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A Jersey-born comedian is set to be featured on a prestigious comedy talent show and battle against four other stand-up hopefuls to earn a place in the grand final of this year's BBC New Comedy Awards.
Christian Jegard will appear on tomorrow night's episode of the BBC New Comedy Awards – a nationwide talent search to find the best new stand-up, sketch and musical comedians.
Since they first launched in 1995, the awards have helped launch the careers of many of the UK’s best-loved comedians including Alan Carr, Joe Lycett, and Sarah Millican.
Christian will appear in Episode 4 of this year's awards, set to air on BBC3 on Wednesday 25 October at 22:00.
The Jersey-born performer will battle against four other budding comedians to earn a place in the grand final, where one will be crowned the BBC New Comedian 2023.
From nearly 2,000 entries from across the UK, Christian was one of just 30 comedians to earn a place in the regional finals – which described as "pretty special".
"It was all a bit of a blur," he said. "I felt proud and humble and smug and a fraud and bewildered and quite acid refluxy."
Video: Christian sings us through his lockdown routine. (WARNING: Contains language that may offend)
As his performance, Christian admitted that he doesn't actually remember much.
"I just did my act and tried to not fall apart on national television!" he explained.
Encouraging people to tune-in to the show tomorrow night, Christian praised the host and the other comics as "absolutely fantastic".
Christian, who is now based in Brighton, emerged on the stand-up scene in 2019. A performer from a young age, he was encouraged by his wife Dara to enter a stand-up comedy course.
He describes himself as a "depression-era comic", explaining: "I sing and tell jokes and do impressions and rail against my unreasonable landlord and his dim grasp of ethics.
"Traditional showbiz stuff."
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During the pandemic, Christian’s lockdown antics – which ranged from crying on the toilet to making ‘Russian mayonnaise’ – got him noticed on the national scene.
He was among the finalists in the Musical Comedy Awards ‘Crooner’s Against Corona’ competition and a runner up in the Comedy Crowd TV Showcase.
He also won a British Comedy Guide Award for his music video, 'Stay Inside', while his short film 'Delivery' was shown at the Austin Comedy Film Festival in Texas.
In 2021, Christian drew on inspiration from his experience as a musician to create a 'mockumentary' about Jersey's local music scene.
The comedian is set to debut his hour-long show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival next year, and hopes to bring it back to Jersey "at some point soon".
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