_place =

| known_for = Political activism

| employer =

| occupation = Comedian
Author
Actor

| spouse =

| website = [http://www.robnewman.com/ www.robnewman.com]

}}

Robert Newman (born 7 July 1964) is an English comedian, author and political activist. Newman found mainstream fame with The Mary Whitehouse Experience before forming a successful partnership with one of the programme's other comedians, David Baddiel, in the early 1990s.

In 1993, Newman and Baddiel became the first comedians to play and sell out the 12,000-seat Wembley Arena in London. Newman's first speaking appearance was with Third World First (now known as People and Planet), the student political organisation.

Early life and education

Newman was adopted into a working-class family who lived in a Hertfordshire village. His adoptive father died when he was nine. Newman attended a comprehensive school, received poor A-level grades and was not offered a place at university until two years later, when he was admitted to Selwyn College, Cambridge, to read English on the strength of an essay about T. S. Eliot.{{cite news|title=Filthy, rich, going to pieces: Much to the surprise of their detractors, Robert Newman and David Baddiel have become the hottest property in British comedy. Unfortunately, they seem to have fallen out in the process|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/filthy-rich-going-to-pieces-much-to-the-surprise-of-their-detractors-robert-newman-and-david-baddiel-1465474.html|newspaper=The Independent|date=5 December 1993| first=Giles|last=Smith}}{{cite news|title=My Secret Life: Rob Newman, comedian & writer|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/my-secret-life-rob-newman-comedian-amp-writer-766090.html|newspaper=The Independent|date=29 December 2007}}

Newman has worked as a farmhand, warehouse-man, house-painter, teacher, mail-sorter, social worker and mover.

Comedy career

Newman began his comedy career as an impressionist in the late 1980s before gaining fame when he appeared alongside fellow Cambridge alumni David Baddiel, Hugh Dennis and Steve Punt in the BBC radio and TV programme The Mary Whitehouse Experience (1989–92).{{cite web|title=Rob Newman: My Secret Life |date=29 December 2007 |accessdate=2008-11-19 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/my-secret-life-rob-newman-comedian-amp-writer-766090.html |work=The Independent |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090701020929/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/my-secret-life-rob-newman-comedian-amp-writer-766090.html |archivedate=1 July 2009 |url-status=dead }} The title referred to the main campaigner for "moral decency" on television, Mary Whitehouse. With The Mary Whitehouse Experience Newman and Baddiel had become "unlikely pin-ups as, in the early 1990s, comedy was being fêted as 'the new rock and roll'," leading to their series, Newman and Baddiel in Pieces (1993).{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/newmanandbaddiel/ |title=Comedy Guide: Newman and Baddiel in Pieces |accessdate=2008-11-19 |publisher=BBC |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081212100119/http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/newmanandbaddiel/ |archivedate=12 December 2008 |url-status=dead }}

The partnership with Baddiel was widely reported as being fraught with tension. Unlike most double acts, their shows (both on TV and stage) were characterised by the two alternately delivering monologues, rarely appearing together except in sketches (most famously, History Today). During the "Live and in Pieces" tour, relations deteriorated further and the Wembley Arena show was their last appearance together.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}

After the break-up, the two men took wildly differing career paths. While Baddiel became part of the "new lad" phenomenon of the mid-1990s, fronting shows like Fantasy Football League, Newman largely disappeared from public life, reappearing with solo work marked by a clear social conscience and anti-establishment views.{{cite web|first=Graham |last=Hughes |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2005/11/23/theatre_robnewman_feature.shtml |title=Review: Mark Thomas and Rob Newman Live |date=23 November 2005 |accessdate=2008-11-19 |publisher=BBC |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080412131647/http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2005/11/23/theatre_robnewman_feature.shtml |archivedate=12 April 2008 |url-status=dead }} He covered the anti-globalisation Seattle protests of 1999 for the UK's Channel 4 News. He has been politically active with Reclaim the Streets, the Liverpool Dockers, Indymedia and People's Global Action.{{cite web|url=http://www.robnewman.com/biog.html |title=Biography |accessdate=2008-11-19 |work=Robert Newman official website |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509134316/http://www.robnewman.com/biog.html |archivedate=9 May 2008 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|url=http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0308-11.htm |first=Suzanne |last=Charlé |title=Write On |accessdate=2008-11-19 |work=The American Prospect |date=8 March 2004 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090630140511/http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0308-11.htm |archivedate=30 June 2009 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://www.metro.co.uk/metrolife/article.html?in_article_id=16931&in_page_id=9 |first=Sharon |last=Lougher |title=Robert Newman |date=6 July 2006 |accessdate=2008-11-19 |work=Metro |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522132621/http://www.metro.co.uk/metrolife/article.html?in_article_id=16931&in_page_id=9 |archivedate=22 May 2011 |url-status=dead }}

