Glasgow Comedy Festival 2019 report
Published: Thursday 28th March 2019
Last week, BCG headed to Glasgow to enjoy some spring weather and the Whyte & Mackay International Comedy Festival.
Our weekend of comedy kicked off with two Toms:
Tom Parry, with a joyous work in progress for his new Edinburgh show, Parryoke. We've watched this show being worked up over a couple of years and it's a cracking hour of big laughs.
Our second Tom was Tom Neenan performing It's Always Infinity, his show that gained great reviews at last year's Fringe. We'd already seen it a month before in Leicester and laughed just as much second time round - a sure sign of a great show.
Glasgow also saw a final outing for the show Fight, a fascinating and very funny hour on life in Russia that bagged Olga Koch a best newcomer nomination at Edinburgh last year.
There were plenty of work in progress shows over the weekend: we loved Max & Ivan's hilarious, more personal new hour about their childhoods and some landmark events in their lives; and also loved Colin Hoult as Anna Mann in a new show tentatively titled Anna Mann is Dead - no spoilers, but fans don't need to panic yet.
We also enjoyed Desiree Burch's new hour, to a packed room, on her life post break-up; Lolly Adefope's sharply written and perfectly performed character comedy; and a debut hour from Huge Davies, who is like a musical mash up of Bill Bailey and Gein's Family Giftshop.
We ended a full Saturday of comedy with Anna Mann's Late Night Cheese & Sex Party, with special guests Lola & Jo, Lolly Adefope and Olga Koch making it, give or take, an all female line-up. There wasn't much sex but there was plenty of cheese and plenty of laughs - we love it!
In between shows, Glasgow has loads to offer during the day. Last year we took a hop-on, hop-off open top bus tour of the city and visited the modern Riverside Museum and the Victorian Kelvingrove for a rare glimpse of a haggis in its natural habitat...
This year we went more niche, visiting the Lighthouse for panoramic views of the city; the Tenement House for a look back at pre-war life; and the Glasgow Police Museum (you can guess what this one's about). The Police Museum is right next to Blackfriars Basement, which has an excellent line up of comedy throughout the festival.
We also visited the Panopticon, the old music hall where a 16 year-old Stan Laurel gave his first performance. It's tucked behind Mrs Mitchell's Sweetie Shop, itself very much worth a visit, and is home to shows throughout the year from silent movie screenings to cabaret and drag shows.
Another free attraction is the mural trail across the city, which includes Glasgow's most famous comedian...
Glasgow also has great food and drink on offer. Any comic doing lazy material about a lack of vegetables needs to write something new - Glasgow is considered to be the best city in the UK for vegan food. Scottish burger chains Bread Meats Bread and Steak Cattle & Roll both have vegan menus and the latter does milkshakes that nearly finished us off.
Special mention has to go to Stereo, handily close to the Old Hairdresser's, for its great selection of craft beers and amazing food and also Picnic, and Singl-end, for allowing us to start our day with full Scottish breakfasts.
The Glasgow Comedy Festival 2019 runs up until Sunday 31 March so there's still time to catch a show. We wish you as warm a welcome as we got. Glasgow show tips
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