Monkey Barrel Comedy : 5th Birthday

22-23 Jan

The Beehive Inn

Edinburgh

Jay Lafferty Stuart Laird Daniel Downie Gareth Waugh

For their 5th Birthday the Monkey Barrel Comedy Club put on for our delectation four top Scottish comedians to celebrate – & a right do it was n’all. Fate had conspired to propel them into the Beehive Inn’s bigger function room – for the Stand was flooded that night, & so over a hundred of us found ourselves in a salubrious, velvety-curtained, victorian-wallpapered, smoking seated chamber, described by one of the comedians – Daniel Downie – as a cross between the Shining & the attic he was abused in as a child. The whole party was welded together by the beautiful Rick Molland, whose banter flowed freely with the stag party from Montrose, all sat at the front & all dressed up as Star Wars characters, including a Storm Trooper with a bumbag & the groom-to-be’s cuddly Jabba the Hut.

Jay Lafferty

Material Delivery Laughs

The first of our ‘four fabulous comedians’ was Glaswegian, Jay Lafferty, a 21st century woman who finds herself funny as fuc£, a brash & self-assured talent whose comedy is aimed at the female observation in the main, but also branches out into urban topology, whose chat about Glasgow & Edinburgh serves as the perfect introduction to the tourists who find themselves on the Grassmarket wanting to feel like they are in Scotland. Listening to Jay in full flow as like being with that noisy bird in a pub whose had a couple of drinks & decided to offload it all onto her pals – great fun. For me, the moment she described a fellow as having a ‘wee, young One Direction face,’ was class, as was her idea of placing kinder eggs in the female lady garden in order to increase the ravishings of woman kind.

Scott Laird

Material Delivery Laughs

Wee Scotty Laird from Motherwells has a strong sense of ‘second son syndrome,’ which has led him into the his job as a Call Centre operative. The thing is, Scott seems to be able to find the comedy in anything, which when combined with that acute mind of his hits all the right comedy notes. The highlight for me was his description of Motherwell’s greatest addition to global culture – the Chindian, a single room in which you can get chinese AND Indian food. As the jokes passed by the crowd really warmed to him, a mutual snowball effect that made every joke seem funnier & funnier.

Daniel Downie

Material Delivery Laughs

I first saw Daniel Downie backstage at the Beehive, scribbling down notes furiously as Rick Molland initially warmed up the crowd. ‘Was he a reviewer like me?‘ I pondered. ‘Nah,’ I realised, ‘he’s too cool!‘ It turns out he was thinking on his feet readying to introduce hypertopical comedy into his set. This, by the way, was wicked – especially his chat about the Highland’s anti-Isis terrorist response (hes from Dingwall). His material is cutting edge & perhaps the crowd were looking for something a bit more stag-do friendly – but I loved it. His star is definitely on the rise at the moment, with material totally on the pulse & Daniel is one to watch.

Gareth Waugh

Material Delivery Laughs

After the prize raffle draw for £10 in drinks – a really good touch to the proceedings – our headline act waltzes on stage. Growing up in the age of, as he so effervescently stated, ‘Celebrity Paedophiles,’ Gareth Waugh is a sound fella & witty as hell, who somehow has managed to convert his sexual awkwardness into comedy gold. The crowd loved him & I absolutely adored his facial expressions – a real subtle but highly effective addition to his comedy armory. He’s also a very informative performer, for I now know what the Australian terminology for a ginga is, & he has also put quite keenly into my mind’s eye one’s own ‘lap-dance face’ – which is similar to the cumface, only less distorted. He really was a perfect finish to a cracking evening & roll on the next 5 years, Monkey Barrel!!!