His later work is characterised by a very strong political element. It parallels the work of contemporaries such as Mark Thomas.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/aug/03/theatre.britishidentity |first=Stuart |last=Jeffries |title=No laughing matter |date=3 August 2005 |accessdate=2008-11-19 |work=The Guardian |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207165618/http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2005/aug/03/theatre.britishidentity |archivedate=7 December 2008 |url-status=dead }} In 2001, with actress Emma Thompson, he called for a boycott of the Perrier Comedy Award, because Perrier is owned by Nestlé who market powdered baby milk in developing countries;{{cite news |last=Scott |first=Kirsty |title=Spoof horror writer wins £5,000 Perrier award: Fringe comedy contest soured by baby milk protests |work=The Guardian |date=27 August 2001 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/edinburghfestival2001/story/0,,543033,00.html |accessdate=11 June 2007 }} an alternative competition called the Tap Water Awards was set up the following year.{{cite web |title=The Tap Water Awards |url=http://www.TapWaterAwards.org/ |accessdate=11 June 2007 }} In 2003, Newman toured with From Caliban to the Taliban, which was released on CD and DVD. In 2005, the show Apocalypso Now or, from P45 to AK47, How to Grow the Economy with the Use of War debuted at the Bongo Club during the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.{{cite web|url=http://www.thestage.co.uk/edinburgh/reviews/review.php/9374/robert-newman-apocalypso-now |title=Reviews: Robert Newman: Apocalypso Now |first=Nick |last=Awle |accessdate=2008-11-19 |work=The Stage |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20081119230759/http://www.thestage.co.uk/edinburgh/reviews/review.php/9374/robert-newman-apocalypso-now |archivedate=19 November 2008 |url-status=dead }} Apocalypso Now toured nationally, sometimes as part of a double-bill where Newman was joined by Mark Thomas. The show was filmed at the Hoxton Hall in Hoxton, east London and shown on More4 under the title A History of Oil, with a later release on CD and DVD. A mixture of stand-up comedy and introductory lecture on geopolitics and peak oil, in Apocalypso Now Newman argues that twentieth-century Western foreign policy, including World War I, should be seen as a continuous struggle by the West to control Middle Eastern oil.{{cite web|url=http://www.spinwatch.org.uk/reviews-mainmenu-24/video-reviews-mainmenu-25/3298-history-of-oil--rob-newman |first=Michael |last=Greenwell |title=History of Oil – Rob Newman |accessdate=2008-11-19 |work=SpinWatch |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090417075722/http://www.spinwatch.org.uk/reviews-mainmenu-24/video-reviews-mainmenu-25/3298-history-of-oil--rob-newman |archivedate=17 April 2009 |url-status=dead }} Newman draws from Richard Heinberg's book The Party's Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies as source material for portions of the show dealing with peak oil.{{cite web|url=http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/podcasts/2006/03/interview_with_robert_newman.html |first=Paul |last=Hamilos |title=There's No Planet B: Interview: Robert Newman |date=31 March 2006 |accessdate=2008-11-19 |work=The Guardian |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720155947/http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/podcasts/2006/03/interview_with_robert_newman.html |archivedate=20 July 2008 |url-status=dead }}

In 2006, Newman performed a new show, No Planet B or, The History of the World Backwards, at the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, north-west London.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/07/05/btplanetb05.xml |first=Charles |last=Spencer |title=History boy needs more jokes |date=7 May 2006 |accessdate=2008-11-19 |work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810133807/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=%2Farts%2F2006%2F07%2F05%2Fbtplanetb05.xml |archivedate=10 August 2017 |url-status=dead }} In 2007, the BBC commissioned a six-part series, The History of the World Backwards based on No Planet B, for transmission on BBC Four.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0088kmv |title=BBC Four Programmes: The History of the World Backwards |date=10 December 2007 |accessdate=2008-11-19 |publisher=BBC |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20120723124628/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0088kmv |archivedate=23 July 2012 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|url=http://www.robnewman.com/abouthistory.html |title=Robert Newman's The History of the World Backwards |accessdate=2008-11-19 |work=Robert Newman official website |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513175506/http://www.robnewman.com/abouthistory.html |archivedate=13 May 2008 |url-status=dead }} The script of the stage version show is accessible on Newman's official website.{{cite web|url=http://www.robnewman.com/history.html |title=No Planet B – The History of the World Backwards |date=July 2006 |accessdate=2008-11-19 |work=Robert Newman official website |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705131150/http://www.robnewman.com/history.html |archivedate=5 July 2008 |url-status=dead }}

In 2015, his BBC Radio 4 programme Robert Newman's Entirely Accurate Encyclopaedia of Evolution attempted to challenge some of the concepts of Richard Dawkins's book The Selfish Gene. It won the Best Scripted Comedy with a Live Audience award at the 2017 BBC Audio Drama Awards.{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5Ynb3jN3yHTz7BwDJVpbXyr/the-list-of-2017-winners |title= BBC Audio Drama Awards 2017 |accessdate= 2017-03-04}}

Writing

Newman co-wrote The Mary Whitehouse Experience Encyclopedia (1991), with David Baddiel, Hugh Dennis, and Steve Punt.

