No joke – comic Fern ran off stage

Every comedian fears “dying” on stage, when their jokes don’t go down well.

Scots stand-up Fern Brady feared what would happen if she didn’t get off stage.

“I was playing a pub at Hampton Court, a really posh village, and I don’t think any of them had been to a stand-up gig before,” said Fern, who is on Live From The BBC.

“They started shouting at me to go back to Glasgow – which hurt as I’m from Bathgate – and offering me money to get off I backed .“

out of the room, ran down the stairs and begged the manager to give me my fee.

“I saw the audience charging down the stairs after me, so I ran away.”

Fern had another close escape in Leicester when she saw a woman in the front row looking like she was getting ready to have a pop at her.

“It was just a week before the BBC were going to film me for this show, so I wasn’t going to take any risks,” says Fern.

“I walked off just a minute into my set.”

This is the third series of the hit stand-up show Live From The BBC, with Fern’s episode having been screened on BBC3 a couple of weeks back.

It all came about after Fern was spotted at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Although she has been a regular on BBC Radio Scotland’s Breaking The News, she is now Londonbased. That, though, is something she wants to change.

“I’m just in London for the work but I live in a really horrible bit of the city and I hate it,” adds Fern. “I was in Glasgow the other week and I so want to buy a flat.”

Live From The BBC, available on the iPlayer.