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 15
Glasgow Slumdog Stand Up Slumdog Bar & Kitchen, 410 Sauchiehall Street, 7.30pm. £19.95 (inc meal). Gorge yourself on an Indian banquet and then settle back and watch four top comedians.
✽✽ The Comedy Circuit by Gilded Balloon Oran Mor, 731–735 Great
Western Road, 357 6200. 8pm. £14 (£12). Another fine selection of some of the best
5 COMEDY SHOWS WORTH . . .
. . . WATCHING ON TELLY 1 Outnumbered This superb celebration of parental incompetence continues with mum (Claire Skinner) finding an inappropriate image on the family computer and launching an investigation to discover the dodgy downloader’s identity. BBC1, Thu 15 Apr, 9.30pm. 2 Facejacker Kayvan Novak is back to menace society but this time he’s getting out from behind his ‘fone’ and breathing face to face life into the likes of car salesman Terry Tibbs, unsubtle scamster Augustus Kwembe and perennial complainer Dufrais. Channel 4, Fri 16 Apr, 10pm.
3 South Park Does it really seem like 199 episodes since Cartman got an anal probe from some aliens? Numero 200 is on tonight but hasn’t even been filmed yet, so you can expect bang-up-to date topicality and massive controversy. Comedy Central, Fri 16 Apr, 10.30pm.
4 Comedy Lab The series which helped launch the careers of Peter Kay, Russell Brand and Mitchell & Webb about a hundred years ago returns with a fresh bunch of comic half hours all week. Among the thrusting talents involved during this series are Jack Whitehall, Kristen Schaal, James Inbetweeners Buckley and Mike Wozniak. Channel 4, starts Sun 18 Apr, 11.30pm. 5 Glee Series two of the all- singing, all-dancing, occasionally laugh-inducing show hits our screens with nasty old Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) back from her condo in Boca and hatching ever more devious ways to disband the Glee club. (Brian Donaldson) ■ E4, Mon 19 Apr, 9pm.
58 THE LIST 15–29 Apr 2010
comedians making waves in the UK: Doc Brown, Stuart Goldsmith and alternative magician Ali Cook. The Thursday Show The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600 6055. 8.30pm. £8 (£7; members £4). Raymond Mearns takes command of the stage, with turns from Matt Hollins, Steven Dick and Oldham lad Alex Boardman. Edinburgh Ghillie Gags Ghillie Dhu, 2 Rutland Place, 222 9930. 8.30pm. £15 (inc dinner). Calverto presents the shiny new gig on the Edinburgh scene in the shiny new Ghillie Dhu. For £15 you get a two course meal and a selection of top comedians, or head along after 10pm and get in for a fiver. FREE Heresy The Jekyll & Hyde, 112 Hanover Street, 225 2022. 9pm. Rick Molland’s dank cellar of depravity is now free, but still features the sick-puppy material you know you love. Chuck some money in the bucket if you have a nice time. The Thursday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £8 (£7; members £4). Susan Morrison whips up the crowd, before introducing Danny Buckler, Elaine Malcolmson and Michael Adams. Get there earlier and there’ll be hot food available.
Perth ✽✽ Kevin Bridges Perth Concert Hall, Mill Street, 01738 621 031. 8pm. SOLD OUT. As Bridges continues his epic rise through the comedy ranks, this is a chance to see him in his full show element.
Friday 16
Glasgow Famous for Comedy Highlight, UGC Building, 11 Renfrew Street, 0844 844 0044. 8pm. From £12. Scott Agnew represents Glasgow this evening, with fellow jokers Matthew Hardy, Stefano Paolini and Karl Spain. With dancing afterwards. The Friday Show The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600 6055. 8.30pm. £10 (£9; members £5). See Thu 15 for line-up. Edinburgh Famous for Comedy Highlight, Omni Centre, Greenside Place, 0844 844 0044. 8.30pm. From £10. A totally charming line-up this weekend: Jonathan Mayor, Paul Pirie, Anthony King and Tanyalee Davis. Dancing afterwards. The Friday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £10 (£9; members £5). A magical special guest headliner tonight (maybe it’s Brian May! Who knows?) with able support from Danny Buckler, Elaine Malcolmson, Katie Mulgrew and compere Susan Morrison.
