Rosco McClelland on hell, WIPs, and Scottish comedy

“I was thinking earlier on,” says Rosco McClelland mere hours after hosting The Stand’s legendary Red Raw, “there was nobody from my era on the bill, and I thought 'Am I now an elder statesman of Scottish comedy?'”

Having honed his craft for over ten years now, the comic surged onto the Scottish scene in a wave of equally talented peers (Christopher Macarthur-Boyd, Liam Withnail, Gareth Waugh, and more).

McClelland’s most recent live show, Sudden Death, was a standout at last year’s Fringe and his most personal yet. “I've tried to talk about this before, but I wasn't ready.” ‘This’ is his diagnosis of a rare heart condition, Long QT Syndrome. 

Now keen to explore the issue onstage, he has no trouble leaning into the show’s darker undertones. “There's some great tension in it which I love... previously, I’d introduce something to the room, pop it and go 'don't worry it's fine.' But there's some bits in this where I'm just letting it hang, going 'do you know what, I've been dealing with this for 36 years, how about you deal with it for a minute or two.' McClelland still has no trouble popping tension in other ways though: “There's also a bit about how my dog's going deaf and that's really funny.”

Sudden Death also saw McClelland view success in a way he’d not before. “I had a great Fringe, and I got to see how things were working at the top of it,” a window into the machine which is the Edinburgh Comedy Awards. “I was like, 'Is that really it? Is the main goal here to win Best Show so you can come back and do what you want without worrying about it?', cos well, if that's the peak of artistic existence, how could Hell be any worse?”

But the comedian’s already looking ahead to the summer. “Some of my friends, my peers, they’re taking a year off,” he jokes, like a boxer staring down the barrel of a weigh-in. “I'm not scared, right? I'll do it every year. I love it. I love the pressure. I work better under pressure so I might as well just stay under it.” 

Having tested the waters at Glasgow Comedy Festival last month, his approach to WIPs is a little different to other comics. “I like to be ready,” he says. “I want people to enjoy themselves. I can't be pulling back the curtain too much and saying 'what do you think about this?’” Although there’s no theme yet, he lets us in on what he’s writing about at the moment: “Mostly, it's about birds,” like his favourite which his wife keeps showing him on TikTok.

Returning to his stint at Red Raw, McClelland is quick to name some newer local acts who he recommends we keep an eye out for: Kathleen Hughes, Ayo Adenekan and Alvin Bang are all on his watchlist. He credits their self-assuredness as to why. “Just knowing who they are and what they want to talk about is such a great starting point. It took me a while to find that.”

It’s something he thinks is particularly well-formed in Scotland. “Sometimes I'll go down to London and gig and I'm going: 'Is this your brightest and best here? What is going on man? Don't send these up cos they won't come back with happy stories’.”

On the ‘Made in Scotland’ theme, McClelland received a second nomination for the Billy Connolly Spirit of Glasgow Award, courtesy of the Glasgow Comedy Festival. He was bowled over by the nom last year, especially when he found out the Big Yin watches videos of those shortlisted. “It's just really cool to know he's seen me, cos I saw him once in Buchanan Galleries but he was standing next to a stall that sold wellies and I thought 'well that's a bit on the nose.’”

Good to know he remains humble despite the talent. “When I lost last year, you could go 'Ah well, you gave it a shot', but what would be funnier would be to continually enter it every year regardless.” And with the result unannounced at the time of our conversation, he’s already decided how it’ll go. “I'm saying 'I'll see you next year' even before it's been judged so I'm ready, I'm committing to the bit. That's what you get from me.” In the end, Rosco took home the big prize – proof that even the self-proclaimed elder statesmen of Scottish comedy can be surprised by its twists and turns.

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Rosco McClelland: Sudden Death, Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, 13 Apr, 7.30pm, £16; Number 57, Dundee, 18 Apr, 8pm, £15

@roscomcclelland on Insta / @rossisacoolguy on X / @rosco on Twitch