Archie Henderson-Cleland

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Archie Henderson-Cleland
Born (1994-02-09) 9 February 1994 (age 30)
London, England
MediumStand-up, television, radio, musician
NationalityBritish
Alma materCambridge University
Years active2015 –present
GenresCharacter comedy, Parody, Musical Comedy
Subject(s)British culture, Musical Comedy
Notable works and rolesYou Shouldn't Have
Websitewww.jazzemu.com

Archie Henderson-Cleland is an award-winning English comedian, musician and writer, most notable for performing as the character Jazz Emu.

Personal life

Archibald Hugh Henderson-Cleland was born on 9 February 1994 in London,[1] the third child of Hugh and Victoria.[2] He has three sisters.

He uses the singular 'Henderson' surname for stage purposes.

His grandfather on his mother's side was Sir Christopher Slade; great grandfather was Sir Denys Buckley and great-great-grandfather was Henry Buckley, 1st Baron Wrenbury [3].

His great uncle Julian Slade was a famed Musical Theatre writer. Another great uncle, Adrian Slade was former President of the Liberal party, and former President of the Cambridge Footlights.

He was educated at Alleyn's School in Dulwich, and later attended Kings College where he read Classics, graduating in 2015 and was a regular contributor to the Footlights performance group from 2014.[4]

Career

After graduating from Cambridge in 2015, Henderson worked full-time as a teacher while continuing to perform at stand-up gigs around the UK.

In 2016 he performed in a comedy trio Two Plus Ones, with fellow Footlights alumni Luke Sumner and Josh Chana.[5] The trio performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, a one-off sketch for Comic Relief and also a few sketches for So Beano! a childrens show for Sky One under the faux band name of All the Same. These sketches can be found on YouTube.

In 2019, Henderson and fellow comedian Adrian Gray, went viral after creating a Twitter thread, claiming to trace the music charts back 14,000 BC, in which they answered the question, "Since Mambo No.5 came out, everyone has been wondering what happened to the first four?"[6]

He had a cameo playing 'Peter' in Series 1 episode 6 of Late Night Mash and also 'Pedro' in the BBC Three pilot Britney, starring Charly Clive and Ellen Robertson.

He attended various stand-up events around the country, including performing in Heat 1 of the London BBC New comedy Awards 2018.[7]

Henderson is represented by United Agents.

Jazz Emu

In 2018 Henderson created his stand up show ‘Archie Henderson: Jazz Emu’. Originally the name was used for his comedy act rather than a separate character. He picked the name, as Jazz refers to the musical part of the comedy, and Emu because he thought he looked "...a bit like an emu". Performances continued into 2019, including at Brighton Fringe, Buxton Fringe and Edinburgh Fringe

During the 2020 lockdown, Henderson was unable to perform live, so created further musical songs and sketches on both his personal YouTube channel and social media accounts, and also his Jazz Emu YouTube channel and accounts simultaneously. Due to this, he was able to gain success with the character known as Jazz Emu. His song "How To Socialise" was featured on BBC Radio 1 by presenter Greg James who described him as a very funny man.[8]

Jazz Emu has his own persona and backstory, usually described as a Global Sensation, ‘70s lothario, or world renowned Sex Therapist. [9] He speaks typically in a low, smooth voice and over-emphasises the pronunciation of words.

The backstory includes a rift between the character and his father, which is explored heavily in his full length show "You Shouldn't Have".

Henderson rarely conducts press interviews as the character Jazz Emu, instead he talks about the character in the third person. In the rare occassion where the character of Jazz Emu does conduct an interview, the answers tend to be fantastical, obscure and bizarre.[10]

In 2022 Henderson wrote and starred in a 7 and a half minute pilot, Jazz Emu, in collaboration with Blink Industries, part of Blink (company). This won a Discovery Award in the Comedy Shorts Category at the LOCO London Film Festival in May 2023.

Phil Wang played the character Crimpsy Dimpson.

When control freak foley artist and aspiring cool musician Jazz Emu accidentally takes over the life of musical idol Crimpsy Dimpson, he is faced with a dilemma: to admit the truth and return to his mundane life of foley recording, or to dive deeper into a web of lies, and get everything he ever wanted?

Henderson has also performed Musical Comedy skits as Jazz Emu on The Now Show on BBC Radio 4. (S60 Ep2, [11] S61 Ep3, [12] & S62 Ep6 [13])

In 2023, Henderson was approached by the UKTV channel Dave (TV channel) to write a Eurovision Parody song. [14] He wrote We Also Wrote A Song, and performed it along with fellow comedians Rachel Parris, Darren Harriott, Abi Clarke, Josh Jones and Helen Bauer. This was released on the 9th May 2023 on Dave TV's YouTube & Social Media accounts.

