Marti Pellow, Popped In Souled Out with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. SEC Armadillo, Sunday 26th March, 2023

Last night, Marti brought the party to the SEC Armadillo, along with the RSNO and a full backing band. The atmosphere felt like a hen night, the place crammed with ladies of a certain age reliving their youth (plus husbands and boyfriends, natch). They sang, danced and held up their cameras to take pictures and videos (one lady was using a full-size tablet). They even sang him an impromptu Happy Birthday song when he mentioned his recent birthday (23rd March 1965, if you're interested). 

In the first half, he looked cool dressed in his slimline, three-piece suit and shades. He told us how he's come to accept that his past is now his future and how these songs made him who he is today. He enjoyed himself immensely, so proud to have an orchestra and the chance to play that first album again in front of his home crowd. 

After the interval, he wore a purple suit, styled more like the Joker (minus the green hair but still grinning), and played the rest of his greatest hits. This part of the show felt more alive with hit after hit. 

 

I enjoyed the gig but felt a little out of place. It might have been to do with the venue, a place I appreciate more for comedy than music. The stocky woman on my left was so enthusiastic, she roared approval after every song and regularly stood up to dance a twist, her elbows regularly jabbing towards me. I feared for my glasses at one point as her dance moves came seriously close to my head. 

Marti's vocals were excellent but I felt the string section sometimes got a little lost, unable to find us at the back of the front circle, drowned out by the rest of the band. I also felt the show lacked spectacle. I wanted more than just a static orchestra, blinding spotlights and Marti dancing across the stage. He is a good showman though.         

He's taking the party across to the OVO Hydro next year. Having sampled it once, I think that was enough for me. I'll give the next one a miss.

Ticket Price: £55 (£64.15 inc fees)

Setlist

Popped In Souled Out

Wishing I Was Lucky

East of the River

I Remember

Angel Eyes

Sweet Little Mystery

I Don't Believe (Sonny's Letter)

Temptation

I Can Give You Everything

The Moment You Left Me

Words of Wisdom

Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight

World in Another

Greatest Hits

Steamroller (James Taylor cover)

Love Is All Around (The Troggs cover)

Lip Service

Sweet Surrender

Ain't No Stopping Us Now / Le Freak (McFadden & Whitehead cover)

This Time

Don't Want To Forgive Me Now

Goodnight Girl

Encore:

Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell cover)

With a Little Help From My Friends (The Beatles cover)

Krystal Evans, The Hottest Girl at Burn Camp (WIP) , Van Winkle West End, Glasgow. Friday 24th March, 2023

"Combining authentic storytelling with uplifting humour and incredible resilience, the Hottest Girl at Burn Camp offers a hilarious take on some of the defining moments in Krystal's life and also she talks about clam cum" (taken from the publicity poster). 

Krystal has been working on her debut hour all her life, but most especially the last year when she decided to talk about the night her childhood home burnt down. It is so powerful, it could, and should, win award nominations at this year's Edinburgh Fringe.

 

I have no wish to spoil the show by revealing too much about the subject matter but I will say there is one moment that silences the entire room. It's unexpected, brave and painful and defines the show. She then apologises, comedically, and brings back the funny. 

The show does contain material from her 'tight five' (it's not like she could lose her sarcastic resting voice) so, if you've seen her on Youtube, it will be familiar to you but here it's justified to give the piece context, introducing her, her family and her background. There's also fifty-five minutes of other great material so you can't complain.

The music she plays at the start (Fire Water Burn - Bloodhound Gang) is repeated over the slide show at the end and reinforces the impact of the images.

I believe once Krystal is ready to lift the work-in-progress banner, working without notes on stage, she will have a smash hit. It could even transfer to a residency somewhere like London or even off-Broadway before landing a Netflix deal. 

Black humour (or smoke damage), this is comedy as therapy. It's well worth booking an appointment to see it. 

Ticket Price £8.80 (inc fees).

 

Ardal O'Hanlan, "The Showing Off Must Go On", Kings Theatre, Glasgow. Saturday 18th March, 2023

The Showing Off Must Go On but maybe it shouldn't until he's worked up a whole new set of material. I'd heard several of his routines before. Not that he wasn't funny. Even familiar jokes from the mouth of a seasoned comedian are funny and he is a master of the unexpected turn of phrase. I just felt he appeared tired, sometimes uncomfortable, and perhaps even a bit rusty. The audience laughed in all the right places but their reaction was muted for a Saturday night in Glasgow. There were no rolling waves of laughter. He did his two halves and that was that.

