Comedy
Edinburgh The Beehive Comedy Club Beehive Inn, 18 Grassmarket, 225 7171. 8.30pm. £7 (£6). Ben Verth presents a weekend packed full of top local and visiting comedians to tickle your funny bone in an entirely appropriate way. Highlight Comedy Highlight, Omni Centre, Greenside Place, 0844 844 0044. 8.30pm. £13. This weekend belongs to Andrew Bird, Anthony King and Brian Higgins. The Saturday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £15. See Thu 28 for line-up. Dundee Jason Manford Caird Hall, City Square, 01382 434940. 7.30pm. £20. The affable northern one from 8 Out of 10 Cats makes an appearance in Scotland. Catch him in full, live, beautiful observational flow before TV land devours him whole.
Sunday 3
Glasgow Magical Mystery Comedy Coach Tour Dram, 232–246 Woodlands Road, 332 1622. 12.30pm. £15 (£14). A chance to hop aboard a tour of the Scottish countryside in the company of some Glasgow comedians. Leave from outside Dram. The Big Lunchtime Comedy Chat Show Corinthian, 191 Ingram Street, 0844 395 4005. 1pm. £10 including lunch; £5 without. See Fri 1. Pakora, Pint and Platter Slumdog Bar & Kitchen, 410 Sauchiehall Street, 0844 395 4005. 1.30pm. £15. Enjoy a witty history of curry with Charan Gill, with a yumbo meal included in the ticket price. The Comedy Lunch Hour Cottier Theatre, 93–95 Hyndland Street, 0844 395 4005. 2pm. £5. See Sat 2. Glasgow Kids Comedy Club The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 3pm. £4. The club designed for younger audience members returns, with more intrepid comedians entertaining the toughest audience around. No under- 5s; all kids must be accompanied. Addy Van Der Borgh The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 395 4005. 7.30pm. £8 (£7). Addy returns to Scotland with his Fringe show Advanced Mumbo Jumbo, looking at the ways we communicate. Best of Scotland The Lane, Ashton Lane, 0844 395 4005. 7.30pm. £4. A selection of local talent, with a variety of headliners. Emile Heskey’s Depressing Bag of Scottish Alternative Comedy Grosvenor Café, The Grosvenor Theatre, Ashton Lane, 0844 395 4005. 7.30pm. £4. A collection of weird and wonderful acts from the Scottish alternative comedy scene. No Emile Heskey, mind. Comedy in the Buff The Buff Club, 142 Bath Lane, 0844 395 4005. 8pm. £7 (£5). See Thu 31. Stephen Callaghan Capitol, 468 Sauchiehall Street, 0844 395 4005. 8pm. £6 (£4). Stephen Callaghan’s Memory Box sees the comedian groping around in his past.
✽✽ Uncaged Monkeys King’s Theatre, 297 Bath Street, 0844 871
7648. 8pm. £23.25 (£18.25). TV scientist du jour and devilishly handsome Prof Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince are joined by Dr Ben Goldacre and author Simon Singh in a celebration of the wonders of the universe. See feature, page 26. Griffin Giggles The Griffin, 226 Bath Street, 0844 395 4005. 8.30pm. £7 (£5). See Thu 31. Kumail Nanjiani and Kyle Grooms Blackfriars, 36 Bell Street, 552 5924. 8.30pm. £7 (£5). Stars of the US circuit Kumail Nanjiani, who received death threats in his native Pakistan for his 2006 show Unpronounceable, and the Richard Pryor, graffiti and hip hop- influenced Kyle Grooms.
58 THE LIST 31 Mar–28 Apr 2011
Martin Mor Brel, 39–43 Ashton Lane, 0844 395 4005. 8.30pm. £7 (£6). The fabulously exuberant Mor is Fast and Loose this evening, with a whole heap of jokes and stories. FREE Free Comedy @ The Ivory Ivory Hotel, Langside Avenue Shawlands, 0844 395 4005. 8.45pm. Another comedy showcase, in the very pretty Shawlands venue, for the price of a shoplifted sweetie. Rob Rouse The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 9.30pm. £9 (£7). In his latest show The Great Escape, Rouse looks at his new role in life as a grown-up. Edinburgh FREE Whose Lunch Is It Anyway? The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 1.30pm. Stu and Garry improvise their way through your hangover this Sunday lunchtime, with a whole heap of hot food available to munch while they make you chuckle. The Sunday Night Laugh-In The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £6 (£5; members £1). A tasty line-up from the classic to surreal: Costaki Economopoulos, Simon Clayton, Stephen Halkett, Matthew Winning, Richard Gadd and MC Susan Calman.
