Hop For Pop
Press Kit
Actor · Sketch · Writer-Producer
Tom Johnson
An actor who got tired of waiting to be cast, so he writes the shows himself. The current one is an hour of horrible people being horrible to each other while an asteroid closes in.
Based
Southend-on-Sea, Essex
Works in
Sketch · Character comedy · Acting · Improv
Known for
Armageddon Outta Here
Also
Verbal Diary · Palladium Apex
Interview
51 min · Hop For Pop · 2026
“Stupidity is never the opposite of intelligence.”
Tom Johnson — Hop For Pop
Ready-to-use copy
Biography
236 words — lift as-is, no rewriting required
Tom Johnson is an actor who makes his own work, on the grounds that waiting for someone else to cast him is a poor use of a life. He performs sketch and character comedy, improvises regularly in Southend-on-Sea, and writes and produces the shows he then stars in — a habit he says most actors are perfectly capable of and inexplicably do not take up.
His Edinburgh show Armageddon Outta Here, performed with Rob Glenister and co-written with Chris Roberts, who directs, is built around an asteroid hurtling toward the earth and what people do when nothing they do can have consequences any more. He describes it, accurately, as a celebration of the very worst humanity has to offer — and then more accurately still as an excuse for two men to shout at each other, hit each other, put on silly accents and swear. Most of it was written in a pub. It is close to clowning, but considerably more violent.
Before it came Verbal Diary, a much gentler show, and a revival of a long-forgotten early-1980s punk musical by John Otway and Paul Bradley that he funded with a windfall he could have put toward a house deposit. He also makes Palladium Apex, a dark cabaret with Glenister that they habitually take on stage with half a script and improvise the rest of.
The part other press kits leave out
What you should know before you book him
Tom Johnson is a character actor working in comedy rather than a stand-up, and he is precise about the difference — including why playing an idiot is a technical discipline and not just a licence to be loud.
He is funnier as someone else
His own account: he is at his best inside a character, not playing a version of himself. Armageddon Outta Here is multiple characters rather than a persona.
Grotesque is the register
Shouting, screaming, physical violence, deliberate ugliness. Close to clowning but nastier. Book it knowing the room needs an appetite for that.
Playing dumb takes work
“You have to remove all ego and sexuality from it.” He rehearses faces in a mirror. The stupidity is constructed, which is exactly his point about it.
Stupid is not the opposite of clever
His touchstone is Peter Cook and Dudley Moore doing Derek and Clive — two blisteringly intelligent men playing two very stupid ones, which he rates alongside Shakespeare.
He makes his own opportunities
Rather than audition and wait, he writes, produces and stars. A booker gets someone who arrives with a finished show rather than an availability.
A free-Fringe sympathiser
He has done the paid Fringe and found it expensive and politically odd. His sympathies are with the DIY punk spirit he thinks the festival was built for.
For press · cleared for use with attribution
Quotable
01
“It’s a celebration of the very worst humanity has to offer.”02
“That’s the very intellectual answer. Really it’s a poor excuse so that me and Rob can shout at each other and hit each other and put on silly accents and swear.”03
“It’s almost like clowning, but a lot more violent than that.”04
“The human race is actually more thick and perverted and horrible than we let on — as soon as we don’t have to be polite any more.”05
“It’s an hour of horrible people being horrible to themselves and each other.”06
“It’s very hard to write a normal situation where someone isn’t accountable for their actions. So it’s purely emotion, purely someone’s inner demons coming out.”07
“Most of the time it’s been me and Rob going to a pub, getting a bit drunk, and seeing what we can say to make each other laugh.”08
“We never have to explain ourselves to each other, which is a lovely attribute.”09
“I am an actor, darling.”10
“I’m terrible at waiting around. I make my own opportunities — I write a show, then I put it on.”11
“I’ll make my own stupid shows, and it’s done me well so far.”12
“It’s a lovely thing to have a room full of people laughing. All the barriers have come down.”13
“I don’t have to worry about practising looking stupid, because I know it will come naturally.”14
“When you do a horrible character that looks quite dumb, you have to remove all ego and sexuality from it, so they just look absolutely abhorrent.”15
“Stupidity is never the opposite of intelligence.”16
“Derek and Clive — I put it up there with Shakespeare.”17
“I came into some money. Should I put a deposit on a house? No, Kishan. I spent it all reviving a punk musical from the early 80s.”18
“There are still people out there at the Fringe who embody that punk DIY spirit, which I have all the time in the world for.”
Attribution: Tom Johnson, speaking to Hop For Pop, 2026.
Career
Selected credits
Shows
- Armageddon Outta Here — sketch show with Rob Glenister; co-written with Chris Roberts, who directs; Edinburgh Fringe 2026
- Verbal Diary — Edinburgh Fringe
- Revival of a long-forgotten early-1980s punk musical by John Otway and Paul Bradley
- Palladium Apex — dark cabaret, part-scripted and part-improvised, with Rob Glenister
Other work
Actor by training and first instinct. Performs improv regularly in Southend-on-Sea, and has staged looser semi-improvised comedy shows of his own.
This kit was produced by Hop For Pop. The interview and quotes are drawn from Hop For Pop × Tom Johnson, recorded 2026. Tom Johnson and their representatives are free to use any part of this document — the biography, the quotes — for booking, press and promotion, with credit to Hop For Pop for the interview material.
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