www.list.co.uk/comedy
Events are listed by date, then city. Submit listings at least 14 days before publication to comedy@list.co.uk. Listings are compiled by Siân Bevan. ✽✽ Indicates Hitlist entry
Thursday 17
Glasgow Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, UGC Building, 11 Renfrew Street, 0844 844 0044. 7.30pm. From £15. Brendan Dempsey, Junior Simpson and Tom Stade demonstrate how large groups + ace comedians + alcohol = Christmas. Ticket price includes a three course meal and dancing after the funnies. Half Price Comedy Club Uisge Beatha, 232–246 Woodlands Road, 332 1622. 8pm. £6 (£4). A comedy evening dedicated to making you laugh without stretching your wallet. With a different line-up each week.
✽✽ The Stand Christmas Special The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600 6055. 8.30pm. £10 (£9). The Christmas shows have started (an appropriate distance from the big day, might we add) and this is set to be a high octane show with headliner powerhouse Phil Nichol. He’s joined by local comedy heroes Scott Agnew, Gary Little and MC Raymond Mearns. FREE Watson’s Wind-up Glasgow Film Theatre, 12 Rose Street, 6535. Weekly topical comedy fun at the recording of BBC Scotland’s popular sketch show, starring Jonathan Watson.
Edinburgh ✽✽ Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, Omni Centre, Greenside
Place, 0844 844 0044. 7.30pm. From £15. Joe Heenan, Marc Theobald and Rex Boyd carry on the funnies, but are joined for the rest of the week by Irish comedian Keith Farnan. Ticket price includes a three course meal and after-show dancing. It’s like it’s Christmas. FREE Heresy The Jekyll & Hyde, 112 Hanover Street, 225 2022. 9pm. The Stand Christmas Special The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £10 (£9). The Stand’s grand slam of a Christmas show to tinkle your bells, with the weirdly beautiful Seymour Mace, Marcus Ryan and Keir McAllister.
Friday 18
Glasgow FREE Watson’s Wind-up Glasgow Film Theatre, 12 Rose Street, 6535. 12.30pm. See Thu 17. Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, UGC Building, 11 Renfrew Street, 0844 844 0044. 7.30pm. From £15. See Thu 17.
✽✽ The Stand Christmas Special The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road,
0870 600 6055. 8.30pm. £13. See Thu 17.
Edinburgh ✽✽ Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, Omni Centre, Greenside
Place, 0844 844 0044. 7.30pm. From £15. See Thu 17. The Stand Christmas Special The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £13. See Thu 17.
Saturday 19
Glasgow Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, UGC Building, 11 Renfrew Street, 0844 844 0044. 7.30pm. From £15. See Thu 17.
✽✽ The Stand Christmas Special The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600 6055. 9pm. £13. See Thu 17. FREE Watson’s Wind-up Glasgow Film Theatre, 12 Rose Street, 6535. See Thu 17.
Edinburgh ✽✽ Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, Omni Centre, Greenside
Place, 0844 844 0044. 7.30pm. From £15. See Thu 17.
The Stand Christmas Special The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £13. See Thu 17.
Sunday 20
Glasgow Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, UGC Building, 11 Renfrew Street, 0844 844 0044. 7.30pm. From £15. See Thu 17. FREE Ha Ha Raw Comedy Ivory Hotel, Langside Avenue, Shawlands, 8.30pm. A night of new comedy talent, headed up by a professional headliner and MC, tucked in the heart of the Shawland. The line-ups change weekly, but always get there early for a seat. Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600 6055. 8.30pm. £5 (£4; members £1). What would a Sunday be without a lovely time in the company of Mr Redmond. Tonight he’s bringing on Gary Little, Sean Grant, Davey See, Calum Waddell and Rob Kane. That’s a lot of funny for one Sunday evening. FREE Watson’s Wind-up Glasgow Film Theatre, 12 Rose Street, 6535. See Thu 17.
Edinburgh FREE Whose Lunch is it Anyway? The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 1pm. Make an easy dose of improvised comedy part of your weekend with top notch performers Stu and Garry doing a free show, with hot food available. Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, Omni Centre, Greenside Place, 0844 844 0044. 7.30pm. From £15. See Thu 17.
