Midweek Comedy Cabaret, Stand

What can you get for a fiver nowadays?  A comedy show at The Stand is a promising answer to the question.  OK, you're not going to get Kevin Bridges for that money, but you still won't feel short changed.  There's a vibrant comedy scene in Scotland that guarantees any show like this will provide the laughs you're after.

It's a well trodden format.  A compere who engages with the audience, an experienced opening act to get everyone into the mood, a couple of newer comedians between the interval, and a headliner to finish off.  Familiar, but it still works well.  Compere on this occasion was Jojo Sutherland, confident, competent, a safe pair of hands, who got her own surprises at finding most of her front row to be Australian and/or medical practitioners.  She found plenty to milk from the situation and soon had the room engaged.

Next up the motor-mouthed Susan Morrison, firing off about her recent medical travails, her lack of height and how a doctor improved her BMI with just one sentence.  A largely non-Scots audience might have struggled with some of her language and accent, but picked up enough to get the jokes.

After the interval we had Wayne Mazadza, from a little place in Ireland called Zimbabwe.  Slow paced, twinkle eyed, he had some well crafted jokes, and gained extra laughs by exploiting the unexpected presence of another black face in the room.  He was succeeded by Canadian James Hamilton and a slightly confusing set.  A combination of Stewart Francis-like one liners and stories that didn't seem to come to a natural end left the audience not sure what to expect and too many failed punchlines.  There were odd moments of promise, but not enough to keep us with him.  But hey, it's only a fiver, remember?

Value for money was restored by the closing set from the pint sized Christopher Macarthur Boyd.    Having recently moved out from his parents to live with his girlfriend he had plenty of material on this coming of age event, and his realisation that he isn't the adult in his relationship.  A sad orangutan on a cereal packet symbolised his distrust of own brand supermarket products.  Well worth his headliner status, and reminder that's there's no hint of a rip off about Stand shows.  You pays your money and...