One of the Stand's regular shows featuring a local MC and four Scottish comedians doing their stuff. In charge tonight was the wonderful Susan Morrison who gets to know her audience then rips the piss out of them. Unfazed by any comeback, she is the perfect host to get the crowd fired up and laughing. Which immediately made life easier for the four acts she introduced.
First up was Lloyd Griffiths who revealed a surprising professional talent away from his comedy job. Griffiths is a chorister and and gave us a couple of opportunities to hear the power, quality and range of his superb singing voice. It's a job which has given him an ability to reel off facts about English Cathedrals, which he proceeded to demonstrate by responding as the names of cathedral towns were shouted out. Impressive, but not all that funny. But there were enough laughs, even if the humour got a bit boorishly laddish at times. And he certainly made the guy in the front row feel uncomfortable for making an attempt at a joke about Griffiths' less than sylph like figure.
After the break we had Fifer Kate Dillon. This was the weakest set of the evening with laughs few in number and too much of the material focusing on Kate's obsession with her own body image. There were a few good lines about her ex, but this felt like a routine that still needed a lot of work done on it.
John Gillick was a bit of a slow burner. Initially his material felt dated and a throwback to more sexist times, but that gradually melted away and there were some very good stories, especially when he got on to the subject of dogs. His slow delivery lends itself to building up tales bit by bit towards the punchline.
After the second interval Susan brought on the headline act for the night, Mark Nelson. A superb set, and the only one of the four who came close to being as downright hilarious as Morrison. There are some excellently crafted jokes in his routine, but he also showed a great ability to ad lib and improvise, after an audience member took his words a little too seriously. I left regretting missing out on seeing his Fringe show. Maybe next year.
The Stand is open seven nights a week and it's no wonder that they continue to get good crowds when one of their bread and butter shows is of such high quality.
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