Spike Breakwell (born Colin James Breakwell on 13 June 1968) is a British comedian. When he was four months old he became disabled through taking oral polio vaccine which caused a two-week coma.[1] He was brought up in Dunstable, and "treated and raised to be as stubborn and independent as anyone else round about." As a child, he attended Lady Zia Wernher School in Luton,[2] then moved to Lord Mayor Treloar College in Alton, Hampshire for his secondary education.
Breakwell was the first wheelchair-using comedian on the London alternative club circuit from 1992, appearing on stage and BBC2 television. His act always started with the line: "...I don't know what I've been drinking but I could walk half an hour ago!".[citation needed] He also co-wrote and co-starred (with Simon Hardeman) in the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe shows On The Toilet With Shergar (An Evening of Horseplay and Lavatory Humour ) in 1992, Simon and Spikes Laugh-In in 1993 and the critically acclaimed play looking at comedy Death of a Comedian in 1994.[citation needed]
He co-wrote (with Simon Hardeman) the Beginners' Guide column in The Times Magazine.[3] He has also been a regular in a BBC disability magazine programme.[1] In January 2006 Breakwell and part of the Wheelabout expedition team drove across Australia.[4] He had planned to become the first person to cross from Perth to Sydney (4600 miles) in an electric wheelchair. However, funding for the trip failed to materialise and it is yet to be completed.
In October 2007 he appeared in his first Hollywood film, Dante's Criterion, described as a supernatural horror story of a possessed television, as "Ziggy Fontain" a wheelchair-using TV advertising producer.[5]
Books
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Spike Breakwell (11 March 2006). "Inside story: spinal muscular atrophy". The Times. UK. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
- ^ a b Bev Creagh (19 November 2021). "Meet Dunstable's wannabe Bond villain with his new book on surviving lockdown". Luton Today. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
- ^ Simon Hardeman and Spike Breakwell (19 November 2007). "The Beginners' Guide: selected cuttings from The Times Saturday Magazine". Simon Hardeman, writer, comedian, knurler. Archived from the original on 1 March 2010. Retrieved 31 January 2009.
- ^ "5 Minute Travel » Blood, Sweat & Beers". Podcast FM. 4 September 2006. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
- ^ "Dante's Criterion (2009)". IMDb (The Internet Movie Database). 2009. Retrieved 29 January 2009.
- ^ Breakwell, Spike; Millar, Colin (2017). Leila's Game 1 Pathfinders. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Breakwell, Spike; Millar, Colin (2017). Movie World 4 Voyagers. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
External links
edit- Ten articles by Spike Breakwell reproduced from the Independent on Sunday, 2003–2004