A good night with some impressive improvisation and more than a few nights .On the stage the whimsical Paul merton was joined by Mike McShane ( of Robin Hood fame) , Lee Simpson, Richard Vranch and Suki Webster. The team immediately set about by making up a sherlock Holmes mystery about a silver spoon, each member had to keep the story going and if they stumbled the audience were encouraged to shout DIE! to indicate their elimination from the game. Paul Merton shows his talent for improvising as he works effortlessly with the four other comedians performing in the show. Between the 5 comedians there is a vast array of talent from singing, musical talents and dancing. The group work very well with each other getting audience participation for ideas for various games and sketches.
Another game involved Paul trying to guess his job of cats eye cleaner in Achiltibuie which caused much amusement mostly from the performers trying to pronounce it let alone give clues to Paul. Later we were treated to a very unusual Shakespeare play and a Gilbert and Sullivan song about sky diving. The group work very well with each other getting audience participation for ideas for various games and sketches. The talent for all the performing arts is impressive in particular the made up music (Richard) and perfect singing (Suki) along with funny one liners and lyrics from all the cast. Overall it was an excellent evening with more hits than misses. I would recommend this show for all ages.
Gary Little’s performance was both original and hilarious. With a very ‘at ease’ stage presence the audience all felt we could have been hanging out in the pub together. The burly Glaswegian shares openly his checkered past as an ex-con and his wild days, long behind him now. Handling the crowd well, Little reg-ailed the crowd with tales of dog walking social etiquette, girlfriends, drugs, sex parties and on-line dating. Pulling all his material from real – life experience hes definitely had an interesting one!
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His opening tales of dog walking and the daily problems that can occur could have only be made funny by wiegie banter. Dodging the neds in the park to carrying bags of ‘shite’ around are funny enough with out his social etiquette on varying greetings matched with dog breeds.
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Little lets us on some background history of growing up in a high-rise in Maryhill during the 70’s. Growing up with three sisters in a one room flat, he was always his Mammies boy. Developing life long toilet behaviours stemming from the traumas of a shared landing toilet….the far fetched lies his ‘wee mammie’ used to tell him….and hanging around with a big dug who constantly wanted to ride him,,,,are a few of his child-hood tales. There was no one in the audience not laughing after this!
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For sure this man has lived a colourful and wild life, all of which he can be thankful for as he has now found his calling in comedy. It was refreshing to see a performer stem laughs mainly about himself rather than others, and I get the feeling he has a lot more to tell! Not for the easily offended but I will be first in-line for tickets on his next visit to the Highlands.
The new Festival Theatre Studio is a parallel modern building with a glass frontage built for maximum space. Clearly its in a prime location for the Fringe and the treading feet of the festival as well as multi-purpose use. It feels like being in a new school building but it’ll be different in appearance when its littered with flyers and art work. The bar is makeshift so the space can be used for other things. The bar staff are a giggle, always good to have a bit of that going on. The theatre itself is big, some tables at the front which are fully occupied. The rooms not packed but there’s easily as many people in attendance as you would find on a really busy night at the Stand.
To open and compare the gig we had Ray Bradshaw a 24 year old Glaswegian comic who seizes the opportunity to create a ruck between two lads in the front row via the medium of top trumps….starting with nationality and gradually debasing it into penis size. Obviously holding onto the notion that its always a winner to attempt to embarrass people for laughs. His style of patter is non aggressive and friendly. There’s a hen party in the front row and frequent jibes about how our bride-to-be hates her mother in law gradually produced hilarity. Particular because we all knew this wasn’t true. It was obvious and these lovely Geordie ladies told me this in the toilets a break time. Really it was gentle inoffensive offenses….and that included when he asked the ladies what they were doing later. ‘Are you gonna throw a dildo out of the roof of your limo?’ was his thoughts. Dare him on his web page here.
