P H O T O :
P O L L Y B Y C R O F T - B R O W N
CLUB GLEE ANNIVERSARY Glee Club, Glasgow, various dates
For 25 years, the Glee institution has brought laughter to Birmingham, with Cardiff, Oxford and Nottingham being added to that merry list along the way. Just over 12 months ago, Glasgow became the first Scottish city to get the Glee bug and after a year of laughs (the likes of Sean Lock, Suzi Ruffell, Rosie Jones, Joel Dommett and Fern Brady have all graced the stage of this 400-seater), they’re set to offer up more comedic delights over the coming months. As well as their regular Friday and Saturday bills featuring four top-notch comics, touring acts are scheduled to pop in between now and the end of the year. Sukh Ojla (Sun 28 Jun, pictured) looks to be following in many a comic’s footsteps by giving show titles a punning twist on their own name. After her Fringe debut last August with For Sukh’s Sake, she’s back with Life Sukhs which tackles mental health, identity and moving back in with your parents. Other touring acts doing Glee are Steve Hughes (Thu 28 May) as he asks Are You Serious?, Netflix star Vir Das (Sun 7 & Mon 8 Jun) brings us his international hit Loved, and Paul Foot (Thu 12 Nov) delivers another typical slab of surrealist capers with Swan Power, as he discusses everything from homicidal Santas to Billy Zane’s crucial role in Titanic. There’s also some live podcast action down The Rabbit Hole (Sun 23 Aug) as Iain Lee and Katherine Boyle open up the phone lines for an event where, quite possibly, anything could happen. And mayhem of a more childlike variety occurs with The Mighty Kids Beatbox Comedy Show (Sun 12 Apr) as Kiwi comic Jarred Christmas and world champ beatboxer Hobbit provide the ideal mix of laughs and beats. (Brian Donaldson)
COMEDY | PREVIEWS
LOCAL LAUGHS MC HAMMERSMITH ANOTHER UP-AND-COMER HAS A GO AT OUR Q&A
Can you tell us about the moment when you thought ‘comedy is for me’? I took my first improv comedy workshop when I was 13, and I distinctly remember leaving it feeling elated that I had, at one point (briefly) made a room full of people laugh. This was in stark contrast to my previous experiences in rooms full of people, so I decided to keep doing it. What’s the one thing (good or bad) you remember about your very first comedy gig? My first ever comedy gig was at a talent show at my school when I was 15. A friend entered my name to do stand-up comedy with only a few days’ notice. I remember literally being pushed offstage by a teacher because I kept rambling as I’d never really thought to write an ending. One or two people told me I was funny, but most people told me I was ‘unsettling’.
Which comedian’s memoir would you recommend to someone? Spike Milligan’s War Memoirs are War Memoirs are endlessly brilliant. Also the Barry Barry Cryer Comedy Scrapbook has a has a joke in it about a woman reading joke in it about a woman reading a book on a train that I think is a book on a train that I think is genuinely the funniest joke ever genuinely the funniest joke ever written.
Do you have any pre-show Do you have any pre-show rituals to tell us about? Well, my act is entirely improvised hip-hop comedy, so improvised hip-hop comedy, so I usually step out of the green I usually step out of the green room, stick headphones in and freestyle rap under my breath about things I can see breath about things I can see around me. I’m often told by around me. I’m often told by other comics that they find this ‘unsettling’, so no real change there. ■ The Stand, Glasgow, Sun 19, Tue 21 Apr; The Stand, Edinburgh, Mon 20 Apr; see much more of this q&a at list.co.uk/comedy.
66 THE LIST 1 Apr–31 May 2020