Live shows debut at Edinburgh Fringe

Spoof news reporter Jonathan Pie is to launch his own stand-up tour.

The fake journalist was created by actor Tom Walker, and his foul-mouthed broadcasts, in which he gets infuriated by the situations he reputedly reports on, have become viral hits.

Pie, billed as 'the man who says what we are all thinking' will launch the new shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, with tickets for an autumn tour (here) put on sale yesterday.

And as well as his rants at the news, the shows promise that Pie will be 'discussing his own meteoric rise to mediocrity'.

As well as being YouTube hits, his videos have even been snapped up by a real broadcaster, the UK arm of Russia's government-funded RT, which has been accused of being a propaganda outlet for Vladimir Putin's regime.

Walker says the company film and edit it, then 'buy it off me for 48 hours to use as they wish, as officially their exclusive content'.

In an interview with RT, Walker said: 'Perhaps the reason that this has been so popular... is that people recognise an element of truth in it. I mean it’s fiction, and I made it to be funny, I made it to be a piece of entertainment. But if people recognise something in it and go: “Actually he’s articulating the way that I feel" - then more the better.'

Here's the first video, seeming to show Pie losing it after a rowwith his producer, which has amassed almost a million views:

And here's his latest video, about the Panama Papers:

Published: 15 Apr 2016