Project You Three: Words with award-winning comedian JD Brown
After scooping Best New Comedy Act at last year's Yesbar competition, JD Brown talks about new show Project You Three with Graham Barrie and Pablo Serski, and how he nearly gave up on comedy
JD Brown has racked up more than 1000 miles since launching his comedy career just last February.
From Inverness to Bristol, Brown has made crowds laugh with his perfectly timed deliveries and references to his chaotic upbringing in 1980s North Lanarkshire. Then late last year, in a fiercely competitive contest at a Glasgow comedy hub, Brown was crowned the Yesbar Virgins New Act winner.
Despite reaching such heights, the down-to-earth storyteller isn’t getting carried away: "In comparison to guys who have been doing this for 10, 20 years, I’m very much still the new kid on the block and there’s a lot I still have to learn," says Brown. "The art of stand up comedy has no pinnacle. Even guys like Frankie Boyle, Russell Howard and Kevin Bridges, guys that can sell out arenas, even they haven’t 'made it'. There’s always another level you can reach."
Things could have been very different for Brown after a disastrous slot in London. Determined to succeed in the Big Smoke he managed to secure ten minutes at the Udderbelly Festival. But, things didn’t go to plan: "Straight away they looked at me like I was a piece of shit on their shoe... My opening joke about dating a girl who looked like a Gothic Honey Monster went down like a lead balloon and after that I had folk talking over me and heckling me."
On the coach back to Glasgow, a dejected Brown seriously considered throwing in the towel, he felt like a "like a half-shut knife, totally knackered."
"I thought I was going to go down there and smash the room and become the next Billy Connolly, but I may as well have just shat on stage with the reaction I got. It made me feel so small. On the bus back, all I kept thinking was, 'Well that’s my stand up career finished. What’s the point? I’m shite.' I didn’t gig for a while after that.”
After a short break (and pep talk from his fiancée Rhea), Brown put the trip behind him. He teamed up with fellow writers and comedians Pablo Serski and Graham Barrie which led to the development of current venture Project You Three.
Brown says: "Graham’s been on the circuit for a while now and he’s an absolute natural. Off the stage he’s daft, but on it he takes no prisoners... Pablo has been compared by professionals to Frankie Boyle in terms of his joke writing ability and delivery. At our level I don’t know of any one better. The guy is a machine."
"My own style is very observational, I like to tell stories. We all met at a show through in Edinburgh last year and decided to start writing together."
The trio now bring their show to the Glasgow International Comedy Festival. With the Yesbar triumph and the group's strong rapport, Brown and his comedy partners will doubtless continue to perfect their art.