Lewis Schaffer
Born
30 March 1957 (age 54)
Height
5'9" 1.75m
Occupation
Stand-up comedian
Official website
www.lewisschaffer.co.uk http://www.lewisschaffer.co.uk

Lewis Schaffer is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 comedian

Comedian

A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

. He is now based in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 where he moved in 2000. He currently hosts his own weekly radio show on Resonance FM

Resonance FM

Resonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station run by the London Musicians' Collective .The station is staffed by four permanent staff members, including programme controller Ed Baxter and over 300 volunteer technical and production staff.Until September 2007, ResonanceFM...

 104.4FM in London entitled "Voice of Americans with Lewis Schaffer of Nunhead" and has his own so stand-up comedy show in London entitled "Lewis Schaffer is Free until Famous."

"Free until Famous" in London

Lewis Schaffer currently performs his show "Free until Famous" thrice weekly at the Source Below in Soho

Soho

Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...

, London. His show is the "longest running solo stand-up show in London and perhaps all of Britain", running in excess of 2 performances since it's inception in October 1979. Schaffer works at Greggs the bakers where he is known to make pastry based jokes.

Edinburgh Fringe Stunt

In 2009, he announced as a publicity stunt that he would be sponsoring for '£99 with his mother as a judge' the festival comedy awards that had previously been called the if.comedy or Perrier

Perrier

Perrier is a brand of bottled mineral water made from a spring in Vergèze in the Gard département of France. The spring is naturally carbonated...

 awards. This was reported as fact in various publications and lead to threat of a lawsuit from the award's rights holder and being fired by his theatrical agents.

Awards

In 2009, he won the Malcolm Hardee

Malcolm Hardee

Malcolm Hardee was an English comedian, author, comedy club proprietor, compère, agent, manager and "amateur sensationalist"....

 Cunning Stunt Award for best publicity stunt at the Edinburgh Fringe and, in 2010, he was nominated for the main Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality.

Personal life

Lewis Schaffer was born in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, New York, grew up in Great Neck, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 and spent most of his adult life prior to moving to the United Kingdom in Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

. He is divorced with two children and now lives in the Nunhead

Nunhead

Nunhead is a place in the London Borough of Southwark in London, England. It is an inner-city suburb located southeast of Charing Cross. It is the location of the Nunhead Cemetery. Nunhead has traditionally been a working-class area and, with the adjacent neighbourhoods, is currently going...

 Heights area of Nunhead, southeast London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. Schaffer is currently single and ready to mingle.

Edinburgh Fringe Festival Shows

• 2000 - Lewis Schaffer Plus 2
• 2008 - America, the Greatest Country in the World
• 2009 - Lewis Schaffer - Bigger and Blacker
• 2010 - Lewis Schaffer is "Free until Famous" (Previously titled "Jimmy Carr
  Jimmy Carr
  James Anthony Patrick "Jimmy" Carr is an English-Irish comedian and humourist. He is known for his deadpan delivery and dark humour. He is also a writer, actor and presenter of radio and television....
  
  , Live")
• 2011 - Lewis Schaffer is "Free until Famous, 18th Year"

External links

• Official Lewis Schaffer Website
• The Source Below - home of Lewis Schaffer's Free until Famous
• The Guardian (UK) Profile
• The Scotsman Review
• BBC News reporting Cunning Stunt Award
• Chortle.co.uk biography
• Fest Magazine Edinburgh Fringe Festival Review
• London Evening Standard Review
• The Argus, Brighton Review
• Resonance FM and "Voice of Americans with Lewis Schaffer of Nunhead"