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What the Papers said
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http://www.chortle.co.uk/shows/misc_live_shows/s/16808/scottish_comedian_of_the_year_final_2008/review/
Alan Anderson, the promoter behind the Scottish
Comedian Of The Year, is keen to stress that his competition is not just
open to new acts. Theoretically Frankie Boyle or Billy Connolly could
rock up to the back room of a Helensburgh pub to try to win their place
in the final.
While that’s never going to happen, it means a
playing field that’s about as level as the Cresta Run – with
stand-ups who’ve been around for a decade pitted against those with
just a fistful of gigs to their name. The flip side is that the final
attracts the crowds. With around 750 eager punters rammed into
Glagsow’s Old Fruitmarket, this is probably the best-attended
competition final in comedy, making it a daunting gig for those nervous
newbies.
First up was The Wee Man, returning to the final
for a third year with his squawking caricature of a Glaswegian ned,
complete in ‘Fuck Yeez’ T-shirt and obligatory Burberry cap. In the
interests of disclosure, I should mention that at last year’s event he
directed much of his set at me, bitterly berating his unflattering
Chortle review inches from my face… so there was some measure of
apprehension before he took to the stage.
This time around we did get to see a more
generally usable set, even if the results were still hit and miss. He
takes some very easy pot-shots at the Americans and the English, and
leans heavily on aggression and swearing to provoke a reaction. The
character, too, is one-dimensional, with little apart from his accent to
set him aside from several similar archetypes on the circuit.
But there are glimpses that he could be better
than this, such as a nice gag about the poverty line being draw around
his house and an entertaining bit of business about the difference
between a golfer and a threat to national security being down to nothing
more than the angle of your baseball cap. Just when I thought I was off
the hook, The Wee Man scuttled over to the judges’ table again and….
well, let’s just say his kissing is as sloppy as his dress sense.
Graham Mackie certainly cuts a distinctive figure
on stage, which he acknowledges with an endearing icebreaker about
resembling an off-duty Santa. It’s typical of the hugely likeable
style that pervades his relaxed set. A few self-deprecatory fatty gags
reinforce that impression, as does his instinctive way of interacting
with the audience, just enough to make this feel like a dialogue.
It’s most likely a technique he learnt at
school, for by day he is a woodwork teacher in Govan, and he has a few
entertaining tales about pupils playing hooky and forging notes from
their parents to show for it. But he’s also got rather too many old,
unoriginal jokes to fully capitalise on his charming affability.
Young Aberdonian Andy Learmouth, too, has a
strong, confident presence undermined by patchy material. After a few
trite openers, he got quickly launched into more assured material
remembering a teenage crush, when he was 50 per cent incurable romantic,
50 per cent incurable pervert. A couple of strong lines follow on the
Scottish in London, but he runs out of steam – and gags – and
ends with a whimper, not with a bang. Shame, as he has some promise.
Although still in his twenties, Teddy’s been on
the Scottish scene, on and off, for a decade, which explains his ease on
stage. He still looks wide-eyed and naïve, but don’t let that fool
you – behind the slightly daffy smile is some viciously
hard-edged material. He’s a strong gag writer, and even when tackling
subjects as seemingly tired as Heather Mills, he can find a new angle
that’s not dependent on the obvious.
The material – aptly enough, given the night –
is heavily Scottish skewed, but with an appeal that would travel south
of the border, if he chose to. Controversial Socialist Tommy Sheridan is
the butt of a particularly fine routine, and the entire city of Glasgow
gets an affectionate pasting, too.
His often sick material won’t be to everyone’s
taste, but he doesn’t care, and skilfully rides the audience’s
apparent disgust at some of the darker lines, ordering them to just
‘toughen up’ and live with it. Such confidence, backed with
pin-sharp lines, earned him second place in the final reckoning.
Scott Agnew, the unabashed ‘big poof’, was an
audience favourite even before he’d uttered word one. And when he did
get going, he cemented that tide of goodwill with an enthusiastic
performance sweeping away any pockets of audience reticence. Like Teddy,
some of his material drew shrieks of outrage, and he too, just batted it
away, taking any squeamish reaction in his sizeable stride.
