My Glasgow: Julia Sutherland

Julia Sutherland is a stand-up who always impresses us on the live circuit, and also a radio presenter and producer. Here she highlights her experience hosting New Material Night at Yesbar

Feature by Julia Sutherland | 18 Mar 2015

I am a proud Glaswegian. I love my city, its people and its humour.

And I love the wee basement room in Yesbar which has become my comedy home in Glasgow (they do pizza by the metre and have prosecco on draft – throw in Johnny Depp feeding me chocolate gingers and it's how I imagine heaven...).

Every Wednesday for the past three years we've put on a New Material Night in this intimate space. It's filled with red chequered cloth topped tables, fairy lights, and sometimes more comedians than audience members.

The first time I compered the gig I was terrified. I felt so sick and nervous that I genuinely considered throwing myself down the steep staircase before the gig, just to break something (ideally one of the smaller bones) and get out of doing it.

But since that first night, I've felt less and less scared with every passing week. Now I can step on that tiny stage, grab the mic, and holler "Hello Yesbar!!" as relaxed as I'd be in my own living room... after a couple of G&Ts (okay, often I HAVE had a couple of G&Ts. Stop judging me).

As a comedian, it's really important to have spaces where you feel you have permission to fail. New jokes are almost never perfect when first imagined, and sometimes they turn out not to be jokes at all... New material nights are a bit like shopping in T.K. Maxx. While you'll get a designer suit for a steal sometimes, most of the time you'll be leaving with a bag of broken biscuits...

I'm proud that some of my comedy heroes (Fred MacAulay, Kevin Bridges, Limmy, Gary Little, Janey Godley, Des Clarke, Paul Sneddon, Mark Nelson) have come down to support the night – whether performing, or just watching – and I'm happy the night has helped some future comedy stars (Keiron Nicholson, Jamie Dalgleish, Christopher McArthur-Boyd, Richard Brown and many more) work on their material too.

Our new material night will continue to run to audiences of two or more every Wednesday, until the bar runs out of gin.


More from The Skinny:


My Glasgow: Georgina the Bride

Spotlight: Seann Walsh takes on Fred Fletch

Julia Sutherland is Feeling Kind of Funny plays at YesBar, 20 Mar, 10pm (Yesbar was formerly known as Vespbar).