Glasgow Comedy Festival Highlights

A small woman who wants to be a big, strong, emotionally repressed man, Sarah Keyworth: Pacific (13 March, Berk’s Nest @ Old Hairdressers), relates the likeable Midlander’s struggles with gender, sexuality and the differences between cats and dogs.

Eleanor Tiernan: Enjoying the Spotlight

Responsibly (15 March Blackfriars Basement) establishes the Irish émigré as a pity object for her friends and family, but there’s a deceptively sharp and distinctive mind behind her logicaskew epiphanies. This criminally underrated comic is overdue the spotlight.

John Shuttleworth’s Back (17 March, King’s Theatre), finds South Yorkshire’s mildmannered keyboard troubadour loath to moan about the aches in his spine and sharing a mix of new songs and classics like Two Margarines and I Can’t Go Back To Savoury Now.

At once hi-tech, ramshackle and wilfully stupid, Mat Ewins’ Test

Screening (22 March, ARG @ Blue Arrow) promises more inspired nonsense and laptop-enabled messing about from a comic who eschews mainstream recognition.

After three years

away, Dane Baptiste: The Chocolate Chip (27 March, Tron Theatre) finds the thoughtful, articulate standup ruminating on racism, mental health, the alt-right and identity politics. Knockabout duo Amy Gledhill and

Chris Cantrill present a double-bill of their Edinburgh Comedy Awardnominated hour and new stand-up from the fast-rising Gledhill, in The Delightful Sausage: Ginster’s Paradise

& Amy Gledhill (28 March, State Bar). Masterful daftness.

The Glasgow International Comedy Festival runs from 12 to 29 March, glasgowcomedyfestival.com.