Gael & Grain
Glasgow
March 26th, 2026
I am a terribly huge fan of Shakespeare’s song of Spring, from Love’s Labour’s Lost, the first first four lines of which read;
When daisies pied and violets blue
And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
Transferring such blossoming, vernal thoughts to the Comedy World, & we all find ourselves in Glasgow for the city’s International Comedy Festival. A simple metaphor is suitable, that what seeds are planted in the Central Belt in March, will have grown into full flowering shows by the Fringe.
For my trip to Glasgow this year, I chose to visit the Gael & Grain for a triple-header of comedians. The G&G is home to the ever-reputable Good Egg comedy nights, a 45-capacity venue bringing mirth & laughter to the heart of Glasgow. One of its compères, Ross Leslie, was at the venue, overseeing operations, I guess, & on thanking him for his ever smooth work, I plung’d right on into the evening’s three-course comedy meal, whose menu (with a couple of introductory questions each from the Mumble) reads;
JADE GEBBIE: THE PEOPLE PLEASER
Jade Gebbie (writer for The News Quiz, The Now Show and more) has always been a people pleaser, but now that she’s hit her mid-thirties she’s delving into how it’s held her back, annoyed her loved ones and why overthinking fictional scenarios isn’t a reasonable excuse for missing a work meeting. Come along to this debut from Jade for fun, laughter and a bit of anxiety… after all, she is a millennial.
What was the catalyst moment that made you want to get into comedy?
Jade: I have always been a massive fan of comedy. I’ve watched comedy for as long as I can remember on TV, live and being a big audio fan, I listened to a lot of audio sitcoms and sketch shows. After I finished university (many years ago), I thought I’d like to work in comedy in some way, but I never considered actually doing it myself. I was living in New Zealand for a few years and saw a friend do an open mic, and thought, I could do that! So I did! Since then it’s become a hobby, job and obsession! Basically if I’m talking, doing or watching comedy I’m happy!
How are you finding Glasgow & the comedy festival?
Jade: I arrived in Glasgow the day before my show and had a lovely, if cold, evening mooching about. I’m looking forward to seeing some shows once I’ve done my show. I’m off on the Comedy History Walking Tour on Friday which I’m excited about, learning and laughing! I was very impressed to see a big GICF poster right by where I’m staying, which I’m sure is to welcome me to the city and nothing to do with Alan Davis performing around the corner.
JAMES BYRON: EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE
James Byron is bringing their debut solo show to the Glasgow International Comedy festival hoping that that a blend of straight stand-up and alt-comedy will reassure their audience that ‘everything will be fine,’ even if ‘everything’ currently feels far from ‘fine’.
This heartfelt show weaves honest storytelling with a delightful mix of surreal observations, exploring everything from passport anxiety, to Tom Cruise’s middle tooth, to the ultimate cure for ‘the scaries.’
What was the catalyst moment that made you want to get into comedy?
James: I needed a new creative outlet having previously been the lead singer in a band. I thought to myself; what’s something I could do that’s significantly harder and scarier but ultimately gets me even more attention?
How are you finding Glasgow & the comedy festival?
James: I’m loving having more reasons to come through from Edinburgh to Glasgow to enjoy cheaper pints, nicer people and the comedy stylings of a bunch of my talented friends! There are far too many to mention but they’re all smashing it so you’ll likely hear about them anyway.
ISAAC ENNIS: MAY I BE OF ASSISTANCE (wip)
Let Isaac take you by the hand and lead you on a light-hearted ramble down life’s dark alleyways. Assisted Dying! Unassisted Living! God! Gerontophobia! Empire Biscuits! And could Comedy Clubs really be Gateways to Hell? All this and not much more, in a show that promises nothing.
Isaac has been a performer & playwright since 1988. He originally trained with scurrilous performance guru and professional provocateur, Philippe Gaulier, and was a founding member of award-winning theatre ensemble, Benchtours. TV appearances include corrupt Councillor McVitie in several episodes of BBC Scotland’s beloved sitcom, Still Game.
What was the catalyst moment that made you want to get into comedy?
