Perhaps the craziest thing he did ‘because it was scary’ was persuading his wife to give up their home and their jobs and take their 3 daughters out of school for a year to drive around the world in a camper van busking Beatles songs in the street for UNICEF.

Bribing their way past armed Syrian border guards was only slightly less frightening than being cast in a Bollywood film.

These days he runs a successful communication training company serving global clients, coaches keynote speakers and is a sought after speaker in his own right.

Simeon Courtie Ted Talk

His TEDx talk ‘Aristotle, the Ultimate Stand Up Comedian’ has developed into a funny and insightful conference speech on how everyone can engage and persuade an audience using Aristotle’s tools of rhetoric – and it’s as easy as remembering how a joke works.

His new talk, ‘Be Afraid’, is a witty and inspiring speech exploring why we fear the unknown and why embracing those fears leads to positive things. Realising his love of horror as an adolescent led to him becoming a horror writer via a lifetime of enjoying the allure of fear, from extreme sports to nerve-wracking career choices, he started to ask why.

He consulted philosophers, psychologists, spiritual leaders and scientists to satisfy a simple curious question: why is fear of the unknown paralysing yet simultaneously liberating?

Scattered with funny observations and anecdotes, he delivers a powerful message in favour of embracing fear, pulling references from Neural Plasticity to Buddha.

It’s a perfect conference speech for teams facing change or those being encouraged to think beyond their usual area, or for anyone who simply enjoys a laugh that makes you think.

SIMEON COURTIE HOSTING

Simeon Courtie is also an accomplished event host and facilitator, MCing corporate events, conferences and music festivals. One of his most memorable MC roles was entertaining 15,000 UB40 fans when the band played at Bowood House in Wiltshire, introducing support acts and running games and events throughout the day.

As a facilitator he works with the Princes’ charity Sentebale and hosted a seminar at the International AIDS Conference in 2018. 50 young people involved in the global HIV response were invited to share their experiences with HRH Prince Harry. Simeon worked with the team to structure the event and the topics to be discussed, and hosted the debate.

SIMEON COURTIE – CREDITS

Simeon Courtie is a regular writer on BBC1’s Have I Got News For You, and still occasionally broadcasts on BBC radio. He was a regular host on the BBC Local Radio All England evening show between 2015 and 2018. He won a New York Festival Award for Best Radio Personality in 2013 for his work on the forces station BFBS.

SIMEON COURTIE – WRITING

His horror thriller ‘All Hollow’ was published in October 2019. His comedy travel memoir ‘The Long and Whining Road’ won the London Book Festival in 2012 along with 5 other international book awards and achieved ‘Top 5 Bestseller’ in Amazon’s Travel section.

After starting his broadcasting career in BBC Local Radio in 1990 his TV career took off as a Children’s BBC presenter throughout the mid 90’s alongside his trusty sidekick Otis the Aardvark.

He went on to host a live Saturday morning show on ITV and a raft of game shows, before moving behind the camera to devise TV formats which sold around the world.