Des McLean Guest Blog

Ah Glaswegians! They are self-deprecating, don't suffer fools gladly, but like a right good laugh. That's why the Glasgow Comedy Festival is now in its ninth year, and I've been lucky enough to be part of it from the start.

Well, when I say lucky, I didn't feel that way the first time I was asked to be involved. I still remember lying in bed, awake at 3am saying to myself 'bloody train station, oh no, why?' I had to get up at 5.30am ready to perform to bunch of bewildered commuters at Glasgow Central Station running late for their train. It was like a sadder and lonelier version of the T-Mobile flashmob advert.

My comedy busking continued the next year when it was 'on the buses', performing stand up to a bunch of bleary-eyed passengers from Glasgow's Buchanan Street Bus Station all the way to Edinburgh and back. The ones who weren't listening to their iPods were staring out the window or pretending to read their free newspaper upside down, It was on the BBC News so the viewers at home could witness my struggle. The following year was on the trains, then it was shopping malls then the Glasgow Underground - all nice and scary PR stunts to get punters in the mood for the festival and give me more sleepless nights! But it was exciting fun and stood me in good stead for the shows coming up.

I can't complain about my shows at the comedy festival. I started out in the Thirteenth Note - a basement bar in the Trongate, then moved on to the Arches, the Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow City Halls, the Theatre Royal, The King's Theatre, and last year, the amazing Clyde auditorium. This was a very effective laxative which was filmed for TV, and DVD. Also along the way I loved taking comedy to the communities around Glasgow, including Easterhouse, Drumchapel, Castlemilk.

This year I am honoured to be the opening headline act at the festival. I will be playing the King's Theatre on the Thursday 17 March, and what was my stategy for choosing this date? Well, my wife Alison and I are due our first baby at the end of March. Alison asked, 'When's the first available date.......?'

Des McLean will be performing his solo show Live at the King's 2011 on Thursday 17 March at the King's Theatre. Click here for more show information.

Find out more about Des McLean at www.desmclean.com.

Craig Hill Guest Blog

It's already been quite a busy start to the year! After heading down to Cardiff and Birmingham to perform at The Glee Club (no Sue Sylvester- how disappointing!) I've also done two solo shows on my tour -one at Macrobert Arts Centre in Stirling and another at a particularly mental Dundee Rep gig where a man confessed to having a fetish for his wife dressing as a penguin! I asked where she was tonight and someone shouted 'Edinburgh Zoo!'

I also had a great night in London at the launch of the Glasgow Comedy Festival at the Leicester Square Theatre with a fab line up of comedians who are appearing.

For the first time at the Glasgow Comedy Festival this year I'm doing two nights! How exciting. Last year at Oran Mor loads of lovely Glesga folk couldnae get in so we decided to do another show this year which I'm now thinking I should have entitled 'Oran Mor and more'!

I still talk about last year's show even now, where a wummin from Mull of Kintyre with a home perm shaved at the sides was renamed 'Mullet Kintyre', and the gayest guy on earth worked for a roofing company called 'Ruby Roofing!' - precious! That's the thing about performing my show in Glasgow - the gigs throw up these real gems of characters that I don't think you'd find everywhere else. Glaswegians have real balls and are generally inherently funny and so want to really join in with the show and give you the quality of banter that makes for totally one-off moments that you couldn't plan.

So needless to say I'm wetting myself to go back (in a kilt that could really be disastrous!) So bring yer da, yer maw, yer granny, yer granda and 'Why Don't You Come Down The Front?' See you there guys! X


Craig Hill will be performing his solo show Why Don't You Come Down the Front? at Oran Mor on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 April. Click here for show information.

Find out more about Craig at mrcraighill.com including his blog.

Nick Revell Guest Blog

I was gigging in Glasgow the summer before last; I opened with a little comment about the weather - It was a beautiful weekend; hot, sunny, people walking round in tee shirts and shades; so different from the previous time I’d been there - January, freezing cold, driving rain, arctic winds; people walking round in tee shirts, shades….Not a great joke but a nice one to open with (obvously you don’t get my elegant delivery off the page, so do come and see me at The Stand on March 27th) and it did its job.

