Comedy review: Raymond Mearns: Rock ‘n’ Roll Comedian, The Therapy Sessions, The Garage, Glasgow

TOURING with Pete Doherty could curb anyone’s vices. But Raymond Mearns attributes his dramatic weight loss and sobriety to his wife and kids walking out on him.

Supporting the former Libertines frontman around the UK opened the 44-year-old stand-up’s eyes, if only to how much today’s gig-going youngsters are loath to witness graphic recreations of sexual congress with his wife. But the Glaswegian understandably fears being sued if he reveals too much of life on the tourbus, so he restricts his anecdotes to knowing winks, nods and euphemisms, even if the inferences of rock ’n’ roll excess are plain enough.

Regardless, it was his twenty-something kids finally flying the nest and his wife leaving soon after that precipitated Mearns retreat into therapy, kicking the booze and if he’s to be believed, sexually experimenting with everything from DIY erotic home improvement to abusing household appliances. Much of last night’s material has a work-in-progress feel, as if Mearns is still processing the dramatic changes in his life.

He hasn’t yet found a way to make this intensely personal material as funny as say, writing off his car.

But his closing, crude re-enactment into his moribund sex life and a hypothetical lottery win argument, suggest that he will.

Rating: ***

JAY RICHARDSON