When it comes to comedy, he has got a one-track
mind… it’s all about his sexuality and people’s reactions to it
– especially in the sectarian quarters of Glasgow, which gives his
content an extra edge. He’s no mincing queen, nor does he mince his
words, making for a bold, brash, barnstorming performance in which
he’ll describe in hilariously graphic detail the logistical challenges
of a gay threesome rather bitch camply about some showbiz figure. Such a
powerhouse set rightly earned him the Scottish Comedian Of 2008 title.
Twenty-year-old newbie Jeff Brighton was floored
by his own inexperience. There’s a couple of nascent good ideas in his
set, but he just looked so out of his depth in such a big room. He
starts off with a weak bit of toilet humour, immediately striking the
wrong note, and much of his subsequent material is jumbled and
unfocussed, limply hitting familiar ground about incest in small
communities and poor-quality supermarket clothes.
As if to illustrate that chunk of material, he
wears an ill-fitting lumberjack shirt on stage; but he wears his own
personality just as uncomfortably, which doesn’t instil confidence.
That said, there are a few crafty touches to his presentation, such as
the impression of his mother or an ‘Irish’ waitress he encountered,
that does show a knack for out-of-the-box thinking. A couple or three
years on the circuit might yet see him right.
Iain Stirling is another rookie 20-year-old with a
bad choice of opener, doing some gags about his long hair… that he
unfortunately no longer has, making the comments reduntant. But once he
moved on to the meat of the set, things looked up, with enjoyable
descriptions of the horrors of the Megabus and of being brought up in a
caravan, as told through his clearly fabricated teenage diary.
He’s got an innate sense of timing, with perfect
pace and phrasing to enliven the routine, but ten minutes seemed
something of a stretch, as he wound up with some tired material about
Gillian McKeith, whose pooh inspections make her the easiest of targets.
She might deserve every bit of flak she gets, but he needs to find a way
of doing it with more flair.
Carly Baker, the only female finalist, was born
and raised in Missouri but has lived in Scotland long enough to qualify
tonight. She’s a solid, but unspectacular act, fitting the stereotype
of the slick and confident American – but with no stand-out lines to
remember.
There’s some obvious stuff about the
transatlantic translation of the word ‘fanny’, a bit of banter about
her divorce and lots, and lots of sex talk. Comparisons with if.comedy
best newcomer Sarah Millican, who covers similar ground, are almost
inevitable, but Baker comes off by far the worst, as she has little of
Milligan’s idiosyncratic guile or charm. Baker’s not bad, and passes
the time amiably enough, but she’s just not brilliant either.
Keir McAllister started with similarly
undistinctive fare: talking about ginger people and mining national
stereotypes about the arrogant English and the relentless upbeat
Australians, seguewaying into some Steve Irwin comments that are so old
hat it’s almost nostalgic to hear them again. But he’s got an
appealing delivery, so the audience stick with him.
And it pays off, as the second half of his set is
in a different league from the first, the turning point coming with an
observation or two about the William Wallace memorial. After this, the
fire in his belly ignites, and he becomes violently vicious about Lady
Thatcher, to the obvious delight of the audience. They’re less pleased
with his sick jokes about Jordan’s son, but McAllister again uses the
outrage to his advantage. He came third on the night, and if he could
have been judged on the second half of his set alone, could possibly
have done better still – though Teddy and Agnew would always have
provided stiff competition.
Lastly, another newcomer, Rab Brown – a name
you’re sure to hear more of. He is a talented writer, producing
wonderfully descriptive prose to channel his disgust at the garish
hen-night ‘slags’ who infest every city centre, every weekend. The
strike rate’s high, he has a well-defined grumpy-young-man point of
view and his delivery assured for someone so relatively inexperienced.
He only lets himself down at the end of the set with a cheap bit of
comedy erotic dancing, jiggling his sizeable frame to Kelis’s
Milkshake. Such easy laughs are beneath someone who can write as well as
this.
He won the Wee Scoty award for the best newcomer.
A bit of tidying up, and he could easily be in with a shot at one of the
main positions next year. As long as Frankie Boyle and Billy Connolly
don’t enter, of course.
