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Shed Simove

Sheridan "Shed" Simove
Born
Cardiff, Wales, U.K.
Alma materOxford University (BA)
Occupation(s)Entertainer, author, entrepreneur
Known forNovelty products
Websiteshedsimove.com

Sheridan "Shed" Simove is a British entertainer, author, and entrepreneur known for inventions, novelty products, and publicity stunts.

Early life

Simove was born in Cardiff, Wales. He received his pre-university education in Cardiff and attended Balliol College, Oxford University, where he completed a degree in Experimental Psychology.[1] Simove is Jewish[2] and has a brother and a sister.[3]

Career

Simove began his career in television. In 2001, Simove posed as a 16-year-old schoolboy for eight weeks as part of a Channel 4 documentary called ‘Back to School.' When the head teacher heard about the real reason for the documentary, she escorted the film crew and Simove from the school grounds.[4] Following the documentary team rejection, it was decided to scrap the series and it never aired.[1] Simove was subsequently appointed commissioning editor of Big Brother in the United Kingdom in the mid-2000s.[3]

In 2008, Simove published Ideas Man.[5][6]

As an entertainer, Simove appeared at Edinburgh Fringe in 2009.[7]

Simove has written and released two novelty blank books. His first was published in 2011. What Every Man Thinks About Apart From Sex contains 200 blank pages.[8] It was promoted by Student Unions across the United Kingdom as a notebook.[9] It became an Amazon bestseller, reaching #44 on Amazon sales charts.[5] In 2012, Simove released 50 Shades of Gray. This book also notably contained no content and was full of blank pages in different shades of grey. Random House, publisher of Fifty Shades of Grey, threatened legal action.[10]

In 2008, he created a currency called The Ego.[11] In 2010, he released the iNotePad, a notebook designed to immitate the Apple iPad.[12] In 2013, he launched a Kickstarter to release the Belt Mistletoe, a clip on attachment to display a mistletoe on a belt.[13] The kickstarter reached its funding goals.

In 2013, Simove released the Rampant Rabbi, a sex toy in the shape of a Rabbi. Its application for a trademark was appealed by lingerie store chain Ann Summers, who have a similarly named product called a Rampant Rabbit.[2][14][15][16]

In 2017, Simove published Shinder, a dating app where he was the only man available on the platform.[17][18] Tinder subsequently filed copyright infringement against the platform created by Simove.[19][20][21] Simove claimed to have received 150 matches and gone on 3 dates.[19] Shinder went on to win best Low Budget Campaign at the PRCA awards in 2017.[22]

In 2018, Simove was warned by police officers against selling inflatable imitation speed cameras, with the possibility that they would contravene the Road Traffic Act 1988 and Simove could be held responsible if they caused a crash.[23]

In 2021, Simove set up rejectioncollection.net, a website listing every rejection letter he had received from publishing houses for his book Alpha Male, with the stated goal to be rejected by every publisher in the United Kingdom.[24][25]

Simove works as a motivational speaker. In 2019, Simove was a speaker at TED in Vitosha, Bulgaria, on How to be number one in a field of one?[26]

References

  1. ^ a b Wells, Matt (March 21, 2002). "School angry at TV's student imposter". The Guardian.
  2. ^ a b Savage, Rachel (2013-11-16). "Meet the Guy Who Created a Rabbi Shaped Dildo". VICE. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  3. ^ a b Jones, Catherine (March 29, 2013). ""Oh brother … look what's back"". Wales Online.
  4. ^ Cassidy, Sarah (March 21, 2002). "Channel 4 scraps film after adult posed as a school pupil". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2009-02-23.
  5. ^ a b Murray, Michael (April 13, 2011). "Conversation: Best-selling Author Shed Simove Writes Book With No Words". ABC News.
  6. ^ "Ideas Man". Goodreads. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  7. ^ Brown, Angie (August 22, 2009). "Roll up for publicity stunt prize". BBC.
  8. ^ Holiday, Ryan (April 20, 2016). "Meet the Man Who Sold Hundreds of Thousands of Books With Blank Pages in Them". The Observer.
  9. ^ "What Every Man Thinks About Apart From Sex: book of blank pages become surprise bestseller". The Telegraph. 2011-03-03. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  10. ^ "Entrepreneur sells book literally containing 'fifty shades of gray'". www.managementtoday.co.uk. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  11. ^ Hill, Jennifer (March 28, 2008). ""Of course it's genuine -- I made it myself"". Reuters.
  12. ^ "A notepad that looks exactly like the design of the iPad "iNotePad"". GIGAZINE. 2010-06-02. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  13. ^ "Embrace your inner David Brent with Belt Mistletoe". UKTN. 2013-06-11. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  14. ^ Doherty, Rosa (2013-10-24). "Rampant Rabbi refuses to take a cold shower". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  15. ^ Bennett, Steve. "Rampant Rabbi causes a buzz : News 2013 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". www.chortle.co.uk. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  16. ^ Staff, ToI. "Rabbi vibrator lands comic in legal spot". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  17. ^ Farokhmanesh, Megan (2017-02-14). "Shinder is a dating app that matches women with the same single man". The Verge. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  18. ^ "Man Creates Tinder-Like Dating App Where He's the Only Guy Available". Men's Health. 2017-02-09. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  19. ^ a b Kleinman, Zoe (May 16, 2017). "Tinder fights one-man dating platform". BBC.
  20. ^ Inventa. "Tinder opposes to Shinder's trademark registration". Inventa. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  21. ^ Chakrabarti, Suchandrika (2017-02-03). "A 'new kind of Tinder' virtually guarantees a happy Valentine's for the inventor". The Mirror. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  22. ^ "2017 Winners". PRCA Dare Awards. 2017. Archived from the original on 2018-02-18. Ready10 & Shed Simove – Shinder Helping one man get a date for Valentines day
  23. ^ "Inflatable speed camera inventor could face jail". www.rac.co.uk. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  24. ^ Shaw, Neil (2021-03-12). "Writer has book about a pandemic rejected 400 times thanks to Covid". Wales Online. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  25. ^ "Meet the writer with an uncommon goal: getting rejected by every UK publisher". Literary Hub. 2021-03-12. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  26. ^ "Ideas Worth Spreading". TED Talks. 2017. Retrieved October 29, 2020. How to be #1 in a field of one?