Sports Relief is taking a leaf out of the Funny Women Charity Handbook we see!! We first challenged four female celebrities to perform comedy for charity in Celebrity Funny Women in 2009 which was made as a pilot television programme. One of our fantastic female comedy protégées from that event was Gabby Logan, who is now taking on four of her male contemporaries from the world of sport in Stand Up for Sports Relief.
Hosted by Claudia Winkleman, the sports stars include Ashes winning cricketer Michael Vaughan, World Cup winning rugby player Ben Cohen, former unbeaten British and Commonwealth Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, and football hardman Neil Razor Ruddock who all join former Commonwealth gymnast Gabby Logan to perform a three minute comedy set based on their sporting life. The gig takes place in front of a live audience at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London airs on BBC Three in the build up to Sport Relief.
Helping them along the way, each sports star has been paired with one of the country’s top stand-up comedians which we are proud to say includes 2007 Funny Women Awards winner Andi Osho along with Patrick Kielty, Jason Manford, Chris Ramsey and Daniel Sloss.
Andi previously mentored Gabby for her amazing performance in Celebrity Funny Women but this time it fell to Patrick Kielty to offer inspiration for her set. Having seen Gabby in action four years ago, and more recently when she hosted a special business Comedy Challenge event for us at The Bingham in Richmond for local charity The Victoria Foundation, we’re confident she already knows the tricks of the comedy trade and we predict that she will even give the professionals a run for their money!
Claudia Winkleman said: "I am incredibly proud to be part of Stand Up for Sport Relief. It sounds both exciting and terrifying which is win win. I'll try and support the brave sportsmen and women who are going to be comics for one night as much as possible."
We think Claudia has a joke or two up her own sleeve and when it comes to comedy, we know that women are increasingly getting the edge.
Our money is on Gabby to win Stand Up for Sports Relief – see her in action below when she hosted one of our Charity Challenge events in November 2010. We think she's got what it takes to show the boys a comedy trick or two! You can find out what happens by tuning into BBC Three at 9.00pm on Tuesday 20th March.
Visit www.sportrelief.com to find out more.