Next up was Grainne Maquire. From the outset it was hard to tell whether she is playing a character or not. Shes dowdy and plain and a little mad. Obsessive about politics, T.V., and the Pussy Cat Dolls! Although she is Irish she tells us shes a Londoner and some of the political chat is lost on the Northerners in the crowd. The T.V. referencing was lost on me a couple of times as I dont watch much but this didnt stop her demeanor on stage from being very funny. I didn’t know who Kirsty Alsop was by name so it took a while to realize which program she was referring to. She identifies herself as a feminist and her way of portraying how to deal with feminist issues is surreal, clever and facinating. Particularly when its never obvious whether she is serious of not! She tells women they should poo in the street for feminism and how porn could be transformed into a stage for radical feminism. You don’t see how to begin with but then her words explain it, your laughing and although you know her idea is ridiculous you are left wondering whether it would work. Confusion reigned in this act as did her laughable perfomative stage presence.
After being broken up by some great travel holiday gags involving tipex sunblock and pissed Aussies drying they’re hands under condom machines enters Chris MacArthur Boyd. Hes small (he has to lower the mic stand) but dapper. Describing himself as a cross over between Gok Wan and Ronnie Corbett we are back to more T.V. referencing. He plays on his geeky personality, living with mum and dad, failed relationships and harmless perversions. “22 but a feotus” as he describes himself. Sometimes its as if he talking to himself in the mirror in the bathroom. He declares to a ex girlfriend who’s sent her bazookas to him on tinder that hes harder than it is to find a job. She doesn’t get this so he explains how hard it actually is to find a job….including government policy. Major nerd alert and she didn’t get back to him.
Headline act is Tom Stade. He adorns the stage with his brash Canadian accent and husky voice. Here again T.V. referencing plays a part but he parody’s this, he knows none of the programs he talks about would make sense in other countries. He shouts and swears about everything, he hates his kids. He doesn’t care about sweat shops, hes abusive to his wife. He doesn’t care if a man has 19 kids and has to carry her vagina around in a bucket. He doesn’t care about Monsanto or pesticides….na he don’t care about nothing. He is hilarious and informed, best of all he is lying. He’s appears like a man on the edge, who, if he doesn’t behave is going to get smacked round the head (by his wife) with a Jack Daniels bottle. I was really glad to see someone up on stage who was just cutting lose. Hes done some massive gigs so to him this must have been relatively small potatoes and to be honest its the first time I’ve seen a comedian performing drunk in a long time and I was impressed, this guy held it together. There was a lack of uniformity about it but that just made it all the funnier.
All in all there was a good mix of age and experience. Bradshaw kept the crowd going throughout out and most of all was friendly. We were welcomed warmly in and out and the crowd was buzzing as we left the building. It was fun when Stade appeared from the building and drifted off round the corner still ranting. You got the impression that his act that night had only just started.
Have you heard? Not only can we enjoy some of the best comedy from the Gilded Balloon during the The Edinburgh Fringe in August, now they are spoiling us to monthly comedy nights at The Festival Theatre, The Studio! Each month The Studio play host to four comedians for us Edinburghers to sample some well established and up and coming newbie’s breaking out into giggle scene. This Saturday night we saw Aisling Bea, Ray Bradshaw, Chris Forbes and Joe Hart take the stage.
Our compare for the night (who had to provide his own backstage announcement) was a Mr Ray Bradshaw, a 25-year-old comedian from Glasgow. A likable guy who instantly started to get to know the audience through friendly chit chat. He ended up giving therapy to a daughter and mother, a Copenhagen patron openly marked himself 5 out of 10 in the bedroom department and instigated an uncomfortable engagement proposal between a young couple in the audience, but it was all in a light hearted nature. His warmth and engaging storytelling of a drunken Aussie trying dry his hands under the condom machine, skydiving with a small instructor with a limp who looked like a roll-on deodorant and early memories of an awkward sexual request, were all very amusing. Having made his comedy debut in September 2008, Bradshaw has rapidly established himself as exciting new act on the comedy realm. A two time Scottish Comedian of The Year finalist, Bradshaw been making a name himself and is much loved as an MC for several promoters. Easily one of the best comedians of the night, I would be definitely go to see a full show of his material. Although I found it somewhat odd that Bradshaw requested the audience not to heckle the other comedians, only himself, which took some of the interactive enjoyment, which comes naturally with comedy. The three comedians who proceeded seemed staged and scripted in their delivery, preventing the much loved (but sometimes loathed) rapport between audience and comedian.
