Right Said Fred, Here's How To Be Funny

Jun 29 2008 By Katrina Tweedie

Sunday Mail Comedy Champ So You Want To Be A Comedian

IF you told a job adviser you were thinking about a career in comedy, they would think you were having a laugh.

But it is perfectly possible to make a lucrative living as a comedian in Scotland.

With clubs throughout the country, the Edinburgh Fringe and now the Sunday Mail-sponsored Comedy Champ with a £5000 prize - this is the place to be discovered.

But you will have to be quick if you fancy your chances as Scotland's next top comic.

You have until Tuesday to enter our contest. So start cracking those jokes and send us your best shot to the www.comedychamp.co.uk website.

The people who make us chuckle most will go through to our showcase on Saturday in Glasgow.

The best will go on to the Comedy Champ/So You Think You're Funny heat during Edinburgh Festival.

Fred MacAulay is one who gave up the day job to make it as a stand-up and he is in no doubt about what he prefers.

He was an accountant for more than a decade before he packed it in to pursue his passion for comedy.

"Comedy was something I wanted to do and I knew from the minute I stood on stage it would change my life," he says. "There was a period when I did both but, even then, I would not have said comedy was a hobby for me. But at that stage in my life I had a lot of financial commitments and I couldn't give up my day job."

Fred says now is a great time to pursue comedy as a career.

"It's a hard field to break into but in Glasgow and Edinburgh there are full-time comedy venues open seven days a week. That's 14 gigs a week that didn't exist before.

"Twenty years ago, when I started, there weren't any. I didn't know at the time of quitting accountancy how things would go and I never thought I'd earn as much money but I was fortunate enough that in my first quarter I had to register for VAT."

Fred is one of Britain's leading comedians, with a morning show on Radio Scotland and regular TV spots.

His advice is straightforward: "Just do it. That's what drove me on.

"I waited until I was in my 30s because I didn't know how to go about it and an easy route into comedy didn't exist in those days.

"Age and experience gives you a gravitas and confidence on stage but I would still tell people to go for it as early as they can," he adds.

"Not every comedian has to be unique", says Fred. "There are many generic comedians who can make it because there is such a big demand for live comedy.

"If you can deliver a decent few minutes stand-up you don't need to have a particular strength but it's the people who have something different about them who will excel."

But standing on stage is not for the faint-hearted, warns Fred. "There is always the fear and that's something that never goes away but you just learn to disguise. it."

And success inevitably brings recognition and fame.

Fred said: "I have no objection to being recognised because of what I do but equally I detest celebrity and all it stands for. But everything that happens to me can be material at the end of the day."

Fred's current tour ends tonight at the Aberdeen Arts Centre.