Hero Worship – Sean Hughes

Frankie Boyle, Doug Stanhope, Sam Kinison. All comedians that I admire, but all ones that I was only exposed to after I began performing stand-up comedy. The first two live, and the latter via recording. Before I began performing stand-up at the age of 18 though, one of the few comedians I’d seen performing live was Sean Hughes – at the Carnegie Hall in Dunfermline.

I’d spent my early teenage years watching his series Sean’s Show on Channel 4. It was only watching it back a couple of years ago that I realised just how many of the themes and styles explored in that show had unconsciously osmosed into my own act. A desire to deconstruct, the musings of a disappointed romantic, and the occasional attempts to inject pathos into humour are all things that I’ve dabbled with in a considerably less successful manner than the man who won the Perrier Award at the age of 24.

By the time I’d got to see him live it was already a different Sean Hughes. In his show, Alibis For Life, the levels of pathos had grown. Even as a 17 year-old without the life experience to fully appreciate the show’s nuances, it was still inspiring to see someone bring such emotional depth to comedy. Since Sean’s Show he’s been a poet, a writer, an actor… but for me it’s as a stand-up that he becomes all three in one.

Anybody who only knows Sean Hughes from Buzzcocks or Coronation Street should shell out the paltry £3.93 Amazon are currently asking for Sean’s Show on DVD and treat themselves to the work of one of the one most talented and influential comedians of the last 30 years. Then get your tickets for the Citizens Theatre and enjoy him live too.