First up was Chris Forbes a stand up comedian, actor and writer from North Scotland. Forbes has starred in and written various TV, radio and stage productions. As a stand up comedian, Chris covers the UK circuit and has performed in Pint Sized Comedy and The Canadian Comedy Network within The Great International Laugh Off. In 2012 Chris supported Kevin Bridges on his UK tour and performed at festivals T in the Park and Rockness. Forbes regaled stories of his childhood in a heavily religious town and suggested religion should be made more fun by creating Top Trumps for religious characters. We hear stories from his travels and how he got a toe scar in “Vieeetnaaam”. Among his other travels, he follows the Tartan Amy and their various drunken exploits and hooliganism. Forbes has a down beat view of Scots and repeats well-rehearsed easy jokes at Scotland’s expense. He could do better by setting his sights higher instead of base line jokes. They are mildly funny, but also insulting at the same time. We have heard them all before. He redeems himself slightly by moving on to tales of his practical joker brother who pretends Forbes has been in a four-year comma after coming to from an appendix operation.
Penultimate act Joe Hart, was placed third in the So You Think You’re Funny? new talent hunt 2014 and semi-finalist in the Chortle Student Comedy Award the same year. A 22 year-old student at Goldsmith’s University, he self claims to be a nerd and gay, or a ‘gurd’ as he likes to call it. Hart and his fast track comical anecdotes were funny and loveable. He has a lot of offer with his cheerful delivery, stage presence and an idiosyncratic outlook that creates family relations out of Einstein’s relativity theory and his obsession with space and time. He yearns to be a gay activitist, but only from the security of his laptop. Hart is not your typical gay guy, but when people learn of his tendency it is often followed by a flurry of questions, he proclaims, which he amusingly answers afore us, and his reason for being gay? “Because my parents didn’t let me go melon hunting!” or maybe it was just his “lust for cock”! Hart is only at
the beginning of his comic career however he is one to be watched, he definitely has potential. He is growing into his own and I would like to see how he progresses over the next few years.
Aisling Bea is an Irish actor, award winning stand-up and writer. In 2012, Bea became the first woman in 20 years to win the esteemed So You Think You’re Funny? competition for new comedians. A year later, her debut solo show, C’est La Bea, sold out in three days at the Edinburgh Fringe and she was nominated for the Foster’s Best Newcomer Award (formerly The Perrier Award). In December 2014, she was awarded the British Comedy Award for Best Female TV Comedian. Since then she has performed at Live At The Apollo (BBC1) and Channel 4’s Comedy Gala. Bea also has a few TV appearances in panelist shows under her belt such as 8 Out of Ten Cats (Ch4), Qi (BBC1) with Stephen Fry, Never Mind The Buzzcocks (BBC2) and Would I Lie To You? (BBC1). She supported Ardal O’Hanlon on his UK tour at the end of 2013 and in February 2014 performed at the renowned Improv Comedy Club in Los Angeles.
Aisling’s name is pronounced Ash-leeing Bee. She lives in London but is originally from Ireland.
Being Irish supplies the much of the meat for Bea’s set. Her rural upbringing meant that any one passing by a car or tractor would be met by fast-passed banter, which would explain the way he delivers her routine, in lightning quick patter, that and the fact her mother is a professional jockey. Bea is blessed with the gift of the gab, she races through stories of her mothers confusion between diabetics, vegetarians, gluten intolerance and lesbians, claiming they are all fussy about what they put in their mouth! Discussing the nature of confidence and body language in Hollywood and the similarities between actors and rats. Not every punch line sails, but her charisma and charm means the lost jokes are soon forgotten. The velocity and high energy of her delivery, and the multiplicity of her accents lends to the polished performance.
Overall an entertaining night, however the compare, Ray Bradshaw, stole the show with his friendly open demeanor.
