Harry Trevaldwyn: A Chort Story
At the Comedy Crowd we run our annual 2 minute comedy sketch competition “Chorts” for one reason: to discover exciting new comedy talent.
So when someone completely original, confident, clearly very funny and right at the start of their creative journey comes along, we tend to get excited.
This can sometimes result in the sharing of a celebration emoji amongst the team 🎉.
So it was in the heady days of 2019, shortly before face masks and hand gel entered our lives, Harry entered the Chorts 2019 competition with his video “How to: Knit Left-Handed”:
Unfortunately we didn’t come away from watching this video with any great insight into left-handed knitting. But we knew we had seen a spark of something special.
After succeeding in the Chorts, Harry was on our radar as one of the Comedy Crowd Top Talent. So we met with him and discussed ideas for developing and experimenting with his characters to build his profile online.
Some very funny character monologues followed, including a couple of our favourites:
The characters were funny, and experimentation was key to find what clicked with an audience.
Increasingly Harry was seeing traction on Twitter, where other talented comedy performers have also seen viral success when they hit on the right relatable topic (see Michael Spicer’s Room Next Door).
And in the midst of 2020 lockdown, Harry had his own experience of this, seeing over half a million views for his performance as Boris Johnson’s teenage daughter:
Now starting to feature on the radar of some of the comedy industry’s movers and shakers, Harry was asked to write and perform a sketch for ITV show “Home Alone with Joel Dommett”.
This was the beginning of something special. Harry received opportunities to write with some of the UK’s largest comedy producers, whilst at the same time his acting was about to hit the mainstream after being cast in two huge shows:
The Bubble – a comedy film on Netflix
Ten Percent – A British take on the French series Call My Agent, on Amazon Prime
Now in 2022, both shows have been released on the respective channels, and Harry has also just released his own C4 Comedy Blap “Billi”:
With his Twitter blue tick confirmed, and a role in Robert Popper’s sitcom “I Hate You” coming up, the sky seems to be the limit for supremely talented Harry Trevaldwyn.
This is what he had to say about his experience since entering Chorts in 2019:
“The Chorts competition was one of the first times I put my videos out there and it is the best most nurturing place to test and try things out. If you’re thinking about making something (even if it’s so so so silly) just make it and try it out and put it out there, even if you think it’s embarrassing. It’s the best thing I ever did. Viva la comedy crowd!“
Kind words indeed thanks Harry! So if you are thinking of getting started as a comedy writer and / or performer, there are worse things you could do than enter the Chorts! and experimenting with your comedy characters.
Find out more about the 2022 Chorts competition here
If you haven’t seen enough clips of Harry yet, we’ll leave you with our 2020 “Big Lockdown Laugh” in which Harry hosts as quarantined cruise ship entertainer reading his erotic fantasy novel “Waves of Pleasure” (see 8:00):