I haven't updated this properly for ages - will sort it out soon
21st January
My Mum came to tonight's show, with my Auntie-Mary-who-isn't-really-my-aunt, daunting on any night but this was compounded when I found out that not only was I doing 20 minutes, I was expecting 15, but that there was someone in from the Evening News. The show went really well, Mum and Mary enjoyed thems selves and I got a decent review with some quoteable quotes.
18 January
Heresy, Edinburgh
Sian Bevan was compereing, her first time and she did a wonderful job!! I stepped in because some open spot failed to show up for the second time!! Heresy is really begining to find its feet.
16th January
What a night the extra work on the new material paid off and I had on of the best gigs I have had so far, the room was packed and I was on towards the end, both of which helped. I was on a massive high after the show
15th January
Red Raw is a great opportunity to try out new stuff and I have been trying to get some new material written. I tried it out and while it went down OK I felt it needed a bit more work. Lucky I'm on in Glasgow tomorrow.
11th January 2007
I often find the that Thursday eveing shows can be a bit subdued but I really enjoyed tonight.
23 December 2006
Heresy Edinburgh
The original idea of a late night nativity play had been abandoned due to folk traveling home for Xmas. We did a quite snappy, no-interval show, with Vladimir as the star on top of the tree (oh a xmas metaphore, well done me)
6th December 2006
The Stand, Edinburgh
Enjoyable show, Joe Heenan managed to get a rather lackluster crowd working well
11th November
Billy Kirkwood runs a terrific gig in The Harbour Arts Centre. The show was a sell out with a great lineup. I always enjoy Scott Agnew's compering and there was a strong lineup with the Giant-Australian-Man-Baby Paul Costello, and Rick Mollund both having good gigs. Chris Broomfield headlined rounding off a great night
3rd September
Edinburgh Festival 2006
I am not sure I was prepared for just how tired the festival would leave me,
working, gigging and trying to see shows. I didn’t quite manage to keep
track of all of my gigs, so in summary...
6th,7th 13th 14th August
These shows were the highlight of my Fringe, the Sunday shows were particularly good
in terms of atmosphere and audience reaction. On the second Monday I think I was
heckled by a baby, but as I mentioned above, I did get quite tired and it is entirely
possible that the heckling baby was in my head. Is there, I wonder, a form of
schizophrenia unique to comedians where one is just heckled by the internal voices.
11th 12th 13th 17th 18th 19th 20th 24th 25th 26th 27th August
The F Show
Arcade Bar
I think that I did the F Show on all of the dates above, a couple of the shows I was
booked for were pulled but the majority went ahead. For the most part the shows went
really well, having a regular opening slot gave me the opportunity to work on a
consistent set that got the room going but also gave me the chance to do a bit more
banter than I am used to. The room worked quite well and when we had more than half
a dozen folk in it became quite jolly.
18th 19th August
Jim Park's show was an odd mixture of a bit of autobiographical material about the
fact that he left The Exploited, his slightly surreal stand up stuff and three or four
guest stand-ups (including on the Saturday one of my comedy heroes, Richard
Herring). Both shows seemed to work really well. I enjoyed watching them as much
as performing in them.
12th 15th 17th 18th 19th August
The Hive
The Beehive, in the Grassmarket, is in the the stag-do, office-night-out, drunk-idiot
epicentre of Edinburgh so we were up against the noise of the DJ next door and a
tendency for the audience to be quite drunk. I did get the chance to compare a few of
the shows which was a greatopportunity to practice on occasionally fairly hostile and
unresponsive audiences.
24th August
Everyone's A Comedian
9th August
The Stand Glasgow
Best of the Festival
26th July
Really enjoyed myself, the audience was really up for it.
18 July 2006
The Stand Edinburgh
Quite an unusual night.
17 July 2006
The Stand Glasgow
My first crack at doing the Horse's Mouth. The deal is that the Horse, one of the two comics "doing
the horse", encourages the audience to suggest topics for jokes. Chris Young (Ricky Sparkles) and I
then had to pull together a quick routine based on the suggested topics. I was quite worried, we
decided that I would be the Horse in Glasgow. Manuvering on stage is quite hard in a rubber horse's
head but I managed to get enough suggestions and I don't think that the material we came up with
was too bad, not sure any of the jokes are keepers though.
