6.2.12

Comedy preview: Joe Heenan's Movie Madness @ The Stand, Glasgow

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VIDEO: Stand-up comedian Joe Heenan performing at Magners Pint-sized Comedy with Dave (2010)



If – like my old friend Gaz – you’ve watched The Matrix trilogy so many times it’s ruined your life, then you probably consider yourself a film buff.

But really, it’s not all that useful knowing how long the first instalment’s lobby shootout scene took to shoot, is it? (Ten days.)

Apparently so, because Joe Heenan’s Movie Madness tests this very passion for pictures.

Taking the form of a comedy panel quiz, the show gets you thinking while it tickles your funny bones.

It involves a fairly-presentable bunch of stand-ups going head-to-head with the audience on questions of small screen trivia – and may just be the best thing to happen on a Monday night in Glasgow’s West End for a while.

The eponymous host and quizmaster will be well-known to The Stand’s regulars – after all, Joe Heenan is one of the venue’s MCs – but what of tonight’s team captains?

Well, they’re also fine specimens of Scottish comic talent. Pitting their wits on stage are Stuart Murphy, of the popular Whose Lunch Is It Anyway? improvisation show – and Mark Nelson, whose dark and cutting brand of humour might soon be filling a Frankie Boyle-shaped void on the UK stand-up circuit.

And while there’ll be jokes shared, there’ll be no cheating here. You’ll be hung, drawn and quartered before a baying crowd if you go on IMDB for answers.

But even if such a disproportionate punishment were enacted live, this show would still be a laugh. It’s also only £4 to enter a team of up to six.

So maybe we should head down there after all? I’ll drop Gaz a line if you want.