Tech Billionaires Target Of New Fringe Comedy Show From Rising Star Alex Kealy

Alex Kealy takes down Silicon Valley tech monopolies, advertising and addiction.

Big Tech firms have all pivoted to business models involving advertising, surveillance, addiction and monopoly, reneging on their previous idealistic visions of what the internet could achieve. In Winner Takes All, Alex Kealy is determined to document this because it's the big political tussle of the 21st century and, crucially, not because he recently had a break-up and his ex works at Google.

Now, comedy's most conflict-averse satirist dares to suggest that perhaps a small clique of companies exercising the greatest level of monopoly control since the robber barons of the 1880s over the vital industries of the future is potentially slightly sub-ideal.

However, maybe there are things we can learn from these Stakhanovite Silicon Valley founders like Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk? While writing this show, like those Palo Alto Tech bros and their hustler "grindsets", Kealy has been getting up every day at 4am (California time, so about midday GMT - it's not been very taxing).

Winner Takes All runs at The Monkey Barrel between 2-28 August.

Alex Kealy is a stand-up comedian who mixes smart political material with self-deprecation and relatable observations. In his first year of performing, he reached the final of the prestigious So You Think You're Funny competition. He has since taken four hours of stand-up to the Edinburgh Fringe, the latest being 2019's Rationale, which made The Guardian's Top 10 Jokes of the Fringe.

An in-demand joke writer, Alex regularly writes for shows including Mock The Week (BBC Two), The News Quiz and The Now Show (both BBC Radio 4), as well as Turtle Canyon Comedy's Grave New World ('a fresh perspective, stylised writing and high gag rate' - Beyond The Joke). His comedy has been listed in the top Jokes of the Edinburgh Fringe by The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Mirror, The Evening Standard, The Independent, iNews, The Scotsman and The Huffington Post. He has also been tipped by The Edinburgh Evening News as one of "5 Comedians To See If You Like James Acaster".

In radio work, Alex is a frequent guest co-host of political comedy podcast Trashfuture (other guests have included Rob Delaney, Owen Jones, Josie Long and Mark Watson). An increasingly sought-after club comedian, he does full weekends at The Glees, Komedia and Monkey Barrel, in addition to sets at The Comedy Store. He's also supported Ivo Graham, Shaparak Khorsandi and Tom Rosenthal on their national tours.

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