Interview: Fred MacAulay

Scottish comedian Fred MacAulay has been on the comedy circuit since the late 1980s. As well as his stand up tours, the Perth-born comic has been a regular on television and radio comedy panel shows, presented Children in Need, and currently has a Sunday radio show on Greatest Hits Radio. His latest tour, What(ever) Next??: Again!! starts at the Highland Cinema in Fort William on Thursday May 25.

 

How are you, and where are you?

 

I am very well, thank you, and today you find me quite a distance away from Fort William: I am in Peebles, having a pre-tour break golfing with three old school pals. We golfed yesterday and my play was not as good as it should have been. But that is golf, isn’t it?

 

Your new tour starts in Fort William. Have you been to Fort William many times before?

 

I have gigged there, I think, twice. But the last time I was there it was not to gig. It was with Dougie Vipond and we did the official opening of a new downhill mountain cycle track. Dougie Vipond is somebody who spends his leisure time doing that kind of thing. I had never done it before. I thought all I was going to have to do was say a few words at the top and pose with a bike. But I had to go down the blooming track, which for a man of my age with no experience was quite a challenge. I love skiing downhills, but that was very different. But I got from top to bottom and I didn’t fall off. I did alright.

 

One presumes Dougie Vipond is good at this sort of stuff.

 

Dougie is fit. Years ago Dougie and I kayaked from Fort William up the Great Glen through the Caledonian Canal for Sport Relief. In those days I was as fit as him. Now I am not.

 

This tour is taking you to a few of Scotland’s smaller towns rather than the big cities. What is the motivation for that?

 

It is where I think I can sell tickets! First and foremost. If you want to be doing the bigger venues I think you have to either be on TV a lot or at the height of your comedy powers. I have done big tours in the past.

 

But I did this show last year, 20-odd venues, enjoyed it very much, and thought well, I will get back out this year, add in whatever new stuff has come along in the intervening period, and just see how it goes. And I am doing it in preference to doing the Edinburgh Fringe. It is about the size of venues I play at the Edinburgh Fringe, but doing it around Scotland. It gets me out and about.

 

What can your Fort William audience expect at the show on Thursday?

 

So the show is called What(ever) Next??, and it is really just a reflection of what has been happening in politics and society since March 2020 when we had out first lockdown and the world turned upside down. I went something like 20 months without any proper work, and it was a time of grave reflection. 'Whatever next?' is one of my old mum’s expressions of exasperation, and that is pretty much how we have all been feeling for the last wee while. So it’s about me, and my stage of life - a lot of the people who come along to my shows tend to be a similar age, which is not the first flush of youth. There is a lot of grey hair and nae hair in the audience.

 

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Is there a particular difference between preparing for TV work and a live show?

 

Certainly preparation for stand up is all me. I’m quite proud that over the years I have never employed writers - I just do my own stuff for stand up. Whenever you do television you are at the very end, as the presenter or the act, of a long production line. You see photos of the crew for a show like Have I Got News For You: there will be about 70 people. In stand up the responsibility is with you. You might have a sound and a light man, but apart from that, it is your gig.

 

Do you have a team with you for this tour?

 

Not for this, no. Every venue has their own people, and I don’t have any tour management. I just jump in the car, and if I think I have got time I will throw a set of golf clubs in the car and maybe get nine holes in some place.

 

How do you go about finding ideas for your show's content?

 

That is an interesting one. I tend to be what I would call a reactive comic, which is that I react to situations and places. What I have never been great at over the years is sitting down and bashing something out at a computer, unless it is topical.

 

For 18 years I used to be a regular guest on The News Quiz on Radio 4, so that meant that on a Wednesday you would speak to the producer and get a kind of guide on what the big stories would be. Then you sit down and write it out. It was the same for Breaking the News on Radio Scotland, and I am still an occasional guest for Hugo Rifkind on Times Radio. Again, that is something where you write specific jokes to the newspaper stories.

 

Now I have my own radio show I always try and bring in a bit of topical news for that as well. But that is again reactive. You are just looking at a headline and seeing where you can get a bit of a funny slant.

 

You have been in comedy since the 80s. What is your view on the current comedy scene?

 

I would highlight Scotland as being in probably the best state for comedy in my lifetime. We have so many gifted young comics, it is phenomenal. If you pop into The Stand in Glasgow or Edinburgh, or The Monkey Barrel in Edinburgh, any day of the week, you will see Scottish guys who are guaranteed to make you laugh. Susie McCabe, who was up in Fort William a few weeks ago. Her support act, Christopher Macarthur-Boyd, he’s brilliant. At the Glasgow Festival, people who have done relatively little TV, like Marc Jennings - Marc sold out the King’s Theatre, which is like 2,300 people. They will have a big presence on TikTok or Instagram. I would say that the scene in Scotland is fantastic.

 

There is a lot of chatter in the newspapers and social media about what are acceptable jokes. Have you had to adapt to suit audiences?

 

I have never really been controversial. I was asked recently if I wanted to comment on the cancellation of Joanna Cherry’s show at the Fringe, and I said: 'Look, I have had a 35-year career. I’m not going to muddy the waters by getting involved with something with which I don’t think I have the answer to.' Even now if I did something controversial, I’ll just say I’m in my 60s and during Covid I was diagnosed with a condition called Long Not Giving a F*** Anymore. If you come to the gig you will maybe hear me say good evening ladies and gentlemen, and I am sorry if I have misgendered anyone. But I steer clear.

 

This is a question you have probably answered a thousand times before, but how did you first get into comedy?

 

I always wanted to do something in entertainment. Luckily in the 80s they started a thing called So You Think You’re Funny, a competition for people who wanted to try their hand at stand up comedy. I entered that, and that was that. I didn’t win the competition, but I knew I could do it so I continued.

 

And what would you say to people who wanted to start a career in comedy now?

 

Dead easy: go and do it. Write your own material and get yourself as much stage time as you possibly can, because the only way you will ever get better is to do it again and again and again. If anybody has an inkling that they want to do it they should definitely do it. Dead simple.

 

Finally, as you see people like Kevin Bridges and Frankie Boyle selling out massive arenas, are you still sure that starting in Fort William was the right choice?

 

(laughs) Well, yes. Of course I am going to say that. But if I had the choice of doing 13,000 people in the Hydro or 100 people in the Highland Cinema, what do you think my answer would be? I mean, I used to be an accountant: even when you knock off the VAT and the marketing budget I still think the Hydro is going to ace that one.

 

 

Fred MacAulay's What(ever) Next??: Again!! is at the Highland Cinema, Fort William, at 8pm on Thursday May 25. Tickets are available via the Highland Cinema website.