IF fans of television's cult comedy Burnistoun are wondering why it took Robert Florence and Iain Connell so long to bring their favourite characters to the stage, they might want to consider the duo's last live appearance together.

 

It was more than 20 years ago at Petershill Juniors Social Club in Springburn in the north of the city and it ended in a right rammy.

Robert was doing an act with someone else but Iain was also asked along.

"Is that the last time we did something together live on stage? We did get barred, didn't we?" laughs Robert.

Adds Iain: "it ended in a brawl and everybody was barred. We've not been back since."

So who knows what might happen when they stage Burnistoun: Live and For Real! at the King's Theatre on March 25 during Glasgow Comedy Festival.

Tickets went on sale at the end of last year and were snapped up in less than an hour. Not bad going when you consider the BBC TV sketch show, which only ran for three series, ended back in 2012.

We're sitting in Lucky 7 Canteen, a bar in Bath Street, on a busy Friday afternoon and the guys are drinking tea from dainty vintage china cups as we talk about the upcoming show.

Rehearsals are still a while away and the comedy duo, who met when they were teenagers and went on to write some of most memorable sketches for Chewin the Fat, are still penning scenes for the stage production.

"We want to get some new stuff in there. We'll be writing for a good while probably, changing things," says Robert. "It's always a long process getting these things ready. And we were quite surprised at how quickly it sold out.

"We'd been having conversations about wee things we could do in January to try and drum up more sales. We genuinely didn't anticipate it to sell out."

So popular has the prospect of the return of Burnistoun been for fans that more live date are now being planned for later in the year. That will be a relief for comedy fans who wonder why it has taken the pair so long to put together a stage show.

If the ticket sales for Greg Hemphill and Ford Kiernan's Still Game's 21-night sell-out run at the Hydro is anything to go by, there is an insatiable appetite for live comedy in Scotland.

"We had been talking about it since it was on TV. We probably should have done it then but it just takes a long time to get round to doing things," says Iain.

"You have different ideas and it was always there as an option. Then you blink and think, 'That was a couple of years away.'

"The Comedy Unit suggested doing the festival, that was what started it off. We were talking about maybe writing a new thing to do on the stage and they said, 'You could do Burnistoun at the Comedy Festival'. So, it wasn't even really us who came up with the idea."

What really made the decision for them was the offer of the King's Theatre, according To Robert.

"When the Comedy Festival said we could use the King's and they could sort that out, that's when we really went, 'That would be magic,'" says Robert.

" It's one of those things, it will just be brilliant doing it there. I've seen so much good stuff at the King's, I'm excited about that.

"I'm also excited about just seeing in the back of the King's. Just because of the history ... is there not meant to be a ghost as well? "

Deadpans Iain with impeccable timing: "Aye, there will be after we finish."

It is doubtful that 1700 eager ticket-holders won't be wrong as they look forward to seeing some of their favourite Burnistoun characters.

The Quality Polis, McGregor and Toshan, will be there and maybe even making a few arrests in the audience. It could be a re-run of events at Petershill Juniors Social Club all over again.

"I quite like when you go and see a comedy show live and there's that kind of interaction," says Robert. " I think the thing Ford and Greg did well at the Hydro was it looked like you were going to be watching Still Game on stage but then they broke out of that and there was a lot of audience stuff and characters in the audience. They did that really well."

There will be plenty of new material too, performed by Burnistoun regulars Kirsty Strain and Louise Stewart, as well as their inimitable raps in the style of the memorable "Whose shoes are they?" from series two.

Robert and Iain say their favourite sketches involve both of them sitting in a living room talking, just like friends Peter and Scott.

Robert hints that there could be more to come from that particular pair of characters.

"There will definitely be more Burnistoun after this live stuff because we like it. There are certain characters like Peter and Scott we have often thought it would be good to write a play with just them on a couple of couches on the stage for an hour and a half," he says.

"There's more stuff you want to do and can't in a sketch show. There will be more stuff coming down the line definitely.

"On Twitter quite often I have people going, 'When's it coming back?' And you just have to go, 'Ahhhh, just wait and see'. I've had to do that for months now."

"Put in some wee winky faces," says Iain.

Burnistoun: Live and For Real!, King's Theatre, Glasgow, March 25. Visit www.glasgowcomedyfestival.com