Adam Buxton Adam Offord Buxton (born 7 June 1969) is an English actor, comedian and podcaster. With the filmmaker Joe Cornish, he is part of the comedy duo Adam and Joe. They presented the Channel 4 television series '' The Adam and Joe Show'' (1996–200 ...

and

Joe Cornish Joseph Murray Cornish (born 20 December 1968) is an English comedian and filmmaker. With Adam Buxton, he forms the comedy duo Adam and Joe. In 2011, Cornish released his directorial debut ''Attack the Block''. He also co-wrote ''The Adventures ...

are British comedy performers known together as Adam and Joe. They are best known for presenting '' Adam and Joe'' on

BBC Radio 6 Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It primarily plays a wide range of alternative music, from established and emerging artists and bands. In 2002 it was the first national music radio station t ...

(2007–2009, 2011) and ''

The Adam and Joe Show ''The Adam and Joe Show'' is a British television sketch comedy show that originally ran from 6 December 1996 to 28 May 1999 on Channel 4 for the first three series and then moved to E4 from 13 March to 17 April 2001 for the fourth and final ...

'' on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

(1996–2001).

History

Adam and Joe began working on comedy material during their time at

Westminster School Westminster School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It descends from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the Norman Conquest, as do ...

together, where they created numerous amateur films along with their friend

Louis Theroux Louis Sebastian Theroux (; born 20 May 1970) is a British and American documentarian, journalist, broadcaster, and author. He has received three British Academy Television Awards and a Royal Television Society Television Award. After graduati ...

. Some of these films were submitted to Channel 4's home video showcase ''

Takeover TV Takeover TV is a Channel 4 public-access television series first broadcast in the UK in 1995, with a second series in 1996, and a third in 2002 broadcast on E4. It is known as the television show that first gave a break in television to Adam B ...

'' in 1994 and led to Adam hosting that show in 1995. Together, they hosted ''

'' on

from 1996 to 2001. They won the

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

Best Newcomers Award in 1998, published ''The Adam and Joe Book'' in 1999, and presented

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

's coverage of the

Glastonbury Festival The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (commonly referred to as simply Glastonbury Festival, known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most su ...

in 2000 and 2002. Other spin-off projects included ''Adam & Joe's Fourmative Years'' in 1998 and ''Adam and Joe's American Animation Adventure'' in 2001. In 2002, Adam and Joe (who is an amateur magician) went on to present '' 50 Greatest Magic Tricks'' for

They directed pop promos for

Frank Black Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV (born April 6, 1965), better known by the stage name Black Francis, is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He is the frontman of the alternative rock band Pixies. Following the band's break ...

and

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci Gorky's Zygotic Mynci () were a psychedelic folk and alternative rock band which formed in Carmarthen, Wales, in 1991. The group performed music in both Welsh and English, and they had eight Top 75 singles on the UK Singles Chart during their ...

, as well as appearing in two Surf washing powder commercials, in which they comically set upon

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen Laurence Roderick Llewelyn-Bowen (born 11 March 1965) is an English interior designer and television personality best known for appearing on the BBC programme '' Changing Rooms''. Name He is sometimes credited as "Laurence Llewelyn", and the ...

and Keith Harris and Orville. In 2003, Buxton and Cornish presented ''

Adam and Joe Go Tokyo ''Adam and Joe Go Tokyo'' was a series of eight episodes created for BBC Three (also airing in full on BBC One at a later timeslot as promotion for the new channel). It starred Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish of '' The Adam and Joe Show'' and air ...

'', a Tokyo-based magazine show covering Japanese pop culture for BBC Three and

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

. The same year, they began hosting a show on British radio station

Xfm Radio X is a British national commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. The station launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station named Q102, before being renamed Xfm in 1992. The station b ...

, filling in for

Ricky Gervais Ricky Dene Gervais ( ; born 25 June 1961) is an English comedian, actor, writer, television producer and filmmaker. He co-created, co-wrote, and acted in the British television sitcoms ''The Office (British TV series), The Office'' (2001–2003) ...

on Saturday afternoons. When Gervais left the station they took over permanently, and continued to present the Saturday morning show, until Summer 2006. The best parts of these shows were condensed into a series of twenty

podcasts A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...

, including their 2001 E4 series ''

Shock Video A shock site is a website that is intended to be offensive or disturbing to its viewers, though it can also contain elements of humor or evoke (in some viewers) sexual arousal. Shock-oriented websites generally contain material that is pornogra ...

'', in which the duo provide an often totally irrelevant comic commentary on soft-core porn clips from around the world. From August 2006 until October 2007, they hosted the monthly "Coca-Cola New Music Podcast", which showcased unsigned bands from around Europe, presented in a similar style to their

shows.

Adam and Joe began presenting the BBC Radio 6 Music Saturday morning show in October 2007. Features on the show included "Song Wars", where they both composed original compositions based on a common theme. Listeners then voted for which song they think is the best. "Text the Nation" was another regular feature where listeners provided anecdotes based on a theme or question set by Adam and Joe. Themes have included "Childhood Misconceptions" and "Horror Film Ideas". The "Text the Nation" feature was also instrumental in the uncovering and subsequent popularisation of the Stephen! call and response. Their show won a

Broadcasting Press Guild The Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) is a British association of journalists dedicated to the topic of general media issues. History The Guild was established in 1974 as a breakaway of The Critics' Circle and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 20 ...

Award in 2008 for best radio programme of the year. The duo sometimes write a column for '' The Idler'', a yearly literary magazine.

References

External links

Adam and Joe BlogAdam and Joe on BBC 6 MusicGuardian Online live chat transcript

External links

{{Commons category English comedy duos English radio DJs English television presenters