Amy Hoff: Good Omens

I established Cult Classic Theatre three years ago, and since then the company has brought the unique and unusual to the Glasgow stage.
 
I was thrilled and honoured to acquire the permission to write a stage adaptation of the Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman novel Good Omens.  We started rehearsals last fall and, with only a short time left to go, a wonderfully dedicated cast, and the tech magicians that will help us to bring this apocalyptic comedy to life, we are looking forward to opening night. 

We rehearse twice a week in an office space decorated with photographs of our heroes, including Oscar Wilde, David Bowie, and Junsu.  

As a cast and crew we are very tight-knit, working hard to ensure a spectacular production as well as enjoying our time together.  The cultural diversity of our cast - hailing from Glasgow, the United States, Sweden, Bulgaria, and several locations throughout Britain - showcases the potential of Glasgow and the talent that is available in this city.  

Cult Classic Theatre is proud to be a part of the Glasgow International Comedy Festival and also proud to be a part of Glasgow itself.

Amy Hoff

Ray Bradshaw – I Dare Ray To

Like many other comics coming to perform in the Glasgow Comedy Festival, I am very much looking forward to it. Some will say they love the city and its audiences, others say it gives them a chance to run through material before the fringe. Me, I’ll just be happy as it means I’m still alive.

Between the time I write this (14^th of January if you must know. I’m trying to get it done quickly so I can go and watch diagnosis murder in peace) and the festival. I will have undertaken numerous dares set to me by the general public for my show.

I will be more than halfway through my marathon training, I’ll be psyching myself up for the Pamplona Bullrun, and I’ll have hugged an ostrich. Hell I might even have kissed John Prescott on the cheek by then.

So for me the Glasgow Comedy Festival is not only when I get to do my first ever solo show in my home city, but maybe also the last time I see my friends and family before my inevitable demise.

If you want to dare me and watch me suffer go to www.idarerayto.com and come to Blackfriars on the 24^th of March to see my show. 

Bring flumps.

Anna Morris - GLASGOW: THE PERFECT AUDIENCE

The last time I visited Glasgow was 2004, when I was casting kids for a TV gameshow called Scary Sleepover. We were looking for brave, chatty and funny kids and there were no shortage of these in the city. Eight years later, these kids are now old enough to see my show, which makes me realise that a) I am older b) if my audience are like the people I met the first time round, I’ll be just fine...

My show is more about the audience, than me. Each of my characters require their help to achieve something. If the audience aren’t up for it, are half asleep and shy then it simply! doesn’t work. I designed a fun, interactive show which keeps you on your toes and means you become part of the character’s world.

So I’m pretty sure that Glasgow might just give me the best audience yet. In the Edinburgh Festival last year, any Glaswegians in my audience were usually the first people to join in, holler, smile and help the characters. I also met a group of Glaswegian women on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile who were on a hen night, drinking cocktails out of pink plastic water bottles complete with twirly straws. I was so impressed by their booze planning I invited them to the show, where they provided more entertainment than me!

Richard Peppiatt: One Rogue Reporter Guest Blog

Scotland. A lovelessly prepared fry-up in a Tesco superstore café on a Tuesday morning on the outskirts of Blackburn, West Lothian. It’s the sh*tter of the Blackburn’s, which is saying something. It’s also the hometown of Scottish national treasure Susan Boyle, which is why I was there, in Tesco, dressed in a rented kilt (replete with long socks and sporran) slumped opposite a teetotal, vegan photographer who weighs about 25 stone. Which is saying something. Not sure what, mind.

In my sporran was a ring, in the car outside in parking zone who gives  a f*ck it’s in no way tangential to the story are a bunch of increasingly forlorn roses. They cost more than the ring. My task was, on bendeth knee, to give said ring, roses, and, in keeping with theological convention, my heart and soul to Susan Boyle. Not because I wanted to, of course. It was in the name of journalism. I was attempting to exploit the saleable characteristics (learning difficulties, virginity) of a vulnerable woman for profit. Like I said, journalism.

And so it was I found myself bursting into Aberdeen church mid-Mass after being informed that Susan was due to be singing in the choir. She wasn't. Nor was she staying with a cousin in one of your delightful Glasgow tower blocks. “Hi. Don’t Susan Boyle’s in there?” I ventured to the heaving figure filling the doorframe, gripping a Special Brew, glaring past the teardrops tattooed beneath both her eyes. 

I prodded my black pudding into a puddle of bean juice and adjusted my kilt. Today I was to search Blackburn. Best get it over with.

For info and tickets to Richard's show, see here

Lee Camp Guest Blog

I love performing in Glasgow. I really do. I've always said that comedy is not meant for places with endless sunshine and palm trees and girls in bikinis and miniature dogs with sunglasses on. Comedy is meant for the gritty, rainy, REAL places in this world. And that's exactly what Glasgow is. If you see someone playing Frisbee on the beach, they are not funny, sarcastic or satirical. They are tanned. But if you see someone drinking a pint and mumbling curse words under their breath, they are probably funny as sh*t.

We live in a screwed up world, and my way of dealing with it is to make fun of it. Rough, real cities filled with people who wouldn't know a tan if it slapped them in the face: that’s my kind of place. I live in New York City - a great city for comedy. I do not live in Los Angeles - a great city for drinks with fruit in them. Glasgow is a great city for comedy too. And as far as I can tell, if you put fruit in a Glaswegian's drink, you'll leave with a broken nose. 

Anyway, hope to see you at my solo show where I'll take on this clusterf*ck we're in the middle of. Don't bring your Frisbee. 

Lee Camp IS Yet Another American Mistake is at Blackfriars on Friday 30 March

The Geek (from The Ginge, The Geordie & The Geek) Guest Blog

I’m on the train again! Travelling down to London and have a spare 5 hours so I have decided to write a wee blog for the Glasgow International Comedy Festival. This is our 3^rd year at the festival! And we love it!

It’s been an amazing year for us, we have performed with Michael McIntyre, Jimmy Carr, James Corden, appeared on Dick and Dom with Catherine Tate and also sold over 7000 tickets at the Edinburgh Fringe. But I suppose the highlight is the BBC have commissioned us for a half hour comedy pilot… you see your TV licence does go to good use (we promise not to waste it). 

We are currently filming it just now, which is amazing but means I have travelled up and down to Glasgow seven times in the last four weeks; I’m starting to know the train staff by name now. Trevor is my favourite ticket collector, when he is checking tickets he just says to me ‘You all right big man?’ Everyone on the carriage looks at me and I feel special.

Anyhows we are doing our 2011 Edinburgh sell out show this year with one or two sneak previews of our 2012 Edinburgh show, which due to popular demand or insanity, we are performing twice a day this August! (God help us, god help us all!)

Right I’m off to see Sandra, she works in the train canteen and always gives me a wee free bar of chocolate. I don’t have the heart to tell her I don’t eat chocolate, but I give them to the Geordie when I see him! He loves his sweets, every year those pants are getting tighter!  

The Ginge, The Geordie & The Geek perform at the Tron Theatre on Tuesday 27 March