It should be safe to assume that Iranian-born, British comedian Shappi Khorsandi is filling a token niche for Iranian comics at the moment, where only Omid Djalili perhaps succeeds in filling this Middle Eastern opening within the UK comedy circuit. However, Khorsandi’s multi-cultural vibe would play a secondary role in tonight’s performance at the Citizen’s Theatre in Glasgow. The show entitled “Because I’m Shappi” (presumably a play on Pharrell Williams’ annoyingly catchy hit ‘Happy’ from last year) was a welcome return for the comedienne who never performed a single gig during 2013. It would be unfair to criticise Khorsandi for this absence after relentlessly exhibiting her blend of absurdity on various tours since the late nineties, coupled with the paltry matter that she was detained from our viewing pleasure, giving birth. The role of the single mother and the way that families interact were central themes which flowed throughout the evening, and one which the audience would lap up.
The opening segment of Khorsandi’s performance was executed witty reflections of Hen nights and the competitive cliques that materialise between friends from childhood, employment, and academic backgrounds. After a slow start to the second half considering personal issues ranging from flirting in supermarkets to family disorder, Khorsandi began to find her stride. No longer relying on audience responses to fill in small gaps, the comic’s musing of sex after divorce, during pregnancy, and other methods of gratification, had the audience savouring every anecdote and quip about her very personal encounters. Few names were censored; even fewer stories were spared.
After the love-in, attention was drawn towards social networking trolls and the hypocrisy of far right supporters living in the UK. Khorsandi’s intelligent knack for broaching ugly subjects and then slaying them with her sparkling wit is a remarkable lesson in comedic timing and demonstrated exactly why she has become a regular face on our screens. This stroll into shady territory continued in astute opinions concerning immigration and hostilities, using her father as the focal point for both the targeting of, and solution to, racism. Although our entertainer for the evening portrays herself as a screwy aunt teaching herself how to “talk to young people again”, it becomes apparent that there are depths that she has still to absorb – and strengths which led to an increased response from the audience as the night moved to a close.
With another gig across town at The Stand Comedy Club awaiting her, Khorsandi thanked the generous Glasgow crowd for their good spirits before departing. The Magners Comedy Festival may perhaps see better comics across the city tonight, but very few will endear themselves throughout the course of the evening as well as Shappi Khorsandi managed to.
Comedian, writer, blogger, podcaster and writer of a weekly column in the metro since 2012. This is Richard Herring’s 11th solo showin 11 years. It lacks any particular theme unlike his earlier offerings on politics (Hitler’s Moustache), religion (Christ on a Bike), death (We’re all going to die) and love (What is love, Anyway?) Herring casts, rather than his customary breakneck speed in previous shows. He seems more comfortable with himself and his role “I’m not a failed rock star, I’m a failed comedian.”
This show is pulled together with ease, Herring’s experience as a performer glowing well throughout, looking backwards and forwards whilst wondering if his best is behind him or yet to come. There’s always a place for daftness and Herring seems to have found his. He’s now bouncing around using his sofa as a trampoline whilst pondering his own mortality. Seriously good fun ★★★★
The Gilded Balloon is 30 this year and it’s great to see it expand its offerings outside of the festival. Edinburgh’s burgeoning comedy seen has seen a host of new comedy night’sspringing up to complement The Stands stalwart presence. Most of these nights are pub-based, grass roots affairs, but this, at the Festival Theatres new space, The Studio is of a different ilk, welcoming professional circuit comics, rather than comedic bairns and journeymen.Tonight’s bash is ably compered by likable Lancashire lass and faux-ditsy Katie Mulgrew who prises for openings in the audience and unearths courting couples and tired lifers which provides great continuity throughout the show. It’s hard to tell if she contributed to Catherine and Rufus’ breakup or sealed their nuptials.
Opening act is affable Irishman and silver fox Michael Redmond. You might recognise those eyebrows as Father Teds dour Father Stone. Redmond’s stand up is top drawer and he doesn’t rely on his comedy CV to get the laughs, his Irish lilt and relaxed demeanour draws you in then he’ll hit you with the gag. He’s not afraid of heckles and woe betide you if you do as he’s wittier than you. You shall be crushed! Effortless set and the crowd lap up his deadpan style (apart from the Nippy Fip the heckler).