Point is though, afterwards, I’m having a quiet pint in a quiet corner of the club, (too much of a grown-up now to seek post-gig attention. Don’t need it. Sad really.) A girl comes up and says - “Very funny set, by the way, but it should be: in the winter, folk had on tee shirts, shades…and a wee scarf.” She has this little gesture to go with ‘wee scarf,’ and then she’s away on the back of my appreciative laughter.

Next night ‘wee scarf’ was in. And the gesture. And it killed. Perfect.

So thank you, whoever you were. Attentive, sharp, generous and poetic. What more could you want from an audience?

That’s why I love Glasgow.


See Nick's festival show Revell Yell on Sunday 27 March 2011 at the Stand Comedy Club. Click here for show information.

Find out more about Nick at www.nickrevell.com.

Zombie Science 1Z Guest Blog

Hello there Zombiology Students,

My name is Doctor Austin, Theoretical Zombiologist and Head of the Zombie Institute for Theoretical Studies (ZITS) at the University of Glasgow.

Many people are unaware that the world’s leading Zombieism research facility is based right here in Scotland’s biggest city. The Institute has existed since the early 19th Century before Glasgow even had a comedy festival. It was a dark time. Imagine being forced to go to Edinburgh to attend a comedy festival,

not pleasant at all.

This year I’m very excited to be taking part in the MGICF with my lecture Zombie Science 1Z. They say that laughter is the best medicine, and although my patients prefer drugs & surgery, a wee joke here and there often helps.

In Zombie Science 1Z we aim to increase awareness of the Zombieism condition, dispel misconceptions about zombies perpetrated by popular culture and inspire the public about biological sciences. There will of course be live science demonstrations. In fact I’ve just finished turning my nephew’s tennis racquet into a crossbow for one of them. He did try to complain, but obviously I had a crossbow.

All the best and don’t let the fear of Zombieism stop you enjoying all the brilliant acts at this year’s festival,

Doctor Austin ZITS MSz BSz DPep

Our research is generously supported by the Wellcome Trust & University of Glasgow - www.zombiescience.co.uk

Doctor Austin will be giving his lecture Zombie Science 1Z at the Queen Margaret Union on Thursday’s 17th, 24th, 31st March and 7th April at 8.00pm. Click here for show information.

Jena Friedman Guest Blog

This week's guest blogger, American comic Jena Friedman, tells us about making her festival debut back in 2010:

The last and only other time I was in Scotland was to visit (I think in Glasgow the term is peg) my ex-insignificant other who was working at a crusty youth hostel in Edinburgh. I backpacked around a bit, stopped by Lock Ness and Stirling (where I saw the Braveheart statue modeled after my sixth favorite* anti-semite Mel Gibson) but never quite made it to Glasgow... until 2010.

Through divine intervention, I landed a spot in the Glasgow International Comedy Festival to wow local lads and lassies with my comedy vomit.

Glaswegians have really dark comedic sensibilities. Prior to the festival, I had never heard an audience laugh at an AIDS joke before I even got the punch line. They also REALLY like to get mutted (which is awesome because alcohol pairs well with comedy). During one show at Maggie Mays, I accidentally repeated a joke onstage - first time ever - because it was my third show of the night and I too was slightly dunted (from all the free cheeky water courtesy of festival organizers). The audience was so supportive of my gaffe that they laughed even louder when they heard it the second time!

During another show at the Stand, a burd fell off her chair, took two glasses down with her and landed on her coupon. I was frichted (thinking she may be deed), while her trippen troopettes and the rest of the audience cheered on before anyone could even measure her pulse. Turns out the swamp donkey was just really charred and apparently Glaswegians are that accustomed to public displays of inebriation to think anything else of it.

* My top five favorite anti-semites, in no particular order, are Roald Dahl, Immanuel Kant, Edgar Degas, T.S Eliot and Mrs. Rochna, my rock sculpture teacher in Chile who gifted me the only slab of marble in her studio to work with because I had tendonitis in my wrists and she had bad Jew-dar.

Jena will be performing at the festival with Elaine Malcolmson on Friday 8 April at the Griffin. Click here for show information.

Find out more about Jena at jenafriedman.com, including her blog.

