Andy Zaltzman
Fred MacAulay and Vladimir McTavish
20th birthday celebrations at The Stand Zoe Lyons
they fear or resent competition. Indeed, they positively welcome it. ‘The more the merrier,’ insists Kenny. ‘None of the clubs that have come and gone over the years, whether they be pub gigs or Jongleurs, have ever done us any harm in audience numbers. If anything, it just tends to increase the size of the pond. As long as a gig is well set up and the acts are being treated fairly, then great.’ ‘It’s good for people to have stage time at other places too,’ adds Jen. ‘Red Raw is a lot more chilled out than other open mic nights can be, and you need to experience both.’ Kenny agrees: ‘If all you’ve ever done is played Red Raw, you might get a big fright when you’re booked to play a bowling club in Kilmarnock.’
As
the York Place venue in Edinburgh celebrates its 20th anniversary, it’s a good time for The Stand to take stock of what they’ve achieved to date and what’s coming next. ‘When we’re all old and look back, we’ll see that we contributed to Scotland’s cultural history,’ says Kenny. ‘None of us would say we’ve created comedians but we’ve provided a stage for them to stand on, some lights for them to stand under, a microphone for them to hold, and a room full of people facing the right direction. That’s what we do. But the country is a richer place because of our comedians and we’ve managed to play a wee part in that.’
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1 Apr–31 May 2018 THE LIST 35
Kenny O’Brien and Tommy Sheppard
up, as well as established circuit acts who want to work on new material.’ ‘Red Raw itself is pretty much a full-time job,’ insists Jen. ‘We always make sure that we get it watched by myself or someone else in the ofi ce. It’s great to see the more experienced Red Raw acts huddled together at the back, passing judgment on the newbies, while I’m thinking “I remember when you were just starting out”. The waiting list to get on can be about six months and you get people saying “I can’t wait that long. I have to get on stage. You have to see me”. And those people tend not to be the ones you really had to see quickly.’
Over the years, so many acts have attempted to grasp their i ve minutes of fame that it must all seem like a blur to Jen and Kenny, but some moments clearly stick in their memories. ‘There was a guy with a little puppet show who took i ve minutes to set it up,’ says Kenny. ‘We had told him he had i ve minutes in total on stage, so he got to the point of saying “good evening” when the music came back on and he had to get off.’ ‘I remember the guy who put himself in a bag,’ recalls Jen with a wince. ‘It was some sort of student art project. That was a long i ve minutes.’ While The Stand remains head and shoulders above other comedy clubs in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle, there’s no sense that