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Ismo Leikola

Ismo Mikael Leikola is a Finnish stand-up comedian, author, musician, screenwriter, and YouTuber who sometimes goes by the name ISMO in his work life. In 2014, Leikola came to the United States for the first time. In 2015, he moved to the United States after making the comedy show ISMO for Finnish TV. He became known worldwide as a stand-up comedian after appearing on the Conan Talk Show in 2018. Since then, he has performed globally.

Early Life

Ismo Leikola was born in Jyvaskyla in 1979 and grew up in the nearby small town of Kuohu. Ismo Leikola went to school at the University of Jyvaskyla. His main subject was physics, and his secondary subject was philosophy.

Career

In 2002, he started doing stand-up comedy at the campus Bar Ilokivi. The experience made him want to learn stand-up comedy by watching old VHS tapes of Eddie Izzard and Eddie Murphy. After about a year and a half, he was already giving shows around Finland. In 2003, he got his segment on the talk show Hypponen-Enbuske Experience as a "correspondent for the City of Jyvaskyla." He did this for a few years. In 2005, when he was in the UK, he started to sing in English. Leikola did shows at the well-known Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland in 2007 and 2008.

By May 2014, Ismo Leikola had played all over Europe and Scandinavia, including the UK, Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, and Estonia. He put on a show at the International Comedy Showcase in London in the fall of 2014. Steve Bennett, the head editor of the comedy website Chortle, said Leikola's act was the best night. The winner was chosen by online voting and by having famous people there. Ismo Leikola received almost 160,000 online votes. Saad Haroon from Pakistan came in second. He got more than 59,000 votes. The contest's winner got US$10,000 and a trip around the country.

Ismo Leikola wrote a book called Suo, Kuokka, and Hollywood with his wife Angelika Leikola about their life in the United States. The book came out in Finnish in March 2021. In February 2021, Leikola said that he and her partner were writing a new version of the book in English.

Ismo Leikola and his band Muusikot play funny songs. In 2015, Jussi Turunen, Richard Murto, and Marko Jansson were all professional musicians and played in the band.