Saturday 17
Glasgow Famous for Comedy Highlight, UGC Building, 11 Renfrew Street, 0844 844 0044. 8pm. From £12. See Fri 16. The Saturday Show The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600 6055. 9pm. £13. See Thu 15 for line-up. Edinburgh Famous for Comedy Highlight, Omni Centre, Greenside Place, 0844 844 0044. 6.30pm & 10pm. From £10. See Fri 16. John Bishop The Queen’s Hall, 87–89 Clerk Street, 668 2019. 8pm. £14 (£12). Recently mistake for Happy Mondays star Bez, we expect Bishop’s stand-up is a lot more lucid and funnier that anything the Madchester rocker could muster. Fit O’ The Giggles Upstairs Beehive Inn, 18 Grassmarket, 225 7171. 9pm. £5. The Beehive’s comedy train continues: this is the more professional night, featuring proper stand-ups. The Saturday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £13. See Fri 15 for line-up.
STAND-UP LUCY PORTER The Stand, Edinburgh, Wed 21 Apr
As a comedian, when you find the funny in something that’s very much of the moment there’s always the risk that at some point you’ll discover it’s either out of date or there’s an unexpected glut of gags on the same subject. Suddenly it doesn’t look so original. Of late, that’s happened to Lucy Porter a couple of times; such as when the recession railroaded The Bear Necessities, her show that took a pop at the culture of excess. By the time she toured it, everyone had discovered frugality chic. Now it’s those cash for gold ads featured in her latest show Fool’s Gold.
‘When I starting doing the show those adverts were still quite new and
interesting but because they proliferated so much everybody’s talking about them,’ she laments. ‘You think you’ve really captured something about the zeitgeist, then you take it on tour six months later; it does mean that I’ve had to quite radically rewrite bits of the show.’ Still, Porter’s not shy of hard work, producing a brand new show for the
Edinburgh Fringe for several years now. She’s a long way from the Granada TV researcher based in Manchester who first tried stand-up 30 miles away from home in Chester because, ‘I was writing for The Big Issue about comedy and I always had that thing where I knew people I reviewed. I didn’t really want to do my first gig in Manchester, as everybody I knew would be there.’ Needless to say she can gig in front of all her mates these days. And can be tremendously proud of her set, small rewrites and all. (Marissa Burgess)
Sunday 18
Glasgow Glasgow Kids Comedy Club The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600 6055. 3pm. £4. Raymond Mearns and Graeme Thomas try their luck at the ever- popular Kids’ Club. No under 5s; all kids must be accompanied by an adult. Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600 6055. 8.30pm. £5 (£4; members £1). Everyone’s favourite Sunday Comedy Uncle returns with jokes and stuff from Matt Hollins, Michael Adams, Graham Mackie and Davey See. Edinburgh FREE Whose Lunch is it Anyway? The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 1pm. This bustling wee gig offers a free improvised comedy show, courtesy of Stu and Garry, with hot grub and a bar. The Sunday Night Laugh-In The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £5 (£4; members £1). Susan Morrison hosts this evening, with Danny Buckler, Barry McDonald, Derek Miller, Mark Davies and Caroline Robertson.
Monday 19 Glasgow Dance, Monkey Boy, Dance The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600
6055. 8.30pm. £4. Improv comedy and music from John Ross, Allen Chalmers, Raymond Mearns and occasional guests. Edinburgh Red Raw The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £2 (£1). The new talent night, bursting at the seams with fresh- faced hopefuls trying their luck. They’re fresh-faced at the start, anyway. With host Jeff O’Boyle.
Tuesday 20
Glasgow FREE Comedy at the Halt Bar The Halt Bar, 160 Woodlands Road, 352 9996. 8pm. One of the newest gigs in Glasgow’s thriving comedy scene, this one charging you nada for the pleasure of watching a different line-up every week of some local up-and-comers. Red Raw The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600 6055. 8.30pm. £2 (£1). Newer comedians have their five minutes of fame. Hosted by comedian and fella- that-knows-about-football Gerry McDade. Edinburgh Bruce Fummey: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Scottish Parliament The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £6 (£5). Perthshire funnyman Fummey pulls apart