Tim FitzHigham

Tim FitzHigham FRSA FRGS, an award-winning British comedian, author, artist and world record holder. The feats he has performed include paddling a paper boat down 160 miles of the River Thames, rowing a bathtub across the English Channel, and inflating the world's largest man-inflated balloon.^[1]

Career

FitzHigham began telling funny stories in a rum shop in the West Indies while working as a pig farmer; this may have been the beginnings of his work as a stand-up comedian. Back in the UK in 1999, he performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with James Carey and Jonny Saunders in "Infinite Number of Monkeys - Sketch Comedy of Hypotheticals", where he was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award (now the Edinburgh Comedy Award) for best newcomer.^[1][2] In 2000 he established Infinite Number of Monkeys as a production company and in the same year won a Spirit of the Fringe Award.^[1] His live shows, with topics ranging from the Karma Sutra to Morris Dancing, have been made Critic’s Choice in various newspapers, including The Times, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian, The Observer, The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, The Evening Standard, Time Out and Metro.

The shows he has performed include Don Quixote, in which he attempted to live like a medieval knight errant in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the publication of the novel Don Quixote. When he appeared as a guest on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity, he donated the novel Don Quixote to the museum.^[3] Eventually it was decided that Don Quixote would be better suited as the security guard on the museum steps where he could do less damage.

In putting together his shows FitzHigham has sustained a staggering amount of physical injuries.

In 2011, he was nominated for the Malcolm Hardee Cunning Stunt Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.^[4] The Guardian's Brian Logan wrote, "his unflappable pluck in the face of impossible (or at least ridiculous) odds seldom fails to amuse", adding, "the lengths he goes in pursuit of meaningless achievement are charmingly comic-heroic".^[5]

In 2012, he was nominated for the Malcolm Hardee Act Most Likely to Make a Million Quid Award at the Edinburgh Fringe.^[6]

In 2013 he presented CBBC science show Super Human Challenge.^[7]

His live show about historical Gambling has been commissioned by BBC Radio 4 as a series called Tim FitzHigham: The Gambler. The 2013 pilot episode involved a bet from 1753 and his nemesis Alex Horne.^[8] Since then, two four-part series of The Gambler have been made for BBC Radio 4 (first broadcast in 2014 and 2015), with repeats on Radio 4 Extra.^[9]

Alex Horne and Tim have a long-standing wager concerning who can live the longest of the two of them, Tim is currently winning by two years.

Feats

FitzHigham holds several world records and has achieved many unusual feats. The first was achieved in 2003, when he paddled a paper boat down 160 miles of the River Thames in order to raise money for Comic Relief. His boat Lillibet is now in the collection of the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. The record had stood for 383 years, having been set in 1619 by John Taylor, a Jacobean poet and Queen's Waterman.^[10]

His second such feat was being the first person to row a bathtub across the English Channel.^[11] His first attempt was in 2004 for Sport Relief, when he tried to row from France to Tower Bridge, London in a bathtub made by Thomas Crapper and Co. Ltd, named "Lilibet II", after the childhood nickname of Queen Elizabeth II.^[12] However, a storm on 14 July consisting of Force 6 winds resulted in the attempt failing and bathtub being damaged.^[13] In 2005, FitzHigham made a second attempt, this time for Comic Relief, and successfully crossed. He later wrote about the experience in his first book, In The Bath, later retitled All At Sea, and the story was turned into a show that was performed at the Fringe. In honour of the event, Thomas Crapper and Co. Ltd made a special lavatory named after him. It is only the second commemorative lavatory in history, the other being made for Queen Victoria's jubilee.^[1][11]

In June 2006, FitzHigham, along with impressionist Alistair McGowan, the UK Environment Agency and the United Nations set new British and European records assembling the longest washing line in the country in Trafalgar Square, London. It was done in order to raise awareness environmental issues and UN World Environment Day.^[1]

In November, 2006, FitzHigham inflated the world's largest man-inflated balloon to raise awareness of environmental issues, which held 19,000 pints of air. During the attempt he fainted twice within two hours.^[11]

In film, he appears as a drunk actor in the DVD cut of The Wolfman alongside Benicio del Toro and as himself in the cinema release of Hereafter starring Matt Damon and directed by Clint Eastwood. His book All At Sea is also featured in the film. He also starred in Morgan Flynn – a short by Academy Award-nominated director Tanel Toom.

Titles

Other than his records, FitzHigham has been kindly recognised in various ways, titles and honours. These include being a Freeman of the City of London, Freeman of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the River Thames, Fellow of the Royal Society of Art, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, the Commodore of Sudbury Quay, Pittancer of Selby Town and Most Puissant Knight de Santa Maria.^[1][3][11]

References

External links

• FitzHigham.com, general website about his life.
• TimsTub.com, website covering his world record boating trips.
• , BBC Page on The Gambler series.