Simon Bird studies at Birkbeck College, Bird set up the sketch comedy group "The House of Windsor" with former Footlights contemporaries Joe Thomas (who plays Simon Cooper in "The Inbetweeners") and Jonny Sweet. They performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 2007 and in 2008 with a show called "The Meeting", described as a site-specific comedy installation set in an actual boardroom, which received national media attention and a clutch of five-star reviews. Bird and Thomas were also regulars on series 1 and 2 of "The Weekly Show", a podcast for Channel 4 Radio (2006–07). Bird also performs stand-up comedy and took part
Neil Simon mind as I sat down at the typewriter." Simon considered "character building" an obligation, stating that the "trick is to do it skillfully". While other writers have created vivid characters, they have not created nearly as many as Simon did: "Simon has no peers among contemporary comedy playwrights," stated biographer Robert Johnson. Simon's characters often amuse the audience with sparkling "zingers," believable due to Simon's skill with writing dialogue. He reproduces speech so "adroitly" that his characters are usually plausible and easy for audiences to identify with and laugh at. His characters may also express "serious and continuing concerns of