Emo Philips started over five thousand shows ago back in 1976, when there were but half a dozen comedy clubs in the United States. The Chicago area had two: the Comedy Womb ("Where Comedians are Born") and the Comedy Cottage. Emo performed at both clubs five nights a week, as well as at every other venue he could find...his worst experience being a twenty minute audition at a community center before a handful of volunteers who never stopped folding leaflets.

Emo's big break was an appearance on "Late Night with David Letterman" in 1984. That appearance was followed by an award-winning comedy album ("E=MO Squared"), a half-hour "Cinemax Comedy Experiment," a one-hour HBO special/second comedy album ("Emo Philips Live at the Hasty Pudding Theatre") and several more "Letterman" appearances.

A huge fan of British comedy since discovering Monty Python as a teenager, Emo was ecstatic to be flown to England in 1986 to do the "Bob Monkhouse Show." This, along with an appearance on "Friday Live" the next year and on "Saturday Live" a year after that, made Emo a household name (at least in relatively-hip households) in Britain as well as in America. In 1989, Emo was the undisputed hit of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and he followed that up the next year with a two-week West End theatre run and a national UK tour.

Since then, Emo has been no stranger to British stages and television (including a series of "adverts" for Sony.) And on his triumphant return to the Edinburgh Festival in 2001, he sold more tickets than any of the other 600-plus acts on the Fringe.

Emo also counts himself very fortunate to have performed in Ireland (where he is a four-time Kilkenny Festival favorite), Australia (on his website, he proudly cradles a koala), Canada (happily and steadily since 1984, including many appearances at the Montreal Just For Laughs Festival) and France (for an ultra-sophisticated, English-speaking audience in Paris -- which Emo feels alone more than makes up for the leaflet people at the community center.)