Isaac: Without a doubt, working with the wonderful French comedy guru and provocateur, Philippe Gaulier for a year, back in 1990. Philippe Gaulier has been a huge influence on many comedy actors and comedians, such as Sacha Barron Cohen, and more recently, John Luke-Roberts, Elf Lyons, Garry Starr and Joe Kent-Walters (aka Frankie Monroe). Together with a bunch of ex Gaulier performers we started Benchtours Theatre in 1990, creating touring shows up until 20026. Sadly, Philippe passed away earlier this year, but he’ll definitely be on my mind as I step on stage at the Gael & Grain on the 26th March. The stand-up comedian I adored as a child was the delightfully shambolic Frankie Howard. (Any Howard-esque stutterings in my show will be unintentional) The stand-up comedian who really made me want to try stand-up would be the inimitable Maria Bamford.
How are you finding Glasgow & the comedy festival?
Isaac: I’m loving it so far. This is my first time here as a performer. I’m seeing a variety of established, up and coming, and new acts, such as Joe Kent-Walters (aka Frankie Monroe), the fantastic Viv Gee (my stand-up professor) in Lady GagGag, and the operatic Clare Haworth in Diva. I’ll also be catching up with some friends at various group and open mic nights all around the city.
Jade Gebbie
Jade Gebbie is like your favorite auntie, you know the cool one that you wish’d was really your mum. She was a great way to start my cornucopic comedy feast, whose champagne fizz banter was a great way to toast the launching. Clad in a canary yellow dungaree dress (with black accoutrements), her material is consisently funny, & constantly varied – there’s never a moment of drift. From dropping pills in spin class, to her love of toby jugs & cozy crime, when victims are ‘bludgeon’d to death, but in beautiful British countryside,’ I found her materielle entertaining & ‘native’, which probably springs from her domicile in the garden of England itself, Kent.
Jade’s theme is people-pleasing, with a dichotomic angle; she is an expert on the international sausage, but doiesnt eat meat, for example; or the fact that she’s not allergic to nuts, but is terrified of waking up after having develo’d a nut allergy overnight. Yeah, stuff like that, & loads of it – & all pretty funny. It’s going to be interesting to see how her show has evolv’d for the Fringe, after 5 months spit & polish, including a stint at Brighton.
James Byron
Watching James Byron is like putting on that brand new jacket you’ve just brought, all fresh & untainted by the dangers of life. There’s an element of maturity to him for sure, but he really is surfing his youth with all the guile & style of a supercool (non-binary) geezer. Byron is a proper scorpion in performance, alway’s pois’d to strike with a deadly angle. He also has a sidekick of sorts, who earns a ciggie every time they help – Oli Orr, who did a reyt funny turn themselves at the start of the proceedings. They were trans, & open’d with what I consider an immortal line, ‘if you don’t laugh, it’s a hate crime’ – ‘kin brilliant!
“Don’t piss in my pocket & tell me its raining!”
As we zip-lin’d thro’ an hour of comedy fusion flak’d with edible gold, interluded by confetti-spraying party poppers, the room was full of rompous energy – this was a shar’d experience, a symbiotic Thalian dance between artist & crowd. In layman’s terms, a reyt good place to be. As a self-monicker’d ‘sex positive legend’, he introduc’d the sexualisation of a strange cleaning his flat for sexual kicks, which was a thoroughly reality-bending segment which shows the depths, & even depravity, of Byron’s mind. But bloody excellent all the same!
Isaac Ennis
Enter Isaac Ennis, accented like a Superscot, from the wee Renfewshire idyllia of Bridge of Weir. He was joyously with us road-testing his material, & was soon regaling us of the winter of discontent in the 70s when Bridge of Weir went several weeks without humous. Suave, smooth & silver-hair’d, Isaac has constructed a well-sculpted comedy patter, weighing prominently towards his status as a gentleman of ‘certain years’.
In a comedy brochure pack’d with beautiful young comedians, where we’ll be wondering in which ways their comedy career will have develop’d by the following year, for Isaac he’s just hoping he’ll be here next year. All this led inexorably to the climax, a sustain’d segment on the Scottish Assisted Dying Bill, in which morose subject he did find much humour, including its potential support in town’s such as Kilmany in Fife.
