As a lover of live comedy I am often prepared to travel a good distance to see shows so it was a very pleasant surprise to be able to actually walk to a gig for once. One of my local hostelries, The Clubhouse Dalgety Bay, were trialling what may be the first of many monthly comedy shows dependant on how well it went down . And if was free!! A bonus? Well maybe.

With not too much advance publicity in evidence it was pleasing to see that on my arrival that there was a healthy crowd already in place, but a little disconcerting that there was a pool table well in use and a number of tellies all showing football in full flow. The comedians were all there but it seemed the punters had little idea that they were in for a comedy night.

Eventually however the management turned off the football and stopped the pool and compere for the night Jojo Sutherland started off proceedings by setting the scene for the night ahead. Now I have seen this lady perform a number of times and know what a capable comedian she is and yet inspite of the funny stuff that was flowing from the stage, it was obvious that a fair percentage of the people present had little or no interest in listening, such was the level of chatter going on. She tried to get order a number of times and occasionally succeeded, I really felt for her.

Opening act Mikey Adams is another well experienced pro who I had seen a few times before and although he is fairly young has a wealth of experience and funny material in his locker. Glaswegian Adams certainly gave it his all, eliciting laughter from those who deemed to listen through out his well crafted set. Again the crowd were not giving the best of order and it spoiled it somewhat for those of us who were there for the comedy.

A brief interval followed and then Jojo wrested control back with a healthy dose of her funny stuff prior to introducing Daniel Webster to do a short set. Again he has been around for a few years and had some nice material, but the constant battle with the noisy venue detracted from his performance. Again like those before the listening audience enjoyed his set, it’s just a shame that the non-listeners were so vocal.

Closing out the gig was the vastly experienced and extremely funny Vladimir McTavish. I have seen him perform numerous times too and know what an eloquent performer he is with enough material to play for hours. He carefully selected some of his greatest hits to offer to the public, but unfortunately as with the others a lot were more interested in their own conversations than listening to an extremely funny man. More fools them.

I have always had the feeling that free comedy gigs are a two edged sword. Yes it gives the chance for newcomers to this world to experience the phenomenon, but by not having to buy into, or invest in the show tend to treat it as a background noise such as a jukebox, and often fail to give the performers the respect they deserve and merit. Certainly my heart went out to all of the comedians at this gig.