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Edinburgh ✽✽ Friday Fix: A Stand-Up Burns Supper The Voodoo Rooms, 19a
West Register Street, 556 7060. 7.30pm. £17. Celebrate Burns night in style with a very Scottish and very funny line-up. There’s Vladimir McTavish blending the cordial with the caustic, Billy Kirkwood and his infectious energy, Viv Gee’s masterful comedic poetry, plus Eleanor Morton and newly crowned Scottish Comedian of the Year, Jamie Dalgleish. See feature, page 42. Friday Night Live The Shack, 119 Rose Street, 226 4311. 8pm. £8. See Fri 6. The Beehive Comedy Club Beehive Inn, 18 Grassmarket, 225 7171. 8.30pm. £4–£7. See Fri 20. Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, Lava Ignite, 3 West Tollcross, 0870 011 1960. 8.30pm. £12–£15. Glasgow’s master raconteur, Scott Agnew, is joined by Cole Parker and Geoff Boyz. Foster’s Comedy Live Highlight, Omni Centre, Greenside Place, 0844 844 0044. 9pm. £10–£13. Hints of Eric Morecambe from Paul Pirie, with Johnny Candon. The Friday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £10 (£9; members £5). See Thu 26 for line-up, but Julia Sutherland is replaced by Paul Ricketts.
Saturday 28
Glasgow Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, The Glasshouse, 20 Glassford Street, 0870 011 1960. 8.30pm. £15. See Fri 27.
✽✽ The Saturday Show The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335
8879. 9pm. £15. See Thu 26 for line-up. Edinburgh Saturday Night Live The Shack, 119 Rose Street, 226 4311. 8pm. £10. See Sat 7. The Beehive Comedy Club Beehive Inn, 18 Grassmarket, 225 7171. 8.30pm. £4–£7. See Fri 20. Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, Lava Ignite, 3 West Tollcross, 0870 011 1960. 8.30pm. £12–£15. See Fri 27. Foster’s Comedy Live Highlight, Omni Centre, Greenside Place, 0844 844 0044. 9pm. £10–£13. See Fri 27. The Saturday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £15. See Fri 27 for line-up. Jekyll and Hyde Comedy Club The Jekyll & Hyde, 112 Hanover Street, 225 2022. 9.30pm. £8 (£6). See Sat 7.
Kirkcaldy ✽✽ Craig Hill: Blown By A Fan! Adam Smith Theatre, Bennochy
Road, 01592 583302. 8pm. £14.50 (£12). The bekilted cheeky chap does his wild comedy thing.
Sunday 29
Glasgow FREE Wasasa Comedy Night The Halt Bar, 160 Woodlands Road, 353 6450. 8pm. Hosted by the Kasengele Brothers, comedians steer clear of racism/sexism/homophobia to make this a thought-provoking night. FREE Fresh Meat The Butterfly and the Pig, 153 Bath Street, 221 7711. 8.30pm. See Sun 8.
✽✽ Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service The Stand, 333 Woodlands
Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £6 (£5; members £1). Nick Helm, who won Best Joke of the Edinburgh Fringe this year, with Adnan Ahmed and Eleanor Morton. See 5 Things for Helm. Edinburgh FREE Whose Lunch Is It Anyway? The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 1.30pm. See Sun 8. Sunday Night Laugh-In The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £6 (£5; members £1). Enjoy Chloe Philip’s cringy stories, plus Stephen Halkett and Rick Molland.
Comedy
5 THINGS
YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT . . . NICK HELM 1 Among Nick Helm’s pre-showbiz jobs have been as a ‘dinner lady’ at a secondary school for boys, counting traffic and working in the café of a garden centre.
2 In 2001, he formed a theatre company called Bad Ash Productions whose oeuvre includes I Think, You Stink!, a 45-minute musical B-movie tribute show and a play called Stroke. Helm has ambitions to develop those further. 3 Never meet your heroes they say. And Helm would probably agree having encountered Alice Cooper three times, none to any satisfactory degree. The most disappointing came when Helm worked at the Rock’n’Roll Call of Honour event. Helm brought Cooper a can of Diet Coke and Tim Rice two glasses of champagne. To Helm’s chagrin, Rice was very gracious while Cooper didn’t even break conversation to take the drink.
