Comedy review: Boothby Graffoe, Glasgow

Currently mourning the loss of a prop, The Wheel of Almost Certain Misfortune, which was stolen earlier this week following a show at the Stand’s sister venue in Edinburgh, Boothby Graffoe didn’t let his bad luck throw him.

Boothby Graffoe stuck mostly to his usual routine

Boothby Graffoe - The Stand, Glasgow

* * *

Noting in passing the tension between Glasgow and the capital, the guitar-wielding stand-up championed the buskers of Sauchiehall Street, their growing ambition and eccentricity, underscored by crabbiness when they’re bypassed without donation.

Headlining a busy Saturday night, this was a solid rather than stunning set from the Englishman, falling back, as is the muso’s prerogative, on tried and tested routines, if only because audiences demand them. The memorable Lullaby to his daughter still catches some by surprise and he closed with one of his signature tunes, the always enjoyable singalong Baseball Playing Spider.

Earlier, Steve Day took time to endear himself with his introductory lines about being a deaf comic. But his unique perspective eventually won the crowd round with a routine on television subtitling for the Paralympics and he finished with a hilarious Boris Johnson anecdote from the Games.

Compere Martin Mor kept a bawdy, good-natured levity to proceedings, while relative newcomer Ashley Storrie sustained her impressive development, delivering a brash and messy set that closed with Jimmy Savile gag gratuitousness but hit the mark squarer on Krispy Kreme doughnut bootlegging across Scotland.

Charlie Ross gets good value out of being a gay sport and Doctor Who nut, but his choicest tale is of the slighted one-night stand who extracts sweet revenge on him.

Seen on 14.02.14