Totally Tom are a British comedy duo consisting of

Tom Stourton Thomas Edward Alexander Stourton (born September 1987) is an English actor, comedian and writer. Career Stourton started his career as a comedian at university, performing in the web-series "High Renaissance Man" that he co-wrote with Tom Palme ...

and Tom Palmer.

Background

Stourton and Palmer first met as housemates at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

. Their public school education became a major subject in their comedy and spoofs, focusing on the perceived "

posh Posh is today an informal adjective for "upper class". It may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Posh'' (album), a 1980 album by Patrice Rushen *" Posh!", a 1968 song from the musical ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' * ''Posh'' (2006 TV series), a 2006 ...

" stereotypes associated with those educated at British public schools. After Eton, Stourton, the second son of former BBC journalist Edward Stourton, studied art history at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

, while Palmer pursued history at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. They later reunited after university and decided to pursue comedy full-time.

Career

''Totally Tom'' first started performing together in 2010, conducting a UK university tour and launching their short online film ''High Renaissance Man''. During 2011 the duo performed at the

Edinburgh Festival 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 ...

's Underbelly, in which they were nominated for the Best Newcomer Award. In the same year the also made their television debut 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 ...

's ''

Comedy Lab ''Comedy Lab'' is a British television series which showcases pilots of experimental comedy shows. Series have been aired irregularly on Channel 4 and E4 since 1998. Several pilots first shown on ''Comedy Lab'' have gone on to spawn full seri ...

''. The duo returned to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2012, the same year, they appeared on

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 ''Comedy Marathon''. From 2012 to 2014 the duo appeared as the backstage crew in the BBC Three stand-up/sketch series ''

Live at the Electric ''Live at the Electric'' is a British comedy series that aired on BBC Three between 31 May 2012 and 28 February 2014 and was hosted by Russell Kane who performed stand-up in between comedy sketches from a variety of performers such as Joe Wilk ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Totally Tom English comedy duos