Heat 2 of the Scottish Comedian of the Year at Capitol in Glasgow will be remembered for many reasons.
1. It was a totally sold
out show.
2. Trying to juggle acts,
because one of those due to do Saturday’s heat had a house warming to go to,
our organiser stupidly got 2 acts to swap with 1 leaving us an act down.
3. We were a second act down because one of the acts got taken in police
custody.
4 Oh and we had a dead heat
for first place.
So where to start?Well this
was the first of a new Thursday night run of Bumper Value Comedy gigs in Capitol
on Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street, the room is absolutely perfect, great lights,
superb sound and a lovely welcoming buffet for the punters – not that any of
them ate any. I think they were scared.
First up was Perth based Derek Miller who has been
performing on and off for 2 years. Derek needs to have the courage of his
material. He trys some topical gags, which with more bravado and a more devil
may care attitude may come off, but his onstage persona leaves a lot to be
desired. He is jittery and apologetic on stage – his material needs no
apologies, it needs confidence, maybe even a little bit of arrogance.
David Gilchrist
was performing only his second gig, the first being he heat for SYTYF. In utter
contrast to Derek his act belies his lack of experience. Comfortable on stage he
seems to relish the attention. At one point he completely corpses, but he keeps
the audience on side by acknowledging what is going on and coyly seeking their
reassurance whilst he tried to remember where he was going – thankfully he did
and it was worth the wait.
Another with less than 2 months experience, 36 year old Govanite Sean
Grant raised the bar. His slow deliberate delivery coaxed the audience
towards his punch lines, which were almost always novel in their approach.
Sean’s take on how to improve our country’s morals and win the Iraq war should be relayed to Gordon Brown
immediately. Failing that, National Theatre of Scotland should ask him to write
a follow up to The Black Watch.Needless
to say the crowd loved him.
Another that the crowd loved was Youtube phenomenon and one of last
year’s finalists The Wee Man. It was obvious that he was the most experienced
act of the night. Although crippled following a bad fall a month ago, he is
defininately match fit in terms of his comedy. Over the past 3 weeks at the
Fringe he has polished his routine, there is no padding just total comedy gold
– if character acts and Ned bashing are your thing.
Drumchapel wide boy Rob Kane won his way through to this years
Amused Moose Laugh Off Final. Rob has something. That something is machismo and
bravado with a hint of bullshit. Rob is the kinda guy you’d love to go on the
lash with after the rugby, so long as you had more alcohol than him. His comedy
is very blunt and laddish – he’s a very likeable, enthusiastic, comedy
karaoke showman. He should use that enthusiasm to write less hack material with
more punchlines. Where as the last act of the evening, Jamie Heaney,
should just write material.
Hairdresser Jamie, 47, gave us well told pub joke after pub joke. They
were pub jokes and they were very well told, but they were as old as he is.
It was a very busy with a very partisan crowd. Obvious favourites emerged
but it was almost impossible to separate 4 of the acts from each other with the
1st choice votes . In the end it was between Sean Grant and the Wee
Man as to who would get the coveted spot in the final. At first it looked like The
Wee Man but Sean Grant kept getting the votes, resulting in a dead
heat and both going through to the final
Please
note: Most comedians are lazy incompetent sods, who can't read a train
timetable, or would pay 30 pieces of silver to appear on a pilot for a radio
panel show. Thus all line ups are subject to change.
Please check with the venue 24hrs prior
to the show for confirmation of line ups.
