Braw or Naw? with Christopher Macarthur-Boyd

An enormous NAW for the Cineworld on Renfrew Street closing down. I went for one last film there (The Long Walk on Thursday night) and the Proustian reverie was stifling. I think I’ve taken every girlfriend I’ve ever had to that towering mondoplex (that’s upwards of four people). I’ve seen Mean Girls there, and The Dark Knight, and the film where Robbie Williams is played by a CGI monkey. It was a powerfully shite cinema with the bammiest clientele this side of the Showcase in Coatbridge, but I’ll be sad to see it go. The tallest cinema in the world will now become the ninth tallest bloc of student accommodation in Glasgow. C’est la vie. 

A big BRAW to the new independent newspaper The Glasgow Bell run by Robbie Armstrong and Calum Grewar, which is setting my heart on fire with its mix of street-level beat reporting and savage restaurant coverage. Their recent article on the sad history of the Best Kebab guy and the recent spate of Tik Tok-related abuse towards him was stunning. (I will say that although Best Kebab’s kebabs are shocking, their pakora is actually fairly decent.) Their ranking of Glasgow’s best and worst pizza parlours was devastating but fair. 

Speaking to that, a profound NAW to the fact that Razzo Pizza Napoletana doesn’t have a branch in Glasgow. Their pea-and-meat ragu arancini makes me want to live, in a world where I’m rapidly shedding any reasons to. 

A heaping helping of BRAW to The Stand Comedy Club’s new Glasgow venue on Great Western Road. The old room on Woodlands Road meant an awful lot to me, but I’m excited to see what happens now that it’s shifted from the basement of a trade union to the body of a kirk. Extremely dope that the old Landsdowne Church is now the location of confused manboys doing their first five at Red Raw, as well as the climax to the novel Poor Things by Alasdair Gray. 

A wry NAW to Paesano Pizza for kowtowing to popular demand by introducing a range of dips to their menu. I found the consistency of their nduja-and-mascarpone sauce to be claggy, at best, in terms of mouthfeel. The DiMaggio’sification of the brand has been sudden, jarring, and unwelcome. At the same time, it’s reassuring to know that although I wasn’t an adult for the golden years of the economy in terms of social mobility and functioning public services, at least I was in my twenties when Paesano’s was cheap and good. 

Shoutout to Japanese engineering firm Hitachi for unleashing a BRAW on Glasgow by announcing they are establishing a centre of excellence in the city, after the Cabinet Secretary for Climate and Action met with Hirohide Hirai at the World Expo Osaka. I firmly believe they are here to stress test their massage wands on the hardest fannies in the global north. 

A heavy NAW to the recent far-right marches in Glasgow city centre, thankfully drowned out by an anti-fascist counter-protest that completely dwarfed it in size. Good luck, anyway, to the burgeoning fascists of the west coast on trying to be heard at the top of Buchanan Street, over the guys preaching Bible verses into a karaoke microphone and a Peavey practice amp. My message to the street preachers is that if you really believe in sharing the word of Christ, please invest in your rig. GuitarGuitar at Trongate does some great entry level amplification that could improve your tone sevenfold.

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Christopher Macarthur-Boyd tours Howling At The Moon throughout 2026, including Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, 4 Mar; Whitehall Theatre, Dundee, 16 Mar; King's Theatre Glasgow, 17 Mar, as part of the Glasgow International Comedy Festival

Listen to him on the Here Comes the Guillotine podcast (@guillotinepod) and watch his special Scary Times for FREE on YouTube

@macarthur.boyd on Instagram