Crieff Comedy Festival

Various venues, Crieff, July 26 to 28

What is the funniest colour? While blue and black can both be used as adjectives before the noun “humour”, many votes would go to yellow. It’s the colour of Ali G’s tracksuit, the custard pies that were flung in unsuspecting faces (mostly during the black and white film era) and the big banana boots the Big Yin wore.

Perhaps in acknowledgment of this, Crieff Comedy Festival has plumped for yellow in the publicity material for its inaugural event, even imploring “let’s go bananas” with its rallying cry. Across three days, the town will play host to an impressive array of comedic stars, the bulk of whom hail from or live in Scotland.

And hats off to the organisers who have put a special emphasis on women comedians. Fern Brady (Crieff Golf Club, July 26) remains firmly in the future-star category with her brand of occasionally borderline but often sublime stand-up, Susie McCabe (The Square Bar, July 26) is a forthright Glaswegian whose true-life stories are the basis for her act, and Daisy Earl (Crieff Golf Club, July 27) has the distinction of being the only female to have claimed the Scottish Comedian Of The Year prize.

Somewhere between rising star and established name is Julia Sutherland (The Tower Hotel, July 28) who has a strong track record on both stage and radio while Ohio-born comic Lynn Ruth Miller (The Square Bar, July 28) has been doing stand-up for 14 years, making her debut aged 70. Meanwhile, Canada’s Tanya lee Davis (Crieff Golf Club, July 26) comes to Crieff on the back of making the news for the wrong reasons when this 3ft 6in comic received appalling treatment by rail staff on a recent train journey.

Among the fellas, no fewer than four Scottish Comedian Of The Year winners appear, namely Mark Nelson (The Square Bar, July 26), Bruce Fummey (Crieff Golf Club, July 27), Rosco McClelland (The Tower Hotel, July 27) and Eddie Cassidy (The Tower Hotel, July 28).

Two legends of the 80s and 90s Scottish stand-up scene are here, with Phil Kay (The Square Bar, July 28) and Bruce Morton (The Square Bar, July 28) proving you don’t have to be young, clean-cut and seemingly manufactured in a laboratory to do top-notch comedy.

Glasgow-based Irishman Michael Redmond (The Tower Hotel, July 28) falls into that category too, as the man with the saddest moustache in stand-up will chew some whimsical fat, while Jamie MacDonald (The Square Bar, July 27) finds the funny side to being blind.

Just in case the grown-up material is too much for you to stomach, there’s always the Crieff Children’s Comedy Club (The Tower Hotel, July 28) with an hour of clean but silly fun.

Glasgow-based Irish funnyman Michael Redmond will perform at The Tower Hotel on July 28.