Only Brit on Hollywood hot list

Jack Whitehall has been named as one of the ten hottest ‘comics to watch’ by Hollywood trade bible Variety.

He is the only British act on the list, compiled annually by the industry magazine to coincide with the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal.

The rest of the list comprises: Hannibal Buress, Chelsea Peretti, Kyle Kinane, Brett Gelman, Garfunkel and Oates, Chris Gethard, Deon Cole, The Imponderables, Lucas Cruikshank.

Cruikshank is perhaps the most controversial name on the list, being not a circuit-hardened comedian but a 16-year-old boy who has attracted more than 1.8million YouTube subscribers for his character Fred Figglehorn, who speaks in a high-pitched, speeded-up voice. However, he already has a feature-length film in production for the Nickoldeon kids’ TV channel.

Variety called Stand Up For The Week regular Whitehall ‘a quick wit’ with ‘a wild standup act that mines a lot of raw, personal material’, and drew comparisons with Russell Brand.

But Whitehall, who is appearing at the Montreal festival, shrugged off the similarities, saying: ‘We're both energetic, we have similar hair and both like tight jeans. But we're so different in our comedy style and most other things.’

Published: 14 Jul 2010