2017 has been a great year for British comedy and has seen the rise and soar of many black British talents. Mo Gilligan, aka Mo The Comedian, in particular has shone through as one of Britain’s freshest and funniest comedians both on the stand-up stage and online. Just today Mo took to Twitter to say, “Last year I was working in retail asking for extra hours over the Christmas. Today I found out I sold 17,000 tickets for the #CouplaCansTour,” proving just how far he has come and the massive successes he has achieved over this year.
For Mo, his journey all started on social media. His witty and relatable comedy sketches earned him a solid UK fan base and started to attract hundreds of thousands of views on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Sketches such as “Different Types of MCs” and “Different Types of Police Officers” were amongst the most popular videos that circulated on various meme pages online, with his “Different Types of MCs” sketch achieving 1,000,000 views on Facebook alone this time last year.
Going into 2017, Mo continued dominating the socials with more hilarious skits and funny videos, also making guest appearances on Charlie Sloth’s radio show and secured himself as one of the funniest UK comedians on the internet. His ability to relate to the everyday mandem as well as the everyday geezer allowed his popularity to soar.
Fast forward to summer 2017 and Mo The Comedian got what seems to be the make or break of your career these days: the Drake co-sign. After Drake captioned a picture of himself and Giggs on his Instagram with “Enjoying this ‘Julie bring me a couple cans’ weather today”, it was almost inevitable that Mo’s success was about to skyrocket even further.
A couple of months later, Mo is hosting his own radio show, doing fashion campaigns for adidas and JD Sports alongside Stormzy, and performing his own headline ‘Coupla Cans Tour’ all over the UK selling out shows in every city including Manchester, Birmingham and his hometown of London. As well as this, Mo racked up a number of nominations for various awards this year including a GRM Daily Rated Award for ‘Personality of the Year’, a BBE Award (Black British Entertainment) for ‘Best Comedian’ and a UEA Award for ‘Best Personality’.
Rounding up his 2017, Mo has ended the year on a tremendous high by making his first televised stand-up performance on Sky One’s The Russell Howard Hour a couple of weeks ago, and received shining reviews for his comedic way of bringing to light the experiences of a young black man in Britain. We know this is only the beginning for Mo The Comedian, and we can’t wait to see what more 2018 has in store for him.