Comedy
Events are listed by date, then city. Submit listings at least 14 days before publication to comedy@list.co.uk. Listings are compiled by Siân Bevan. ✽✽ Indicates Hitlist entry
Thursday 19
Glasgow Comedy Corner Bacchus, 80 Glassford Street, 572 0080. 8.30pm. £5 (£3). A weekly gig with some fine comedy talent on display. Where many new nights offer opportunities for brand newbies, this is a gallery of some of the more experienced acts around Scotland.
✽✽ The Thursday Show The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600
6055. 8.30pm. £8 (£7; members £4). Billy Kirkwood is your compere this weekend, and Simon Munnery is your headliner. If that’s not enough, there’s also Neil McFarlane, Jimmy McGhie and Jim Park.
FREE Watson’s Wind-up Glasgow Film Theatre, 12 Rose Street, 332 8128. Weekly topical comedy fun at the recording of BBC Scotland’s popular sketch show, starring Jonathan Watson. Edinburgh The £1 Show Teviot Underground, Bristo Square, 650 4673. 8pm. £1. Edinburgh University’s funniest students present an evening of entertainment for . . . umm . . . £1. FREE Heresy The Jekyll & Hyde, 112 Hanover Street, 225 2022. 9pm. Your favourite night of depraved comedy is now free, but with the same great line-ups lorded over by MC Rick Molland. Chuck a few quid in the bucket if you have a nice time. The Thursday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £8 (£7; members £4). Height-wise, this is a very tall line- up. Host Scott Agnew, Martin Bigpig Mor, Derek Johnston and Steve Harris. They’re funny but also tall.
CHARACTER COMEDY PIPPA EVANS The Stand, Edinburgh, Tue 1 & Thu 3 Dec; The Stand, Glasgow, Wed 2 Dec
Going along to a show featuring Pippa Evans generally means confronting some fears of many a comedy-goer. Audience participation has been her thing since she arrived on the Fringe in 2008 with an if.comedy Best Newcomer-nominated debut which revolved around a self-help group for lonely people in which the crowd slapped on name-tags and discovered facts about their neighbour. The follow-up involved her entire audience hamming it up in a fixed game of bingo. For those with any kind of phobia about public exposure, her Stand
appearances should offer some solace as she’ll most likely be performing her top character, Loretta Maine, a psychologically-scarred US singer- songwriter. Though one particular celebrity had better not be in attendance. ‘Loretta came from me listening to an interview with Courtney Love where she sounded so terrible and I just thought she was ready for a kicking. I used to work in a health food shop so I’ve created a new one from that. Health food shops can make people feel very important; it’s like a brand new religion with people trying to convert you to quinoa.’ Having studied drama at the University of Birmingham in the same year
as textiles-obsessed duo Girl and Dean (while Idiots of Ants crawled around in the year above), Evans remains a sensitive actorly soul. When asked about the ongoing tabloid assault on comedians, she insists that ‘the things said to me by audiences in the clubs are worse than anything I’ve come out with. They should wash their mouths out.’ Perhaps she’s feeling extra tender right now after the recent shedding of a family secret. ‘I don’t know if I was funny as a child, though I always thought my parents really enjoyed listening to me sing. But my mum revealed the other day that I was a real pain in the arse because I insisted that they watched me do shows where I charged them 50p to come into the front room.’ (Brian Donaldson)
46 THE LIST 19 Nov–3 Dec 2009
Friday 20
Glasgow Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, UGC Building, 11 Renfrew Street, 0844 844 0044. 5.45pm & 9.15pm. From £12. Lovely comedians such as Stu Who?, Brendan Dempsey and Tony Hendricks do the funny thing, while the audience get hot food then have a dance afterwards.
✽✽ The Friday Show The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600 6055.
8.30pm. £10 (£9; members £5). See Thu 19 for line-up, but with Bruce Devlin as compere.
Edinburgh Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, Omni Centre, Greenside Place, 0844 844 0044. 6.30pm & 10pm. From £11. Local Jojo Sutherland is joined by Bennett Arron, Rex Boyd and Geoff Norcott for an evening of laughter and drinking plus there’s dancing after the show. The Friday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £10 (£9; members £5). See Thu 19 for line-up.
