Embarking on his latest national tour after an acclaimed sell-out Edinburgh Fringe run, Alex Kealy, the ‘rising star of the British stand-up scene’ (The List) explores Silicon Valley tech monopolies, advertising and addiction through his ‘perfectly expressed gags’ (Chortle).

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. 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.

Can we break free form their stranglehold? Probably not. But maybe there are things we can learn from these Stakhanovite Silicon Valley founders like Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel and Twitter’s new wokefinder general and Tesla’s top banana 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).

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 five hours of stand-up to the Edinburgh Fringe, including 2019’s ‘Rationale’, which made The Guardian’s Top 10 Jokes of the Fringe. Meanwhile, on the live circuit, he does full weekends at The Glee Club venues, 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.

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 recently appeared on The Now Show on BBC Radio 4 and is a frequent guest co-host of political comedy podcast Trashfuture (other guests have included Rob Delaney, Owen Jones, Josie Long and Mark Watson). One of Alex’s forthcoming projects is Gig Pigs, a podcast he co-hosts with Ivo Graham where comedian guests are taken to a live music gig and then give their verdict afterwards. Guests lined up include Phil Wang, Tom Rosenthal and Rose Matafeo.