Chris Forbes on the 'Comedy Bug'

I vividly remember the first stand-up comedy gig I ever performed. As I waited to go on, a number of different thoughts were racing through my head; Why am I doing this? Is my whimsical routine on chickens and cows taking over the world actually funny, or is it just funny in my head? Why am I doing this? I don't really know anything about politics, why am I doing a routine about Tony Blair and George Bush, Why am I doing this? What’s my mum going to think? I'll never recover from the humiliation if this goes wrong; I'm going to be famous after this one gig! Why am I doing this? etc etc...All this whilst fully appreciating how doing stand-up comedy seems to work as the best natural laxative known to man.

Where was that gig? Blackfriars Basement in Glasgow! 

Thankfully I survived that experience and was well and truly bitten by the comedy bug. The chickens and cows worked out just fine and my mum finally accepted I was never going to get a "real" job...I still don’t know anything about politics though. Six years later and I am returning to that hallowed ground to perform some brand new experimental comedy with my good friend Antony Murray. We both started out in comedy at roughly the same time and so we are both hopefully a little wiser, a little funnier and a little less neurotic when it comes to performing comedy. 

For the last few years I have been performing at the Glasgow ComedyFestival as either my Gothic comedy alter ego, Damien Crow, or as part of my sketch group, 'How Do I Get Up There?', so it will be a nice change to finally go back to just being myself and talking about the changes and experiences I have encountered during the last 6 years. Getting older has changed my perspective on comedy. Gone are the whimsical routines about world domineering farmyard animals. These have been replaced ruthlessly in favour of ranting bitterly about the youth of today, the difficulties I face in finding a comfortable pair of size 13 shoes and the pressures I face from my friends and family to settle down, get married, have kids etc etc – just because that’s what every other bloody Tom, Dick and Harry seem to be doing!

Anyway, Its always a pleasure to perform in Glasgow. It truly has the best (and often most unpredictable) audiences in the world so I am looking forward to our show at my comedy birthplace later this month. No big thrills. Just a couple of guys in true Glasgow fashion, f#nny#ng about!

PERFORMERS: Chris Forbes & Antony Murray

SHOW TITLE: Chris Forbes & Antony Murray’s Comedy Show

VENUE: Blackfriars Basement

DATE: Thursday 15^th March, 8.30pm

BOOKING LINK: Buy online from TicketSOUP HERE.

BOX OFFICE: 0844 395 4005