FEATURE LlS'l'
‘ ,5 . l " i , - ' says. ‘And maybe I haven‘t got as far "WW I I ' ‘ as adulthood yet — I'm still working on childhood. Obviously it's still an age that‘s important and that l have feelings about.‘
Glasgow Dreamer. however. is no earnest exposition ofchildhood angst. lts comic vignettes are in a more realistic vein than. say. Life In
W/u'.- ,4 WW”
A Scotch .S’iliing-nmm. but the same absurdist. deadpan humour is still well to the fore. An almost painfully humble man. (‘utler is not afraid to make himself the butt of his own jokes. and many of the episodes here are concerned with his inability to
Ang but ageless. “WC PFCSUmC 10 ignore. {Of IhC understand his world: his attempt to Glasg0w_b0rn eccentric ‘ figment. the merits his seminal commit suicide by taking six aspirins: recording Who [are l our his experiment in getting two stones IVOI' CUtlcra a YOUIthl Tr()u.s‘er.s'?. lvor (‘utler's first gentle to mate (‘l'm not interested in cult following for assault on public sensibilities came at moving things') by putting an elastic confessions about the start ofthe §C\'CI]IlCS. Appearing band round them and putting them . on Dave Allen s documentary [lie in a cupboard; his poking at the ChlldhOOd - Stuart Great British Eccentric. he was ‘ ‘unknown fleshy objects‘ protruding Bathgatc reports on the filmed in London Zoo. solemnly from the open fly of his granddad's K. fka Of COmcd . asserting that..for the sake of combinations and asking ‘Is that d y decencv the gir'iffes should be vour i ' " l (‘ ' if' h ‘ "' v. k t . . . gizzarc. irant at ct‘. forced to Wear trousers. The crucial element missing from Almost completely bald. with at these wistful episodes is. as (‘utler quiet. quavering voice and the acknowledges. his own slow. richly meekest of manners. he seemed old sonorous voice. ‘When I even then. In the two decades since communicate and people only see he has built up a substantial. the words they don't get the overwhelmingly youthful. cult message.’ he says. ‘but when they following. through radio. print. and hear my voice there‘s something in it live performance. Whatever the that allows communication to take medium. his own concerns are place. And normally when they go predominantly with his youth and back to the page afterwards they're childhood. a period to which be able to hear my voice as they're returns in his new book. Glasgow reading.‘ Dreamer. For Cutler. going back to Conversely. one might. after his early life for material is not so reading Glasgow Dreamer. bemoan much a whim as a necessity. ‘I see my the fact that Cutler‘s radio creativity as therapy — getting all the programmes cannot be accompanied early traumas out of my system.‘ he by Martin lloneysett's grotesque!
G'I’he List 4— 17 May 1990