Chris McCausland "Yonks", Theatre Royal, Glasgow. Tuesday 23rd September, 2025.

Chris McCausland is a comedian who happens to be blind. He's naturally funny, telling stories ripe with humour from his life. He won 'Strictly' last year, dancing with Dianne Buswell. The nation took the pair to their hearts, thanks to their astounding choreography despite his disability, and their humorous social media posts. As Chris joked, someone had to tell him how the other dancers did so that he wouldn't clap enthusiastically if they did poorly. 

Tonight, on the back of that bump in public awareness, he packed out the Theatre Royal from top to bottom, something I doubt would have happened without that TV programme. He could tell we were a more senior audience, though, from our old laugh. 

No support act tonight. Chris performed both halves of the show, leaving us on a cliffhanger on his Ed Sheeran routine.  

Needless to say, Chris is not an animated comedian. He speaks at a considered pace, which helps smooth out his Liverpudlian accent. His blindness forms the core of his material. It provides his alternative perspective on events, elevating the most mundane, occasionally hack material into something more engaging. All the punchlines regarding his blindness raised a stronger laugh, be it Brian Connolly trying to convince him that the two of them should get their cocks out behind Ed Sheeran for the billion-strong TV audience at the Queen's Jubilee celebration or the doctor holding onto his scrotum longer than expected, waiting for Chris to comment on what was on the scanner screen.  

It's not unusual for a comedian to rib the BSL interpreter, making them sign rude words, but that service had been changed tonight to live captioning instead, with small screens on either side of the stage. Chris occasionally challenged the captioner with long words, relying on us to tell him how she did. I found the service helpful whenever I didn't pick up what Chris said, my eyes glancing to the screen to catch up. The funniest bit, though, was during his Audio-Described porn routine, where the captioner had to relay the sounds of Chris's impression of what he could hear. 

"glog, glog, glog, glog, glog, glog, glog". (I won't repeat the dialogue) 

Chris deserved his standing ovation, not that he could see it, which was just as well, as most of them were already making their way to the exit. How rude!

Ticket Price: 2 x £35.18 plus £3.50 Booking Fee = £74.31 from ATG Tickets