IAN STONE - Biography
This is a little summary of what i've been up to in the last twenty eight years or so.
Ranked amongst the top ten stand-ups in Britain by The Independent, Ian Stone is one of the most talented topical acts and comperes in the country. Edgy and provocative, with an easy-going manner and self-depreciating style, Ian is at great ease bantering with an audience. He received a nomination in 2012 for the BEST SHOW at the Leicester Comedy Festival Awards. His Edinburgh festival show in 2022 Righter of Wrongs played to sold out audiences for the entire run and he'll be back in Edinburgh in 2023
He has performed all over the world including Comedy Festivals in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, South Africa, Holland, France, Ireland and Germany. He’s entertained the troops in Kuwait, Bosnia,Kosovo, Cyprus and Afghanistan. He was the first British stand-up to perform in Moscow and the first performer to appear for The Comedy Store in Mumbai.
"Seriously funny" The Guardian
TV
On ESPN in 2013, Ian presented Off The Ball, a weekly comedy sports panel show. The guest list read like a who’s who of the nations favourite comedy talent and included Alan Davies, Dara OBriain, Lee Mack, Omid Djalili, Ardal OHanlon, Phil Jupitus and Milton Jones. On FA Cup Final Day in 2013, he presented a version of the show as part of ESPN’s coverage from Wembley Stadium. In May 2014, the show was renamed The Football's On, moved to BT Sport and ran for two seasons. Guests included Frankie Boyle, Mickey Flanagan, David Baddiel, Romesh Ranganathan, Omid Djalili, Sean Lock and Alan Davies. It came back for the second half of the 2021/22 football season and is currently running for the 2022/23 season
Ian's many TV appearances include two shows of Mock The Week (BBC 2), The World Stands Up (Paramount Comedy 2005) The Comedy Store (Ch5 - 3 appearances and 1 for The Comedy Channel), Never Mind The Buzzcocks (BBC 2), The Stand-Up Show (BBC 1), Saturday Live (ITV), Live at Jongleurs (ITV), two series of The Katy Brand Show for ITV2 & The 11 O'clock Show (CH4).
"Ian Stone is intelligent and likable and has the audience in the palm of hand from the second he steps on stage. This is the type of comedy that leaves you giddy and on the highest high. After seeing him last night I totally understand why the punters were returning for a second dose." Broadway Baby
RADIO
On Radio 5 Live, Ian has been a regular guest on their flagship sports panel show Fighting Talk. In 2010, he presented Christmas Up The Front, a documentary about performing comedy for the troops in Afghanistan. During the 2010 World Cup, he was part of the team that presented six shows of The Armchair World Cup. The show was revived for a one-off Christmas special, Armchair Premier League and returned for a series of shows during the EURO 2012 championship. He was part of the team on The Alan Davies Saturday Morning Show. He also guest presented Radio 5 Live's topical sunday morning show The Back End of Next Week.
On Radio 4, Ian was a special guest on Shappi Talk and The Now Show and he has also appeared on Political Animal and twice on 'Four at the Store'. He presented a critically acclaimed football documentary entitled "Footballs Home Fans" in December 2012 and a follow up show called "Football's Loyal Fans" at the end of 2013.
On Radio 4 Extra, he has presented The Comedy Club.
On Radio 2 he appeared in Hot Gossip, Claudia Winkleman’s top rated Radio Two panel show. He also co-wrote and performed in a broadcast sitcom pilot, The Sharp End starring Alistair McGowan and Michelle Gomez.
On Absolute Radio, he co-presented Rock n Roll Football with Ian Wright every saturday afternoon throughout the football season for six years.
The show was awarded a Sony Silver Award for best sports programme in 2012 and in 2015 won the Gold Award for best Specialist Programme of the Year at the Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards.
Most recently, Ian presented the breakfast show on LoveSport Radio.
"…like a cross between Tony Hancock and Frankie Howerd. Stone is probably better than we deserve. Ultimately, it is the sheer quantity of funny material that really impresses" The List
WRITING
The start of the 2011-2012 football season saw Ian become a regular columnist in the Official Arsenal Magazine. This coincided with Arsenal's worst start to a season in thirty six years although Ian believes that these two things are completely unconnected. Ian has written for Fantasy Football on SkyMax, Russell Howards' Good News on BBC3, You Cannot Be Serious for ITV1, The Omid Djalili show on BBC1, The Sketch Show on ITV1 and Alistair McGowan's Big Impression on BBC 1. His book To Be Someone was published in 2020, has gone into reprint four times and has had over three hundred and fifty five star reviews on Amazon
ONLINE
Ian was one of the founder members of the Alan Davies Arsenal podcast “It’s Up For Grabs Now’. This show was a huge success (slightly more than the team unfortunately). After a short break, the show came back as “The Tuesday Club” and after fifty episodes, it became one of the top rated sports podcasts in the country with an average of sixty thousand downloads a week, an amazing achievement for an independent podcast. In the first week of October 2012, it was the third highest rated podcast of any sort in Britain.
