Comedian Sean Lock Dies Aged 58 | Sean Lock

Tributes were paid to comedian Sean Lock, who died of cancer at the age of 58.

Bill Bailey told The Guardian that Lock was as “brilliantly funny” offstage as he was on stage, and their stupid conversations would leave him “helpless to laugh.” Bailey described him as a kind and generous man who was rigorous in his approach to writing comedy. In a writers room, Bailey said, Lock “made you come up with a better joke, a new line, the sweet spot of a perfect gag.” When the results worked, Lock let out a “big laugh,” Bailey recalls.

Celebrated for his carefully crafted surreal content and imaginative observational mindset, Lock was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2000 for his show No Flatley, I Am the Lord of the Dance. He has enjoyed success on television with a long time as team captain on Jimmy Carr’s comedy show on Channel 4, 8 out of 10 cats and the spin-off, 8 out of 10 cats counts down , and also wrote and starred in the popular BBC sitcom 15. High Floors. The often tongue-in-cheek absurd, whose timing has been described by one writer as “just past the Greenwich meridian”, has toured the UK extensively. His live performances included Lockipedia, also released on DVD, in which he improvised on a number of topics suggested by his audience: in what he described as a game of “audience battleships,” he called a seat number and asked his occupant to give him a subject to riffle on.

His agent, Off the Curb Productions, said Lock had passed away at home surrounded by his family: “Sean was one of Britain’s best comedians, his boundless creativity, his lightning wit and the absurd brilliance of his work marked him as a unique voice in British comedy. . Sean was also a cherished husband and father of three. Sean will be sadly missed by all who knew him.

Lee Mack, comedian and close friend, also paid tribute to Lock: “I think the appeal of him as a viewer was that he felt like he was with his mate at the pub and he was making you laugh. I was one of the lucky few who has been this friend at the pub and he has been make me laugh. Many. More than almost anyone I have known. Lock, Mack said, could “talk about putting a parakeet in his butt and yet levitating it in some hilarious art form.” Diane Morgan tweeted that Lock was one of the “funniest people I’ve ever met” and described 15 Storeys High as “an absolute genius”.

Born in Woking, Surrey, Lock left school in the early 1980s and began working on construction sites. He later developed skin cancer, which he attributed to overexposure to the sun. After a period of traveling – which remains one of his great passions – he turns to a career in comedy.

One of her first professional television appearances was in 1993, alongside Rob Newman and David Baddiel on their television show Newman and Baddiel in Pieces.

He scripted the 1998 BBC Two series Is It Bill Bailey? and had his own show on BBC Radio 4, 15 Minutes of Misery, which he later extended to 15 Storeys High. The show was set in a south London tower and centered around a pessimistic lifeguard called Vince (played by Lock) and his roommate Errol, played by Benedict Wong.

In 2005, Lock became a regular team captain on 8 out of 10 cats, a role he held for 18 series. Between 2006 and 2007, he hosted the Heaven TV series, Telly Hell on Channel 4, in which he invited celebrities to share their own selection of television triumphs and tragedies.