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
September 29, 2008
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http://news.scotsman.com/arts?articleid=4539667
Published Date: 27 September 2008
By BRIAN DONALDSON
COMEDY
SCOTTISH COMEDIAN OF THE YEAR
OLD FRUITMARKET, GLASGOW
WHO'D be a judge at an event such as the Scottish Comedian of the Year?
Last September, the beaks seemed to get their voting papers in a right old
fankle when the top three was announced, inexplicably allowing some fine
stand-ups to shuffle backstage in the also-rans corner. This year, they
steered far away from controversy island by plumping for Scott Agnew,
Teddy and Keir McAllister, a trio patently head, shoulders, knees and toes
above the rest.
The only question was who would scoop the top prize of £1,000, gigs at
the Glasgow International Comedy Festival and in Australia and the
wonderfully crafted banana boots trophy? When a clearly crestfallen Keir
McAllister took to the stage in receipt of his third prize, the yells of
"winner" from a portion of the crowd may have helped him dry his
eyes in the liquor-sodden aftermath.
The permanently rosy-cheeked Teddy appeared more accepting of his
second-placed fate as the massive (as in tall and soon to be very famous)
Scott Agnew made up for last year's disappointment with this proud
victory.
With Teddy asking his audience to "toughen up" as he applied for
the post of Official Comedian of the Taliban, Agnew discussing being a gay
Catholic performing to a crowd of Orangemen while exposing the
impracticality of threesomes, and McAllister launching an increasingly
hysterical tirade against the proposed state funeral for Thatcher, there
was very little to split three comics with mighty stage presence and
impressively high punchline ratios. Special mention should also be made of
the hottest newcomers among the ten: Rab Brown with the most surreal set,
and Ian Stirling created a hilariously grotesque tableau of caravan life.
Host Janey Godley just about managed to staple proceedings together, no
thanks to an awkward-squatter in the front row, while 2006 winner Mark
Nelson provided a snapshot of the spectacularly gruesome wit that
deservedly earned him that inaugural gong. Whether you approve of this
bear-pit making and breaking of comedy dreams, no-one can deny the sense
of excitement and occasion that this annual event now generates. And on
the back of last year's litany of injustice, only the foolhardy would
argue that the judges got themselves into another fine mess.
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http://www.list.co.uk/article/12926-scottish-comedian-of-the-year/
The List (Issue
613)
18 September 2008
Jay
Richardson
STAND-UP COMPETITION
Approaching its third anniversary, the Scottish
Comedian of the Year final looms ever more influentially in the stand-up
calendar. Inspired by Manchester’s City Life contest – won by the
likes of Peter Kay, Chris Addison and Caroline Aherne early in their
careers – the SCotY is open to all-comers, with eight regional heats and
a semi-final dictating the ten hopefuls competing at the Old Fruitmarket.
Despite the winner pocketing £1000 and the chance to gig in Australia,
arguably the most important prize is the opportunity to deliver an
hour’s show at the Glasgow Comedy Festival in March, an incentive that
boosted previous winners Mark Nelson and Sean Grant to greatly enhance
their material, the latter performing a 30-minute set at the Edinburgh
Fringe barely a year after commencing stand-up.
Both finals to date have courted controversy and
critics cite the Scottish Comedian of the Year title as unreflective of
the many established acts who don’t enter. But you have to be in it to
win it, and as the contest’s reputation has grown, so has the quality of
the entrants, with seven of last year’s beaten finalists returning for
another crack in 2008. Among this year’s judging panel are Sanjeev Kohli
and Jane McCarry, better known as Naveed and Isa from Still Game, the
irrepressible comedian Stu Who?, Alan Tyler, head of comedy and
entertainment at BBC Scotland, and Steve Bennett from comedy website
Chortle. One final place in the final remains for the winner of the Grand
Gong Show at Maggie Mays in Glasgow on Thu 25 Sep.
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http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/features/Serious-competition.4534210.jp
Serious competition
Published Date: 27 September 2008
By BRIAN DONALDSON
IT APPEARS THAT THESE DAYS YOU can't turn on your
telly without seeing some celebrities slipping on the ice or messing up
at the Proms in order to get a prize.
