Edward Aczel began performing stand-up comedy in 2005 at the age of 38. A conventional job in an office led him to sign up to an evening comedy course for beginners, where he caught the comedy bug, at that point he had not been to a stand up gig for years. By the end of 2005, he was the runner-up in both the prestigious BBC New Comedy Awards and in Jimmy Carr's Comedy Idol (which was filmed for the extras on Jimmy Carr's 2005 live DVD).