100 Greatest Stand Ups
Watching this on Channel 4 just now and it's reminding me of my days as a stand up comedienne. No, I am not kidding!! I never said I was a funny one but let me tell you it was character forming. I did it to get my Equity Card. I'd graduated from Drama School and in those days forming a cabaret act was the "easiest" way to get the card without which you could not work. I already sang in a band but apparently you had to do comedy too because singing was just music, not cabaret! Turns out that was rubbish but I took Equity at their word and went off and formed a comedy act.
Twas me and Alex (who had the great good fortune of living with me for 16 years) along with an actor by the name of Finlay. We called ourselves Treble Chance (I must find the promo photo and post it) and as well as singing, I did a variety of impersonations (badly), sketches and stand up monologues. We played miners' welfare clubs in Lanarkshire, working men's social clubs in Ayrshire and bowling clubs in the Lothians. If you can survive that ...
My favourite (and Alex agreed with me although Finlay most definitely did not) was a social club for staff of a big corporate somewhere in Fife. We shared the bill with a fire-eater, a ferret man (no, I'm not joking) and a variety of other music hall types. When it was our turn, we got a big build up from the compere but nobody heard him cos they were too busy ignoring him.
Up we get, start with our first song, can't remember what but no doubt something unique like I Will Survive! They paid absolutely no attention which I found quite funny but not half as funny as I found it when we got onto our sketches and they started chucking sausage rolls at us. Of course it's rude but it was kind of funny and we probably deserved it because we were about as interested in what we were doing as they were.
The 3rd member of the act (Finlay) however, took it altogether more seriously and ranted the whole way home about these people and what he'd do to them given the chance. My words of consolation that at least they chucked nuts at the ferret man too, fell on deaf ears and next thing you know he's shouting about Belfast being up in flames. Never did work out whose side of that particular divide he was on because I was too busy watching the road as he drove - I felt someone ought to do it! His reaction was scarier than the audience but as you can imagine they were no pussycats.
Like I said if you can survive these places ... And I was only 20 at the time. So whilst I'm pleased that I had the experience at such a young age and as a result, now know I can cope with ANYTHING, I have a lot of respect for these stand up comedians because it takes a brass neck and a very thick skin. I make an exception for the likes of Bernard Manning for obvious reasons but on the whole, these are brave people and I'm off now because Ricky Gervais is on and I love him!
Twas me and Alex (who had the great good fortune of living with me for 16 years) along with an actor by the name of Finlay. We called ourselves Treble Chance (I must find the promo photo and post it) and as well as singing, I did a variety of impersonations (badly), sketches and stand up monologues. We played miners' welfare clubs in Lanarkshire, working men's social clubs in Ayrshire and bowling clubs in the Lothians. If you can survive that ...
My favourite (and Alex agreed with me although Finlay most definitely did not) was a social club for staff of a big corporate somewhere in Fife. We shared the bill with a fire-eater, a ferret man (no, I'm not joking) and a variety of other music hall types. When it was our turn, we got a big build up from the compere but nobody heard him cos they were too busy ignoring him.
Up we get, start with our first song, can't remember what but no doubt something unique like I Will Survive! They paid absolutely no attention which I found quite funny but not half as funny as I found it when we got onto our sketches and they started chucking sausage rolls at us. Of course it's rude but it was kind of funny and we probably deserved it because we were about as interested in what we were doing as they were.
The 3rd member of the act (Finlay) however, took it altogether more seriously and ranted the whole way home about these people and what he'd do to them given the chance. My words of consolation that at least they chucked nuts at the ferret man too, fell on deaf ears and next thing you know he's shouting about Belfast being up in flames. Never did work out whose side of that particular divide he was on because I was too busy watching the road as he drove - I felt someone ought to do it! His reaction was scarier than the audience but as you can imagine they were no pussycats.
Like I said if you can survive these places ... And I was only 20 at the time. So whilst I'm pleased that I had the experience at such a young age and as a result, now know I can cope with ANYTHING, I have a lot of respect for these stand up comedians because it takes a brass neck and a very thick skin. I make an exception for the likes of Bernard Manning for obvious reasons but on the whole, these are brave people and I'm off now because Ricky Gervais is on and I love him!
