We chat to Craig Hill ahead of his show at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival 2025

National World - LocalTV

Craig Hill discusses incorporating the audience into his shows and honing his comedy.

Transcript

00:00One day I'm going to go to Leo and say,

00:01do you know I came here because of your egg mayonnaise sandwich in Glasgow?

00:04Just walk straight in.

00:05I love that story, isn't it great?

00:06We'll just walk straight in and go, egg mayonnaise sandwich, please.

00:10And I've got his name and everything, and I've got the people that work there,

00:12and it's a ridiculous connection because of an egg mayonnaise sandwich.

00:16Comedy in Glasgow, the kind of infrastructure of it and stuff,

00:20people, you know, there's the obvious people that have started off doing shows here,

00:25in Edinburgh, other places,

00:27but what can you tell me about this as a place to kind of start off telling stories?

00:34Well, it's got a storytelling tradition and it has had for a long time.

00:38And, you know, I remember people in Glasgow and Liverpool, both very similar cities,

00:43both saying, you know, you'll know you're funny if you play one of their places

00:48because they'll not just laugh for the sake of it,

00:50but you'll need to be as funny as them because the audience are often quite funny.

00:54So I think it's a good place to start your comedy career and test whether you're actually funny

00:59because the audience here have a lot of power,

01:01and if they see any fear in your eyes, you'll know about it.

01:04So I think it's a pretty ballsy place to start your comedy career.

01:07I think it's a good start.

01:08And I didn't realise that at the beginning, you know,

01:11I was just going on stage and doing what I was doing.

01:13But it definitely has informed a lot of the things I laugh at

01:19and playing in front of the audience was a good test for moving everyone else.

01:24Your show is very much in your own voice,

01:28taking things that you, you know, observe here, elsewhere,

01:34translating that, telling it in your own way.

01:37What about like the fact that you can take that with your own accent,

01:41with your own voice, your own story,

01:43and you can take that to Australia, you can take that to New York?

01:46Is comedy just always funny?

01:48It's a good question because you would imagine that,

01:51because loads of people say,

01:52I can't really imagine you're going to do well in Australia.

01:54As long as they understand what you're saying,

01:57you know, as long as they're actually able to understand the words you're saying,

02:00it's the same job.

02:02But you can change it as well.

02:03You know, you can't indulge yourself quite as much as the part as you do in Glasgow.

02:09There's so many funny, I love Glasgow language, you know, Glaswegian,

02:14and there's a lot of comedy in that.

02:15Sometimes you can't use those things and you have to really modify.

02:18But as long as you've changed it enough to explain what it is you're laughing about,

02:22people still get it.

02:23I think comedy is the same almost anywhere.

02:28Australians don't take themselves too seriously, Canadians.

02:30I think this thing is, people think sometimes the comedy is representative of the country,

02:34but it's actually representative of people who go to comedy.

02:37So the same kind of people who would come and see you in Australia

02:39are the same kind of people who would come see you in Glasgow.

02:41They're people who like what you do and they like that kind of patter.

02:44And you might have to slow it down a wee bit and explain some of your references,

02:48but it's fun.

02:49It's quite a revelation to find out that you and your perspective on life

02:54and your Scottishness is still something they can laugh at and relate to.

02:57I'm really chuffed about that.

02:58Yeah.

02:59What about this show that you're bringing to the festival?

03:01What was the kind of start and off point for that?

03:03What was the inspiration for this?

03:05Well, first of all, it's always the title, isn't it?

03:07I've always got all my double entendres.

03:09So I've been sitting on this for a while.

03:11I just think, well, now I can't not have a double entendre title

03:15because that's what I've become known for.

03:17So the title is just a kind of funny kind of invite to my sense of humour.

03:22But the starting point was really, it was interesting

03:26because part of the sitting on this for a while

03:28was the thing I've been sitting on this, I wanted to sing a wee bit more.

03:31And a lot of people said to me, I wish you would sing more in your shows.

03:33And so for the first time ever, I do this big show tune.

03:38My goodness, we've got Craig Hill, the musical.

03:40Oh my God. Let's write that.

03:43And I ended up adding more music into it as well.

03:46I didn't really mean to do that.

03:48So there's a Glaswegian verse of Madonna called Mad Donna

03:51that I do in the show where it's all Madonna songs sang by a Glaswegian,

03:54which immediately I just thought my audience would love that.

03:57And I like it as well. It makes me laugh as well.

03:59But the starting point was really turning 50.

04:02And I never talk about getting older, but it is a funny subject.

04:06And then you realise your audience, sometimes your audience are younger,

04:09sometimes your audience are the same age, sometimes a bit older.

04:11And ageing is quite a funny subject.

04:12So it started off there, but it's really just anything

04:17that has made me laugh in the last couple of years.

04:19It's like a catch-up.

04:21It's like a comedy catch-up on what you've been up to.

04:22And I've got such a nice, loyal, faithful audience.

04:26I feel like we're all just catching up again.

04:28And that's a lovely feeling to go on stage, feeling like it's our show.

04:33It's not just my show, it's our show, it's for us.

04:35When you do a show in Glasgow, you do a show at The Fringe,

04:38where you've been for many years,

04:39do you tend to see people that you've seen for all of the years?

04:44100%.

04:45100%?

04:46Apparently they stand in the queue and compete with each other

04:48about how long, how many times they've been to see me, which is nice.

04:51They tell me, like, I've been to see you seven times this month.

04:53I said, well, I've been nine times.

04:54And I thought it was quite funny, the idea of them competing with each other.

04:58The nice thing about touring and the nice thing about doing Glasgow Comedy Festival

05:01is, like, Edinburgh, you do an hour and it's more or less maximum an hour.

05:05And when you're touring and when you do Glasgow Comedy Festival,

05:09I mean, I do, it's nearly two hours.

05:11So it's like, the first half is like 45 to 50 minutes and then an interval,

05:14and then another hour.

05:16So it's like a proper night out.

05:17And I like that because it means there's a lot of space

05:21in the first half to get to know the audience, which is my favourite thing.

05:24It's like, if I didn't speak to the audience, I wouldn't find some of those corkers.

05:29Sometimes the way people use language, like, I was doing this gig the other night in Livingston

05:33and there was a woman in the audience, came in late, and I said,

05:36what's the kerfuffle? What's happening? What's happening?

05:38She went, oh, she says, I've paid to see you twice.

05:40No moneys because he's landed in the hospital.

05:43And I was like, I love your use of language.

05:46Where are you from? Landed in the hospital. I love it.

05:49And she came from Ayr. And then it was so Scottish.

05:52The guy in front of her turned away.

05:55What were you in hospital for? And I said, you cannae ask that.

05:58That's his private business. And she said, oh, it was his internals.

06:01And I was laughing. I thought it was so Scottish.

06:04You just say exactly what's happening.

06:06There's no privacy at all.

06:08The man's not even asked whether everyone should know his business.

06:12And I thought, God, if I didn't speak to the audience,

06:14I would never find out those characters that have made the show quite special.

06:19And it means that every show becomes really unique.

06:21So I've started writing a wee blog about every show for the audience to put on Facebook,

06:25for them to get a wee mention.

06:27But it's also to remind me of, oh, that's the night that thing happened in Greenark or Glasgow.

06:31So my shows are very off the cuff, but it's usually the first half is off the cuff

06:36and the second half is more or less the show that you did for The Fringe.

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