Comedian Olaf Falafel set to tour Luton schools with his new book about a young Banksy-style art avenger

Luton stand-up star Olaf Falafel is set to visit ten lucky schools as part of a book tour – after a YouTube channel started during the Covid lockdown led to a book deal.

The comedian, author and illustrator will be visiting the schools with his latest book – Trixie Pickle Art Avenger – starting on Monday (October 17).

In an exclusive interview with Luton Today, he said: “I’ve been an author and illustrator of picture books for quite a while but I’d never written chapter books for older kids.

"When the first lockdown hit, I lost all my comedy gigs and my visits to schools were also cancelled. I decided to keep myself busy by making a weekly YouTube comedy art club that contained drawing tutorials, jokes, songs and ‘stealth learning’ about famous artists.

“The viewer count quickly grew from tens to tens of thousands and I got approached by Puffin Books to see if I’d like to write a funny art-related story. That’s when I sat down and came up with the idea of a child Banksy character who rights wrongs using the power of art".

Olaf’s book Trixie Pickle Art Avenger is the story of a girl who rights wrongs using inspiration from different artists, such as Banksy, Picasso, Van Gogh and many others.

The Director of Education at Tennyson Road School in Luton, which Olaf visited earlier this year, was full of praise for the comedian. He said: “The children absolutely loved it when Olaf visited, he left our pupils buzzing with ideas…we look forward to welcoming him back soon.”

A former winner of the Edinburgh Festival’s ‘Funniest Joke Of The Fringe’, Olaf added: “The trick with talking to children is to keep it fast-paced and with lots of variation.

"My assemblies include jokes, songs, photos, stories and videos plus a draw-along where we do our own illustrations of a character from Trixie Pickle Art Avenger. I tend to tell the children a bit about the different jobs I have - author, illustrator, comedian and dad.

“Kids are always particularly interested in the comedy side of my life and they seem to enjoy the stupid TikTok videos I show them like ‘The Cheese Of Truth’ ones. I find that if they are laughing, they don’t realise they are also learning!”

This isn’t the comedian’s first school tour, in 2019 Falafel ambitiously visited 100 schools in 100 days with his space-themed book It’s One Giant Leek For Mankind.

“The 100 days of school tours was fun - a lot of miles covered from Huddersfield to Southampton, Norwich to Cardiff and everywhere in between,” he said.

“I guess the main thing I learned was to not talk down to children - they understand a lot more than you think and the worst thing you can do is be condescending towards them.

"That and, if you make friends with the canteen staff, you get bigger portions!”