COMEDY list.co.uk/comedy
HITLIST THE BEST COMEDY EVENTS
✽ Gilded Comedy Gala Well, this is quite a lineup: ex-Smack the Pony star Doon
MacKichan (pictured), Greg McHugh as Gary: Tank Commander, Dylan Moran and Phill Jupitus (among some others) do their bit as part of the Usher Hall celebrations. Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Fri 7 Mar.
Basement, Glasgow, Sat 15 Mar.
✽ Bobby Mair See preview, left. Blackfriars ✽ Russell Kane One of the true purveyors of ideas in British stand- up, Kane turns his attention to notions of Smallness. It won’t be as straightforward as that might sound. See feature, page 48. The Garage, Glasgow, Sun 16 Mar.
BOBBY MAIR London-based Canadian is Obviously Adopted and clearly talented
B eing adopted at birth might not sound like the easiest subject matter for a stand- up debut. But Canadian comic Bobby Mair’s winningly vulnerable stage demeanour helps him walk any potential line of icky sentiment and crude offence. Ultimately, there is none of the former and plenty of the latter as he lets his crowd work out just where their taste- default marker is. Will it be crossed by the bit about waking up to find you’re being urinated on by a relative stranger? Or maybe it’s the moment he confesses the real reason behind his anti-abortion stance?
Clearly, Mair is not waiting around for that call where he is asked onto Michael McIntyre’s new chat show, but he should be getting set for more acclaim if he can nail the looser parts of his act while maintaining
the ragged edges that make him such a fascinating young comic. As he told us last year ahead of his full Edinburgh Fringe debut, ‘I would say that I’m on the dark side, but I don’t think I’m as dark as some other comedians. I just love jokes and I don’t know where my point of view comes from. I don’t class myself as a dark comedian, I’m sure other people might, but to me it’s just the normal thing. In one joke I take revenge on a woman who I bumped into and she got angry; so in my fantasy I toss myself in front of a train, and die and then dump my tombstone on her front lawn.’ Yep, that’s pretty dark. (Brian Donaldson)
Blackfriars Basement, Glasgow, Sat 15 Mar.
✽ John Kearns Having scooped the Best Newcomer gong at last year’s Edinburgh
Fringe, the intriguing Kearns brings Sight Gags for Perverts westwards. See preview, page 50. Blackfriars Basement, Glasgow, Sun 16 Mar.
✽ Miranda Hart She can fall down quite brilliantly, but there will surely be much more to her first national touring show than that? See feature, page 18. The Hydro, Glasgow, Mon 17 & Tue 18 Mar.
✽ WitTank A trio of terribly clever and funny chaps go back to their (boarding) school
days for a sketch narrative extravaganza. Blackfriars Basement, Glasgow, Mon 17 Mar; The Stand, Edinburgh, Tue 18 Mar.
✽ Chris Ramsey Could the genial Geordie be The Most Dangerous Man on Saturday
Morning Television? It’s apparently, incredibly, so. See First & Last, page 104. The Stand, Edinburgh, Wed 19 Mar; The Garage, Glasgow, Thu 20 Mar.
20 Feb–20 Mar 2014 THE LIST 47