IS IT TRUE OR FALSE ABOUT US SCOTS?
SCOTS Comedian Daniel Sloss has won awards for his standup, has performed all over the world and is a regular hit on late night US TV.
He’s also written an online indie sitcom, conducted a TED-style talk about the nature of stories and sold out the previous NINE Edinburgh Fringe Festivals.
But finally, the Fife-born comedian has done something to make his grannies – Margaret and Jenny – very proud.
“I quite like swearing, so a lot of my act really isn’t suitable for my grans,” he grins, slightly shame-facedly. “When they heard I was doing a guide to do with smart energy meters, they were over the moon. They’ve even got the meters, so they’re just delighted to see me talking about something they can get into.” Daniel has written and released a new guide all about the ‘inaccurate estimates’ that the comedian has experienced on his comic travels, tying in with the launch of new smart electricity and gas meters and the end of estimated energy readings. You see what he did there? “I come up against stereotypes of the Scots all the time,” he explains. “People assume we’re all kilt-wearing, red-haired stingy folk and really, we’re not. “I’ve always found estimations of our people and cultures to be a bit easy and often inaccurate. “Like we don’t all have red hair, wear kilts or have bad teeth – but when tourists come over we definitely do have a 50-foot beast in Loch Ness that only eats toffee.” The Estimated Guide to Scotland takes a light-hearted look at some of the assumptions he comes up against – such as the idea that Scottish men wear kilts every day of the year (64 per cent say they never wear a kilt), and the suggestion we all eat haggis at least once a week (21 per cent never touch the stuff) – and debunks them completely.
Other ‘facts’ that are explored include the guestimate that one in five redheads across the world are Scottish (that would add 28 million people to the population of Scotland) and that Scots swear 100 times a day (13 per cent say they never use bad language).
“It’s been a really interesting project for me to do,” he admits. “I’m really proud of being a Scot and it’s been fun to look into how others see us, and get to the truth behind it all.”
Could this be the start of a series? After all, Glasgow people are always criticised for being cheeky patter-merchants, and everyone in Edinburgh is an upper-class twit…
“Ha! That would be hilarious,” he laughs. “There are lots of regional variations, it’s true. I come from Fife and I think we probably