stand-up

American comedian Robin McLaurin Williams (born July 21, 1951 in Chicago, IL) began his career as a cocaine-addled improv stand-up comedian, who made a living on tips in the late '70s. Soon after, he achieved national fame as the TV character Mork, an alien who guest-debuted on Happy Days before starring in the successful ABC series Mork & Mindy. Suffering a divorce and achieving sobriety in the late-'80s, his career was even further boosted with a series of sobering late-'80s dramas (Good Morning, Vietnam and Dead Poets' Society) and numerous '90s family films (Aladdin and Mrs.

Jack Dee (born September 24, 1962) is a British stand-up comedian known for his sardonic, deadpan style. Dee first became well known to audiences in the early 1990s. During that decade he appeared in a series of high-profile adverts for the brewery John Smith's in which he introduced the recently invented widget. Dee has presented a variety of television shows on the BBC, the first of note being The Jack Dee Show in 1997.