The Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh holds an all female night on the first Tuesday of the month in June the line up was Susan Calman  compereing the show and introducing The F-team, Al Kennedy and headline act Francesca Martinez.  Despite all the hype of the day 06-06-06 the sign of the devil we had a wickedly good nights comedy.

My introduction to Susan was in a similar way, as the compere to Sistars in April where I enjoyed her very much. This will be my second viewing of her in this role and I look forward to good things.  With a slightly difficult crowd Susan manages to get a laugh out of a delivery driver who has delivered a penis enlarger, a chef working for the fire-brigade and two student electricians. She manages to bring the room together and egg us on setting the tone for the evening.  I look forward to seeing her doing her own act. Sadly she has not got her own show for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2006 but she assures me she will be taking part in the Best of Scottish at The Stand, as well as other guest spots and comparing if I find out any dates I will pass them on.

The first time I saw the F-team two ‘regulars’ were missing, tonight the full compliment of members were present. The first section of sketches were fairly slick with a mixed reception, some good some so-so, the best for me Wayne Rooney and Sven discussing Wayne’s injury problems and his black feet, the running gag a Scots person striving to be the first Scot to do various things including walk on the surface of Venus only to find they were in Cowdenbeath!  I enjoyed them more this time round despite the repeat of some of the sketches.  The biggest problem is knowing when they reach the end of the section.

Al Kennedy hails from Dundee not that you could tell that by her accent, having lived there for some time I appreciated her observations of the Dundonian vocabulary relying on the vowel ‘E’. She is a very slender lady and comments on the obsession of TV adverts making use of the female form in the shower covered in suds massaging ones chest. She reminds me facially of one of my comedy favorites Ed Byrne, they both have a great comedy talent, which appeals to my somewhat warped sense of humour. I was almost in tears laughing at her set I Look forward to her Fringe show at Stand II August 5^th to 27^th at 3pm Al Kennedy “Feel The Love”.

Francesca Martinez. After first coming to my attention in the kids programme Grange Hill, I managed to see Francesca during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2002 where this young lady impressed me very much. I was therefore looking forward to seeing her again. Despite having mild cerebral palsy she has managed to create a niche for herself in the entertainment business doing both small parts in TV shows and her stand-up comedy.  She has a unique slant on life but takes great delight in impressing on her audiences that every single one of us can be seen to be handicapped in one way or another.  It was obvious to me that most of the audience knew nothing about Francesca, but she won them over in the first few seconds and they were fully with her to the end of her set. She has always wanted to be a hairdresser and actually managed to persuade two men to let her cut their hair.   I personally think she is a superb comedienne and look forward to being able to see her again

Thanks as usual to all the staff at The Stand for their hard work and I wish you could persuade all Fringe venues to have decent prices at the bar for those of us who don’t or can’t drink alcohol.  For more information see www.thestand.co.uk

Finally it was great to see that other comedians come and see shows where they can.  I couldn’t believe my eyes at first when I saw Arthur Smith, a long standing favourite of mine in the audience. This ‘Grumpy Old Man’ (TV show on which he regularly contributes) is lovely and I look forward to seeing him again either as a fellow punter or being able to enjoy his fantastic talent.