Glaswegian Scott Gibson follows with a typically bare knuckles set just before the watershed. He had me ending myself at his observations on the serious matters of:out of fashion sexual acts and what happened to which dog shite? Oh and switches inside your bum that make you do strange things. He doesn’t take any prisoners and some of the brutally delivered material made the women sitting next to me shift uncomfortably in her seat but, like the vast majority of the packed house. I loved him.
Our Mancunian headliner, Justin Moorhouse is familiar to many of us from his role as Young Kenny in Peter Kays Phoenix Nights.In the intervening 15 years he has made a name for himself on the stand-up circuitas well as appearing on Live at the Apollo and even Coronation Street! He even won Celebrity Mastermind (Specialist subject Les Dennis). Justin’sself-deprecating material is drawn from hisassumed role as a pessimistic bored husband and father who wishes things were different. Themes which many people can identify with and his solid material hits the spot although he seemed to wander his way through the last few minutes of his slot, perhaps trying out new material. We’ll let him off with that as he had us laughing the rest of the time.
A night of quality comedy such as this is rarer than white dog shite.
The Mumble loves the Wee Man, one of Weegielands radgest comedians, he puts the knife into places comedy daren’t go, twists it about a bit, pulls out the entrails & rolls it up into a big, fat doobie. On Wednesday’s, at the Glasgow Stand, he becomes the MC for the ever-variable, ever-funny rap-battles – which comes across a bit like Eminem on ketamine.
Each night, the four semi-finalists get five minutes to do their stuff, warming up the audience & evidently, themselves, for they are very much out of their comfort zone. After each pair have finished, they square-off against each other for two rounds of bullet-spitting hip-hop. The performances vary much in assurity & quality, feeling a bit like when your Uncle Jeff starts dancing at a wedding – but the awkwardness just adds to the comedy.
After the final, the Wee Man judges who the laurels of victory should go to on audience reaction, with tonight’s winner being Chris MacArthur-Boyd, the reigning champion no less, another wee lad who beat local comedy hero, Obie, to the podium. But really, the only winner is comedy, who manages to find warmth & hilarity humour in every crevice of society – even gangsta rap!
Hosted in the basement of Phoenix Bar, scene of many a drink-addled birthday celebration, the venue has undergone a revamp since my last visit. Think boudoir-kitsch complete withhipsters, guinness and cocktails, a smattering of ponces, perms and dynasty style ‘doos. It’s an intensely compact venue so if you like your personal space you will have to adapt. The close proximity of the crowd certainly makes it a good place for comic teeth-cutting and it’s good to see another venue hosting comedy nights outside the Fringe.
Tonight’s stand out was definitely Gus Lynburn who was a genuinely funny guy full of nervous energy and clearly with a head full of nonsense that he needs to let loose lest he might go a bit mental. His infectious enthusiasm got the crowd going and a mix of gags and adlibs got the biggest laughs of the night. He overran his timeslot but was urged to stay on and admirably adlibbed another few funny minutes.
He upstaged cocky headliner Liam Withnail, who let himself down with his frat-boy humour that assumed everyone at the gig was at a university fresher-week event. If you are going to come on stage boasting about being invited to foreign comedy festivals you better have the material to back up the swagger. He didn’t – more of a stagger I thought.
There are obviously different comedians every night and part of the fun of a stand-up show is you never know what you are going to get. There are also shows starting up on Wednesdays. The venue gets packed so if you want a seat – come early.
The Gilded Balloon swooped in on the high and mighty perch that is The Studio @ Festival Theatre bringing with it some of the best, belly-achingly funny, and not to mention, critically acclaimed acts. The Gilded Balloon hosts a couple of comedy shows per month in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and you’d be missing out if you don’t grab a ticket now, with the Edinburgh version held at Festival Theatre’s ‘Studio,’ a fantastic little venue that brings a comfortably warm environment to both act and audience member alike.
