Raymond Mearns Comedian & Actor Official Website

Reviews

The Best Of Scottish Comedy

Venue: The Stand Comedy Club 1
Address: 5 York Place, Edinburgh

Reviewer: Patrick Evans

There have been evenings over the past decade or so when the idea of a "best of" night featuring a lucky dip of contemporary Scottish comedy talent would have been the best gag on offer that evening.

It wasn't that Scotland wasn't producing brilliant comedians only that there weren't that many. No longer. The increase of all year round comedy clubs in the major cities has produced an environment in which Scottish talent no longer has to leave for London in order to hone its skills and ply its trade.

For this The Stand, Scotland's top comedy club with venues in Glasgow and Edinburgh, must take the lion's share of the credit for what has been a renaissance of mirth. And it shone through on stage. Jane Mackay, one of the best of the generation that have grown in stature with The Stand, compered the evening with sure Sahara dry dead pan and a control of her audience with that style I haven't seen since the early days of Jack Dee.

Next up was Parkheid's legal eagle, Raymond Mearns, who proceeded to send down more gags per minute than a Glasgow circuit judge. Raymond Mearns is in the process of developing a top class act and is now well worth catching.

Bruce Morton topped an evening of real five star stand-up. Morty's tales of England's white wine suburban hinterland are crafted with the same eye for surreal detail as the best of his Dennistoun routines and his flights of imagination still soar to the heights of hilarity.

The line-up for these shows changes every night but in the hands of its superb regular host Susan Morrisson and promising visits from Fred MacAulay and Parrot among others whatever night you choose to come down and enjoy a pint in front of The Stand's pick of who's Scottish and chuckling you can rest assured you will be in for a treat.

© Patrick Evans 11 Aug 2002

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