Tony Hawks comedian, or the world renowned American whizz kid skateboarding champion. NO! Definitely not the skateboarding Tony Hawks.
This is Tony Hawks the comedian and author of the bestseller Round Ireland with a Fridge.
The book was the story of his absurd quest to hitch round the circumference of Ireland within a month. He also did this with a fridge. It became a top 10 Sunday Times bestseller. BBC Radio 4 serialised it. This led to a six month TV advertising campaign for HARP Irish Lager. It has now sold over 300,000 copies worldwide including the US and Australia, and has been translated into several languages Hebrew, Italian, Dutch and German.
So why the confusion? Whilst he is a ‘startlingly good-looking British male model’ (so Tony tells us on his web site) each week he receives emails from young people from all over the world congratulating him on his skateboarding prowess. Also, asking Tony’s advice on how to do various manoeuvres. He is so inundated, that he has a whole section of the site devoted to answering emails about skateboarding. Some of Tony Hawks’ comedian advice is however a little bit suspect.
2nd Book:
Tony’s second book ‘Playing the Moldovans at Tennis‘ has now sold well over 100 thousand copies. The book was serialised on BBC R4 over Christmas. The story charts his foolhardy attempt to win a bet, which involved tracking down all the members of the national football team of Moldova and beating them at tennis one by one. Tony’s book was shortlisted for both the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction writing and also the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize.
He has appeared frequently on TV comedy programmes such as Have I Got News For You, They Think Its All Over, Paul Merton, A Bit of Fry and Laurie and also Red Dwarf. He also hosted the BBC1 programme, The Best Show in the World Ever … Probably.
Tony Hawks is a regular guest on radio programmes including The News Quiz and also Just a Minute. He also guested on I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue. More recently Tony presented his own series on Radio 4, Tony Hawks Lost Weekends.
Tony is a regular after dinner speaker at corporate events up and down the country and his warm, dry style and aptitude for ad-libbing makes him a popular choice as a host for award ceremonies. He has hosted The PPG Travel Awards with Joanna Lumley, The British Book Awards, The Property Awards and The Security Excellence Awards. He has also hosted The Houseware Awards, The Beauty Awards and The Packaging Awards. Many of his satisfied clients have taken the opportunity to make a return booking.