During Saturday nights’ showcase, we saw the comedic talents of Joel Dommet, Chris Forbes and the headlining act, and might I say the highlight of my night, Jarred Christmas. This fabulous night of tears and laughter was all held together by the fast-talking Katie Mulgrew, a nasal, quirky and engaging ‘teenager’ trapped in an adult’s body. Her presence was bright, but her material a bit dodgy, & I was relieved to see her spring into step, delivering two on the spot, (albeit far too late in her run) consecutive wisecracks in response to some of the audience’s answers, a roundhouse kick of resounding wit. This type of late served cleverness made me consider that perhaps she’s just work in progress, & I hope she ups her writing game soon so she’s not nudged off of the comedic highway by better talent.
On the surface, Joel Dommet seems to harness the power of a sprightly and more often lofty singer for a boy band. If it weren’t for fast-thinking, well formed jest and aphorism, I might like to probe his brain to see if there was more that he envisioned should accompany only a couple of his his double-shot jokes that didn’t land well on the humerus. His spouting off was a bit like sporadic artillery, but I must say, he aimed fairly well most of the time, and was agile enough to win the heart of his target audience. There were only a few missing bullseyes that lay in the shadow of his impressive feats of contemporary and imaginative storytelling. Joel is amusingly self-deprecating, and he was kind of right. He did look a bit like a French exchange student from the 90s, but forget about what he was wearing. Despite leaving a yearning to go deeper into the throws of his particular fondness of his mother’s lasagne, or his streak of absences from Uni, I wanted more to nail his mental game plan so I could better receive the full bite of precisely what he’s on about. Admittedly, quite often I was thoroughly impressed with his inventive wisecracks that he pulled out of thin air. Interacting with an audience can either work for you or against you, but in his case, this seemed to be the sweet spot of the show for Joel as he proved he can victoriously come up with a plethora of things that absolutely ticked me silly. He’s a well rounded comedian that deserves the opportunity to age and mature while on circuit.
I was impressed with Chris Forbes’ own personal brand of merriment-making, and was equally swooning after he muttered a bit of Gaelic and chopped it up and mixed it in with his other comedic ingredients. I quite like a man who is open and honest about his stranger pursuits. He shares and confides with his reception as though he were sitting in an old decorative wooden box with a priest, unleashing his sins and provoking a laugh that he really shouldn’t be able to coax out without paying a heavy fine of reciting Hail Mary at least two dozen times. The fact that he likes his dog because he’s the only one that will lick his balls for a biscuit and equally enjoys watching people slip on ice-covered pavements proves that he is a reigning immature king of a not-too-far-away kingdom we all know lovingly as Maledom. Intelligent, jaunty, and swelling with excellent ideas that you can only assume he received when sitting on the john at 3 am, this is a guy I would want to invite to my house so we can take his idea of video chopping and turn it into reality. Who wouldn’t want to combine the likes of Snow White and Scar face so we can ‘Say hello… to my little friends.”
“My birthday is the 10th of ‘F*cking Dave’.” Chimed shining star Jarred Christmas, as he suggested that we get more creative with the names of our more familiar calendar months. It’s a funny idea, made even funnier by his larger than life stage presence, and obnoxious antics that make his voice ten times funnier than anyone else’s I have ever heard. How can you say February ten times in a row and still make me laugh? How can you make me nearly piss myself when using the mic stand as a claw machine? I have no idea, but you’d have to see him in person just to hear the sound of his contorted and comical voice and enjoy his well timed, streamlined comical perfection. It was all spills of laughs and tummy aches as he never let us breathe in-between jokes. There was a perfect cadence and symmetry that graced his delivery, and he’s certainly hard not to love. One does not want to come up for air if they are enjoying themselves in the presence of Jarred. Here’s a comedian that has everything I like in a comedian. Charming, flamboyant geek peppered with pervy uncle looks, gracing Edinburgh with the privilege of hearing his captivating stories about why the orange properties in Monopoly are the best ones to buy, and then some. He sure delivers impressive and well constructed novels of material within a small window of reality-time-space.
Mumble Comedy 