The Comics Unseen
Press Kit
Stand-up · Acting · Vancouver, Canada
Simon King
Twenty-six years in, close to 10,000 sets, and still nothing written down on paper. He talks faster than most comics can think, and Robin Williams put that in writing.
From
Born in England · in Canada since he was five · based in Vancouver
Works in
Stand-up · Acting · Voice work · Writing
Started
First open mic 8 February 2000 · full-time since 8 August 2002
Known for
Furious (2016) · As Good As Or Better Than (2023), directed by Rory Scovel
Coming up
New special — taped and in final edit; made in Canada; release expected late November or early December 2026
Endorsed by
“Truly a gifted comedian” — Robin Williams, in a letter supporting his US visa
Interview
73 min · The Comics Unseen · 2026
“I’ve never gone on stage thinking, how can I make the audience laugh? I’ve always gone on stage thinking, what do I want to say?”
Simon King — The Comics Unseen
Ready-to-use copy
Biography
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Simon King is a stand-up comedian, actor and writer, born in England, in Canada since the age of five, and based in Vancouver. He was first on a stage at seven, in a musical his mother was acting in, and spent years in theatre, bands and sketch before he saw live stand-up for the first time in a Vancouver club in October 1999. He did his first open mic on 8 February 2000 and walked off knowing he had to do it again. He went full-time on 8 August 2002, the week he took over a 30-seat room and made himself headline it with 20 new minutes every Thursday.
He is an instinct comedian: no jokes written out on paper, a notebook and a stage instead, material built by improvising and then remembering. The style that came out of it is fast, loud and what he calls accordion-shaped, expanding and contracting, with the constant problem of phrasing a big idea so 99 per cent of a room follows it and 85 per cent laugh. Before the pandemic he was doing 300 to 400 shows a year, and he puts his career total near 10,000 sets. Furious (2016) was recorded as a bootleg at the point where the Los Angeles industry had left him disheartened enough to stop caring; As Good As Or Better Than, directed by Rory Scovel, is the same engine with the controls back on. The new special, taped and now in edit, is a dark one.
He nearly quit in 2010, and was talked out of it by one line from a room runner after a set where he finally said what he actually thought. These days the act goes at mental illness, OCD, anxiety and depression as readily as it goes at racists and extremists, and he posts almost nothing online but stand-up — a deliberate choice to gather comedy fans rather than followers.
The part other press kits leave out
What you should know before you book him
Simon King is a fast, loud, concept-driven headliner who can explain the mechanics of everything he does. He is also, by his own description, a high degree of difficulty comic — and an unusually self-aware one.
Volume, in both senses
He taped an hour and twenty for the new special and jokes that the pitch is bulk buy. Expect a dense, high-speed set; he has been managing that pace deliberately since he realised an audience needs a break.
Rhythm is the guide rail
He treats stand-up as beat-based, close to hip-hop in its delivery — fast here, slow there, dark then light — so a room learns the pattern early and will follow him somewhere complicated later.
He sets the room up before he pushes it
The opening of Furious talks an audience into agreeing the sun should be destroyed, then turns on them: a demonstration of mob control, and a contract about the energy to come. He also takes himself down before he attacks anything.
Hard subjects, no victim
Race, gender identity and his own mental health are all in the act, handled as something shared rather than adversarial. He is explicit about his own privilege and says the “you people” approach is not how he works.
Technically self-sufficient
Theatre-trained and loud enough to drop the microphone entirely in a small room, which he often prefers. When he holds one it is partly a prop, and partly a way of slowing himself down.
An audience of comedy fans
Roughly 3,000 posts, almost all of them stand-up, built in the four years since his father died. It has cost him followers and brought him Carlin, Burr, Rock and Sykes fans instead, which is the trade he wanted.
For press · cleared for use with attribution
Quotable
01
“It takes a long time to get this bitter and this crazy. I was 10 plus years in before I fully lost my patience and was just like, I’ll just say what I want on stage now.”
02
“I love clean comedy. I love absurdist comedy. I like a lot of one-liner comedy. I just happen to do what I do because this is the only skill set I’ve developed over time.”
