list.co.uk/comedy Previews | COMEDY
STAND-UP DYLAN MORAN Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Fri 14 & Sat 15 Sep
Who is the Dr Cosmos of Dylan Moran’s new show title? Is it some fictional man of the world? Or is it the Irish comedian himself in stage guise? ‘I get these ideas for themes or identities that obsess me for years and Dr Cosmos has been around for a while,’ states the Edinburgh-based Irish comic. ‘I’m writing a pilot episode which has Dr Cosmos as the title and it’s about all kinds of things, like consumerism and mental health and the idea of a snakeoil salesman. A lot of the live show is about people just trying to cope. The big things still apply: family is still there and the root systems don’t change, it’s just the way that we’re living has.’ A great deal of this new way of living has, of course, much to do with the technology that seems constantly at our fingertips. It’s fair to say that Moran isn’t exactly approving of our dependency on screens. ‘Look at the mystery that has been taken away from us: the whole romance of human history was made by all the imagination and projection of people in one place wondering what was over the hill. There was myth and storytelling, but now everything we could concoct in the dark has been replaced by the crystal clear Samsung LED screen. All those deliberations that were needless but very human and showed how inventive, capable and nutty we were has been swept away now.’ Thank the bejesus then, that we still have skilled storytellers like Dylan Moran at our disposal. (Brian Donaldson)
STAND-UP SAM AVERY The Stand, Edinburgh, Sun 28 Oct
Sam Avery may be going on tour on the back of a wildly successful blog, book and podcast about the perils and pitfalls of being a parent, but he wants everyone to know one thing: ‘I wouldn’t want people to think I’m just moaning about being a parent because that’s not what I do. The show is more about how you handle that transition into a different stage of your life.’
Avery, a dad of three-year-old twin boys, used one particularly challenging incident as the inspiration for his live tour of The Learner Parent. ‘The spine of the show is about the worst tantrum I’ve ever experienced with my kids. It was a very public one, and I suppose it will be even more public now that I’ll be talking about it in rooms full of strangers. I wouldn’t even put the ones that happen at home on the list of tantrums because you can just leave them to it, make a brew and come back once they’ve cried it out. But if you’re in the middle of Debenhams, you might end up on the news.’
But don’t worry if you think this is just going to be one of those ‘aren’t the things kids say hilarious?’ shows. Avery is using his parental experience as a trigger to talk about other elements of his life such as getting older (he turned 40 in July) and his views on contemporary Britain. ‘A lot of it will be about being a parent, but a full show of all that stuff would be quite dull. So, I’m making sure that there will be other stand-up elements in there.’ (Brian Donaldson)
LOCAL LAUGHS RACHEL GRAHAM THE SCRAM! SKETCH MEMBER HAS A GO AT OUR Q&A
Can you tell us about the moment when you thought: ‘live comedy is for me’? I don’t think I had a moment. The opportunity to join the sketch group SCRAM! came about and even though the thought terrified me, I couldn’t pass it up. Do you have any pre-show rituals you can tell us about? I like to have that little bit of dutch courage to loosen up, so I have a fruity cider and just try to chill out. You never know what’s going to happen and the best shows we’ve done have been when we’ve all relaxed into it and just gone with whatever the night brings.
Where do you draw the line when it comes to ‘offensive comedy’? I think offence is subjective. Saying that, I think it’s good we’re living in a time where we call out bad behaviour and abusive language. Personally, I’m not that interested in brutally offensive comedy. I used to work at The Stand in Glasgow and having watched five years’ worth of comedy, I became much more interested in quirky, alternative approaches rather than offensive comedy.
What’s the one thing (good or bad) you remember about your very first live gig? I just remember feeling an overwhelming sense of relief after we got our first laugh. None of our group had performed sketch until our first gig at The Stand and we didn’t know how it would go down. I had never performed in something where the content and material was ours, and not from a playwright or lyricist. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received from another comedian so far? One comedian encouraged me to utilise my contacts in comedy and ‘just go for it’. I had been hesitant to put myself out there as I thought that I wasn’t qualified. I’m so glad I did, as I’ve surrounded myself with very talented writers and performers as well as becoming confident in calling myself a comedy actor.
Which comedian’s memoir would you recommend to someone? Definitely Robert Webb’s How Not to Be a Boy. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. Every page was perfectly pitched. He talks in depth about his personal experience of toxic masculinity. It’s a huge problem in our society which
is not only affecting men’s mental health and incidences of suicide, but also encourages misogyny and mistreatment of women. It’s got a great message as well as being really funny and engaging. You’re curating a ‘legends of comedy’ lineup. Tell us the bill’s top three acts and why you’d have them there? I’m going to cheat and say Rachel Fairburn and Kiri Pritchard-McLean together as one because I’ve become
obsessed with their All Killa No Filla podcast and they’re complete legends. Next I would have Hannah Gadsby as I’ve just watched her Netflix special Nanette and I’ve never seen stand- up that was so heartfelt, honest and brutally important. I cried. Twice. And lastly I’d say Foil Arms & Hog as they were the first sketch group that I saw and they’re just masters of the genre. ■ SCRAM! is at The Stand, Glasgow, Wed 31 Oct.
1 Sep–31 Oct 2018 THE LIST 59