Maiden voyage
DAVE FREAK chats to two of the comedians heading for the Glee Club in Nottingham this month
GLASWEGIAN Christopher Macarthur-Boyd has just picked up Best Breakthrough Act at the 2019 Scottish Comedy Awards. He now wants to spend New Year’s Eve with you. His Hogmanay celebrations are happening at Nottingham’s Glee Club – although he may have a cheeky pint at the Salutation.
How did you see 2018 out and 2019 in?
It was the first time I’d ever spent New Year’s away from home. I was performing at the Glee Club in Cardiff. I’d flown down from Glasgow with my girlfriend, and we were standing on the balcony of the club to watch the fireworks. There was no-one else there with us, and I was getting ready for some primo romantic vibes. Unfortunately, the reason no one else was on the veranda of the Glee in Cardiff is because they knew that it faces away from the fireworks display. No idea what the explosions in the sky looked like, but they sounded great.
Looking back over the last 12 months, how do you think 2019 will be remembered?
I know this is supposed to be a light and cheerful interview with a stand-up comedian, but I can’t think of a happy way to respond! What an awful year! I’d say that it feels like we’re on the precipice of something awful happening, but part of me thinks that we’ve actually already ran off the edge of the cliff and our legs are just spinning in place like Wile E Coyote. I think there’ll be a lot of really boring essays written about 2019 in 50 years’ time. “To what extent was the collapse of Great Britain due to Brexit? (10 marks)”.
Any quirky or amusing news stories from this year spring to mind?
I genuinely can’t think of any. I tried to jog my memory by Googling the phrase “fun 2019 news”. The second result was: “Man stabbed outside nightclub was ‘fun-loving’.” That’s the best as I can do! Saying that, there have been some excellent videos of dogs on the internet.
In your own career, what’s been some of the highlights and low points of the past year?
I think having a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe was definitely a highlight. A low point was when I was doing a comedy show at a holiday camp that I won’t mention (“Pontins”) in a town that I won’t mention (“Southport”) and the organisers refused to book me a hotel like all the other acts, as I was only really on the bill as a bargaining chip to get a better, more well-known comedian, to do it. Instead, I had to stay in the actual holiday resort with the audience, after a 45-minute set that could only be described as “fine”. Apparently, Pontins chalets don’t come with towels, and I couldn’t get the hot water to turn on, so I dried myself after a cold shower with a spare fitted sheet.
You’ll be at the Glee at midnight on December 31 – will you be raising a glass to the New Year backstage after the show with the other acts?
One hundred percent, yeah. Either that or around the corner at Ye Olde Salutation Inn, a pub dating back to the 1240s that does heavy metal karaoke nights. Nothing says happy Hogmanay like drunkenly mis-singing 2 Minutes To Midnight by Iron Maiden.
As a comedian, do you normally work on New Year’s Eve?
Yeah, it’s been a few years since I’ve had a New Year’s Eve off work. I kind of hate holidays like that anyway, so I’m not missing out on anything. Is there anything worse than forced enjoyment? Everybody fake-smiling at each other and shaking each other’s hands. Horrible. I’m glad I’m working.
Do you have any New Year resolutions? Every year I have the exact same New Year’s resolution: “be less of a pain in the ar**”. And every single year, I break it.
How will you be spending New Year’s Day? Hungover on a train back to Glasgow.
Do you have any predictions for 2020?
I think things are either going to get a lot better, or get a lot worse.
What are your own plans for the year ahead? The second series of my BBC Scotland series Up For It, that I do with Rosco McClelland and Ashley Storrie, is going to come out. English people can watch that on BBC iPlayer, so please do. Other than that, I’ll have another hour of stand-up at the [Edinburgh] Fringe in August, and then I’m going to go to California for a wee holiday, if it’s not been destroyed by a North Korean nuclear warhead by then.
■ ■See Christopher Macarthur-Boyd at The Glee Club, Nottingham, on Tuesday, December 31. Tickets: glee.co.uk/nye/, £24.50 plus £1.60 booking fee.