Biography

Greetings and a warm welcome to my website I made it all by myself. I sincerely hope you discover everything you're seeking, what ever that is. Allow me to properly introduce myself; I go by the name Lovdev Barpaga (I hope I spelt that right). I’m a proud born and bred Brummie, hailing from immigrant parents with roots from both India and African heritage. (My mother was born in Kenya) Growing up across various neighbourhoods of Birmingham has exposed me to the diverse culture of the city, sometimes I didn’t fit in well so I would use the tool of laughter to be accepted.

I’m a working class comic done jobs from a paper boy to taxi (I know stereo type) the longest job I’ve done is care work this is how I found my calling, so sit back grab a coffee or a cup of tea and I’ll tell you.

Many moons ago I used to do data entry the most boring job I ever had, and I hated it, so much I walked out the job At the same time, one of my out of a hundred cousins was getting married in India, so I thought “ya know what? I'm off to India”

It was in India where I found epiphany. About half an hour away from the Taj Mahal there’s another palace that the king had built. The view was amazing I could see for miles and miles, I've never seen that far in my life. I was sitting there and thinking, 'I’ve got to go back to England soon, I need to do something with my life. I thought well you’ve packed in a job that you hate, so what else do you enjoy doing “making people laugh” That’s it, that’s what you need to do go and do some comedy I said to myself.

When I got back to England my uncle offered me a job as a carer Six months later, on a day trip to the MAC centre in Birmingham with my patients, I was handed a course brochure. and the patient (who can’t be named for GDPR reasons) said “Dev this is for you” and something in my head went, you’ve been looking for this for ages and now you have found it. I literally just randomly opened the brochure and the page said, 'comedy workshop.’. I couldn’t believe it, it was a calling card in disguise I signed up on the spot did the 10 week course, at the end of the course, I did a show I was first on and I remember going through my set and people were just laughing loudly, I didn’t know if it was my material or they were just laughing at me, but I remember thinking to myself, you know what mate you’re doing alright man just keep going, carry on. and that’s what I did I continued my journey into stand up comedy initially starting as a deadpan comic delivering one-liner’s for over a decade I decided to be more of my cheerful self and dropped the deadpan.

Best thing I did I’ve achieved significant milestones such as appearing on the BBC Asian Network Live Show, Big Value in Edinburgh and also clinching victory at the UK Pun Championships in 2017, from the back of that I landed a role as a breakfast presenter for Free Radio in my hometown.

I’ve even supported some of the biggest names in the UK during their tour’s from Jo Enright, Darren Harriot, Simon Brodkin and even Birmingham’s very own Joe Lycett.

The excitement continued into 2022 when I earned a spot on the "Best In Class" line-up at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, it’s a platform celebrating talented working comics who face financial challenges in competing with more privileged comedians. Occasionally I do a bit of Bingo Calling for Bingo Revolution as a side hustle.

Since 2023, I've been picked up by the talented agent Susanna Clark from Ingenious Fools, who is helping me steer towards newer opportunities ,now that my comedy style has evolved into more storytelling, I’m excited to see what the future brings.