Chris Turner "Spontaneous" Oran Mor, Glasgow. Tuesday 17th June, 2025

If you've never heard of Chris (and why would you, with all your busy lives), here is his performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he was so good he received a standing ovation from the audience. He told the story behind that response in his last show.  

This time, he's freestyling, being Spontaneous, performing the whole show without a script. He introduces himself as his support act, reminding us that the funnier comedian will be on afterwards, then performs crowdwork, establishing that a woman at the front is pregnant and is accompanied by her partner. The attractive man is not overly excited about becoming a dad, though his response is probably muted due to nerves. Chris's attention is then drawn to the bloke on the other side of the aisle who is wearing a Jim'll Paint It Mr Blobby T-shirt. 

T-shirt

This chap has just resigned from his job at B&M to work on his Horror art, crafting skulls and foetuses out of clay. His partner is one-eighth Russian and also works in Horror Art, though more specifically in folk horror illustrations.

Why do we need such details? 

Because Chris, when he returns as the headliner, opens the main show with a freestyle rap incorporating all this information, pretending he's been listening backstage, writing his rap. A clever conceit that reminds us of his talent. 

Throughout the evening, he creates various raps, varying the stimuli to keep it interesting. So, one minute, he's rapping about the items we've pulled from our pockets; the next, he's serenading the couple who met twenty-five years ago while working together at a bar. 

One rap requires someone from the audience to provide the beat at a constant 4/4. When Chris asked for a volunteer, I was dying to suggest my wife, who ticked all the boxes (does anyone play an instrument, does anyone sing, is anyone in a choir?). The person he ultimately selected had previously sung professionally in pubs. She did a fantastic job singing an ethereal backing track in the style of Frozen by Madonna. The tune wasn't looped, so she had to keep going throughout, winning praise from Chris for being the best singer of the tour so far. Other nights, he said, sounded more like improvised jazz than rap.

As he went along, Chris noted down on a long sheet of paper the interesting topics and phrases that came up during the show, such as Crying Managers, Blobby Dissected, Living in a Cosmopolitan City, Low Ceilings and Light Keepers. He needed sixteen subjects, so he requested a few more at the end, receiving Necrophilia, Govan, and Dreich to complete his Glasgow list. To keep things precarious for him, rather than simply creating a complicated rap, he indicated that he would increase the beat by five every eight bars, starting at 75 bpm and reaching 150 bpm, which necessitated that he think and rap faster as he went along. 

It was a rousing way to end the show, and he totally smashed it.

Afterwards, we didn't wait to meet him or buy his merch (a rhyming card game), but it was nice to know we could have. It was a fantastic night. 

Ticket Price: £16 x 2 plus £4.00 fees = £36.00 from TicketWeb.