Elvis McGonagall

Plus Support from Frome Poetry Cafe

Elvis McGonagall’s first public performance took place on Saturday, 11th October, 2003 at the UK Allcomers’ Slam in Cheltenham where he somehow finished runner-up.

In June 2006 Elvis won the World Slam championship at the Poetry International festival in Rotterdam after previously winning the 2006 Spokefest UK Slam Championship at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East in London, the 2004 UK Allcomers’ Slam championship at the Cheltenham Literary Festival and the 2003 Farrago UK Slam.

Elvis appeared on the first ever edition of BBC Radio 4’s Sony Gold Award winning “Saturday Live” in 2006 and has featured on the programme regularly since then. His sitcom, “Elvis McGonagall Takes A Look On The Bright Side” was recently broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Other appearances on BBC Radio 4 include “Today”, “Arthur Smith’s Balham Bash”, “A Good Read”, “Material World”, “Last Word”, “Off The Page”, “Recycled Radio”, “Pick of the Week” and “The Wondermentalist Cabaret”.

He has appeared on BBC1’s “The One Show”, BBC2’s “The Culture Show” and their coverage of the “World Snooker Championship Final” and on Channel 4’s “Random Acts”.

Other radio credits include writing and presenting the BBC Radio 4 documentaries “A Doggerel Bard” and “Beacons and Blue Remembered Hills” and regular appearances on BBC Radio Scotland’s “MacAulay and Co” as well as BBC Radio 2’s Breakfast Show and “It’s Grimm Up North”, BBC Radio 4 Extra’s “Saturday Stand-Up” and “What’s So Funny”, BBC Radio 7’s “Poetry Stand-Up” and BBC World Service’s “Weekend” and “Click”.

Elvis performs live at literary and music festivals, comedy clubs and dodgy dives up and down the country and abroad, from The Square and Compass in Worth Matravers to The Glamour Bar in Shanghai, including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Glastonbury, Latitude, Port Eliot, The Big Chill, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Cheltenham Literature Festival, Leicester, Glasgow and Reading Comedy Festivals, Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival, Aldeburgh, Ledbury and Stanza Poetry Festivals as well as The Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh and Glasgow, The Colony Club Room in London (R.I.P), The Bonnie Prince Charlie Karaoke Klub in Kirkcaldy and Mr Bing’s Cantonese Cocktail Lounge in Cowdenbeath.

Elvis is the compere of the notorious Blue Suede Sporran Club and regularly MC’s events here, there and everywhere.