4 The muse strikes in many different ways. During one interview, Helm was asked what got his funny juices flowing: ‘A pint, a minute’s silence and a little stretch’. 5 At last year’s Fringe, Helm scooped the Dave Best Joke of the Fringe Award for this: ‘I needed a password eight characters long so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves’. Before that, perhaps his biggest claim to fame was being picked 98 in a glossy mag’s 100 Best Things of the Month feature. When you consider the context of him being one of only six humans in the list (manbags, cheese and a lake rated higher), it’s not as humble a feat as it first sounds. (Brian Donaldson) ■ The Stand, Glasgow, Thu 26–Sun 29 Jan.
Edinburgh The Thursday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £8 (£7; members £4). Steve Gribbin entertains with comedy songs, with Stephen Callaghan, Eleanor Morton and host Scott Agnew. Comedy Academy The Shack, 119 Rose Street, 226 4311. 9.30pm. £3. See Thu 5. Got an opinion? You can now Comment on all our articles at list .co.uk
5 Jan–2 Feb 2012 THE LIST 61
PREVIEW RADIO MEANWHILE, IT’S WILL & GREG Radio 4, Thu 5 Jan, 11pm ●●●●●
On first hearing that Will Andrews and Greg McHugh have collaborated for sketch work under the moniker of Will & Greg, the cynical might believe this to be a forced pairing simply to fulfil a US TV show pun. Reflect on this, cynics: the duo’s working relationship goes back, at the very least, to the 2007 Fringe when they appeared in sketch team Ugly Kid before a year later cracking open their W&G career. Reviews were largely positive for their coupling, featuring adjectives such as ‘sophisticated’, ‘inventive’ and ‘assured’. And now they are back to take the plunge on radio with Meanwhile,
It’s Will & Greg, episode one of which happily strikes the right notes more often than not. Opening up with a South African hostage negotiator whose pedantry is a hindrance to progress, they move onto a series of further unfortunate incidents. An awful superhero called The Comeback King is chosen (perhaps unwisely) as the main recurring character while a terrible cat behavioural specialist fails to contain a fractious moggy.
Slipping in and out of gear with much success, there’s a temporary traffic lights scene which sounds distinctly Limmy-esque while a second date goes wrong when the bloke inexplicably brings a farmer along. While the majority of scenes border on jolly, their darker side comes to the fore with Andrews’ blind naivety resulting in his hand being repeatedly slammed in a drawer. Some things are definitely better suited to radio. (Brian Donaldson)
Monday 30
Edinburgh Comedy Variety Show City Café, 19 Blair Street, 220 0125. 8–10.30pm. £3 (£2 £1 if booked in advance through lastminute.com). See Mon 16. Red Raw The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8pm. £2. The new talent night which also offers older hands a place to test their latest gags. With Jay Lafferty. The Beehive Comedy Club Newbees Beehive Inn, 18 Grassmarket, 225 7171. 8pm. £2 (£1). See Mon 16.
Tuesday 31
Glasgow FREE Pop-Up Comedy The Halt Bar, 160 Woodlands Road, 353 6450. 8.30pm. See Tue 10. Red Raw The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £2 (members free). See Tue 24. Edinburgh The Beehive Comedy Club Newbees Beehive Inn, 18 Grassmarket, 225 7171. 8pm. £2 (£1). See Mon 16. Breaking News The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £6 (£5; members £3). A topical show for The
Stand, with blisteringly fresh satire and improv. Wednesday 1
Glasgow Banter in the Buff The Buff Club, 142 Bath Lane, 248 1777. 8.30pm. £5. A gang of the country’s funniest folk battle to impress with their jokes and things. FREE Gong Show Vespbar, 14 Drury Street, 07909 822841. 8.30pm. See Wed 11. Edinburgh Beatnik Comedy The Tron, 9 Hunter Square, High Street, 226 0931. 8.30pm. £3 (students £2). See Wed 11. Jo Caulfield’s Comedy Collective The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £5. See Wed 18.
Thursday 2 Glasgow The Thursday Show The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £8 (£7; members £4). Mischievously dark jokes from Carey Marx, also Gary Little, Sam Gore, Gordon Alexander and host Jojo Sutherland.