Since Geoff and I took advantage of becoming ‘The Stand Comedy Club’ members we go across to Edinburgh as often as possible, with a little thought  and careful planning you recoop your membership costs after just two or three visits. Get your timing correct and you don’t even worry about where to eat as basic but great value freshly cooked meals are provided on the premises.

We get the chance to see local regulars, new up and coming talent, current big names on the circuit and occasionally blasts from the past making infrequent visits north of the border.  The Stand Comedy Club Thursday 26^th June 2008, presented us with regular host Bruce Devlin, newcomer Martin McAllister, up and coming star in the making Jay Lafferty, stand regular and occasional host “Rock Star” Sandy Nelson and Richard Morton a particular favourite of mine although it is some time since I last got to see him.

What can I say about host Bruce Devlin, the more I see him the more I like him and would love to see him doing a half-hour or longer set. Although his comedy can occasionally be somewhat  abrasive, he can gauge his audience within minutes and play to their individual requirements. He is perfectly at home in the compere slot, which you can see for yourself during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival Monday’s to Friday’s at 12-30 for free at The Stand Comedy Club 5 York Place.

The first act to grace the stage Martin McAllister, was totally new to us. His deadpan presentation is not an easy one to master although Martin seems to be right at ease with the delivery. I do have questions about the contents, and material he used and found little of it very funny. There were one or two promising moments but for me just did not tick the boxes.

After the first interval Bruce introduced the young attractive Jay Lafferty. Both Geoff and I have seen Jay before, we first saw her during Red Raw in November 2007 and were both impressed then.  Geoff has seen her since and hoped she would cover her explanation of ‘The Off-Side Rule’ for women, thankfully she did and it is hilarious. She has certainly come a long way since that first show and with a little more material, lookout boys, this new girl is on the block and not giving way at all.  She has the potential to use her tiny sharp elbows to push you all out of the way and wow audiences.

We were then treated to Glaswegian Sandy Nelson, who may not be the tallest comedian on the circuit, and although aspiring to be an ‘Uber-sexual man’, you need to see his act to get the definition cleared up, feels he is failing miserably.  His comedy always has me rolling about with laughter, but when asked to propose to an audience member,  the section took on a really surreal turn. Having liked Sandy for some time, not just because he is funny or because I find him cute it was good to see him after quite a while.  Geoff has seen him hosting other line-ups but I haven’t so that is something for me yet to do.

Probably the main reason for us to go this weekend was to see Richard Morton, still a regular on TV and the northern circuit occasionally coming up to another Comedy club in Edinburgh.  I managed to see Richard during The Edinburgh Fringe Festival sometime ago and had a great time. Even although Richard has recently become a dad he is still superb and his set seemed all too short. I hope it is not quite as long until I get to see him again.

Whatever show you go to see we are sure you have a great time. We were sitting next to a retired man of the cloth he said that although this was his first time at a comedy club but he is now hooked. To find out what is on at The Stand go to the website www.thestand.co.uk