More Questions
What does the rest of 2026 have in store for you & your comedy?
Jade: I’m excited for the rest of the year… I’m booked in to do a couple of Fringes (a bit closer to where I’m based), in Brighton and Kent, but then in August I’ll be bringing this show to Edinburgh Festival. It’ll be my first time doing my own solo show up there for the whole month, so I’m looking forward to that. Once the summer is over, I’m not sure, I’ve written a comedy short film, so hopefully making that and most likely working on a new show! (Though I don’t want to get too ahead of myself!)
What did you learn from your performance at the Gael & Grain in respect to the development of your set?
James: My performance at the GICF was hard evidence that the more fun I have on stage the more fun the audience will have. This of course is a very tired cliché and something that I’ve always heard but not really believed, but after that performance I can safely say that the daft ideas that I found funny went down equally well/better than the jokes I’d spent time crafting.
What does the rest of 2026 have in store for you & your comedy?
James: My plan for the rest of 2026 is to hopefully take my Glasgow show to the Edinburgh Fringe for a small run and try to make it stranger and more surreal each time. I’ve also written some sketches which I’m hoping to film soon and showcase on Instagram to my tens of followers. I’d also really like to write some actual jokes, I have no idea how I’ve been getting away with it for this long but I think someone is bound to notice!
What did you learn from your performance at the Gael & Grain in respect to the development of your set?
Isaac: I learned that – for better or worse – I can do a one-hour comedy show! One of the reasons that I did it was because the blessed Maria Bamford said I should – in her predictably hilarious book, You Are (A Comedy) Special: A Simple 15-Step Self-Help Guide to Forcibly Force Yourself to Write and Perform a Full Hour of Stand-up Comedy. (Please don’t tell me you meant it as a joke, Maria!)
What does the rest of 2026 have in store for you & your comedy?
Isaac: May I Be Assistance? will be my very first ever proper stand-up show. It really is a Work-in -Progress, with much of the material never having been road tested in front of an audience. So, let’s see how that goes. A lot of big comedians do weeks of previews/ work-in-progress before they properly go-public, but most comedians don’t have that luxury. I realise I’m probably running before I can walk…but at my age – over 60! – I want to give it a go …while I can still actually walk. (please insert laughing emoji, or that will sound really sad!). I’m also working on a ‘character’ comedy show called ‘Burns In Hell’ where I’ll be revisiting the character of Rabbie Burns, who I last played in a few solo comedy shows back in the late 90s, early 2000s. This one will see Rabbie ruminating on the state of Scotland from his new eternal home in Hell. That one will definitely be imbued with the spirit of Philippe Gaulier.
There were quite a few friends & family in, and I have to say, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to playing to them. Most of my friends & family have no idea that I’m doing this. I know, my dirty little secret. My daughter, Flora, was there. She has seen me doing a few 5-minute and 10-minute spots and has always been supportive. In fact, the biggest compliment she could have paid me is to invite her cool young friends along. Let’s face it, if she thought deep down that she was in for a night toe-curling embarrassment at her father’s public humiliation – she probably wouldn’t have invited them.
On a more serious, professional note, I learned than in future I should trust myself more to deliver the bits between the bit…and to loosen up a bit. It also confirmed what my old mentor, Monsieur Philippe Gaulier once said, about owning the ‘flop’ for the failure to land a joke can result in something even better. I was also minded of something else he said, about being human and vulnerable, but unapologetic. I had been in his class desperately trying to be funny in an improv, and the harder I tried, the more desperate and less funny I was. Eventually, I gave up, and shoulders slumped, I slouched off stage…only for everyone to start laughing. “Now we see your humanity and vulnerability!” he said, in his thick-as-Camembert French accent, “Next time, come on as if you are going off!”.
Of course there is a line to be drawn when it comes to appearing vulnerable; we don’t want the audience’s pity! That would be disastrous! But neither do we want them to see us fearing failure…or apologizing for it. I play around with that a bit in my show with regards to my being an old-new comedian. Of course ‘being new to this’ jokes have a definite shelf life, but ‘being too old for this’ jokes can only get better…with age.
Thank you to the good eggs at Good Egg Comedy, for your help and support.
themumble.uk 