The Glasgow International Comedy Festival returns for 2025 with Darren Connell set for a headline show at the King’s.
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00:00Yeah, I'm quite nervous, but it's a good nervous.
00:02A lot of misery and awful gigs have led up to The Kings.
00:09And you know, I'm getting to a point now in my life that I'm 37,
00:14I refuse to be too nervous, I'm going to enjoy it.
00:18I have worked really hard for this.
00:22Apart from, I know that lockdown happened,
00:25but I was very much part of the Glasgow Comedy Festival
00:29since I started.
00:30Essentially sold out every show that I've done at Glasgow
00:34and it feels really nice to get a chance to do The Kings.
00:38The history behind it and all that stuff is just unbelievable
00:42and I'm looking forward to it.
00:44What was your starting point for coming up with this show?
00:48What was your initial idea that became
00:50what you're going to deliver on stage?
00:53Well, I think I got asked this earlier on.
00:57Lockdown happened and I, like everyone else,
01:02lost a lot of things in my life.
01:04Lost my flat, work and all that stuff.
01:10And I found myself teetering around being quite bitter
01:14and getting jealous and I've never been that person.
01:19So instead of kind of sitting back
01:21and just becoming bitter and jealous,
01:22I just made my own work by creating gigs,
01:26doing a podcast and when you're an actor,
01:30they do these things called self-tapes now
01:32and self-tapes can be pretty horrible.
01:35You have to film your own edition in your house essentially.
01:40So I kind of want to treat it like it's a self-tape edition,
01:46going through different stages of my kind of life.
01:50I'll talk about how I first started,
01:53how my first gig, to how I got to The Kings.
01:57Obviously I talk about my family quite a lot,
01:59that's a big thing.
02:00And yeah, so it'll be like my own self-tape edition
02:06with stand-up as well.
02:08I don't want to give too much away,
02:09but there might be songs and stuff in that as well,
02:13and dancing.
02:14Right, well I think you'll have to update
02:15your actor CV as well to include musical ready.
02:20Yeah.
02:22What about in terms of taking inspiration
02:25from everyday life and stuff?
02:27Is it, you know, something happens
02:29and it's a fully formed bit of the show
02:31or do you have to kind of work through it
02:33and try and get some angles on it
02:35and that kind of stuff?
02:36How do you do your writing?
02:38I don't, I know a lot of comedians sit down
02:41and they treat it like a nine to five.
02:43I don't feel like I do well under those circumstances.
02:47I like to go out walking
02:48and when I go out to clear my head
02:50and find myself daydreaming
02:52or the moment when I'm just about to fall asleep,
02:57ideas will pop into my head
02:59and then I'll, it could be a word.
03:02I'm like, I find that phrase or word really funny
03:05and then I'll go to my Wednesday night gig
03:07and kind of figure it out on stage.
03:10But that's how I write.
03:11I keep it really loose, real life stuff.
03:14I joke about family, being working class,
03:18being sober back in the day,
03:21mental health issues and seeking help
03:23and getting help
03:24and getting out the other end of that
03:26and just being able to joke about it
03:28and then realising that essentially
03:30you can actually make a joke about anything.