Gary NcNair takes to stand-up stage, but isn't game for a laugh

But that’s exactly what Gary McNair is set to do.

However, the Erskine-born theatre maker – and now stand-up comedian for a stint at the Citizens’ Theatre – hasn’t been allowing too much sun to get to his head.

“I wanted to explore the world of the stand-up comedian,” he says, smiling.

“I had this idea that comedy had evolved from the seventies, from the days of Bernard Manning.

“Back then, the humour was so much about racism or homophobic jokes, and it could be cruel.

“So I took on this idea to look at comedy with the idea of appearing as a stand-up.

“But when I did go to a huge range of comedy shows to see what was going on I was taken aback.”

Gary studied comedy with a passion, (“I’m one of the few people to have watched Jerry Seinfeld and Ken Dodd in consecutive nights”.) He travelled to New York to take in the comedy circuit.

“What I saw was that so much comedy these days is still about insulting the audience.

“It’s a cheap, formulaic and easy way to get laughs. But it’s not clever.

“I was hoping that comedy had headed in the direction of some of my comedy heroes such as Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor. But that wasn’t what I discovered at all.”

Gary, who has written and performed internationally successfully comedy shows such as A Gambler’s Guide to Dying, came up with the idea of becoming a stand-up comedian, in an attempt to make the audience realise there is material they really shouldn’t be laughing at.

“I was looking at people such as Al Murray,” he says of the Londoner who created the right-wing Pub Landlord character.

“And while he was being ironic when he started out with his character, the 2000-strong audiences he sells out to at London’s Hippodrome don’t see the irony at all.

“What we have all too often is Jim Davidson humour. And while the likes of Jim Davidson don’t get on the telly now, they do still play to audiences who buy into that sort of humour.

“What I wanted to do was say, ‘Okay, people are laughing. But think about why you are laughing.

“I’m a big fan of (American comedian) Louis C.K., who comes out with some horrendous things, but the difference with him is he points out to his audience what he’s trying to do.

“He makes them aware of what they’re laughing at.”

What about the likes of Joan Rivers, or Jimmy Carr, comedians who built careers on character assassination?

“I liked Joan Rivers, but I think Jimmy Carr doesn’t have to go to the lengths he does.”

But how to create a show which enlightens an audience, yet stops them laughing when it comes to the dinosaur jokes?

If Gary simply takes to the stage and doesn’t get laughs he may make a point, but it’s hardly likely to entertain an audience?

“That’s definitely the case,” he says grinning. “But what I hope to do in the show is not get the laughs, but in the process of failing on stage, people will laugh.”

He believes audiences love to watch a horrendous failure.

“It’s human nature,” he says of the Roman Coliseum mentality.”

What the writer has done is create a show via the prism of a stand-up character called Donald Robertson.

He explains how he came up with this creature who tries desperately hard to be funny, but doesn’t quite make it.

“He’s based on a bloke I met on a bus to Bellshill one night,” he says, grinning in recall.

“We were on the upper deck and he was telling jokes to the rest of the passengers. And he just didn’t get it.

“But as I saw him perform, I thought ‘He is what I’m trying to achieve. I’ve found my way to write this piece’.”

Gary, who is co-writing this year’s Oran Mor summer panto, will get the balance right. He’ll make the show as unfunny as it needs to be, and in the process will leave the audience laughing.

And more aware?

“I hope so,” he says. “As a society we need to move on from the prejudice.”

However, there is an indicator that audiences are shifting at least from the old gag stereotypes.

“I really liked the Mrs Merton interview she did once with Bernard Manning,” he recalls.

“She was really nice to him and then said sweetly, ‘Bernard, don’t you think you’d be funnier if you weren’t racist’, and this truth got huge laughs.

“But some comedians realise they have to move with the times.

“I saw Ken Dodd at the Pavilion a couple off years ago, and he was great, on stage for three and a half hours telling gag after gag.

“But two hours into the set he told an inappropriate joke, and what was great was the audience, who weren’t young, groaned.

“What was even better was that Ken Dodd picked up on this and apologised. And for the rest of the set his jokes were back on track.”

Gary points out that Ken Dodd has been trading on the ‘Happiness’ concept for years.

“That’s what I want people to think about with my show,” he says.

“Comedy should be about making people happy, not simply making people laugh.”

* Donald Robertson Is Not A Stand-Up, the Citizens’ Theatre, May 19-21.