Paul Foot (comedian)  Paul Foot (born 24 December 1973) is an English comedian. Foot is known for his musings, rants, "disturbances" and apparent aversion to pop culture. The "Daily Express" likened him to "a rare exotic bird", and six national newspapers including "The Independent" and "The Age" have described him as "a comedy genius". Foot was born and raised in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, and has a younger brother. He studied mathematics at Merton College, Oxford. It was during his studies that he first started performing stand-up. As of 2011, Foot has refused to discuss his years at Oxford or former pursuits as a mathematics student. Graduating from Oxford in 1995, Foot was head-hunted by a computer software company in the run-up to the dot-com bubble, however he loathed the industry: "I had to read manuals on HTML and just write websites from scratch. None of us really knew what we were doing". He started to pursue a career in comedy by doing open mic slots at various venues. He is openly gay. He has been described as "a little bit vegetarian", but has said that occasionally he does return to eating meat due to nutrition-related health issues. He has stated on his video log that he has face blindness. Foot frequently performs live, with resident slots at various London comedy clubs, and his fans sometimes demand shows in particularly obscure parts of Britain. He usually takes a show to the Edinburgh Fringe such as "By the Yard" (2009), "Ash in the Attic" (2010) (which was directed by Noel Fielding) and "Words "(2013). Following Edinburgh, Foot usually tours Britain with his current show before taking it to Australia after Christmas for the Australian festival circuit. He has also given runs at Montreal Comedy festival as well as selling out at venues in Sweden. In 2003, Foot and Russell Brand appeared in a double act at Cafe Royal. Foot's style of comedy had a strong influence on Brand, who was inspired by Foot's eccentric hair, quirky mannerisms and love for florid language. In "The Guardian", Paul MacInnes wrote about their similarities in an article that explored the notion of "copycat comedians". Bruce Dessau made similar observations in "The Standard". Although a sector of Foot's fan base felt Brand had stolen Foot's act, the two comedians have remained friends. In 2012, Brand made a special appearance at one of Foot's "Secret Shows" and they improvised a play in which Brand played Foot and Foot played actress Angela Lansbury.