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Around Town
A family guffaw The Bratchpieces (faither Mark, elder brother Kirstin Innes meets the comedy brothers reinventing the humble pub quiz
David, or Bratchy and younger scion Neil, aka the Wee Man) are well known as Scotland’s only family of stand up comedians. They’ve taken that dynamic into all-Bratchpiece stage shows, and the logical next step seemed to be running a pub quiz together. Bratchy and the Wee Man’s Comedy Pub Quiz , as the name suggests, is a break-out project for the younger Bratchpieces. As the name also suggests, it’s a pub quiz with a bit of comedy in it. And over the past few months it’s become very popular indeed. ‘A couple of years ago a friend wanted to do a charity event with me and my brother and we ran the quiz as a one-off worthwhile and entertaining way of raising some money,’ says Bratchy. ‘Then a couple of years on we were writing some sketches and one of them seemed to just turn into a quiz format, and we decided to resurrect it.’ Basically, they’ve taken the idea of a classic pub quiz and tweaked the format a bit: your basic six rounds covering film, science and nature, mixed in with comedy sketches and ongoing animations and specially shot film sections. It’s all just a little bit more Shooting Stars than your average quiz night down the Queen’s Arms, and it works so well you wonder why nobody thought of doing it before. Audience members are challenged to take on tasks: last month, there was a race to eat and construct the toy inside a Kinder Egg, in time to Davie Bowie’s ‘“Heroes”’. Then there’s the wrestling.
‘My brother is obsessed with wrestling. Seriously, if he went on Mastermind, that would be his specialist subject,’ says Bratchy. ‘So we’ve started putting a different move into every quiz. It’s always the last question of the sports round: we do the move – okay, he does the move on me; I’m usually the fall guy. The ‘heel’, I believe the correct wrestling term is. Then the audience have to guess what the move, or who the wrestler is. We’re actually beginning to run out of safe moves: it’s adding a little frisson of danger to each quiz. We’ve started doing it as the last question in every quiz, just in case there is an injury and I get rushed off to hospital: at least everyone will have got their quiz in and feel like they’ve got value for money.’
The Wee Man is Neil’s alter ego, the sort of noisy Burberry cap-wearing lil’ tyke you’ve probably crossed a couple of streets to avoid. However, despite having to share quiz-hosting duties with someone who’s completely in character, Bratchy insists he’s not the straight man. ‘Naw, we’re basically both bouncing off each other. It’s been noted that we have a natural rapport. Funny that, us being brothers and everything. It’s a bit of a different feel from our stand up, though – we don’t encourage the audience to heckle, but we don’t mind if the teams shout at each other. We are just the ringmasters of a very lunatic circus.’
Comedy Pub Quiz, The Arches, Thu 6 Aug.
www.list.co.uk/aroundtown Hitlist THE BEST BOOKS, TALKS AND LGBT*
✽✽ Fringe in the Park It’s quite a distant Fringe, but who said the East coasters get to have all the fun? Music, street theatre, historical costumes (presumably with people in them) and even an actual Punch and Judy Show. Huzzah! Huzzah! Eastwood Park Theatre, Eastwood Park, Sun 9 Aug. ✽✽ Alien Wars It’s almost your last chance to get up close and personal with the friendly facehuggers under the Arches. See Site specifics, page 16. Arches, Glasgow, until Sun 16 Aug. ✽✽ Bratchy and the Wee Man’s Comedy Pub Quiz A couple of funny brothers hosting a comedy pub quiz. Aw. Sweet, right?. See preview, left. The Arches Café Bar, Glasgow, Thu 6 Aug. ✽✽ Anja Kirschner and David Panos ‘in conversation’ With Francis McKee The head honcho at the CCA (and former Glasgow International director) discusses their new installation and film work, The Last Days of Jack Sheppard, with the artists Kirschner and Panos. CCA, Glasgow, Sat 8 Aug. ✽✽ Critical Applause 6: Will Holder The editor of arts journal FR DAVID comes in to discuss the myriad different forms publishing is taking these days. Crazily high falutin and also timely, and we think that’s to be celebrated. CCA, Glasgow, Thu 13 Aug. 6–13 Aug 2009 THE LIST 15