By Megan Merino
One of the joys of flicking through a Glasgow International Comedy Festival programme is seeing new emerging names printed alongside long standing legends. Fred MacAulay falls into the latter category, beginning his stand-up career on the Scottish comedy circuit back in the 90s before becoming the first ever Scottish compere at the Comedy Store in London. A hugely successful broadcast career followed, first as one half of presenting duo McCoist and MacAulay for BBC Scotland and an 18 year-long stint presenting his own radio show MacAulay and Co.
30 Years of Laughs
With 30 odd Fringe festivals under his belt, the seasoned comic is preparing to bring a new work-in-progress show to this year’s Glasgow International Comedy Festival. But does MacAulay still feel the same level of excitement for writing new shows? “Excitement is probably about 40% of the feeling, terror is the other 60%” he chuckles. “At any point in your career when you’ve got to come up with new material you can hit a brick wall. [The pursuit] still fills me with enthusiasm.”
MacAulay is no stranger to penning an hour of gags. Still, the process of putting a show together has only grown in complexity, he explains: “When I would do festivals in the 90s, the first night would be when you’d put the whole show together and try it out. It’s a much bigger industry than it was back in the day. Now you’ve got so many more warm-up gigs. I guess it all leads to a better gig for the performer and a better show for the audience. But a lot has changed in the last 30 years.”
For better or worse, comedians nowadays are very concerned with narrative arcs and hard-hitting truths, but MacAulay believes there’s still a place for more traditional stand-up: “I’ve never done a show that’s been about a specific event in my life” he says. “I always say the most honest name for a show is ‘a number of things that I thought might be funny’, which is a good philosophy for comedy, but not sex…”
Good Night…Comedian!
Having chosen a slightly more succinct title for his upcoming show (Godnight… comedian), MacAulay took inspiration from a post-gig conversation in Glasgow. “The gig had gone really well. I was dead chuffed and feeling pretty pleased with myself when I went outside where there were two young lasses standing there, gin and tonic in one hand, cigarette in the other, and they looked at me. I said, “Well, good night girls!” One of them said “Good night…. comedian!” She’d registered that I’d been on stage but had no clue what my name might be.”
A slice of humble pie is always useful to tether us back to reality, a notion that MacAulay seems to be exploring in this new hour and as he enters the next chapter of his career. “I think it’s important for everybody in this business to know who you are and where you are in the comedy firmament. My day of doing big theatres has come and gone but I’m someone who will never give up doing stand-up. If I get 200 people at the Oran Mor then I’ll be chuffed to bits.”
Venues may have downsized, but it’s clear from MacAulay’s recent appearance on the Some Laugh podcast (hosted by comics Marc Jennings, Stephen Buchanan and Stuart McPherson) that his influence can be felt by the next generation of Scottish stand-ups. “It’s nice that [younger comedians] do refer back to us as paving the way” he says, before adding “but I still don’t understand the whole podcast thing!”. So maybe we shouldn’t expect a podcast reboot of the McCoist and MacAulay show anytime soon. “Well maybe, except one of us is the busiest man in show business!”
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