Thursday 15^th January finds Geoff and I heading once again to The Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh, this line-up consists of Carl Hutchinson, Nick Morrow, Graeme Thomas along with headline act Junior Simpson.

Most Stand shows are guided and directed by the host for the evening and on this occasion and for the next two nights this is Susan Morrison. After a bit of a gap away from the Stand Susan is back with a vengeance. Mind you the audience was any good comedians dreams come true, a large party of young American students and an office party from a financial institution. Susan whipped us up to a comedy seeking frenzy by getting us to laugh not at these groups but with them. Although I’m not sure if we didn’t loose our students several times some items definitely did not cross the Atlantic.

Susan introduced our first performer Carl Hutchinson. New to us, however Carl won a newcomer award in 2007 so has potentially a great future ahead of him. He certainly has stage presence and a whole raft of material, most of which is very funny and well observed. This gifted Geordie is a name we will look out for in the future and hopefully it won’t be so long until we see him again.

After the first interval Glasgow based Nick Morrow had the task of picking up where Hutchinson left off and he was more than up to the task. He had ample funny material to fill his set, a set that was too short for most of us.

Widely travelled Graeme Thomas closed the second section. It has been a while since we have seen this Edinburgh comic and he has had a very successful Fringe run last year under his belt in the meantime. Graeme started with some stuff from his Fringe show but there was plenty more in the tank as it never stopped for the duration of his set.

Top of the Bill was the effervescent Junior Simpson. We have seen him on TV on numerous occasions however this was the first time we had managed to catch him live. The energy this Essex based comic expended almost made me exhausted just watching him. He had some absolutely first class material and I just found his time evaporated. It is obvious that he has been around the very top of the comedy circuit for ages as his presentation, confidence and set could be summed up in one word, professional. Although this was the first time I have seen him live, all being well, it certainly won’t be the last.

This line up is on at The Stand both on Friday 16 and Saturday 17 so if you are quick you will be able to see them all as well, or you can find out which acts that are gracing Scotland’s premier comedy club by checking out their web site www.thestand.co.uk

One slightly sad note, we learned that the chef Matthew will be leaving his kitchen after nearly ten years shortly. We’ll miss his excellent food; however, wish him well for the future.