Stuart McPherson @ The Stand, Glasgow

The crowd’s very much in Stuart McPherson’s favour for this penultimate outing of The Peesh. It’s a semi-homecoming for the Fife-raised, Glasgow-based comedian where the audience is giddy with enjoyment from the off. Part way through, he mentions that it’s always been a bit of a dream to perform a solo show at the Glasgow Stand, having witnessed the absurd mundanity of Scottish cult comic David Kay at the venue when he was a teen. For his first solo gig at the venue, McPherson plays a blinder.

There’s no doubt that The Peesh is a confident hour. It loosely follows McPherson on a low-energy stag do where he discovers that the allergies and flare-ups he’s been suffering are actually symptoms of a chronic illness. He’s a self-deprecating, modern man who wears his vulnerabilities on his sleeve, spinning his further bouts of bad luck into winning, relatable observations about house buying, escape rooms and overlong (aren’t they all?) voice notes. He’s also a more physically gifted comic than you might expect, energising the room by leaping into axe-wielding stances and dropping into squats as he gushes to his personal trainer-cum-therapist.

McPherson’s meandering style means he’s quick to wander off course, adding tangents and tidbits of new material here and there, yet you can tell he’s still got a firm hand on the reins. Each thread is neatly tied with second-half callbacks which, even when you cotton on to the structure, still reach satisfying pay-offs.

Although there’s a tighter, sharper version of The Peesh somewhere, when you’re immediately embraced by McPherson’s charm and swept up in his nice-boy stories, there’s little to sniff at. It’s a pleasure to be in his company and it’s even more of a pleasure to share what is clearly a momentous gig with him.

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Reviewed on 21 Mar at The Stand, Glasgow as part of Glasgow International Comedy Festival

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