Sent home merry after a night of cheap laughs

Published on Tuesday 13 April 2004 01:00

Red Raw ***

The Stand

THE audience at The Stand’s Red Raw night are only asked to part with 1 for the opportunity to see rising stars of comedy cut their teeth or try out new material. This traditionally makes them a generous audience. Thankfully, last night, that generosity was not often required.

Seasoned compere JoJo Sutherland fed her flock a staple diet of advice on motherhood, including "Why you never want to have a home birth" and "Reasons for marrying your ex-husband’s brother". Confident, warm and showing a real enthusiasm, both for her material and the line-up, Sutherland shepherded the crowd deftly along.

First up, Derek Lightfoot’s observations on the absurdity of workplace legislation and bum bags went down well and warmed the audience up nicely. His only fault was a tendency to talk over the laughs instead of milking them - a problem easily rectified.

Next up was "Speedy", a 22-year-old with a great, natural stage presence, but a rushed delivery that needs work. He also tended not to wait for the crowd, but otherwise pulled off a smooth set, one old joke about Japanese translation aside.

Sadly, it wasn’t to be Neil Hutton’s night. He bounded onstage like a Springer spaniel, then promptly rolled over and died. His utterly surreal leprechaun schtick gave way to the desperation of fart noises and self ridicule in search of laughter, which, when it came, was nervous and slightly bemused.

After the first interval, Paul Matthews found a "merrier" audience very receptive to his good-natured anti-religion rant. As a Catholic engaged to a Jewish woman, he is well placed to observe some of the idiosyncrasies of organised religion.

Steven Davidson then raised the bar with a performance that drew uproarious laughter and applause. His "new material" included some great audience interaction, like having the whole crowd throw imaginary dogs at the ceiling - which they all did willingly. An offer to build a fleet of flying buses for Edinburgh peaked an excellent performance, which nearly lifted the roof off - dogs and all.

The experienced Vladimir McTavish then popped in to test run some new stuff, which was well received, the highlight being his take on Grampian Police’s slightly limited understanding of their own speed cameras.

Graeme Thomas then lifted the baton left by Davidson and produced a cracking set, which included a fantastic observation about the difference between Americans and Brits boiling down to the difference between Jerry Springer and Trisha: "I’m not your uncle, I’m your mother" versus "I’m the one who borrowed your bike". Brilliant.

Finally came headliner Greg McHugh, who ran a strong set based entirely around the characters beside him on a bus one day. Excellent caricatures made for consistent laughs, with a particularly good impression of two slightly-out-of-place "yah" students.

Overall, an excellent night of comedy enjoyed by a packed crowd, who happily spent the money they’d saved on admission at the bar.

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