The second Thursday of this term saw Jim’s Bar host New Comedy, and I trundled along with anticipation for a slightly reworked comedy night.
Ray Bradshaw was back, compere for the packed bar. He was up to his usual tricks of ‘making someone into a hero, and someone into a dick’, as well as squeezing in a few tales of his flatmate from uni. After a quick survey of the crowd, the first act was unleashed.
I was pleasantly surprised here; seeing the comedians waiting at the side of the stage, I thought I was going to be listening to poorly formed ideas being delivered by a quivering wreck. However, Scott Laird did not disappoint. In fact, he was the beginning of a brilliant evening for me. Not very old himself, he chatted about school and issues from growing up which everyone seemed to relate to. Dan Petherbridge up next took us further back into our younger years, analysing problems with nursery rhymes, before eerily staring out a woman in the audience with nice hair.
Following a brief interval, we were introduced to David Bratchpiece. Again, topical humour from him, chatting about the Commonwealth games of 2014, however discussion of drug use was met at times by a rather reluctant crowd. Sometimes crude, he still generated quite a laugh whilst exploring the entire stage of Jim’s. My personal favourite act of the evening was Matthew Winning – masterfully returning to a joke about Robert Mugabe throughout his act, culminating in a ‘reading’ from Mugabe’s personal diary, complete with accent (and glasses). I was in stitches, along with the rest of the bar.
Ray took a chance to chat more with the audience, and make sure everyone was ready for Scottish Comedian of the Year 2011, Jamie Dalgleish. He looked comfortable on stage, telling us about growing up in Glasgow. His material was strong, although it didn’t do much for me.
Overall, the night left me with a smile. In fact, more of a big cheesy grin. For a single pound, I had enjoyed three hours of quality comedy. Thankfully I won’t have to wait long until I laugh that hard again – Jim’s Bar will be hosting the Glasgow heat of the 2012 Chortle Students Comedy Awards on February 16th. I cannot wait.
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