Josie Long has long been on my list of comedians to catch live. Somehow I've never managed to see her. When an advert for this recording taking place in Glasgow popped up on my Facebook feed, I immediately stopped the dog walk to register my interest in attending and, to my pleasant surprise, managed to acquire two tickets.
We found a space on Eldon Street nearby to the venue at 7.15 pm not realising initially that the parking charges apply there between 8am and 10pm Monday through Sunday. I still didn't buy a ticket. It was only a few hours on a Sunday night. What was the worst that could happen? A £60 fine? The show was free so I took the gamble.
We went for a drink in a nearby pub as the doors weren't due to open till 8 pm. While sipping mine, I took a huge bout of queue fever and had to go check how long the line was outside the venue. It was already at the gate so I joined it and gave my wife a running text commentary about what was happening. She remained in the pub, she being the sensible one who'd rather enjoy her wine at an appropriate pace. Dylan Moran (the comedian/actor) arrived and went into the venue then popped back out again as if he'd turned up to the wrong gig. Then the previous show's audience came out (by the hugs and kisses between some of them, not recently) and I got the sweats as the line tightened up. Where was my wife?
It was fine. Despite not seeing my lie that the queue was now moving, she arrived with plenty of time before we got to go in. First, there were wristbands to be handed out, tickets to be scanned and Priority Ticket Holders to be identified and moved to another line. Of course, by the time the VIPs got in, it was raining.
To my joy, my favourite seat on the bench in front of the raised balcony was still free and we had the perfect spot to watch the show - and the audience.
All the best freaks were here: from the beret-wearing skinny blonde with shoulder-length locks with bubble-gum-pink highlights to the check-shirted blokes with twirly, designer beards and statement spectacles, to the persons of indiscriminate gender with deliberately semi-shaved heads and tattoos that convey their life story from the trauma of birth to their most recent breakup. Josie is such a warm and inclusive character, her audience ticks all the letters: L, G, B, T and Q. Her stand up has the honest passion of Mark Thomas and the huge heart of Mother Teresa and, now she's moved to Glasgow, she proudly swears like a local, which causes her a few problems with retakes as the show was being recorded for early evening Radio 4.
I have no idea how they'll be able to edit these two performances down to half an hour. This was the second of two shows being recorded tonight, the material overlapping but not identical each time. Our show came to about an hour (including the preamble) and when the light came on to alert her to the thirty-minute mark, she still had another quarter of an hour of material left to deliver. The editing is going to have to be very tight.
One of the best bits of the live experience was hearing the show in its raw, uncensored form. The audience got a massive buzz from hearing her swear knowing she was going to have to repeat the line with a clean version immediately afterwards.
Afterwards, Josie was so thankful that we had all given up our Sunday night to see her. She was funny and heartfelt and silly and outrageous. It was a great night and another plus - I didn't get a parking ticket.
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