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stand up and be counted

Colin Yule argues the case for the live, intimate and exciting prospect offered by true stand-up comedy and profiles the talent and workings of fellow Scotsman, Stu Who?.

Miles Davis once said that the greatest experience he had had - with his clothes on - was seeing Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker on stage together. For a lot of people, seeing the performer at a gig has the same sense of fulfilment.
I have never been completely enamoured by live music. Big venues have often filled me with the sensation of drowning in a sea of drunken, wired enthusiasts who know something I don't. Only in a jazz club have I felt comfortable. Maybe I just like to sit down and watch with a drink close at hand. Hence, comedy clubs have a certain appeal like no other live venue. The only experience I can equate to that of Miles Davis was seeing the comedian Stu Who? at my local venue.
For months I watched a succession of ex-students parade the easiest gags available about drugs, sex and student life. It worked at the time but in hindsight it all began to sound the same. When I first saw Stu Who? he strode on stage looking like the Johnny Cash of stand-up - black outfit, shades and naturally wired. There was no pretence of being an amusing undergraduate who was having a go at comedy. For starters he was old enough to have fathered half the audience.
His act is a combination of one-liners and conversation, as if the comedian had dropped by your place and accidentally slipped into a routine. Stories about other comedians and bizarre gigs flow freely along with confessions about his family life. The latter illustrating that he can still show his teenage son that dads are not always entirely predictable.
What Stu Who? proves is that stand-up belongs in a small venue, not on patchy TV programmes or in West End theatres. The intensity of a good stand-up, ten feet from your table, is unbeatable. Stu Who? doesn't appear as this weeks comedian on ironic gameshows. He travels the UK and Europe, playing small venues and the comedy tents at various festivals - Glastonbury, Phoenix and Tribal Gathering - and enjoying himself as he does so. He appears to have no apparent 'off' switch which comedians often hit to turn them into 'normal' people who happen to tell jokes for a living.
Working the live circuit would seem a thankless task. The American comedian Richard Jeni commented that most American stand-ups perform live simply to obtain their own sit-com (something he did with Platypus Man ). At the time he was talking about Bill Nicks and why the late, great Texan didn't fit the pattern. The same reasoning can be applied to Stu Who?. A comedian who could easily replace the lesser talents on the box but does not want to.
By referring to only one stand-up performer (and not a particularly well known one at that), my intention is to convey how live comedy is an exhilarating experience. That it is possible to find stand-ups who are better than some of the big household names. Case in point is a take-no-prisoners Glaswegian performer called Stu Who?. +

Coming soon to this page: exclusive interview and chat between Richard Morton and Stu Who? !!!

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These pages first created 12/10/97 Last Modified 15/1/98
These pages first created 12/10/97 Last Modified 15/1/98