Despite the sense that it's difficult to compare like
with like, stand-up comedy is not short of tournaments. While many have
fallen by the wayside (The BBC New Comedy Award, Daily Telegraph Open
Mic and Dubble Act Award for three), some regionals are going strong
(the north-west of England and Leicester both hail their comics of the
year), Funny Women is fairly self-explanatory; though the rather more
confused Richard Pryor Award gave up the ghost after one ceremony.
Meanwhile, the daddy of them all, the Perrier, morphed into if.comedy
three years ago. The cult of the competition is truly upon us.
Yet, a gap was spotted in the market by Alan Anderson, a Scottish comic
who started promoting gigs while studying in Manchester. "I saw
comedians like Alan Carr, Jason Manford and Justin Moorhouse grow up
through the City Life Comedian of the Year competition and saw what it
did for their careers," he recalls. "So when I returned to
Scotland I wondered why there was nothing like that here."
Through Ha Ha Comedy, his company which has produced and promoted
stand-up in Scotland since 1998, Anderson finally realised his ambition
to get a Scottish Comedian of the Year tourney up and running in 2006.
"I felt it was important to celebrate Scottish comedic talent.
Every August we welcome the world's comedians into the country yet much
of the time, audiences don't have a clue who they are but they see
'winner of such and such' and they go to those shows. We don't shout
enough about how good our own talent is."
Anderson felt that someone needed to redress the balance and start
recognising the nation's best cultural export. "What I'd noticed
was that Scottish comedians were taking part in all these UK-wide
competitions, but as soon as they got to the latter stages, the London
audiences didn't get the cultural references and the judges thought they
were being too parochial. These were people making a fantastic living in
Scotland but falling down at the last hurdle."
After a series of regional heats in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock and
Helensburgh, Mark Nelson was crowned the inaugural champ. His prize was
glory, some cash and a gig at the 2007 Glasgow Comedy Festival. "I
know some people think it'll be a disaster if they don't win, but for me
it was just a bonus." Nelson's concerns only crept in once his CV
bulged with the words "Scottish Comedian of the Year".
"The title is a bit misleading and I got more worried about having
this title than thinking 'this is suddenly me set on the road'. I think
I became better known through word of mouth and I eventually got to
support Andrew Maxwell at the Glasgow Comedy Festival."
Doubts over the title is merely one of the elements that bugs the
competition's highest profile critic, Tommy Sheppard, head honcho at The
Stand. "I think it's wrong for people to set something up as the
'Scottish anything' unless there's a demonstrable case to be made that
it represents the world as it applies to their particular discipline. If
it was the Ha Ha Comedian of the Year or Alan Anderson's Comedian of the
Year, fine, not a problem, but to call it the Scottish Comedian of the
Year is a misnomer and does a disservice to all the people who aren't
entering. It's entirely self-selecting, a competition of those who
choose to enter it which is a small proportion of the people plying the
trade of comedy in Scotland."
Anderson shrugs off Sheppard's criticisms. "I think the success of
the competition speaks for itself; it's something that the comedians and
audience and the industry feel is a good thing. Why is it that we cannot
celebrate and give awards to comedians that are out there?"
But is the title misleading? Would some people not hear it and imagine
that Frankie Boyle or Jerry Sadowitz have been on stage slugging it out
for that crown? Anderson has no qualms about the name. "It was
never for year one or year two; the title is for a competition that I
see will run for decades. As the competition grows it will grow into the
title. It's open to all so if Frankie Boyle or Billy Connolly wanted to
enter they would be welcome."
For Sheppard, the way to develop the next era of Scottish comedic talent
is not through the tense and divisive nature of a competition where acts
are judged on a performance lasting up to ten minutes but through
nurturing stand-ups at Red Raw, The Stand's weekly showcase for fresh
talent in both Edinburgh and Glasgow. "It offers ten spots for
newcomers every week. The Scottish Comedian of the Year suggests to a
young kid that this is a potential big break to stardom as though it's
The X Factor. But it doesn't work that way because your eight-minute
spot you practise for a competition is not a good apprenticeship. Making
the leap from that to 20 minutes is the hardest thing in the
world."
