Comedy Wednesday 23
Glasgow ✽✽ Alun Cochrane: Moments of Alun The Stand, 333 Woodlands
Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £12 (£10). See Tue 22.
Edinburgh Beatnik Comedy @ The Tron The Tron, 9 Hunter Square, High Street, 226 0931. 8.30pm. £3 (students £2). Liam Withnail hosts a show of comedy newbees.
5 THINGS
YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT . . . THE PAJAMA MEN 1 The Pajama Men are Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez who met at high school in Albuquerque, while performing in a string of comedy improvisation groups. They got their big break at Chicago’s Second City, the legendary comedy and theatre mecca which helped launch the careers of Mike Myers, Joan Rivers and John Belushi.
2 Among their terribly clever dual- nature back-to-front show titles are Versus vs Versus, Stop Not Going and their current touring affair, In the Middle of No One. In the pair’s original guise as Sabotage, they earned a Perrier Best Newcomer nomination in 2004, the same festival at which they won the short-lived Dubble Act Award. Their thing is to create wafer-thin plots fleshed out majestically with a fast- paced series of comic characters through which the pair will transform themselves into schlocky magicians, demonic girls, Roman centurions, new age hippies or spinsters talking at least 20 to the dozen. 3 They created an anthropomorphic animated animal comedy entitled One Square Mile of Earth which showed up at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
4 The choice of stagewear came about as they were looking for something ‘basic and not too zany’ which after a while simply blends into the background. They admit they may have to ditch the jimmy jams should TV come calling. 5 Allen and Chavez are both the youngest child in their families. Which might explain everything. Or nothing. (Brian Donaldson) ■ Òran Mór, Glasgow, Mon 5 Dec.
66 THE LIST 17 Nov–15 Dec 2011
Jo Caulfield’s Comedy Collective: HIStory vs HERstory The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30–11pm. £5 (£4). Historical laughs with Jo Caulfield. Part of Previously . . . Scotland’s History Festival.
Thursday 24
Glasgow The Thursday Show The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £8 (£7; members £4). Ron Vaudry, Mike Milligan and Ed Patrick. Hosted by Scott Agnew. Edinburgh The Thursday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £8 (£7; members £4). Dave Fulton, Shelley Cooper, Graeme Thomas and Bruce Devlin. Comedy Academy @ The Shack The Shack, 119 Rose Street, 226 4311. 9.30pm. £3 (£2). See Thu 17.
Friday 25
Glasgow Foster’s Comedy Live @ highlight Highlight, UGC Building, 11 Renfrew Street, 0844 844 0044. 8.30pm. £12–£15. Gavin Webster, Martin Mor and Nathan Caton. The Friday Show The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £10 (£9; members £5). See Thu 24 for line-up. Jongleurs Comedy Show Jongleurs, The Glasshouse, 20 Glassford Street, 0870 011 1960. 8.30pm. £15. R David, Davey Connor, John Ryan and John Scott. Edinburgh Friday Night Live @ The Shack The Shack, 119 Rose Street, 226 4311. 8pm. £9. James Christopher, Jordan Mills, Pauline Goldsmith with MC Ray Bradshaw and headliner Gary Little. The Beehive Comedy Club Beehive Inn, 18 Grassmarket, 225 7171. 8.30pm. £4–£7. See Fri 18. Jongleurs Comedy Show Jongleurs, Lava Ignite, 3 West Tollcross, 0870 011 1960. 8.30pm. £12–£15. Kevin McCarthy, Nick Doody, Patrick Rolink and David Hadingham. Foster’s Comedy Live @ highlight Highlight, Omni Centre, Greenside Place, 0844 844 0044. 9pm. £10–£13. Dougie Dunlop, Raymond Mearns and Colin Cole. The Friday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £10 (£9; members £5). See Thu 24 for line-up, but Joe Heenan replaces Bruce Devlin.
Saturday 26
Glasgow ✽✽ Bill Bailey: Dandelion Mind SECC, Finnieston Quay, 0844 395
4000. 8pm. £29.50. The lovable Part Troll man performs for your delight. An Audience with Tam Cowan Eastwood Park Theatre, Eastwood Park, Rouken Glen Road, Giffnock, 577 4970. 8pm. £12 (£10). Tam Cowan entertains. Foster’s Comedy Live @ highlight Highlight, UGC Building, 11 Renfrew Street, 0844 844 0044. 8.30pm. £12–£15. See Fri 25. Jongleurs Comedy Show Jongleurs, The Glasshouse, 20 Glassford Street, 0870 011 1960. 8.30pm. £15. Fri 25. The Saturday Show The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 9pm. £15. See Thu 24 for line-up.