The Ginge, the Geordie and the Geek Guest Blog

The festival is delighted to present the first guest blog of 2011 from the "three Messiahs of comedy", The Ginge the Geordie and the Geek:

Ginge: Boys, listen up. We’re writing a blog.

Geek: About what?

Ginge: I dunno, our insane lives since, for some reason, we decided to spend every waking hour together for two and a half years in order to get people to laugh at us.

Geordie: When you put it like that it doesn’t seem such a great idea.

Ginge: So we’re gonna write something personal and heart felt, but we’re not gonna mention our show at the Tron theatre on March 27th.

Geek: Yeah that would be a cheap publicity trick!

Geordie: So what do we write?

PAUSE. THEY ALL THINK VERY VERY HARD…

Ginge: I’m just gonna start and see what happens.

Geek: But that’s madness!!!

Ginge: There comes a time in every comedian’s life where they have to step up to the blog.

Geordie: Be careful Ginge. May the comedy God be with you.

Geek: We’ll jump in and help if we can!

Ginge: So… it’s that time of year again folks. I’m writing this blog at 2am traveling back from doing a show in London. We’re in the Geordie’s tiny Daihatsu Charade with 42 props. two large flats, six shots of coffee each and a dream. I can’t wait to get back home though. My maw’ll be waiting with open arms.

Geek: My dad’s waiting for me.

Geordie: I just get a cuddle off a jakey and a swig of his Buckfast.

Ginge: Which is quite a difference from being on the BBC’s Dick and Dom show with Catherine Tate.

Geek: Which, by March, will probably be available to watch on BBC iplayer through a link on our website. Just thought I’d point that out.

Geordie: What a mad twelve months it’s been! Before the Magners Glasgow International Comedy Festival last year we didn’t even have clothes!

Geek: We had to do a photo shoot in just our y-fronts for the poster. Luckily both it and the Edinburgh festival show sold out though and so with money not being an obstacle, we got new ones from Primark for this year.

Ginge: And then we went on the world tour……performing to packed houses in

Preston, Newcastle and Nottingham - supporting Johnny Vegas in Nottingham was very surreal for a number of reasons.

Geek: We got to stay in top hotels.

Ginge: Like the Travelodge next to the red light district.

Geek: We even got to share a bed.

Geordie: I’ve got to admit that wasn’t one of my highlights.

Ginge: And then on to the bright lights of London. Showing the southerners how to have a laugh and shooting our pilot.

Geek: Are we gonna write anything meaningful?

Ginge: I’m not sure we have it in us to be honest. Best stick to the silly stuff.

Geordie: Aye, good idea. I don’t think this blog is gonna win us any awards for literature.

Ginge: So… after all that, it’s great to come back to perform our best of 2009/10 show to our home crowd. Especially at such a great venue like the Tron.

Geordie: Which is handy for me as I only live down the road.

Geek: You don’t live there, you squat in your girlfriend’s flat.

Ginge: And gets nagged 24/7 so he says.

Geordie: It’s the price I pay for following my dream and not paying rent apparently.

Ginge: Anyway, on that note, I’d just like to ask the kind readers to come and see our show to ease the burden on the Geordie’s girlfriend. In fact, you could say that by coming to our show, you’ll actually be helping save his relationship! Now that’s meaningful!!!

Help save the Geordie's relationship with his girlfriend and see The Ginge, the Geordie and the Geek at the Tron Theatre on Sunday 27 March at 8pm. Click here for show information.

You can also find out more at www.gingegeordiegeek.com including the GGG blog.

The festival blog is back!

Thursday 17 March - Sunday 10 April:
400 shows. 51 venues. 25 days.

Today we launched the 2011 Magners Glasgow International Comedy Festival programme, and the festival blog is back to give you a taste of some of the comedy coming your way!

This year we've got stand-up, sketch, film, cabaret, music, theatre, workshops, children’s and (for the first year) opera performances on the programme, from international stars and homegrown talent.

In case March 17 seems too far away, we've invited some of our acts to guest blog for us over the next few weeks to keep us going!

In the meantime, check out the programme at www.glasgowcomedyfestival.com, pick up a copy at one of the 51 festival venues across the city, or it will be included in the Sunday Herald on 30 January.

Tickets are available from the ticketSOUP.com festival hotline on 0844 395 4005 or www.ticketSOUP.com