Olaf Falafel is a British comedian and children's author. Falafel illustrates his own books and is the creator and presenter of Art Club, an online art channel for children. He has been a stand-up comedian since 2012 and is known for posting humorous videos on Twitter. His humour frequently involves puns and absurdity.
Early life Falafel is from Luton.
Career
Falafel worked as an art director before becoming a comedian, and came up with his stage name as part of a workshop at the Tringe Festival, a comedy festival in Tring.
In 2014, he was nominated for the Laughing Horse Comedy Club's New Act of the Year competition. In 2017 he was included in both The Guardians and The Telegraphs rundowns of the funniest jokes of the Edinburgh Fringe. In 2018 Falafel was in Dave channel's, The Mirrors, The Evening Standards, The Scotsmans and i News's rundowns of the top jokes of the Edinburgh Fringe and won an award for his festival poster.
Falafel secured a three-book contract with HarperCollins in 2016, after asking for a publisher to approach him in a tweet.
In 2019, Falafel made headlines by winning the Best Joke Of The Fringe. He took the title with the gag: "I keep randomly shouting out 'Broccoli' and 'Cauliflower' – I think I might have florets".
In 2020, Falafel signed a two-book deal with Walker books to illustrate Unleash Your Creative Monster, a "funny and informative" guide to creative writing.
In 2021, off the back of his Art Club YouTube videos, Falafel signed a two-book deal with Puffin to create his first middle grade chapter books called Trixie Pickle Art Avenger about a child who becomes their school's version of Banksy.
In August 2022, Falafel had two jokes in the Best Joke of the Edinburgh Fringe Top Ten list.
In 2023 Falafel's picture book Blobfish won The Society Of Authors Queen's Knickers Award and the Federation of Children's Book Groups' Children's Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation.
In March 2024 Falafel won 'Best Kids Show' at the Leicester Comedy Festival, for his show 'Olaf Falafel's Stupidest Super Stupid Show (Yet)'. Falafel also illustrated the map and provided the narration of penguin facts for a "Penguin Parade" sculpture trail in London, exhibited between November 2024 and January 2025.
Live Shows 2015 – Expect the Unexporcupine (with Michael Stranney)The British Comedy Guide – Edinburgh Fringe 2015 2016 – Olaf Falafel and the Cheese of TruthThe List – Reviews 2017 – The Marmosets of My Mind 2018 – There's no I in IdiotChortle – Reviews 2019 – Olaf Falafel Presents Knitting With Maracas 2022 – Olaf Falafel's Super Stupid Show (family friendly show) 2022 – Olaf Falafel STOAT 2023 – Olaf Falafel's Super Stupid Show 20% More Stupider (family friendly show) 2023 – Look What Fell Out Of My Head
Books 2017 – Old Macdonald Heard a Parp 2017 – Father Christmas Heard a Parp 2018 – Old Macdonald Heard a Parp from the PastLove Reading 2019 – It's One Giant Leek For MankindOlaf Falafel 2021 – Unleash Your Creative Monster 2022 – Trixie Pickle Art Avenger 2022 – Blobfish 2023 – Trixie Pickle Art Avenger - Toxic Takedown
References
External links
Official website