➼ Do you think that as live comedy fragments after the television boom, neglected audiences are beginning to i nd quirkier shows for themselves? AD That’s probably true. My market is often young couples or women between the ages of 23 and 35. I don’t know how much the stand-ups who do Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow speak to a younger generation. BM I just thought the Greater Shawlands Republic sounded funny. I mentioned it to Andy Learmonth and he came back a couple of months later, asking if I was going to do anything with this idea of a lunatic fringe party. If not, he’d like to have it. So I said ‘fuck off!’ Then later: ‘why don’t we sit down and talk?’ BK It was great seeing you guys do the Clutha benei t. A diverse audience but you had a real connection. BM To be fair, quite a few didn’t know what the fuck was going on. BK But isn’t that the beauty of it: reaching new people. With my tattoo show, people who wouldn’t go to a comedy gig like the idea that ‘this is written just for me’. And then they might take a chance on other types of comedy. BM One of GSR’s legacies is that we thought it would be great to replace the pound with units of currency such as the Pollok. Or the Govan. From that stupid joke, we got to thinking about Bitcoins and got a coder on- board. All we need now is an economist’s advice to give it initial value and we’ll see if we can get it used in shops up and down the street here. Some comics will tell you they got an award last year. Well, I created my own fucking currency! BK Sure, but is it glass ginger bottles?
Or are you more concerned about performing your material and never mind the reception? BK You would love to make everyone enjoy it. I remember doing a sportsman’s dinner once: Pat Nevin, Jim White and Billy Kirkwood. They must have thought I was the former Rangers under-21 coach and Dundee United player. Sadly, that was my entire minute of football material. AD After my tummy got through Britain’s Got Talent, I appeared at so many surprise 50th birthday parties it was unreal. I used to jump out of a box and sing ‘Happy Birthday’. I don’t really do it anymore but I made great money. People never recognised my face, they just knew me as ‘The Belly off the Telly’. So when I come out now, my mindset is that I want everyone to laugh.
Do you try to entertain everyone in the room? Will you always be a stand-up? BK I’ve never done anything for ten years like
38 THE LIST 5 Feb–2 Apr 2015
Anna Devitt
this. I’m a realist. Do you remember that What About Dick? thing that Eric Idle did a few years ago? I always wanted to do something like that. We could do the equivalent of a murder mystery with comics from the circuit. AD Comedians have to be good writers and good performers, so it’s obvious you can go into other avenues. I completely fell into stand-up. My whole life, I wanted to be an actress and a teacher but people started paying me, so that’s how I’ve stayed in as long as I have. My heart is in is theatre and production. And I prefer to be in an ensemble, which is why I write plays. BM My short-term ambition is my band. And launching my crypto-currency on an unsuspecting Eurozone.
Anna Devitt: The Last One Standing, The State Bar, Fri 13, Sat 21 Mar So Many Men: Yet None Are Mine!, Webster’s Theatre, Fri 13 & Sat 14 Mar
Watch Bad Movies with Great Comedians, CCA, Mon 16 Mar
The Old Pamphleteers: Life Begins at 60 (with Bruce Morton), The State Bar, Thu 19 Mar
Bruce Morton’s Greater Shawlands Republic!, The State Bar, Fri 20 Mar Billy Kirkwood: Let’s Wreck The Place!, The Stand, Sun 22 Mar
Billy Kirkwood’s Show Me Your Tattoo 2015, The Comedian Tattoo Studio, Fri 27 Mar.