Woke taxi drivers, shocking Christmas Market prices, Elvis impersonators and First Ministers, these Scottish comics were brilliant!
A fine selection of talent graced The Beacon Arts Centre as The Scottish Comedians came to give Greenock a hard a time and a good laugh. With four headline acts and a wonderful compere, the audience were treated to a fun evening of some entertaining regional comedy.
Our host Jay Lafferty was no stranger to Greenock having grown up here herself, with much of her humour revolving around the town. Interacting with the audience to get up to date on the nightlife scene, she recalled memories from the notorious nightclub Word Up and how she was once “fingered in there”. Realising she probably shouldn’t discuss such things with her dad in the room watching, she switched gears quickly but the laughter from the audience definitely signalled the crowd were open to some edgier content. My one wish is that we had seen more of Lafferty. Having seen her at the Edinburgh Fringe before and the fact she was easily able to ingratiate herself with her hometown audience made her a perfect contender for a full set of her own but alas, such are the sacrifices of being compere. However, she was also a perfect choice for this as it was easy for her to keep the audience on-side and build momentum for the other acts.
Mark Jennings was first up and wasted no time in roasting Greenock, commenting on drug use and making a savage comment on how people in the town like to heat up spoons. When met with gasps from those watching, he simply exclaimed, “Youse know what you are”, which did illicit laughter once again. His humour about dating and still living at home was all good fun but his best bit revolved around Glasgow taxi drivers and their less than politically correct comments. His desire to meet a woke taxi driver was entertaining and something many would agree with. My personal favourite bit was when he talked about bringing back the young teams as it feels like it was taken straight from my own head. Making the audience picture a bunch of 40 somethings running about in tracksuits being delinquents was an amusing image.
While Gareth Mutch admittedly got off to a slow start, the audience started to warm to him as he got into his stories about marriage and the early days of meeting his wife. His humour was certainly relatable as he discussed the ridiculous prices of Christmas markets and the audacity of paying £34 for a hat there. When mentioning a sweet story of how he bought his wife one such hat when they started dating due to her ears being cold, he mentions how that story would flip now he’s married and how he’d be more likely to chastise her for not bringing one with her. The married couples in the room all seemed to relate to his antics.
Des Mclean really got the audience behind him form the start with stories of disastrous gigs during Covid, both over Zoom and strangely, drive-ins. His tale of cars beeping if they liked his act or staying silent if they didn’t was bizarre and brutal as sadly, no cars pressed their horns. The Greenock audience however were in stitches. While his whole act was great, the standout that had the audience in fits of laughter was his story of an Elvis impersonator being forced to sing Rangers songs in a masonic club. Hearing his own fairly impressive Elvis voice singing the lyrics of “We are the Billy Boys” was so ludicrous it was brilliant.
The final headliner was Fred Macauley, well known for his days on BBC Radio. His wry political commentary was enjoyed by all as he talked about how Baroness Mone’s house is within stone-throwing distance of his own, “and I would know” he stated. The audience lapped it up as comments were made about Scottish First Ministers old and new. The comment about Nicola Sturgeon’s former husband not hearing “Peterhead” for the last time after he enters prison was particularly funny.
Overall, this was a testament to the power of Scottish comedy and its ability to lift people’s spirits. Each headliner was able to make the audience laugh and with stand-up, that’s all you can really ask for.