Laura Russell

13 August, 2009

LAST Friday’s Clickimin Comedy certainly promised to be a laugh - another comedy night compered by Unst based funnyman Sandy Nelson sounded too good to miss.

Part of Shetland Arts’ Creative Connections 2009, the stand up night showcased local and visiting comedic talent alike including headline act Michael Redmond, known to many for his deadpan delivery as Father Stone in TV’s Father Ted.

Sandy, our host for the evening, bounded onto the stage like a rock star, immediately engaging the audience with his witty and often controversial banter. He was the perfect person to warm up the audience for the other acts, and very entertaining in his own right.

Eilidh MacAskill was first on stage, bringing her trusty ukulele with her. Last year she set herself a new year’s resolution of playing at least one ukelele concert a day and the audience was treated to a taste of it with “Eilidh’s Daily Ukulele Ceilidh”. Putting her observational comedy lines to music was definitely a fun idea, and one that went down well with the audience.

After the first interval, local man Les Sinclair took to the stage. Having performed several recent gigs in Shetland, Glasgow and Edinburgh, Les shows real promise. Not yet the finished article, with a bit more practice, experience and material he could be a force to be reckoned with.

Steven Dick upped the tempo of proceedings with his mixture of stand up comedy and sleight of hand magic, amazing the audience with trick after trick. With the help of some on stage audience members he wowed the crowd using playing cards, various props and a Kiwi fruit! Steven had everyone howling with laughter and was hailed by many to be the highlight of the show.

After a second interval the stage was set for the headlining act, Michael Redmond. Although his act seemed to take a while to take shape, he was well received by the crowd. Touching on topics including evolution, religion, spare ribs and golf, he had some people crying with laughter. His most memorable lines were ones used to deal with a drunk and persistent heckler.

After a fairly short set, Michael bade farewell, leaving the stage as Sandy bounced into place for his last stint. He rounded up the night thanking all the comedians and Shetland Arts for bringing them up. Although all the acts got a cheer, the biggest went to Steven Dick for his outstanding performance.

The night was a huge success, and hopefully one that will be seen in Shetland again very soon.