Still, come tomorrow night, the ten finalists (including circuit comics
such as Teddy, Scott Agnew and Keir McAllister) who will be aiming to
succeed last year's victor Sean Grant will probably care little for
long-term development and will be focused on simply giving it their best
shot. Whether anyone will leave thinking they've seen the next Big Yin
is another matter.
• Scottish Comedian of the Year, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, tomorrow.
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http://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/43951-haha-comedy-crowns-scottish-comedian-of-2008
'Haha Comedy' Crowns Scottish Comedian of 2008
Written by:
Lizzie Cass-Maran
Published: Mon 29 Sep 2008
Scotland's latest comedy hopeful wins the chance to
perform in Australia
The comedy community breathed a sigh a relief last
night as comic Scott Agnew scooped the top prize in HaHa Comedy’s
Scottish Comedian of the Year 2008, following last year’s controversy
over accusations of injustice and bias amongst the judges.
It was a tough call for this year’s judging panel; a larger group than
last year, comprising some of the UK’s leading comedy performers,
promoters and journalists. Whilst there was no doubt as to the top three
acts, deciding a winner was a hard task, as there was a hair’s breadth
between Agnew, second place winner Teddy and third-runner Keir
McAllister.
Agnew wins £1,000 in hard cash, his own show at
the Glasgow Comedy Festival and a trip to Australia, with the vague
though hopeful promise of "an opportunity to perform"’
there. Cash prizes were also won by Teddy, McAllister, and new act Rab
Brown who won the inaugural ‘Wee SCOTY’ award which is reserved for
acts performing less than two years.
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http://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/43828-haha-comedys-scottish-comedian-of-the-year
Written by:
Lizzie Cass-Maran
Published: Sun 21 Sep 2008
Ha Ha Comedy presents its competition final at
Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket, amid continuing controversy over it’s
legitimacy.
The Scottish Comedian of the Year contest is with
us once more. This annual competition is open to everyone from Joe Open
Spot to Billy Connolly; the only criteria is that you must come from, or
base yourself in, Scotland. Winners have been chosen from audience votes
at heats across the country, and finalists will perform in front of a
panel of judges at the grand final at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow on
28 September. It is rapidly becoming one of the key dates in the year of
Scottish Comedy. Last year's final has even been nominated for Best
Traditional Event in the Scottish Event Awards.
The success of the competition is certainly a
major coup for promoter HaHa Comedy, but let’s hope that no publicity
is bad publicity. Last year’s final, whilst being hailed by Chortle
as a "genuinely prestigious affair... with a genuine sense of
occasion", had it’s ‘genuineness’ questioned by many members
of the comedy community. The event even prompted the management company
behind The Stand to release a press statement reiterating their
condemnation of comedy contests in general and of SCOTY in particular,
claiming that “it would be wrong to allow this masquerade to dupe
those not in the know into thinking this contest had some universal
acclaim or acknowledgement”.
What does give HaHa Comedy the right to style this
event, which is ostensibly a PR and money-making exercise for the
company, ‘Scottish Comedian of the Year’? There have certainly been
some big names involved with the contest – Fringe regular and
critically acclaimed Janey Godley, Stu Who, a veteran and well-loved
Scottish comic with a myriad of TV and radio credits under his belt, and
Des Clarke, one time presenter of SM:TV Live. These contestants would
certainly make the contest worthy of its name. The thing is, these
aren’t contestants. These are the judges and comperes. Acts who have
passed the stage in their careers where they need to enter competitions
in an attempt to gain credibility or respect.
Previous SCOTY winners Mark Nelson (2006) and Sean
Grant (2007) may be hardly a blip on the radar in comparison to Scottish
comedy’s real 'big names', but they have undeniably been offered
amazing performance and development opportunities as part of their
prize. First prize this year includes £1,000 in cash, flights to and
performances in Australia, and the winner’s own show at the Glasgow
Comedy Festival. This fortunately does attract some major talent to the
contest, many keen merely for the chance to perform at the Old
Fruitmarket. With some indisputable and hard-earned talent in old pros
such as Keir McAllister, Scott Agnew and Teddy on the bill for this
year’s final (alongside more obscure and questionable acts), there’s
no denying it will be a night to remember. May the best act win.
