About Mark Olver
Mark Olver is an English stand-up comedian from Bristol. He specialises as a compere and a warm-up act for television shows. Olver was born in 1975 in Bristol, where he grew up in the Brislington area. His father, John, was a policeman and his mother, Philomena, worked at a cinema in Bristol. After graduating from university in 1996, he worked as a careers adviser in prisons and young-offenders' institutes.
Olver started doing stand-up in the late 1990s and quickly expanded to compering. He won the Leicester Comedy Festival Best New Show award in 2011. He was nominated for Best Compere at the 2015 Chortle Awards. Olver performed in the live final of the BBC Radio New Comedy Award 2016 in Edinburgh. In 2004, Olver had his first job as a warm-up comedian for the reality-television game show Kings of Comedy, recorded in Bristol and presented by Russell Brand. Since then, he has been providing warm-ups for numerous television shows, including 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Pointless, Deal or No Deal, Thronecast, The Last Leg, Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled, Taskmaster and the chat shows hosted by Jonathan Ross and Alan Carr. Between 2005 and 2016, he did warm-up on about 3,000 episodes of the game show Deal or No Deal, which was filmed in Bristol.
In December 2017, he came up with the idea for the Belly Laughs series of gigs when he realised local restaurants were having trouble getting enough guests in the month of January. Guests pay an extra ยฃ10 that go directly to The Julian Trust, a Bristol charity that runs an emergency night shelter for homeless people and rough-sleepers. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Olver launched a comedy panel show on YouTube and subsequently as a podcast called Who Said That?. In January 2026, Olver worked as the warm-up on the new BBC quiz show, Wisdom of the Crowd, hosted by John Bishop.
Guest appearances (1)
Videos on other comedians' channels featuring Mark Olver.
Guest appearances 1 to 1 of 1.
Channels on this page: Richard Herring
Frequently asked questions
Who is Mark Olver?
Mark Olver is an English stand-up comedian from Bristol. He specialises as a compere and a warm-up act for television shows. He was born in 1975 in Bristol, where he grew up in the Brislington area.
When did Mark Olver start doing stand-up?
Olver started doing stand-up in the late 1990s and quickly expanded to compering. He won the Leicester Comedy Festival Best New Show award in 2011.
What was Mark Olver's first warm-up comedian job?
In 2004, Olver had his first job as a warm-up comedian for the reality-television game show Kings of Comedy, recorded in Bristol and presented by Russell Brand.
How many episodes of Deal or No Deal did Mark Olver warm up?
Between 2005 and 2016, he did warm-up on about 3,000 episodes of the game show Deal or No Deal, which was filmed in Bristol.
What is the Belly Laughs series of gigs?
In December 2017, Olver came up with the idea for the Belly Laughs series of gigs when he realised local restaurants were having trouble getting enough guests in the month of January. Guests pay an extra ยฃ10 that go directly to The Julian Trust, a Bristol charity that runs an emergency night shelter for homeless people and rough-sleepers.