Saturday 21
Glasgow Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, UGC Building, 11 Renfrew Street, 0844 844 0044. 5.45pm & 9.15pm. From £12. See Fri 20. Comedy @ The State The State Bar, 148 Holland Street, 332 2159. 9pm. £6. The long-standing home of comedy in Glasgow, The State Bar continues to attract some of Scotland’s best comedians.
✽✽ The Saturday Show The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600
6055. 9pm. £13. See Thu 19 for line-up, but with Bruce Devlin as compere.
Edinburgh Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, Omni Centre, Greenside Place, 0844 844 0044. 6.30pm & 10pm. From £11. See Fri 20. The Saturday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £13. See Thu 19 for line-up.
Sunday 22
Glasgow Glasgow Kids Comedy Club The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600 6055. 3–4pm. £3. Live laughs for younger comedy fans. This week Ro Campbell, Martin Bigpig Mor and host Siân Bevan keep it clean for ages 8–12. No under 5s; all kids must be accompanied by an adult. Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, UGC Building, 11 Renfrew Street, 0844 844 0044. 8pm. From £12. See Fri 20.
✽✽ Pam Ann: UK Layover King’s Theatre, 297 Bath Street, 0870 060
6648. 8pm. £19. The glamorous, but unreliable, flight attendant tells more tales of livin’ the high life. See 5 Things. FREE Ha Ha Raw Comedy Ivory Hotel, Langside Avenue, Shawlands, 8.30pm. Alan Anderson presents a free night of comedy. Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600 6055. 8.30pm. £5 (£4; members £1). Host Michael Redmond preaches to his very converted choir, with another Service crammed with comedy. This time it’s Neil McFarlane, Jimmy McGhie, Charlie Ross and Jeff O’Boyle.
Edinburgh FREE Whose Lunch is it Anyway? The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 1pm. Make an easy dose of improvised comedy part of your weekend with Stu and Garry, hot food available. The Sunday Night Laugh-In The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £5 (£4; members £1). Cheer yourself up, and forget about stupid Monday, as the ever chipper Billy Kirkwood introduces a fine old line-up: Steve Harris, Kim MacAskill, Michael Adams and Ben Verth.
5 THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT
PAM ANN 1 Nightmare trolley dolly Pam Ann is the creation of Aussie comic Caroline Reid whose first experience of air travel came at the age of eight on a flight from Melbourne to Sydney. Seems that her mum stuck her girl on a plane as an ‘unattended minor’ every now and again just so her mum could ‘get a bit of peace’. 2 At the age of 21, Reid dressed up as Cher and won a lip sync competition in a Melbourne club. Little did Reid know then that she would support Cher on the UK leg of her farewell tour in 2004.
3 Around 1996, Reid conceived Pam at a fancy dress party when she went into full-blown unpleasant air hostess mode after sinking a substantial number of sakis. 4 She played a judge in the British wedding ‘comedy’, Confetti.
5 When she’s not bitching about economy class passengers and other airlines, Pam is unabashed about her anti-green views, claiming the bigger her carbon footprint the better, ‘especially if it’s wearing a Manolo Blahnik’. (Brian Donaldson) ■ King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Sun 22 Nov.
Monday 23
Glasgow Dance, Monkey Boy, Dance The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600 6055. 8.30pm. £4. Raymond Mearns, John Ross and Allen Chalmers continue the cult of the Monkey Boys, with stand- up, improv and sketches jam-packed in. Edinburgh Fit O’ The Giggles Absolute Beginners Beehive Inn, 18 Grassmarket, 225 7171. 8pm. £2 (£1). MC Jane Walker introduces a selection of new comedians into the cosiest comedy room in Edinburgh. With headliner comedian and poet Viv Gee. Red Raw The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £2 (£1). Jojo Sutherland and Neil McFarlane accompany a shed load of newer comedians on the rocky road to Comedy Land. A zillion acts for hardly any money.
Tuesday 24 Glasgow FREE Comedy at the Halt Bar The Halt Bar, 160 Woodlands Road, 352 9996. 8.30pm. One of the newest gigs in Glasgow’s thriving comedy scene, this one charging you nowt for the pleasure of