03
“It may not be the best comedy special you’ve seen, but just sheer volume, bulk buy. You’re getting so much quantity.”
04
“I was just this fire hose of jokes and energy, because it was all bottled up in me.”
05
“I don’t sit down and write jokes out on paper. I go up and I improvise and then remember.”
06
“My natural style developed as this kind of almost accordion style comedy, where it will go out to this crazy extent and then come in and then go out.”
07
“The challenge to me is figuring out how can I say this big concept in a way that 99% of people are going to understand and then 85% of people are going to find funny.”
08
“I remember coming off stage being like, I need to do that again. Whatever that was, I need to do that again.”
09
“I’ve never gone on stage thinking, how can I make the audience laugh? I’ve always gone on stage thinking, what do I want to say?”
10
“What stand-up allows me to do is to remove some of the filters and some of the stops between my brain and my mouth.”
11
“It’s me on stage. It’s just me cranked up.”
12
“What you’re seeing in that special is not a character. It’s just me without control. It’s just me going, I don’t care anymore and I need to say these things.”
13
“I’m not path of least resistance on stage. I’m path of most resistance, and that’s the difference for me.”
14
“I make the audience, in about 30 seconds to a minute, agree with me that we should destroy the sun. At the end I go, well, you’re stupid, we need the sun to live. And that’s how Fox News works.”
15
“If you can find a way to tap into something that’s familiar, a rhythm, a pattern, then they follow you.”
16
“I treat stand-up like woodworking. You could be the best woodworker in the world, but if you don’t have the chisels and the tools, it doesn’t matter.”
17
“I know this is going to push you guys, but I won’t let you down. The more you do something like that and you don’t let them down, the further they’ll follow you.”
18
“I have to take myself down before I attack. If I don’t do that, it just looks bitter and angry.”
19
“I don’t like the approach of you people, you people this, you people that, because it’s not. It’s we are.”
20
“White privilege isn’t money. It’s the fact that I just don’t think about my race.”
21
“I’m a comedian for comedy fans. I jokingly say a high degree of difficulty comic.”
22
“My best work always comes from me going up and being like, I wonder what will happen.”
23
“As independent and creative and unique as you are, it means that not everybody’s going to be on the same wavelength. And that is okay. In fact, that is a sign you’re doing it right.”
24
“I jokingly say I’ve hugged an inordinate amount of crying people in my time, because I talk about hard things on stage.”
25
“I feel like I lost the best friend I hadn’t made yet.”
26
“I just love good comedy. If someone’s genuine and honest and unique and interesting and they’re just doing it and putting it out there, it’s just the best thing.”
Attribution: Simon King, speaking to The Comics Unseen, 2026.
Career
Selected credits
Specials & albums
- New special — taped and in final edit; produced in-house in Canada; release expected late November or early December 2026
- As Good As Or Better Than — album 2022, special released 2023, directed by Rory Scovel
- One For The Money / Two For The Show — double album, 2018
- Furious — special and album, 2016; taped at the Rickshaw Theatre, Vancouver
- No Kidding — half-hour television special, 2013
- Unfamous — album, recorded at the end of 2009
- Comedy Now! — one-hour television special, 2008
Festivals & broadcast
- HBO US Comedy Arts Festival — February 2005, less than three years into full-time comedy
- San Francisco and Seattle international comedy competitions
- Just For Laughs · Vancouver International Comedy Festival
- Comedy Network · Comedy Central · CBC · CTV · TBS · Sirius
Acting
- The Magicians (2019) · About a Girl (2009) · Saved (2008)
- Tooth Fairy (2010) · Little Brother of War (2010) · The Triple Eight (2008)
On the road
300 to 400 shows a year before the pandemic, and close to 10,000 sets in total. He has also opened for Doug Stanhope.
Influences
Robin Williams, George Carlin, Norm Macdonald, Mitch Hedberg, Maria Bamford, Doug Stanhope, Brian Regan and Jonathan Winters.
This kit was produced by The Comics Unseen. The interview and quotes
are drawn from The Comics Unseen × Simon King, recorded 2026. Simon King and their
representatives are free to use any part of this document — the biography,
the quotes — for booking, press and promotion, with credit to The Comics Unseen for
the interview material.
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