Phil Kay

Isy Suttie: My Comedy Hero

7 Sep 2010

I think Tim Minchin and Tom Basden are brilliant, but I find it more difficult to watch musical comedy because I’m more critical of it, or I think, ‘Oh god, why didn’t I think of that?’ But the way that Tim Minchin can flip from one thing to another is…

Edinburgh Fringe 2010 comedy highlights for a fiver

The best comedy shows doing cheap previews

27 Jul 2010

A Betrayal of Penguins The two young Irish jokers return with more sketchy nonsense in a show entitled Don’t Run with Scissors? Gilded Balloon Teviot, 4-6 Aug, 2.45pm. Adam Riches The man behind Rogues Males is back in the saddle as he…

The Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival

Still breaking barriers and bigger than ever

17 Sep 2009

It started in 2007, with 40 fairly low-fi events, mostly in and around Glasgow. Two years on, and the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival is collaborating with major Scottish artists, musicians and writers, co-running events with the Natioanl…

Phil Kay: London Aye!

The crowd are in hysterics from the start

24 Aug 2009

In many ways, Phil Kay is the spirit of the Fringe. He’s a manic, funny, shambolic, Scottish, hairy hobgoblin of an exhibitionist, and embodies any adjective you care to ascribe to the festival. Witnessing his performance at midnight in amidst the revel…

Al Pitcher - Phil Kay My Comedy Hero

19 Feb 2009

Al Pitcher: 'Have you ever seen a comedian try to capture lightning in a bottle? Go and see Phil Kay. I first saw him at the Red Rose Comedy Club in London. I hadn’t tried comedy at the time and was greeted by the strange pre-show sight of a bearded and…

Big Tent Festival 2008

17 Jul 2008

While the pretend hippies drive their SUVs to Glastonbury and this year’s T in the Park fades into lager-sodden memory, all yer actual planet-savers are off to Falkland Palace. The Big Tent Festival, which grew out of a response to the 2005 G8 summit…

Phil Kay

Impish, semi-mental charm

9 Aug 2007

For the uninitiated, the first breathless minutes of the bedraggled, beardy and rambling Phil Kay’s routine are like watching a homeless dope smoker who has accidentally wandered onstage. But as he ricochets through his tales of shoplifting, smuggling…

Phil Kay

11 Nov 2006

5 THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT... 1 The manically surrealist one was the second ever winner of the prestigious So You Think You’re Funny award. Fellow Scot Bruce Morton won the inaugural prize in 1988 and the likes of Rhona Cameron, Dylan Moran…

Phil Kay

11 Aug 2006

In written words alone, it’s difficult to do justice to Phil Kay’s ad-libbing ability. At their height the wild, childlike performer’s transports of improvisation become things of comic beauty. He might as well have a shortwave receiver in his head…