Birmingham Comedian Ryan S Lewis Wins Prestigious Award After Two-Decade Pursuit of Childhood Dream
BIRMINGHAM, UK – Ryan S Lewis, a comedian from Smethwick, has been named the winner of the Birmingham Comedy Festival’s Breaking Talent Award 2025, marking a meaningful milestone in a career ignited by a five-year-old’s desire to elicit laughter. Lewis’s journey, from playfully mimicking television songs to commanding the stage, underscores the power of pursuing long-held ambitions.
Lewis first discovered his passion for making people laugh after performing a comedic rendition of a song from a children’s television show for a friend at school.”You no in Christmas songs you get jingle bells?” he recalled. “That laugh just sounded like jingle bells to me, and I was like ‘I want to make people laugh’.” Initially believing the profession was simply “being a clown,” it wasn’t until age seven, after watching Eddie Murphy in I Spy, that he identified his true calling: stand-up comedy.
However, the dream remained dormant for roughly 20 years. Lewis finally took the plunge, performing his first set at The Hollybush in Cradley Heath. “I got a good reaction, and I was like ‘oh, I think I can do this’,” he said.
What followed was a period of dedicated effort – ”a long, hard grind” – performing at open mics and honing his craft. This perseverance culminated in the recent award win, which Lewis described as deeply meaningful. “All those late nights,doing the open mics,doing the grind,has all paid off.”
Judges praised Lewis’s commanding stage presence, energy, and ability to engage the audience. He now aims to elevate the Birmingham and West Midlands comedy scene while sharing stories rooted in his heritage as a descendant of the Windrush generation.
“What I would say to anybody is, if your dream eats you up inside, if it causes you some anxiety, if it makes you uncomfortable, more than likely it is indeed something you should grab with both hands and just push,” Lewis advised in a statement to the BBC. “Half the time, that’s the only thing that stops us – our own minds… and once you push and you get that recognition, you will never look back.”
