Words by Helen Knott
Comedian Fern Brady brings her third solo show – Suffer, Fools! – to Birmingham’s Glee Club on 29th January. Tickets are £12 in advance, with doors open at 8pm for an 8.30pm start. For direct gig info, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.
*The Fern Brady Suffer, Fools! show on 29th January has been rescheduled from its original date of 26th January. For more information on refunds or issues relating to the rescheduling, please contact The Glee Club box office on 0871 472 0400*
Fern Brady is quickly building momentum as one of the UK’s most promising up-and-coming comedians.
If an appearance on Stewart Lee’s Comedy Central show The Alternative Comedy Experience was an early badge of quality, this has been backed up with approving reviews and high profile appearances on Russell Howard’s Stand Up Central and Channel Four’s 8 Out of 10 Cats. Brady starts 2018 embarking on a long UK tour, followed by a string of dates at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, before another series of dates back in the UK.
Brady reportedly first tried stand-up comedy after the magazine she wrote for during the Edinburgh Fringe suggested she write an article where she faked it as a comedian. What the magazine didn’t know was that Brady secretly wanted to try stand-up comedy anyway, so took the gig much more seriously than was strictly needed.
She hasn’t looked back, eventually making the final of the Fringe’s prestigious award for stand-up newcomers, So You Think You’re Funny, in 2011.
Just don’t label her a ‘Scottish’ comedian. Brady is uncomfortable being a talking head on issues of Scottish independence and is reportedly unimpressed with the English’s preoccupation with her nationality. But perhaps (after watching several YouTube snippets) some of the problem with the later lies in the fact that Brady‘s fairly broad accent (to my English ears, anyway) bolsters her no-nonsense delivery. And God bless this green and pleasant land, but an English accent just doesn’t have the same clout.
But of course, there’s much more to Fern Bady than being Scottish. Her autobiographical material (she claims to be terrible at making things up, so everything she talks about on stage is true) is self-assured, knowing and easy to relate to. This is a great chance to see a comedian on the up, in a relatively intimate venue. I’d get in quick, before she’s packing out arenas.
Fern Brady on Seann Walsh’s Late Night Comedy Spectacular
Fern Brady brings her Suffer, Fools! tour to The Glee Club (B’ham) on Monday 29th January – rescheduled from 26th January. For direct gig info, including venue details and online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk/performer/fern-brady-tour
For more on Fern Brady, visit www.fernbrady.co.uk
For more from The Glee Club venues, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk
