The Stage

Jason Wood

Published Tuesday 2 March 2010 at 13:25 by Jeremy Austin

Jason Wood, who died in his sleep on February 20, aged 38, was a stand-up comedian who brought a contemporary edge to his great love of old-school variety.

A regular at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and a great favourite on the touring and corporate circuits, his mixture of cheeky camp humour and uncanny impressions of singers from Alison Moyet, Cher and Annie Lennox, to David Grey and Pavarotti, regularly drew standing ovations from crowds craving something a little different.

He was also a popular comedian with his contemporaries. Those who knew him will remember his warmth and friendship, always ready with a smile and a kind word for those just starting out or for established names. He loved people from all walks of life and he lived to entertain them.

Born in Luton in 1972 to Brian and Ann Wood, he always wanted to be a performer. He trained as a chorister, joining the choir at St Mary’s, Luton, aged 12. He became a dean’s chorister and was soon very much in demand as a soloist. It was training that was evident in his professional career. He would often end his stand-up sets with a stunningly moving rendition of Nessun Dorma. He really was blessed with a magnificent voice.

Although he trained as a hairdresser at Barnfield College after leaving Icknield High School, he would spend the evenings working the pub and club circuit, before moving into variety and performing at venues such as Hackney Empire and the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. A Stage review in 1990 noted that he “showed great promise”.

He eventually signed with Hannah Chambers at Chambers Management and together they piloted his career into more mainstream comedy. He became a regular on the comedy circuit in this country and performed all around the world, at locations including South Africa and Las Vegas, as well as for the major cruise lines.

It was at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that he really came into his own. His first solo show was in 2002 in Bare Camp and he wrote and performed a new musical comedy show every year thereafter - except in 2007, when he appeared in a new play with Jessica Martin entitled Unnatural Acts, written by Stage contributors Nick Awde and Chris Bartlett. The Scotsman described it as “a beautiful performance from Jason Wood… he’s funny, vulnerable, sad; he gives the piece heart”.

In 2006, we co-wrote his stand-up show My Anus Horribilis together. A mixture of sketch, stand-up and film, it received his now infamous one star from the same paper. Not to be defeated, he proudly pasted strap-lines to his posters proclaiming himself, “A star - The Scotsman”.

He was beginning to carve out a television career. In 2004 he became the first contestant ever to be voted off Strictly Come Dancing and more recently he had been a contestant on BBC1’s 29 Minutes of Fame and Living TV’s The Underdog Show.

He was passionate about making variety popular again and had recently begun organising a series of regular variety nights at London’s Hospital Club, as well as developing a number of television projects.

Jason was also my friend. He was caring, compassionate, a good listener and would brighten any situation he found himself in. In September last year I married his agent Hannah Chambers and at the ceremony he sang Feeling Good and The Wedding Song, by Tracy Chapman. We will always remember him.