He will feature as a guest on Richard Herring's interview podcasts "Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast " aka RHLSTP in 2023.

Live performances

The character Jazz Emu performs pseudo-comedomusicology, combining music and comedy songs and skits. Henderson performs in regular stand-up events usually performing songs that can be heard on his albums, or seen on his YouTube Channel, but also has produced his own solo shows.

  • 2018 NOW That's Who I Call Archie Henderson at the Brighton Festival Fringe
  • 2019 Archie Henderson: Jazz Emu performed at Brighton Festival Fringe, Buxton Festival Fringe and Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
  • 2022, opening support act for Value Select on his American Tour "Value Select Kills The Moon" on a 24 date tour across the USA.
  • 2022, 2023 You Shouldn't Have, Jazz Emu's first solo stand up musical show.
  • 2022, 2023 Jazz Emu's Pleasure Garden is his own headline hosted performance, playing with his live band called The Cosmique Perfectión. Each run features 'a series of his finest songs' along with 'especial guests' which has included other musical comedy performers, such as Mawaan Rizwan, Emma Sidi and Lucy Pearman. First performed in December 2022, further runs were announced due it sold-out success. The second show was performed in March 2023, at the Hoxton Underbelly in London. Further performances are scheduled for June 2023 and a six-date run at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
  • 2021 & 2023 : Piñata Euro Ision, performing 2 new musical songs: "Funkbot 10,000" in 2021, in which he won first place and "Money" in 2023, coming in second place.
  • May 2023 Opening Support Act for Game Grumps' Tournament of Gamers UK, Ireland & European Tour.

You Shouldn't Have

You Shouldn't Have is Henderson's first full length solo show based soley around the character of Jazz Emu, and features songs featured originally on his YouTube channel. The plot revolves around Jazz Emu trying to regain his career after a faux pas in Finland.

Originally a limited run at Chiswick Playhouse (2–6 March 2022), and additional performances at The Gilded Balloon: Patter Hoose at Edinburgh Festival Fringe (8–21 August 2022).[15]

The show drew attention of director Adam Flynn, who assisted Henderson in making it a full show. Initial previews were performed at the Jersey Arts Centre at the Theatre of Jersey, and later performed at a sell out run of shows the Main Theatre at the Soho Theatre (7–22 December 2022), which received glowing reviews.

  • The Telegraph gave it a 5 star review : "A musical and comic bull’s-eye from marvellously ridiculous star-in-the-making Jazz Emu"[16]
  • The Guardian reviewed the show as "A joyful hour with a delusional musical star"[17]
  • The Times 5 star review proclaimed “I may just have found my new favourite comedian… I barely stopped laughing for a whole hour.."[18]
  • Time Out review: "This one man show has it all"[19]

Due to this initial success, further dates were added at the Soho Theatre in February & April 2023. He later brought the show back to Jersey Arts Centre in April 2023.[20] and is taking the show back to the Edinburgh Fringe for 11 performances in August 2023.

Awards & Nominations

Awards
Year Show Award Awarded by
2018 NOW That's Who I Call Archie Henderson IYAF Best of Brighton Fringe Comedy award. Brighton Fringe[21]
2019 Jazz Emu Amused Moose People's Champion Amused Moose[22]

After recieving this award, presented by the Edinburgh Fringe CEO Shona McCarthy, Henderson was awarded a two week run in the Soho Playhouse Fringe Encore Series.[23]

2021 Jazz Emu representing The Scientists At CERN Euro Ision Winner for the song Funkbot 10,000 Piñata
2021 Jazz Emu Legend of Lockdown Chortle
2023 Jazz Emu Variety or Character Act Chortle presented by Mark Watson and Shaparak Khorsandi in London.[24]
2023 Jazz Emu Social Media Award Chortle presented by Mark Watson and Shaparak Khorsandi in London.[24]
2023 Jazz Emu Pilot Discovery Award LOCO: London Comedy Film Festival
Nominations
Year Act / Show Nomination Organiser
2017 Archie Henderson Finalist So You Think You're Funny
2018 Archie Henderson Shortlisted BBC New Comedy Award
2019 Archie Henderson Shortlisted BBC New Comedy Award
2022 Jazz Emu Best Variety Act Nominee Chortle

Discography

Since 2020, Henderson has released 4 full length, self-produced albums, and two stand alone Singles under the persona of Jazz Emu:

