The Hollow Men are an English

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in ...

group consisting of

David Armand David Armand (born David Robert Whitehead in September 1977) is an English comedian, actor and writer who has performed on stage, film, radio and most notably, television, where the shows he has appeared in include ''Armstrong and Miller'', '' ...

, Nick Tanner, Rupert Russell, and Sam Spedding. ''The Hollow Men'' is also the title of their

TV show A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platfo ...

broadcast in the United States by

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

. The show follows the kind of silliness from sketch comedy shows like ''

Monty Python's Flying Circus ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal humour, surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam, w ...

'' and '' The Kids in the Hall''. The six-episode series aired in early 2005. In 2006 they broadcast a

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

sketch show, also of the same name. The radio show was recommissioned and a second series was aired in September 2007, along with a special broadcast from the Edinburgh Festival. Both series also featured

Katy Brand Katherine Frances Brand (born 13 January 1979), known as Katy Brand, is an English actress, comedian and writer, known for her ITV2 series '' Katy Brand's Big Ass Show'' and for Comedy Lab ''Slap'' on Channel 4. Early life and education Brand ...

. The group performed extensively as a live act with shows in London, Edinburgh, Los Angeles, Montreal and New York.

History

The four members met when they were students at

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. The group's big break came when they appeared at the

Edinburgh Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

festival in 2002, which led to gigs in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and a slot at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in

Aspen, Colorado Aspen is the List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population ...

, in 2003, where they received the HBO Comedy Jury Award for best sketch/alternative act.

References

'Hollow Men' picks up on kids' vibe
''The Knoxville News-Sentinel'', page E-5, March 10, 2005

External links

*
The Hollow Men Website on Comedy Central

The Hollow Men on MySpace

The Hollow Men on BBC Radio 4
British comedy troupes Sketch comedy troupes Quartets {{UK-comedy-tv-prog-stub