Monday 4 Glasgow FREE L.A.B Learn @ BBC Scotland BBC Scotland, 40 Pacific
Read and Wright
Quay, 422 7000. 10am–3pm. A chance to work on your stand-up script and have it filmed. Mike Wozniak The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 395 4005. 7.30pm. £8 (£7). A chance to catch the moustached Stand favourite in his solo show, fresh from appearing in Gary: Tank Commander.
✽✽ Mark Thomas Citizens Theatre, 119 Gorbals Street, 429 0022. 8pm.
£15 (£10). Thomas’ latest show is entitled Extreme Rambling and it doesn’t get more extreme than a 750km wall, six arrests and one stoning. This comedian, political activist and all-round hero tells of the time he went rambling in the Middle East, along the Israeli Separation Barrier. Alan Scott Barry and Malky The Halt Bar, 160 Woodlands Road, 0844 395 4005. 8.30pm. £4 (£2). Sketches and stand-up about what really matters. We’re not sure if this is a four-person show, or if someone’s name is actually Alan Scott Barry. That would be kinda cool.
✽✽ Imran Yusuf The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 395 4005.
9.30pm. £10 (£8). The jaunty Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Newcomer nominee bursts into your life with refreshing exuberance. See feature, page 27.
Edinburgh The Comedy Kitchen City Café, 19 Blair Street, 220 0125. 6pm. £5 includes entry to show. A two-hour workshop, open
to all abilities hoping to polish their act, with advice, discussion and guest speakers. The Beehive Comedy Club Newbees Beehive Inn, 18 Grassmarket, 225 7171. 8pm. £2 (£1). After some changes at The Beehive, Ben Verth steps up to introduce the Monday new talent and fresh material night. Fit o’ the Giggles Out with the Old City Café, 19 Blair Street, 220 0125. 8.30pm. £3 (£2). A change of location for the new material night from the evening formerly known as Absolute Beginners, with weekly host Keara Murphy. Red Raw The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £2. The Stand’s spankingly good new talent night, encouraging the latest comedy stars out of the woodwork. Then maybe putting them back in afterwards.
Tuesday 5 Glasgow FREE L.A.B Learn @ BBC Scotland BBC Scotland, 40 Pacific Quay, 422 7000. 10am–3pm. See Mon 4. Curry Comedy @ Slumdog Slumdog Bar & Kitchen, 410 Sauchiehall Street, 0844 395 4005. 7pm. £19.95 including meal. See Thu 31. Pappy’s The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 7.30pm. £12 (£10). The current kings of live sketch shows are up in Scotland with All Business. Planet Mearns Ramshorn Theatre, 98 Ingram Street, 0844 395 4005. 7.30pm. £10 (£9). A selection of the finest sketches
PREVIEW LIVE POETRY LUKE WRIGHT Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Fri 8 Apr
The world of live poetry is a barely recognisable beast to the one that Luke Wright entered in the late-90s. Back then, the likes of John Hegley, Hovis Presley and Murray Lachlan Young were making stage names for themselves, but in a field that had plenty of wiggle room. Now you can hardly move for performers hopping on stage with a pithy or passionate verse or ten to offload. While Wright and his lyrical cohort Ross Sutherland would eventually form Aisle 16, the world’s foremost ‘poetry boyband’, it took them about four years of verse-slinging before finding anyone of their own age up for that craic.
Now Wright has several Edinburgh Fringe shows under his belt, has appeared on a Newsnight Review poetry special and is pleasantly amazed by the number of young bucks getting involved. ‘The perceptions of poetry are still the same in lots of places, like rural schools where the kids aren’t really
turned on to it, but social networking has been really good for poetry. It can now have a place to exist other than just at a gig or in a book. With YouTube and blogs, poets can exist every day rather than just having a book out every few years and it means that more people can have a go.’ He’s appearing at his first Glasgow Comedy Festival
with Cynical Ballads, featuring a girl going on an X Factor-esque talent show, a pair of lucky rich twits, a Tory politician masking his right-wingness and the centrepiece, a love story about a couple running a chip shop. A ‘snapshot of Britain’, it’s a show that, he notes ironically, is possibly his least comical to date. ‘I think an audience going to the Glasgow Comedy Festival is an intelligent and cultured one and interested in seeing something more cutting edge than traditional theatre, and comedy is at the forefront of pushing those kinds of boundaries. I’m not a comic, I’ve never pretended to be. I’m a poet. Hopefully people don’t come along with a gagometer.’ (Brian Donaldson)