Albums:

(Sic) (2020)

  • Released: 20 January 2020
No.TitleLength
1."Get It Right"3:13
2."Light Touch"2:59
3."Miami"2:42
4."Taste Of You"2:44
5."Old Fashioned Lover"1:58
6."Hench"2:29
7."Stop Playing Games"3:16
8."Tiny Butt"1:44
9."Elaine"3:17
10."Overthunk"2:07
11."Beard"2:35
12."High Budget Boy"2:41
13."Sexier"2:54
14."Sincerité"3:03

Vulnerabilité (2021)

  • Released: 21 January 2021
No.TitleLength
1."Monottone"2:35
2."Dream Of You"3:57
3."Allergic"3:03
4."The Right Time"3:34
5."Popping The Question"3:37
6."Lockdown Lover"2:02
7."How To Socialise"1:35
8."Inhaler"1:32
9."Vibe It Out"3:09
10."MSN Messenger"5:24
11."Fingerful Gloves"1:11
12."My Hair (Ariana Grande Cover)"1:53
13."Keep The Lights On"3:08
14."An Elegant Solution to a Universal Problem"3:25
15."We Own A Jungle"2:51
16."Phagocyte"3:38

Humilis (2021)

  • Released: 26 July 2021
No.TitleLength
1."Ouverture"1:12
2."You Can't Make Me Dance"3:19
3."My Brothe"2:57
4."Shirt Collar"3:29
5."You Make Me Wanna Die Again"2:47
6."Funkbot 10,000"3:39
7."Plan Of Attack"2:22
8."Oozing"3:16
9."Kneecaps"3:28
10."Potato"3:09
11."Microwave"1:05
12."Hœrgüpjelly Kisses"3:20
13."Perko"2:17
14."Nice"4:18

Digital Spool (2022)

  • Released: 1 September 2022
No.TitleLength
1."Prologue"1:23
2."Still Waiting"3:23
3."Schneeky Phase"2:36
4."You Would Never"1:57
5."The Duality of Man"3:51
6."Tonally Inconsistent?!"3:52
7."English Language"1:41
8."Generic Response No. 327"2:34
9."Fabergé Egg"2:27
10."Monster Incorporated"1:47
11."One of the Good Ones"2:58
12."Hummingbird"4:12
13."Digital Spool"3:04
14."Epilogue"2:30

Singles

The Real Me (2023)

  • Released: 21 February 2023
No.TitleLength
1."The Real Me"3:45

I Would Rather (2023)

  • Released: 12 May 2023
No.TitleLength
1."I Would Rather"3:30

References

  1. "London, England, Births and Christening Notices from The Times, 1983-2003". The Times. 11 February 1994.
  2. "London, England, Marriage Notices from The Times, 1982-2004". The Times. 1 August 1988.
  3. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage. p. 4247. ISBN 978-0971196629.
  4. ""Love Handles" keeps audiences giggling - The Tartan". thetartan.org.
  5. "Two Plus Ones: Huge Night In". The List.
  6. "Comedy musicians go viral with fake chart hits back to 14,000 BC". The Irish News. 7 December 2019.
  7. "BBC New Comedy Awards".
  8. "Greg James Radio 1".
  9. "Times Radio Interview with Archie Henderson". The Times.
  10. "Random 8 : Jazz Emu". Comedy.co.uk. British Comedy Guide.
  11. "BBC Radio 4 - Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4, The Now Show – 18th March". BBC.
  12. "BBC Radio 4 - Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4, The Now Show - 11th November". BBC.
  13. "The Now Show April 21st 2023".
  14. "Songwriter says parody Eurovision song was a 'hair-raising challenge'". Yahoo News.
  15. "Jazz Emu: You Shouldn't Have". British Theatre Guide.
  16. "A musical and comic bull's-eye from marvellously ridiculous star-in-the-making Jazz Emu". The Telegraph.
  17. "Jazz Emu: a joyful hour with a delusional musical star". The Guardian.
  18. "Jazz Emu: You Shouldn't Have review — my new favourite comedian". The Times.
  19. "Jazz Emu: You Shouldn't Have". timeout.com.
  20. "You Shouldn't Have at Jersey Arts Centre". Jersey Arts Centre.
  21. "2018 Award Winners". Brighton Fringe. 4 June 2018.
  22. "Amused Moose Winners Split Bill".
  23. "Finalists Announced For Amused Moose Comedy Award 2019".
  24. 24.0 24.1 "Chortle 2023 Awards".

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