GLASGOW COMEDY FESTIVAL
MY COMEDY HEROINE
As part of our funny females feature, we asked some menfolk who are appearing at the Glasgow Comedy Festival to tell us about the ladies who make them laugh
There’s more GLASGOW COMEDY Festival coverage on pages 47–51
ANDREW LEARMONTH OMID DJALILI
TOM WRIGGLESWORTH
Jojo Sutherland is a hero of mine and many others on the Scottish comedy circuit. Brilliantly funny on stage and the dispenser of advice and pints off stage, she is one of those rare comics who can move easily between students at Red Raw to decompressing squaddies in Cyprus. And her godfather was the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The Scottish comedy circuit is a nicer, funnier place because of Jojo and her inl uence. ■ Andrew Learmonth and His Faithful Companion God, The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, Thu 20 Mar; Jojo Sutherland: In Conversation, Vespbar, Glasgow, Sat 5 Apr.
I’d say Whoopi Goldberg. I got to work with her and was, and still am, very much in awe of her. She is the best improviser I’ve ever seen and is a real force of nature. She berated the writers on her show for just giving me lines about the Ayatollah and terrorists. She kept saying to me: ‘I’ve got your back, baby.’ ■ Omid Djalili: Live, King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Sat 29 Mar. I have very good memories of seeing Victoria Wood on TV. I now know that the songs she was performing were pretty risqué but I was too young to understand. My mum on the other hand was nearly fainting from laughter. I love Victoria Wood for being able to do that to my mum, way before I understood a cleverly diverted rhyming couplet. ■ Tom Wrigglesworth: Utterly at Odds with the Universe, The Stand, Glasgow, Sun 30 Mar.
P H O T O ©
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I D L S U K A N
SIMON MUNNERY
JOEL DOMMETT ADAM KAY
SIMON EVANS
I don’t have an all-time comedy heroine
Not having lived for all time But the one I love best
Is the Queen of the Rhyme With her rose dimple cheek
My heart warms when she speak
Criticise who dares
I’m in love with Pam Ayres. And so was my grandmother.
■ Simon Munnery: Fylm, The Stand, Edinburgh, Sun 23 Mar; Glasgow, Mon 24 Mar.
20 THE LIST 20 Feb–20 Mar 2014
I saw Maria Bamford in America, and she is so different yet really accessible. Her stuff is so stupid yet so intelligent at the same time. On the surface, she looks very fragile: she’s skinny and small and her voice is really fragile, but the content is so strong and quick and just so funny. ■ Joel Dommett: Practical Joker, Blackfriars Basement, Glasgow, Fri 28 Mar.
I defy you to name a sharper mind than Linda Smith. Born in Erith (‘it isn’t twinned with anywhere but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham’), she was the doyenne of The News Quiz (‘people knock ASBOs but you have to bear in mind they are the only qualii cation some of these kids are going to get’) and tragically died in 2006. And there hasn’t been anyone funnier since. ■ Amateur Transplants: Adam Kay’s Bum Notes, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Sat 22 Mar. I haven’t seen her live, but Rita Rudner is responsible for many of the best one- and two-liners I have ever heard or read. Several have made me laugh out loud just reading them off the page, so god knows how funny they’d be in the presence of like-minded fans. She is dry, and effortlessly achieves that quirky quality that is such a skid- patch for so many acts who end up being kooky instead. There are endless quotes from her stand-up on the web, and she is funnier in interviews than most comics are on stage. ■ Simon Evans: Leashed, Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 1 Apr.