✽✽ Jimmy Carr – Rapier Wit Playhouse, 18–22 Greenside Place,
226 0000. 8pm. £22.50. Razor sharp gags and increasingly mobile eyebrows (you noticed it too, right?) from that bloke who presents all those Top 100 shows on the telly. See 5 Things. The Sunday Night Laugh-In The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £5 (£4; members £1). End the week in the company of The Stand’s selection of rising stars: Ed Patrick, Ben Verth, Robert Parker and headlining duties from the Mr Mark Nelson.
Monday 21
Glasgow Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, UGC Building, 11 Renfrew Street, 0844 844 0044. 7.30pm. From £15. Raymond Mearns, Steve Williams, Karl Spain and Mick Ferry ease you towards The Big Day. There’s no point going to work that close to Christmas anyway, so just enjoy the aftershow dancing and optional snogging. Unless you’re a doctor. Ticket price includes a three course meal. Best of Scottish The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600 6055. 8.30pm. £6 (£5). The Scottish comedy scene is pretty damn good at the moment, and tonight’s a demonstration of why. Compere Billy Kirkwood introduces John Ross, Chris Forbes, Mark Davies and Sean Grant. FREE Watson’s Wind-up Glasgow Film Theatre, 12 Rose Street, 6535. See Thu 17.
Edinburgh ✽✽ Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, Omni Centre, Greenside
Place, 0844 844 0044. 7.30pm. From £15. Janey Godley, Simon Bligh, Sandy Nelson and Tom Stade present a rock solid line-up fit for any Christmas night oot, with a festival meal and dancing included in the ticket price. Fit O’ The Giggles Absolute Beginners Beehive Inn, 18 Grassmarket, 225 7171. 8pm. £2 (£1). Another evening of new comedy stars, just before the Christmas break so get your fill of laughter in quick. The very clever Andy Sir headlines. Red Raw The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £2 (£1). Ro Campbell and Stu Murphy will be joining a selection of
Comedy
STAND-UP DOUBLE BILL SCOTLAND: AN EEJIT’S GUIDE The Stand, Edinburgh, Wed 30 Dec–Sun 3 Jan
Less a reflection on its audience than a spoof of the sort of titles you’ll find in Waterstone’s clearance bins come January, Scotland: An Eejit’s Guide is a comedy homage to Caledonia from two of its most voluble amateur historians. Mixing grim accounts of pubic wigs and secret onanism societies from Susan Morrison’s Whores and Sores tours of Edinburgh with tales of the great and the drunk from Vladimir McTavish’s book The Top 50 Greatest Scots of All Time, Ever! (foreword by eminent social commentator Francis Patrick Boyle), it’s a welcome Hogmanay antidote to the excesses of twee tartan jingoism.
McTavish is currently developing extra material on whisky and promises to be an expert in his field by the close of the festive celebrations. Meanwhile, he’s ready to rip the curtain down on this year of Homecoming Scotland, perhaps the most ill-conceived, badly-executed national showcase since the Millennium Dome.
‘A bit of a fiasco really wasn’t it?’ he sighs. ‘It was all so shortbread tin,
pipe band championship and Highland Games and, to be trite, that’s all the shit that people left Scotland for. The campaign was very much aimed at the North American market too, then halfway through they release the Lockerbie bomber. Hardly joined up thinking.’ If the show is a hit, McTavish foresees it turning into a monthly engagement at The Stand and even a potential tour around Scotland. That’s something all eejits should keep an eye out for in 2010. (Jay Richardson)
bright new comedians to get you all in a jolly mood, for only two quid. Tuesday 22
Glasgow Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, UGC Building, 11 Renfrew Street, 0844 844 0044. 7.30pm. From £15. See Mon 21. FREE Comedy at the Halt Bar The Halt Bar, 160 Woodlands Road, 352 9996. 8.30pm. One of the newest gigs in Glasgow’s thriving comedy scene, this one charging you nowt for the pleasure of watching a different line-up every week of some local up-and-comers. Red Raw The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0870 600 6055. 8.30pm. £2 (£1).
The magical Steven Dick is in charge of the newbies tonight, so save your Christmas pennies and go along to a night of very cheap and very cheerful comedy. FREE Watson’s Wind-up Glasgow Film Theatre, 12 Rose Street, 6535. See Thu 17.
Edinburgh ✽✽ Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, Omni Centre, Greenside
Place, 0844 844 0044. 7.30pm. From £15. See Mon 21. Best of Scottish The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £6 (£5). Dame Jojo Sutherland introduces a selection of her fellow countrymen, representing some of the funniest Scots on the circuit.
17 Dec 2009–7 Jan 2010 THE LIST 53