Express & Star

Comic White Yardie talks ahead of Birmingham date

Prince Harry ‘White Yardie’ is one of the UK’s fastest growing Comedians. He started his Comedy career through social media, predominately Instagram #wyardie. And it didn’t take long for him to rise from a couple hundred followers to more than 100,000.

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Yardie got the Instagram network buzzing with laughter with his witty banter, creative way of telling stories and his hilarious acting-out of alternative, real life scenarios.

His short video clips have gone viral and allowed him to be followed and supported by familiar faces within the sporting and entertainment world.

Yardie, aka Prince Harry, has caught the attention of people all around the world with his strong Jamaican accent.

New Alexandra spokeswoman Fiona McCartney says: “With the encouragement of his fans he took his comedy from internet to the stage, entering the stand up comedy circuit, where he has made a big impact, from doing his own shows to being booked for many comedy events in the UK, Canada, USA and beyond.

“White Yardie has become a credible name and 3 years on, he is ready to tell you his story with his first comedy special.”

White Yardie was born in England but moved to Jamaica when he was 3-months-old, he grew up in Black River St Elizabeth Jamaica, before he moved to the UK when he was 17.

As a Caucasian male with a strong Jamaican accent, turning heads was a regular occurrence. With a natural ability to make people laugh, Harry began to capitalise on this by opening a Keek account, performing and uploading comedy skits. As word continued to spread about the ‘White Yardie’ he made the transition from Keek to Instagram and of course the stage.

He likes to keep his fans on their toes by coming up with the unexpected. “Certain people are like bubble gum,” he says. “You know, you chew it a couple of times, you get used to the taste. That’s not me.”

White Yardie has been called out by some people who think his Jamaican accent is just a gimmick. He insists it’s a 24/7 thing that isn’t just for show.

“It’s Jamaican patois. My ting is this. There’s going to be people who doubt me and people who feel like I put it on, which is cool. But how come somebody like me, as a popular guy, well known. How come up to now, nobody has come up with a picture of me going to school in Essex, or something. Do you understand? Why nobody call me out. How come.”

STUCK

The comic says he got his name when he first came to England and spoke in his broad accent. People immediately associated him with yardies.

“When I first came to England I used to hang around in Peckham and my friends, they used to call me a yardie. But the thing is, there was two of us. There was me and there was a big guy, a black guy. So when people ask which yardie, they’d say white yardie. So they called us yardie and white yardie. That was it from there, man, the name just stuck.

“When I first started doing this comedy ting, my original name is Harry. So it was ‘which name, which name?’

“I thought I’d go with the name Prince Harry. I was using that name in the beginning but it disappeared. But that died out, nobody even cared about it. Me used to call promoters and tell them I was trying to build the name Prince Harry. I felt like the name White Yardie would get the wrong attention. But people like it and it stands out.”