Every Monday in Edinburgh and Tuesday in Glasgow, not in August The Stand Comedy Club holds its ‘Red Raw’ nights. This is a showcase for absolute beginners and a chance for more established and occasionally well-known performers to try new material. There are at least 8 new acts plus an experienced Compere and a headline act all for the ‘extortionate charge’ of £2 or £1 for members and the unemployed, that is either 20p or 10p per comedian, whether they make you laugh with them, at them or just groan, you have to admit it is value for anyone’s money.

Monday 7^th July had the experienced Stand regular Stu Murphy as MC so we knew we were in superb hands, although usually seen with Garry Dobson, his Siamese twin, it was great to see him in control and doing a great job.

The first performer Martin Byrne had a 10 minute set and although seemed at home on stage didn’t quite capture me the way his name sakes Ed and Jason do. His material although quite humorous seemed stretched to almost its limit, but can see potential if he can get a different and additional slant to his humour.

The act we went to see, Big Mick, followed Martin, this was to be Big Mick’s first and last foray on to the stage. Many people have a ‘to do before I die list’, Mick wanted to perform comedy on stage before he turned the big 50. Good on him, he did not seem as nervous as we thought he would be. His material concentrated on the good old-fashioned lavatorial humour which seemed to tickle the audiences fancy, pardon the expression, admittedly it was partly a pre 50’s birthday bash but the man did well.  

Back to those wishing to make more of a career out of stand-up, the only female on the list Stephanie Lang came out and persuaded the audience we were all delusional as she is a garden Gnome and as everyone knows Garden Gnomes can’t move or talk. This young lady oozed confidence, seemed to have her performance well under control and has bags of scope to expand her act. I look forward to seeing more of her in the future and will be interested to see if she has any other characters in her repertoire.

Tony Basnet was the final performer in this first third of the show, he was quite interesting and looking forward to becoming a full time student possibly with opportunity to find more material. He seemed to enjoy himself and most of the audience liked him.

The second third started off with Derek Johnston. We have seen Derek before and he is just going from strength to strength. With all new material he is much more relaxed on stage and can be seen to be developing his act and becoming a comedian who will soon be doing more and more’ and getting the recognition he deserves.

The second performer David Hethron (sorry if we have not got the name correct) stepped in at the last minute as the second female on the line-up failed to turn up. His material was fairly funny and the thoughts of his racist Granny had me chuckling. Obviously not brand new to the circuit well worth looking out for.

Remember when I mentioned Stu I spoke about his Siamese twin well surprise surprise, Garry Dobson appeared. Seemingly Gary rarely performs on his own, but this was not obvious during his set. I just wish he didn’t look so much like kids TV character ‘Catweazle’!

Ross Howie was dressed as if going to a funeral and it was obvious it was not to be his own, but just how much more material can you get out of one pair of trousers and a matching Jacket.

Closing the second section was Gary Coleman, he was definitely at home in the limelight and has a good set with some interesting and very funny material. Obviously not a complete novice he is yet another name to look out for in the future.  

The final act of the evening was Glaswegian Hardman Del Strain, our first impressions were “oh my god, he is the father of ‘The Wee Man’” His style, although that of the stereotypical ‘Glesga Ned’ was hilarious and not at all threatening even when he held us all for ransom.  Although now living in London I hope he starts returning home to Scotland more and more and that we get the chance to see his full set.

As far as value for money is concerned there was not one performer on that stage who was not worth 5 to 10 times more than we paid.

Remember The Stand Comedy Club Edinburgh is working its way up to presenting its four venue Fringe Festival programme 2008 for further information see either www.thestand.co.uk or www.edfringe.com