starting out

decision time

headlining

success at last

today

early days

Early Days

Tom was born in Bootle, Merseyside. His father was a docker and it was in Liverpool that Tom became a schoolmaster.

Whilst working as a maths teacher and assistant headmaster at St Joan of Arc School in Bootle he developed his unique comedy routines.

In actual fact, the school’s headmaster had a lot to do with the progress of Tom’s career in comedy.

When his pupils showed very little interest in the academic side of mathematics, the headmaster told him,

          ‘Never mind the algebra and logarithms

            just remember you are saving souls’

Starting Out

The Headmasters wise words had a great effect, for Tom found a

distinctive way of teaching his subject and communicating with his

charges. ‘The only way I could think of getting through to them was to tell jokes’, says Tom. ‘It worked a treat…and that’s really how the comedy all started.

Tom actually started his showbusiness career as a singer and would have been quite happy doing that until he found out that comedians got paid more money than singers so he gradually introduced comedy into his act and concentrated on talking to the audience about people,

and observing life.

Real life can be very funny. It really took off from there’.

Decision Time

For several years Tom O’Connor lived a double life teaching his pupils

by day and entertaining club audiences by night. His reputation spread

throughout showbusiness and it soon became obvious that he would

have to make a decision about his future career.

"I was working very late at night, sometimes getting home at three or four

o’ clock in the morning", says Tom. "I had to be up at seven for school.

So I had to decide whether to give up teaching in order to concentrate

on a full time showbusiness career... or forget the entertainment industry

altogether in favour of school.

Actually it wasn’t much of a gamble to take, for when I had twelve months

engagements in my diary,

I took the plunge......

Success At Last

In 1972, Tom hung up his cap and gown for good to become a

professional entertainer. He hasn’t looked back since.

Success rapidly followed success. He made such an impact on television

winning three separate shows on ‘Opportunity Knocks’ – that within a

year of his TV debut, he was hosting the Thames TV series

"Wednesday At Eight", followed by his own series "The Tom O’ Connor

Show".

A year later he received the highest accolade in the theatrical profession,

when he was invited to appear in the Royal Variety Show at the

London Palladium.

In 1977 Tom was the subject of "This Is Your Life".

Headlining

Tom’s success, however, has not just been confined to television.

In cabaret he starred at every major nightspot in the country, and headlined his own summer season shows in the country’ s top resorts.

His work has taken him to most English speaking countries around the world including America where he featured at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in Manhattan.

Today....

Tom remains very much in demand today either as the Star Performer at

some of the country's leading cabaret venues or a much sought after

Compare and Master of Ceremonies.

He has recently appeared on some of our best loved television programs

like Pointless, The Hairy Bikers,  Loose Women,  Charity Cash in the

Attic and of course his winning stint on Come Dine with me.

Tom will shortly be appearing in a new peak-time BBC Comedy sketch

show which is currently in production

Watch this space...!