Edinburgh Dorothy Paul: Retiring from Retirement Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 13–29 Nicolson Street, 529 6000. 7.30pm & 2.30pm. £14.00–£23.50 (£11.00–£20.50). Comedy and music from the local legend. Ages 14+. To Be Continued The Tron, 9 Hunter Square, High Street, 226 0931. 7.30pm. £7 (£5). Fast-paced improv troupe. Saturday Night Live @ The Shack The Shack, 119 Rose Street, 226 4311. 8pm. £9. See Fri 25. The Beehive Comedy Club Beehive
Inn, 18 Grassmarket, 225 7171. 8.30pm. £4–£7. See Fri 18. Jongleurs Comedy Show Jongleurs, Lava Ignite, 3 West Tollcross, 0870 011 1960. 8.30pm. £12–£15. See Fri 25. Foster’s Comedy Live @ highlight Highlight, Omni Centre, Greenside Place, 0844 844 0044. 9pm. £10–£13. See Fri 25. The Saturday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £15. See Thu 24. Jekyll and Hyde Comedy Club The Jekyll & Hyde, 112 Hanover Street, 225 2022. 9.30pm. £8 (£6). See Sat 19.
Sunday 27 Glasgow Kevin Bridges & Friends The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 4pm. £10. The young superstar shows up with some funny mates. FREE Fresh Meat The Butterfly and the Pig, 153 Bath Street, 221 7711. 8.30pm. See Sun 20. Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £6 (£5; members £1). Michael is joined by sketch trio Foil, Arms & Hog and Woody.
The Sunday Night Laugh-In The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £6 (£5; members £1). Uplifting comedy from Shelley Cooper and Stuart Murphy.
Monday 28
Glasgow The Impenetrable Click The Roxy 171, 171 Great Western Road, 331 1901. 8pm. £3 (£2). A night of experimental comedy, poetry and music. Rob Deering’s Christmas Special The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £10 (£8). Festively- themed musical strummings. Edinburgh The Beehive Comedy Club Newbees Beehive Inn, 18 Grassmarket, 225 7171. 8pm. £2 (£1). See Mon 21. Fit O’ The Giggles Out With the Old City Café, 19 Blair Street, 220 0125. 8.30–10.30pm. £3 (£2). See Mon 21. Red Raw The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £2. Vince Atta with sketch trio Foil, Arms & Hog.
Tuesday 29
Edinburgh FREE Whose Lunch Is It Anyway? The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 1.30pm. See Sun 20. Glasgow Strathclyde Comedy Student Showcase The Admiral, 72a Waterloo Street, 221 7705. 8pm. £3. See the latest
PREVIEW MUSICAL COMEDY THE RUBBERBANDITS King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow, Fri 18 Nov
Last year, they just missed out on the Christmas number one in their native Ireland, with the brilliant ‘Horse Outside’ notching over 8m views on YouTube. And now gangster rap scamps The Rubberbandits are filming a series of online sketches for Channel 4 with Father Ted and Little Britain director Declan Lowney. Elastic-limbed frontman Mr Chrome and brains of the outfit Blindboy Boat Club hail from Limerick and rap about sniffing glue and wanting to fight your father, yet sing sweetly about retarded birds of prey while disguising their true identities in plastic bags, ‘because we enjoy going to Tesco and buying carrots in peace’.
From a cult phenomenon, ‘the grand pricks of prank phone calls’ and their sweaty, inexplicable live shows have led to them supporting Ice Cube, a performance they plan to repeat in 2050 because ‘he’d look brilliant in a spacesuit on a hoverboard’. And they’ve even spoken at Trinity College’s Philosophical Society, where they scrawled ‘a picture of 2Pac into a 300-year-old book that had Jonathan Swift’s signature in it’. The track ‘Danny Dyer’ prompted reprisals – ‘he shat into a square foot of cling film and put it into my nan’s letterbox’ – and the IRA have issued a statement regarding ‘Up the Ra’, complaining that ‘the bass could have been fuller and the hi-hats clearer, but other than that they agree with everything in the song’.
Despite only appearing in Glasgow, they plan ‘to stop by Edinburgh
and give it a wash. The stonework on all the buildings look like the inside of a tramp’s mouth’. And the duo refute the much maligned reputation of their own city, maintaining that tourists ought to visit because ‘in 1919 it declared itself to be an independent communist country for a full month. The Limerick Soviet than fell apart after the leaders argued over the ownership of a horse.’ (Jay Richardson)