Comedy Review: Joe Rooney, Glasgow

Nearly 18 years on, Joe Rooney remains best known in the UK for playing the young tearaway priest Father Damo in Father Ted.

Joe Rooney

The Stand, Glasgow

***

So there’s enjoyable irony in hearing the Irish comic muttering darkly about his own kids, though their middle-class snobbery rather than any delinquency.

His dismissal of Marks & Spencer’s pretentious packaging in favour of the bargain basement eclecticism of Lidl won’t win any plaudits for originality, while his caricaturing of German fitness freaks is shameless crowd-pleasing. But he’s a better musical comic than many wielding a guitar and his tune on airport security has a demented delivery that really engaged the crowd.

His best routine probed men and women’s differing erogenous zones. Focusing mostly on Scottish alcohol consumption, you might have expected Stephen Carlin to go down just as well. But his slow-burn playfulness with percentages and ostensibly outrageous statements didn’t get the reception they deserved.

There’s subtle elegance and witty mischief in the Airdrie comic’s calls for greater heroin consumption and concerns about paedophilia that set him a world apart from simplistic shock comedy. But he couldn’t always convey that.

Earlier, Gareth Waugh delivered a tight set characterised by self-deprecation and assured storytelling, confirming his status as a young Scottish act to watch. Where Ross Main can take his character Dogshit Johnson however, remains to be seen. A wandering bluesman with shades of Seasick Steve and another Stand favourite, The Reverend Obadiah Steppenwolfe III, he’s amusing enough.