But if they don’t, keep an eye out for those who
didn’t. Those who may not be willing to sacrifice their originality to
appeal to the lowest common denominator. Those with, in all probability,
a solid future in Scottish comedy.
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http://www.ayrshirepost.net/entertainment-ayrshire/entertainment-news/2008/09/12/girvan-comedian-laughing-to-success-102545-21714430/
Girvan comedian laughing to success
Sep
12 2008
HAVE you heard the one about the young Girvan
comedian who went to Kilmarnock for a laugh?
Well, he got loads of laughs, and ended up winning
the latest heat of Scottish Comedian of the Year.Jeff Brighton, 20, was
clear winner from six stand-ups in the café bar at the Palace
Theatre.Instantly-likeable Jeff fumbled onto the stage, and muttered to
the audience about where he should put his glass of water and mic
stand.He shared stories about his nerves and lack of bowel control,
before launching into a routine about the trials of coming from Girvan,
shopping in Asda, and trying to woo unattractive Polish women.Jeff also
did a rather unflattering impersonation of his mum, Ellen, before
pointing her out to everyone, seated in the third row!
A reviewer for Scottish Comedian of the Year said:
“Jeff could be compared to a young Peter Kay.“But he has developed a
style of deconstructing his material much like the late great Chic
Murray.“The audience adored him, and towards the end you could see
that Jeff was really enjoying himself as he realised he couldn’t put a
foot wrong.”Not bad for a young man who was doing only his seventh
stand-up performance.Jeff said: “I went to Edinburgh to enter the So
You Think You’re Funny competition at the fringe.“And I reached the
semi-final stage there.”The experience boosted Jeff’s confidence
ahead of the latest competition. And he came out on top against more
experienced opposition: a Liverpudlian, a Canadian, two Scots men, and
one Scots female, who had perhaps the crudest act of the evening.
But Jeff isn’t going down the road of blatant
crudity.He said: “I prefer a kind of innocent brand of humour, quite a
lot of it based on life in small-town Girvan. But I hope it’s done
with affection, and I don’t think Girvan people would take
offence.”Jeff has been writing his own material for about a year. And
this clearly prepared him well for his stand-up debut in June this year.
As well as life in Girvan, he has drawn on his
experiences as a waiter and caddie at Turnberry Hotel.Jeff also has a
radio show on local station Girvan FM, and is about to take a degree
course in broadcasting at Paisley University.He admitted: “I do feel a
bit sick before going out on stage, but once I’m there I love it.
It’s what I really want to do, and I’ll give it my best shot.”
Modest Jeff says he doesn’t expect to win the
Scottish Comedian of the Year title.“I’ll be happy to go down well
and get noticed in the final.”
The final takes place on Sunday, September 28, in
Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket.
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http://www.kilmarnockstandard.co.uk/entertainment-kilmarnock/entertainment-news/2008/09/05/homecoming-gig-for-kilmarnock-comedienne-81430-21661126/
Homecoming gig for Kilmarnock
comedienne
Sep
5 2008 by Stef Lach, Kilmarnock Standard
FUNNY girl Kim Griffin is psyching
herself up for a hometown gig that she hopes will earn her a place in
the final of a prestigious comedy competition. Kim, 20, will be
performing in the Kilmarnock heat of the Scottish Comedian of the Year
show tomorrow night (Friday, September 5) at the Palace Theatre.
The Killie lass is the only girl
the bill, but that won’t put her off in the slightest. The stand-up
comedienne said: “Last year I entered when I was just starting out in
comedy so this time I’ll be a bit more prepared for it. “It’s
always great playing a gig in your hometown but it will definitely be
nerve-wracking.
“The Scottish Comedian of the
Year gigs are always great fun and well organised.” The former
Standard columnist is up against other local acts Jeff Brighton, Roddy
Fraser, Wade Mcelwain, James McInally, Andy Vaughan and the Wee Man.
The overall winner goes straight
into the Glasgow final at the end of September while the runner-up
advances to the semi-final.
The show starts at 8pm and
tickets, which cost £7 and £8, are still available. Call the box
office on 01563 554900.
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