He has written four novels: Dependence Day (1994); Manners (1998); The Fountain at the Centre of the World (2003); and The Trade Secret (2013).

In 2015 his book The Entirely Accurate Encyclopaedia of Evolution, based on his stand-up show "Robert Newman's New Theory of Evolution", was published by Freight Books.{{Cite web |title = The Entirely Accurate Encyclopaedia of Evolution by Robert Newman – Freight Books |url = http://www.freightbooks.co.uk/product/the-entirely-accurate-encyclopaedia-of-evolution/|website = freightbooks.co.uk |access-date = 2016-01-28}}

In April 2017 his book Neuropolis was published by HarperCollins.{{Cite web |title = Neuropolis by Robert Newman – HarperCollins|url = https://www.harpercollins.co.uk/9780008228651/neuropolis |website = harpercollins.co.uk |access-date = 2017-03-04}}

=''The Fountain at the Centre of the World''=

Dwight Garner, an editor of The New York Times Book Review, reviewed The Fountain at the Centre of the World favourably, saying "I wouldn't be surprised, in fact, if [it] became the talismanic Catch-22 of the anti-globalisation protest movement, the fictional complement to Naomi Klein's influential exposé No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies".{{cite web|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05E4D61039F932A35751C0A9629C8B63 |first=Dwight |last=Garner |title=The Battle of Seattle |date=1 February 2004 |accessdate=2008-11-19 |work=The New York Times |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121005755/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05E4D61039F932A35751C0A9629C8B63 |archivedate=21 January 2012 |url-status=dead }}

Newman's process of writing the book was the subject of a 2008 BBC Two television documentary entitled Scribbling.{{cite web|url=http://www.walltowall.co.uk/catalogue_detail.aspx?w2wprogram=95 |title=Scribbling |accessdate=2008-11-19 |work=Wall to Wall |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090701013147/http://www.walltowall.co.uk/catalogue_detail.aspx?w2wprogram=95 |archivedate=1 July 2009 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_/ai_n12739612 |title=ANSWER THE QUESTIONS! Robert Newman – Writing? It's the lack of heavy |date=11 May 2003 |accessdate=2008-11-19 |work=Independent on Sunday |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810105810/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_/ai_n12739612 |archivedate=10 August 2017 |url-status=dead }}

Filmography and bibliography

=''[[The Mary Whitehouse Experience]]''=

1989 – The Mary Whitehouse Experience (radio series).
1990 – The Mary Whitehouse Experience (television series).
1991 – The Mary Whitehouse Experience Encyclopedia (series companion book) (Co-authored with David Baddiel, Hugh Dennis, and Steve Punt.)

=''[[Newman and Baddiel]]''=

1991 – From the Mary Whitehouse Experience (live VHS release).
1992 – History Today (live VHS release).
1993 – Newman and Baddiel in Pieces (television series).
1993 – Live and in Pieces (live VHS release).

=Solo career=

1994 – Dependence Day (novel).
1994 – The Dependence Day Video (live VHS release).
1998 – Manners (novel).
2001 – Resistance is Fertile (live VHS release).
2003 – Scribbling (television special).
2003 – The Fountain at the Centre of the World (novel). {{ISBN|1-85984-573-8}} (10).
2004 – From Caliban to the Taliban: 500 Years of Humanitarian Intervention (live DVD release).
2004 – From Caliban to the Taliban: 500 Years of Humanitarian Intervention (live limited edition handmade 2 cd release).
2005 – Apocalypso Now or, from P45 to AK47, how to Grow the Economy with the Use of War (live 2 cd release).
2006 – A History of Oil (television special).
2007 – A History of Oil (live DVD release).
2007 – The History of the World Backwards (television series).
2013 – The Trade Secret (novel) {{ISBN|1-90888-517-3}} (10)
2017 – [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08nkn4k Neuropolis] (radio series)
2018 – [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bh5hp2 Rob Newman's Total Eclipse of Descartes] (radio series)
2020 – [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000n5yy Rob Newman's Half-Full Philosophy Hour] (radio series)
2022 – [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001df12 Rob Newman On Air] (radio series)