Comedy
Thursday 17 Monday 21
Glasgow The Thursday Show The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £8 (£7; members £4). Tonight’s graced by Owen O’Neill, Noel James, Eleanor Morton and host Joe Heenan.
Edinburgh Gong Show The Shack, 119 Rose Street, 226 4311. 8pm. £3. See Thu 26.
✽✽ Simon Amstell: Numb The Queen’s Hall, 87–89 Clerk Street, 668 2019. 8pm. £21.50. The ex-Never Mind the Buzzcocks host shows off his sensitive, self-deprecating side. See 5 Things. The Thursday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £8 (£7; members £4). With Cockney geezer/eco warrior Jeff Innocent, Duncan Oakley and Hari Sriskantha.
Friday 18
Glasgow Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, The Glasshouse, 20 Glassford Street, 0870 011 1960. 8.30pm. £15. With Cole Parker, Wes Zaharuk, Jacques Barrett and Will-E Robo.
✽✽ Simon Amstell: Numb Pavilion Theatre, 121 Renfield Street, 332
1846. 7.30pm. £21. See Thu 17. The Friday Show The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £10 (£9; members £5). See Thu 17 for line-up.
Edinburgh Friday Night Live The Shack, 119 Rose Street, 226 4311. 8pm. £8. See Fri 27. Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, Lava Ignite, 3 West Tollcross, 0870 011 1960. 8.30pm. £12–£15. Mad storytelling from Anvil Springstien, Anthony King, Susan Morrison and Rick Right. The Friday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £10 (£9; members £5). See Thu 17, but Hari Sriskantha is replaced by Daniel-Ryan Spaulding and Susan Calman.
Saturday 19
Glasgow Comedy @ The State The State Bar, 148 Holland Street, 332 2159. 8.15pm. £7 (£5). See Sat 28. Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, The Glasshouse, 20 Glassford Street, 0870 011 1960. 8.30pm. £16. See Fri 18. The Saturday Show The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 9pm. £15. See Thu 17 for line-up. Edinburgh Saturday Night Live The Shack, 119 Rose Street, 226 4311. 8pm. £10. See Fri 27. Jongleurs Comedy Club Jongleurs, Lava Ignite, 3 West Tollcross, 0870 011 1960. 8.30pm. £12–£15. See Fri 18. The Saturday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £15. See Fri 18 for line-up.
Sunday 20
Glasgow FREE Fresh Meat The Butterfly and the Pig, 153 Bath Street, 221 7711. 8.30pm. See Sun 29. Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £6 (£5; members £1). See Sun 29, but with Noel James. Edinburgh FREE Whose Lunch Is It Anyway? The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 1.30pm. See Sun 29. Sunday Night Laugh-In The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £6 (£5; members £1). Tonight there’s Cockney planet lover Jeff Innocent, Duncan Oakley and Jamie Andrew.
60 THE LIST 26 Apr–24 May 2012
Glasgow Alfie Moore: I Predicted a Riot The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £8. See Tue 8. Edinburgh Comedy Variety Show City Café, 19 Blair Street, 220 0125. 8pm. £3 (£2; £1 if booked in advance through lastminute.com). See Mon 30. Red Raw The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £2. See Mon 30, but with duffel-coated mapper-of-Britain Danny Pensive.
Tuesday 22 Glasgow FREE Pop-Up Comedy The Halt Bar, 160 Woodlands Road, 353 6450. 8.30pm. See Tue 1. Red Raw The Stand, 333 Woodlands
Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £2. See Tue 1, but with Danny Pensive.
Edinburgh ✽✽ Alex Horne: Seven Years in the Bathroom The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 8.30pm. £12. Horne plans to do everything a human needs to do throughout their life. See preview, page 58.
Wednesday 23
Glasgow ✽✽ Alex Horne: Seven Years in the Bathroom The Stand, 333
Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £12. See Tue 22. New Material Night Vespbar, 14 Drury Street, 07909 822841. 8pm. £3. See Wed 2.
Edinburgh Beatnik Comedy The Tron, 9 Hunter Square, High Street, 226 0931. 8.30pm. £3 (students £2). See Wed 2.
Thursday 24
Glasgow The Thursday Show The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, 0844 335 8879. 8.30pm. £8 (£7; members £4). Dougie Dunlop appears, purveying warmth and good humour, alongside Christophe Davidson and host Sandy Nelson.
Edinburgh ✽✽ Dara O’Briain: Craic Dealer The Edinburgh Playhouse, 18–22 Greenside Place, 0844 871 3014. 8pm. £27.25. The jovial Irish star and his straightforward observational humour. Gong Show The Shack, 119 Rose Street, 226 4311. 8pm. £3. See Thu 26. The Thursday Show The Stand, 5 York Place, 558 7272. 9pm. £8 (£7; members £4). The weekend begins with Michael Fabbri, Tony Jameson and host Susan Morrison.
NEW US SITCOMS 2 BROKE GIRLS/SUBURGATORY
There could be a theme developing here. In the pilot episode for New Girl, scatty teacher Zooey Deschanel discovered her live-in man was cheating on her and left to wind up rooming with three guys. In the opening episode of 2 Broke Girls (E4, Thu, 9pm ●●●●●), brassy Brooklynite waitress Max (Kat Dennings) discovered her live-in man was cheating on her and kicked him out, inviting new workmate Caroline (Beth Behrs) to move in. But Caroline is no ordinary employee, she just so happens to be the now-penniless socialite daughter of a disgraced former billionaire. Obviously, the pair don’t get on, then do get on, then don’t get on again and so forth for 142 ratings-winning episodes.
2 Broke Girls differs from New Girl by replacing kooky with filthy. Even before the theme tune on the opening 21-minute escapade kicked in, we got lines about drying vaginas, large breasts and female orgasms while later on, there was plenty room for jokes about subway-induced lesbianism, a rape taser and an occasion when sexual harassment at work might be perfectly justified.
Dire as all that might sound, 2 Broke Girls could actually be even worse, with its tired fish-out-of-
water clichés, gratuitous product placement, throwaway lines which suggest that all Asians are the same (the Korean diner boss is referred to as Chinese one minute, Japanese the next) and comebacks/ punchlines that you can predict entire scenes in advance. Suburgatory (E4, Tue, 8.30pm ●●●●●) comes from the school of thinking which insists that a story can’t possibly be told unless it’s being relayed through the medium of voiceover. In this instance, it’s not by a desperate housewife or someone whose name is Earl, but Tessa, the teenage daughter of a single-dad architect who has shunted his girl out of scary old Manhattan to the Stepford Wives-like sticks. Happily, the only link with 2 Broke Girls is a shameless, repeated bit of product placement while it’s unclear yet whether the Asian-mocking here is affectionate or crude.
Jeremy Sisto (Six Feet Under’s Billy Chenowith) shows a neat comedic touch as dad George while Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Cheryl David) is super-scary as the protective mom of Tessa’s horrible ‘buddy’, Dalia. And if you aren’t parched for a particular sugary energy drink by the time these 21 minutes are done, then someone hasn’t done their job properly. (Brian Donaldson)