Even though he
is an American, his main playing field is the U.K. I don't know when he first
arrived in the U.K. or what he was doing in the States before, but,
I remember it was around 1998 when he became a familiar face in British
comedy programmes, such as "Have I got News for You" and " Never Mind the
Buzzcocks". He speaks in a husky voice, he rarely laughs. Overall he is a
grouch, however, the hosts of those programme seem to quite like him.
According to the web site, he won the Perrier Award in Edinburgh in 2000. As a comedian he has another name, Otis Lee Crenshaw is his alter ego. Otis Lee is a country-rock-comedy singer and mostly plays with his backing band, the Black Liars. They are descent musicians/singers, so the show is not only funny but also musicaly enjoyable.
I saw Otis Lee and the Blackliars live and Rich Hall in his talk shaw at Edinburgh in 2002. The title of the talk show was "Pretzel Logic". He flayed America severely. It was especially funny when he talked about the Pretzel accident of George. W. He precisely explained the plan of Pretzel attack. He used a drawing to show the arc George Bush's head was supposed to make and the angle his head had to hit the edge of his table. Sadly I could hardly catch his husky american accent.
You can see their gig on the DVD called "London not Tennessee", live from the Comedy Store in London with the Black Liars. I quite enjoy it even though I don't catch all of his jokes. He looks charming when he sings, because he shows a greater variety of facial expressions.
( update: 16 Feb 2003 )