Alan Muir: Journey into stand-up comedy may have taken 40 years but it's been worth the wait

Ever heard the one about the frustrated writer who volunteered to stand in front of strangers and make them laugh?
Alan Muir has gone from being a Billy Connolly fan to trying to emulate his hero on stageAlan Muir has gone from being a Billy Connolly fan to trying to emulate his hero on stage
Alan Muir has gone from being a Billy Connolly fan to trying to emulate his hero on stage

It’s not a joke – but it is a funny tale which stretches all the way from a skinny Billy Connolly fan with a big head to the fabulous Edinburgh Fringe.

My journey into the world of stand-up comedy was more than 40 years in the making. Ego, ambition, midlife crisis – the reasons why someone would willingly put themselves in the stand-up spotlight are myriad. But I guess there’s only one that matters – it’s fun. Don’t get me wrong, it’s also very much like a 15-rated movie – contains scenes of an adult nature, mild peril and frequent swearing. But it’s still fun.

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I’m going to be in Edinburgh as part of ‘Laugh Begins at Forty’ – a showcase of older stand-ups who are uniting to show that good comedy is timeless – and I can’t wait.

It’s the idea of my fellow 40-somethings Sam Potter, Phil Erswell and John Gibson. The show – on at The Southsider until 26 August – sees experienced professionals alongside newer acts who may only have been going a year or two.

Every day is different – with acts from around the world – including Gavin Webster, Jojo Sutherland, Vladimir McTavish, Obie and me.

I still hesitate to call myself a stand-up comedian – it seems somewhat presumptuous – but I do regularly stand up and attempt to make people grin, so I suppose I can get away with it.

I’ve always enjoyed making people laugh and once dreamt of being a comedian in P6 (people certainly laughed at me back then – I was skinny with a big head – I resembled a human Pez dispenser). The dream faded along with my Spider-Man temporary tattoo, but the flame was rekindled a couple of years ago. I saw two comedians – one brilliant, one awful – both big names. And suddenly I thought: “I could do that.”

Fast-forward a year and I made my debut at The Stand’s Red Raw night in Glasgow. Since then I’ve done open spots all over Scotland – trying to build experience and enjoying myself more and more along the way.

I’ve found that stand-up is a strange amalgam of courage, blind faith, luck, desperation and delight. When a joke lands, you can sense the magic in the room. Conversely, when the jape misses its target, that silence is like a shroud of doom suffocating all hope.

Living between those two extremes is the stand-up – alone in the spotlight – and it’s the best feeling in the world.

Alan Muir lives in Cumbernauld. He tweets as @alanmuir74 and blogs at https://caobs.wordpress.com/

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