16 July 2006
The Stand, Edinburgh
Had popped in to watch the show, I always enjoy Bruce Devlin's sunday night show and Andy White
was headlining so a top night beckoned. Bruce asked if I fancied doing a quick spot in place of the
Ask Bruce spot, it was a good chance to try out some new material, which went down ok.
28 June 2006
The Arcade Bar
Reg "Voodo" Anderson at his Las Vegas best! We were in the main downstairs bar which shouldn't
work as a venue but it did, probably because of Reg's showbiz purple sparkely curtain. Mad auld
drunk fella took a wee fancy to Sean Wilkinson and Rick Molland but, professionals to the last, they
resisted his charms.
24 June 2006
The room in the Rothes halls reminds me a bit of a school assembly hall, I was convinced that I
would regress to childhood a just stand there and sing Morning Has Broken; I suspect that would
have been a mistake. Mac kept his compareing tight and the evening had a nice pace. I hung back
to watch Vladimir McTavish, I sometimes find myself humming his Jock McDougal song which
I suspect isn't healthy.
20 June 2006
I "won" the chance to open VWX at last month's VWX. For some reason I was absolutly bricking it,
but there was a reasonably good crowd in despite the fact that the game clashed with the England
game and I ended up having a great time.
9 June 2006
Three Tuns, Edinburgh
The Tuns is an odd room, I think moving the stage has helped a bit but now it is like trying to do a
gig in a train carriage, with a bar, and most of the audience are inter-railing so don't speak english.
I think this was a "learing gig".
Wednesday 7 June
Last minute booking as part of the Leith Festival. The Village is a lovely wee pub, that, despite
living in leith for a few years, I had never been in. There was a small crowd but a cracking
atmsphere. Somehow as I put the mic in the clamp it stoped working so I had to dash home to get
a spare which meant that as well as enjoying a pleasent evening of comedy I also got some exercise.
Sunday 4 June
I really enjoyed this gig; Rick Molland, Andy McPartland and Austin Low did the open spots and Die
Clatterschenkenfietermaus headlined; ripping the piss out of a punter who claimed that he
would pick on himself to save the comedians the bother, I suspect he spent the latter part of
the eveing reevaluating his tactic.
Thursday 1 June, Friday 2 June and Saturday 3 June
Thursday night was a bit quiet, I guess that summer arriving had an effect but Friday and
Saturday nights were nice and busy. I guess that the stags and hens keep the numbers up and the
atmosphere lively. I am learning that being the opening act can be hard work but on the other
hand I was able to relax and enjoy the other acts; Lou Chawner, Die Clatterschenkenfietermaus,
Kitty Flanagan and Greg Davies.
Wednesday 31 May
Not a huge crowd but Michael Redmond worked his usual magic and had them well warmed up
I enjoyed watching Colum MacDonald and Kevin McAleer.
Tuesday 23 May
First ever healine, I was really nervous there wasn't a huge crowd and they started off the evening
in a very subdued mood. Jamie Anderson did a fine job so by the time I went on I had no excuses.
I think I did OK, 20 minutes seems like forever, some stuff fell flatter than I would have liked but
overall I was happy enough.
Monday 22 May
Red Raw, last minute booking, but what a great night! The Stand was bunged good mix of acts and I
seemed to go down OK.
Thursday 18 May
Good fun, thought Mandy Knight was spectacularly funny.
Sunday 23 April
I enjoy Sunday nights in Glasgow but this week I was really tired and think it showed.
Wednesday 19 April
Gig had to be pulled; turns out that Arsenal in the Champions League is a bigger draw than a Don
Quixote comedy night.
Friday 14 April
Satchmos - Dundee
This was only the second time that this gig has run in a nice wee cellar room in Satchmos and
already it seems to have built up quite a following. Top line-up, with Des Clarke as MC, Gary Little
headlining, Vladimir McTavish opening and Paul Pirrie and me doing the middle bit. Really nice
audience, apparently it was a sell out. I think that, since the smoking ban, the lack of fug has made
rooms feel less crowded.