Since 2019, Ian has presented Handbrake Off, the Arsenal podcast for the prestigious Athletic website. It's had over a million downloads since then
"I had high hopes for Ian Stone’s show. Not only is he a seasoned performer, but he has a brilliant line in political humour. Not only was I not disappointed, he blew all my expectations away. Stone’s skill as a comedian is in highlighting the stupidity of the common man through beautifully crafted stories, peppered with gags and asides, hilarious throughout. Not a word is wasted in his clever telling of his world view." Chortle.co.uk
He has performed all over the world including Comedy Festivals in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, South Africa, Holland, France, Ireland and Germany. He’s entertained the troops in Kuwait, Bosnia,Kosovo, Cyprus and Afghanistan. He was the first British stand-up to perform in Moscow and the first performer to appear for The Comedy Store in Mumbai.
"Seriously funny" The Guardian
TV
On ESPN in 2013, Ian presented Off The Ball, a weekly comedy sports panel show. The guest list read like a who’s who of the nations favourite comedy talent and included Alan Davies, Dara OBriain, Lee Mack, Omid Djalili, Ardal OHanlon, Phil Jupitus and Milton Jones. On FA Cup Final Day in 2013, he presented a version of the show as part of ESPN’s coverage from Wembley Stadium. In May 2014, the show was renamed The Football's On, moved to BT Sport and ran for two seasons. Guests included Frankie Boyle, Mickey Flanagan, David Baddiel, Romesh Ranganathan, Omid Djalili, Sean Lock and Alan Davies. It came back for the second half of the 2021/22 football season and is currently running for the 2022/23 season
Ian's many TV appearances include two shows of Mock The Week (BBC 2), The World Stands Up (Paramount Comedy 2005) The Comedy Store (Ch5 - 3 appearances and 1 for The Comedy Channel), Never Mind The Buzzcocks (BBC 2), The Stand-Up Show (BBC 1), Saturday Live (ITV), Live at Jongleurs (ITV), two series of The Katy Brand Show for ITV2 & The 11 O'clock Show (CH4).
"Ian Stone is intelligent and likable and has the audience in the palm of hand from the second he steps on stage. This is the type of comedy that leaves you giddy and on the highest high. After seeing him last night I totally understand why the punters were returning for a second dose." Broadway Baby
RADIO
On Radio 5 Live, Ian has been a regular guest on their flagship sports panel show Fighting Talk. In 2010, he presented Christmas Up The Front, a documentary about performing comedy for the troops in Afghanistan. During the 2010 World Cup, he was part of the team that presented six shows of The Armchair World Cup. The show was revived for a one-off Christmas special, Armchair Premier League and returned for a series of shows during the EURO 2012 championship. He was part of the team on The Alan Davies Saturday Morning Show. He also guest presented Radio 5 Live's topical sunday morning show The Back End of Next Week.
On Radio 4, Ian was a special guest on Shappi Talk and The Now Show and he has also appeared on Political Animal and twice on 'Four at the Store'. He presented a critically acclaimed football documentary entitled "Footballs Home Fans" in December 2012 and a follow up show called "Football's Loyal Fans" at the end of 2013.
On Radio 4 Extra, he has presented The Comedy Club.
On Radio 2 he appeared in Hot Gossip, Claudia Winkleman’s top rated Radio Two panel show. He also co-wrote and performed in a broadcast sitcom pilot, The Sharp End starring Alistair McGowan and Michelle Gomez.
On Absolute Radio, he co-presented Rock n Roll Football with Ian Wright every saturday afternoon throughout the football season for six years.
The show was awarded a Sony Silver Award for best sports programme in 2012 and in 2015 won the Gold Award for best Specialist Programme of the Year at the Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards.
Most recently, Ian presented the breakfast show on LoveSport Radio.
"…like a cross between Tony Hancock and Frankie Howerd. Stone is probably better than we deserve. Ultimately, it is the sheer quantity of funny material that really impresses" The List
WRITING
The start of the 2011-2012 football season saw Ian become a regular columnist in the Official Arsenal Magazine. This coincided with Arsenal's worst start to a season in thirty six years although Ian believes that these two things are completely unconnected. Ian has written for Fantasy Football on SkyMax, Russell Howards' Good News on BBC3, You Cannot Be Serious for ITV1, The Omid Djalili show on BBC1, The Sketch Show on ITV1 and Alistair McGowan's Big Impression on BBC 1. His book To Be Someone was published in 2020, has gone into reprint four times and has had over three hundred and fifty five star reviews on Amazon
ONLINE
Ian was one of the founder members of the Alan Davies Arsenal podcast “It’s Up For Grabs Now’. This show was a huge success (slightly more than the team unfortunately). After a short break, the show came back as “The Tuesday Club” and after fifty episodes, it became one of the top rated sports podcasts in the country with an average of sixty thousand downloads a week, an amazing achievement for an independent podcast. In the first week of October 2012, it was the third highest rated podcast of any sort in Britain.
Since 2019, Ian has presented Handbrake Off, the Arsenal podcast for the prestigious Athletic website. It's had over a million downloads since then
"I had high hopes for Ian Stone’s show. Not only is he a seasoned performer, but he has a brilliant line in political humour. Not only was I not disappointed, he blew all my expectations away. Stone’s skill as a comedian is in highlighting the stupidity of the common man through beautifully crafted stories, peppered with gags and asides, hilarious throughout. Not a word is wasted in his clever telling of his world view." Chortle.co.uk