Comedy
The Saturday Show The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 9pm. £15. See Thu 22 for line-up. Edinburgh The Beehive Comedy Club Beehive Inn, 18 Grassmarket, 225 7171. 8.30pm. £4–£7. See Fri 23. Jongleurs Comedy Show Jongleurs, Lava Ignite, 3 West Tollcross, 0870 011 1960. 8.30pm. £12–£15. See Fri 23. Foster’s Comedy Live @ highlight Highlight, Omni Centre, Greenside Place, 0844 844 0044. 9pm. £10–£13. See Fri 23. The Saturday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £15. See Fri 23 for line-up.
Jekyll and Hyde Comedy Club The Jekyll & Hyde, 112 Hanover Street, 225 2022. 9.30pm. £8 (£6). Rick Molland, a man who apparently ‘makes Richard Dawkins look like the Archbishop of Canterbury’, presents this weekly showcase. Paisley Fit O’ The Giggles @ Hamishes Hoose Hamishes Hoose, 42 Old Sneddon Street, 561 7105. 9pm. £5. Three professional acts perform alongside a promising newbie.
Sunday 25
comedian who’s taken the Scottish scene by storm puts on a special show with some of his comedy friends.
✽✽ Scottish Comedian of the Year Grand Final Pavilion
Theatre, 121 Renfield Street, 332 1846. 7.30pm. £16.50 (£14.50). Raymond Mearns hosts the final, where nine Scottish stand-ups compete for the crown won last year by Ro Campbell. Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £6 (£5; members £1). Joining everyone’s favourite Sunday night comedian tonight is Kai Humphries.
Glasgow ✽✽ Kevin Bridges & Friends The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844
335 8879. 4pm. £10. The young
Edinburgh FREE Whose Lunch Is It Anyway? The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 1.30pm. Stu and Garry
5 THINGS
YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT . . . ALAN CARR 1 Carr’s distinctive toothy look was due to a childhood accident when he fell and banged his chin on the caravan-towing bar on a family holiday. 2 Before he got proper famous, Carr had a litany of awful-sounding temp jobs: putting shampoo in boxes, degreasing gearboxes and filing at a dog food company. His dad harboured different ambitions for his boy, given that he was once manager of Northampton Town FC. It wasn’t to be.
3 At the Edinburgh Fringe of 2001, Carr won the BBC New Comedy Award beating off some stiff competition from the likes of Des Clarke, Rob Deering, Justin Moorhouse and Russell Howard. Carr went on to do three full Fringe runs before being snapped up in 2005 by Channel 4 for The Friday Night Project. 4 A statue of a brightly-coloured lion in Northampton was made to look a bit like Alan Carr (dubbed, unbelievably, ‘Alion Carr’). Last summer, the beast’s glasses went missing in a curiously unexplained incident. Carr clearly saw the funny side, tweeting: ‘They need two people to steal the teeth’.
5 Admitting to having been approached for every reality show under the sun, Carr revealed the oddest programme he’s been asked to appear in. The plan for Up, Up and a Gay was that he would learn to fly a plane and jet across the world meeting other homosexuals with a pilot’s licence. Don’t expect to see that show on screen anytime soon. (Brian Donaldson) ■ SECC, Glasgow, Fri 7 & Sat 8 Oct.
56 THE LIST 22 Sep–20 Oct 2011
PREVIEW STAND-UP REGINALD D HUNTER Perth Theatre, Mon 3 Oct; Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 5 Oct; Edinburgh Playhouse, Tue 18 Oct
One of the prime misconceptions about Reginald D Hunter is that all he does is talk about race and racism. Sure, he may have had the word ‘Nigga’ in several of his show titles, but within a Hunter show will be a plethora of topics and areas touching on his perceptions about life as we know it. ‘Sometimes a thing just needs to be said,’ he says. ‘At some point someone on the Titanic had to step up and say, “The boat is sinking”. And I don’t really want to be that person. I’d like to do sillier stuff and not talk about race on stage, but someone has to. I’m not interested in condemning racism on stage anymore because grandstanding about how wrong it is doesn’t solve anything, it just hides it better. Because I’ve said things about racism, people want to identify you as the race comic which is extraordinarily lazy and I don’t feel any inclination to reward that thinking.’ Having left the US to become an actor in Britain before stumbling into
an eventually fulfilling career in comedy, he recently dipped his toe in the past by heading home to do some gigs in the States, an experience that he describes as ‘pleasurable, strange, bewildering, painful, embarrassing, reinvigorating’. Curiously, in the States some people viewed him as ‘too British’, mainly in the tough rooms that don’t show up in any listings magazines. Suffice to say, his first few gigs didn’t go down especially well. ‘There was a bafflement. The heckling I got, mostly from black people, if you look beneath the surface of it, was essentially saying, “What are you?” And no one’s really interested in your development, they’re just interested in you as a finished product. “Fuck where you were last night, I need you to be stupendous now!” Or they were giving me shit because of my shoes. I had forgotten that part of my background, this Def Comedy Jam need to insult somebody because of their hair or their shirt. The audience want you to slam him, because they’ve paid to see someone be humiliated.’ (Brian Donaldson)
improvise their way through your hangover this Sunday lunchtime. Hardeep Singh Kohli: Chat Masala Brunton Theatre, Ladywell Way, Musselburgh, 665 2240. 7.30pm. £14 (£12). Hardeep mixes comedy with food, special guests and local stars. The Sunday Night Laugh-In The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £6 (£5; members £1). Musical meanderings from Steve Shanyaski alongside the affable Graham Mackie. Monday 26
Glasgow Monday Night Cabaret The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £4 (£2). Kick-start your week with a quartet of great acts for just four pounds. Not bad value once you’ve done the math(s). Edinburgh The Beehive Comedy Club Newbees Beehive Inn, 18 Grassmarket, 225 7171. 8pm. £2 (£1). Ben Verth introduces the Monday night new talent night with the occasional old-timer dropping by. Fit O’ The Giggles Out With the Old City Café, 19 Blair Street, 220 0125. 8.30–10.30pm. £3 (£2). New material night hosted by Keara Murphy, featuring fresh faces and the odd established act. Red Raw The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £2. New comedy night digging out the latest stars.
Tuesday 27 Glasgow Red Raw The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £2. A selection of new comedians led by a professional compère.
Edinburgh Jo Caulfield’s Comedy Collective The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £5 (£4). Jo Caulfield hosts an evening of experimental stand-up featuring Keir McAllister, Stu & Garry, Keara Murphy and others. The Gag Traders The Three Sisters, 139 Cowgate, 622 6801. 9pm. £4 (£3). New student comedy night featuring Alan Sharp, Jane Walker, John McGoldrick and headliner The Wee Man.
Wednesday 28
Glasgow The Best of Irish Comedy The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £7 (£6; members £3). Stand-up from some of the finest comedians from across the water, including Shane Browne, Johnny Candon and host Michael Redmond. Edinburgh Beatnik Comedy @ The Tron The Tron, 9 Hunter Square, High Street, 226 0931. 8.30pm. £3 (students £2). A host of Scotland’s comedy newbies perform, presided over by a professional headliner. Tonight with Liam Withnail. Best of Scottish Comedy The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £6 (£5; members £3). A monthly showcase of the finest comedy talent from north of the border.
Thursday 29
Glasgow The Thursday Show The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £8 (£7; members £4). This weekend there are some sharp observations from Keir McAllister, alongside Dave Fulton, Shane Browne and host Susan Morrison. Edinburgh Fit O’ The Giggles @ Constitution Constitution Bar, 48 Constitution Street, Leith, 538 9374. 8.30–10.30pm. £5.