By John Gibson. Venue 24: Gilded Balloon Patter House

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Glasgow comic Kathleen Hughes kicks off proceedings in the conventional ‘who are you and where are you from’ manner.  First up is dyspraxia’s Dan Tiernan who performs a tight ten minutes of freaking out the audience, mixed with some nicely written observations about his neurodiversity.  Once they (the audience) warm up the response is wild and appreciative.

Second is Stuart McPherson, who looks a little too composed and sexy to fit into this dysfunctional line-up, but his confident and fluid delivery nicely complements Dan’s unpredictable moments and volume.

Harriet Dyer was supposed to be hosting (according to the socials) so her initial preamble about ‘being late’ and something about ‘my mum’ seem to explain the alteration.  Her frankness about her own mental health is accompanied with some sweet but not sufficiently hilarious turns of phrase which reminded me of a cousin of Daisy May Cooper (This Country).

Last was Mark Nelson, who seems to have exploded as a stand-up after writing and performing for the best part of the last two decades.  This reviewer knows him best as the host of The Stand lockdown Zoom offerings that kept the comedy afficionado going in the live drought.  Nelson (like McPherson) brings a sense of ease and familiarity with his gag-writing and conceptual bravery. I particularly enjoyed a joke about him teaching his 2 year old how to swim by throwing him around like Jaws the shark. After he grabs the wrong kid he fears he will be called an underwater predator or a ‘torpedo.’ 

The only weird moment in the entire night was Nelson’s decision to attack Gen-Z for being ‘shit at everything’ and attacking many of the characteristics of the previous performers. This was a strange tone to take to end what was a perfectly serviceable show.