Susan Calman: Work In Progress, The Stand, Glasgow. Wednesday 19th November, 2025.

Photo credit Steve Ullathorne.

Susan may have been away from the stage for ten years, but she's still popular thanks to her various TV appearances on her Tour programmes and on Strictly, so I was fortunate to get two tickets to this show the day before the general sale using my new Stand membership, as the night sold out quickly. 

She was an excellent stand-up. I saw her last Edinburgh show and found her incredibly warm and funny. She had the room in hysterics. But that was ten years ago. As comedians will tell you, if the stand-up muscle is unused, it can wither and make any subsequent stage return awkward.

I'm happy to report that that did not apply tonight. Nothing had changed. She's still got it. Although she had notes for this, her first Work in Progress, she only occasionally glanced at them and gave a skilled performance, revealing her vulnerability and strengths in the funniest of ways. Yes, the show needs a bit more polish, but most of it is already there. 

Her topics of conversation included: her grannies and how she found it funny she was performing in the former church the venonmous one attended; her height (obviously) and the difficulty of buying clothes that fit; her perimenopause, experiencing symptoms including anxiety, rage and brain fog; her wife's clumsiness and spontaneity, which contrasts sharply with Susan's need to plan. She concluded with a tale about Strictly that had the punchline "A macaroni pie". Not something you usually associate with a tango.

She's booked the Pavilion for next November. I heartily recommend you catch her then. It'll be great! 

Alana Jackson provided support tonight. Her set was familiar to me, but I still found it funny, a sign of the quality of the material and her performance. A couple of Londoners at the front threatened to derail her initial routine, but she handled them well. She didn't mention that she is booked to play three nights at the Citizens Theatre - Studio Theatre in February next year.  

Ticket Price: £11 (Member Price) & £13 (Regular) = £24 from The Stand.

Blurb

Susan Calman hasn’t performed stand-up in almost a decade. She’s decided to get back on stage and needs to see if any of the things in her head are funny, this is an excellent place to start. A work in progress show that she’ll absolutely try her best to make amusing. Your patience will be very much appreciated.