I was a tad distracted too. It had nothing to do with the gentleman beside me whose elbow kept prodding me (to be clear, spatially, he was at fault, having claimed more than just his side of the armrest). Nor was it because of the germs I was imagining his partner had spread, having demonstrated such repetitive sneezing (pre-show and during the interval), it could have qualified as a Harry Hill finale routine. 

No, it was because my wife pointed out, just at the end of the interval, as the lights went down, that my finger was so chubby, I would not be able to remove my wedding ring.

Challenge accepted! As Ardal returned to the stage, I couldn't pay attention because I was too busy squeezing my finger and spinning and twisting the ring, in an effort to prove her wrong. After five minutes of intense twirling, I succeeded. The ring came off. 

I then spent the next forty minutes trying not to drop it.

I feared the raked seating of the stalls would cause it to roll down to the front and I'd be forced to climb after it, row after row, Roberto Benigni style, to retrieve it. Or worse, I'd have to stand up and interrupt the show asking everyone to check under their seats knowing some greedy swine would keep it for themselves. I'd be trawling the pawn shops of Glasgow for days, weeks, months even, hoping it would turn up and that I wouldn't have to pay a small fortune to get it back, all the while sleeping the dog's house for being so stupid. 

Fortunately, that didn't happen, so, as soon as the lights went up, I showed her how wrong she was (then quickly returned it to the finger again before she made it permanent).

Sorry, Ardal, it wasn't your best night. Nor mine. 

 

Ticket price: £21.50

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Kings Theatre, Glasgow. Monday 13th March, 2023

This popular, sold-out live show is an extended copy of the Radio 4 programme, which has been running for over fifty years. If you are not aware of its work, here is the official blurb:

"I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue has been delighting fans since 1972. Since its inception 'Clue' has seen its success blossom from the impish son of 'I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again' to the big daddy of all panel games. 

The format of the game is very simple: four players are given silly things to do by the Chairman, with Colin Sell setting some of them to music. It has always been billed as 'the antidote to panel games', although the panel games to which it was originally an antidote are now long gone."

The poster inside the venue displayed Jack Dee with four guest players but, on the night, there was no sign of Marcus Brigstock, with Tony Hawks sitting in instead. He was teamed with Rory, while Pippa joined Fred. Unfortunately, Samantha and Sven couldn't make it either, offering hilarious innuendo excuses for their absence. Colin Sell, as always, was at the back tinkling on his grand piano.

Rory Bremner, Pippa Evans,
Jack Dee,
Marcus Bristock (absent), Fred MacAulay

John Naismith, the show's producer for the last thirty years, acted as the audience warm-up man telling us jokes from the show's back catalogue. As he introduced the players, they each had the opportunity to tell their favourite joke too, choosing ones by either Barry Cryer or Jeremy Hardie, two alumnae of the show who are no longer with us. 

Jack's opening monologues, filled with local references, one in each half, went on a bit too long for my liking but you've got to give him something to do to justify his appearance fee. As chairman, he brings his own style of grumpiness to proceedings but he's no Humphrey Lyttleton (nor is he trying to be). 

It wasn't being recorded for the radio so the players did occasionally drop an F-bomb but mostly this was good, clean fun with only occasional deliberate slips into smut. All the performers delivered the sharp script with superb timing. Some of the rounds felt indulgent but overall it worked. I think the extended length of the show made it feel more like a tribute rather than the real thing. I noted afterwards you can't currently get any of the shows on the BBC Sounds app. 

No, it's not for smoking crack. It's a kazoo.

We all got a kazoo for the audience participation round. Ours were purple but there was a range of colours used. When the whole audience was playing together, you would never have known the tune was meant to be Bohemium Rhapsody. Fortunately, Jack narrowed it down to just the green kazoos, of which there were only three, all in the front row, much to their embarrassment and our entertainment.     

I enjoyed the night, despite the lady on my left bringing out a pack of Strepsils as her interval treat. Whenever she laughed, she finished with a catarrhy cough, which I could almost taste. I now have a scratchy throat. Hopefully, it won't last. I have more comedy lined up for later in the week.

Ticket price £33.50