We need to talk about Kevin

Hey fat boy, give us an interview or we'll stab you. Comedian Kevin Bridges has become one of Glasgow's most successful exports. The 23-year-old tells BRIAN BOYDwhy the accent helps and why he'll be recording his next DVD in Dublin

YOU KNOW you’ve made it as a comic when people on the street shout the punchline to one of your jokes at you. “This happened me a few weeks ago, and it was a really strange experience,” says Glasgwegian comic Kevin Bridges.

“I have this routine, and a line in it has me standing at a bus stop and someone coming over to me and saying ‘Hey, fat boy, give us a quid or I’ll stab you’. I don’t drive, so I take buses everywhere, and I was actually standing at a bus stop a few weeks ago when a guy on the other side of the road shouted out ‘hey, fat boy, give us a quid or I’ll stab you’ to me. I started laughing, but all the other people at the bus stop had no idea what he was referring to. They were looking at me thinking how hard I must be to be able to laugh off such a threat.”

Bridges, still only 23, has had one of the fastest ascents of any comedian in the modern era. Whereas most big-name comics spend a good five years-plus making the progression from scuzzy clubs to arena shows, Bridges did it all in less than two years. And there’s been no smoke or mirrors, hype or management push behind his rise – he’s just quality through and through. And as is obligatory to point out – still so young.

“I get my age mentioned at every turn,” he says. “When I began it was all ‘and he’s just 17’, then that became ‘just 18’, ‘just 19’, and I still get it today – ‘and he’s just 24’ – but that really doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it? People do go on about how seemingly quick it was for me, but I was at the centre of it, doing all the rubbishy gigs, so I’ve a different perspective on it.”

Now the third biggest-selling Scottish comic (behind Billy Connolly and Frankie Boyle), Bridges has just released his first DVD – recorded in front of 10,000 people at Glasgow’s SECC earlier this year. “The energy and the atmosphere the night we recorded it was amazing – but then it was a Friday night in Glasgow,” he says.

Bridges, who comes from a working-class background, says he was a nervous and timid child before he learnt the manifold benefits of becoming the class clown. “It was always the same with school reports: ‘Kevin just won’t knuckle down.’ I wasn’t really that interested in school, but a career in stand-up was the last thing I thought I’d end up doing. I didn’t even watch much comedy – I think my sum total was one Billy Connolly DVD and one Phil Kay DVD, but one night, out of nowhere, I sent off an email to a local comedy club (Glasgow’s famous The Stand venue) looking for an open spot.”

When the club replied a few weeks later, he was in a state of shock. “I just stared at the email for hours and hours and went into a state of panic. I didn’t want to do it, but at the same time I didn’t want to let them down, so I asked my dad if he would drive me up, and I think he was more nervous than I was. The only reason I had sent off the email in the first place was that my friends had told me I was funny – but that’s a lot different to actually standing up in a club and doing it.

“I remember when I got there, because I was under age, there was this letter pinned to the wall of the bar which said ‘Under no circumstances is anyone to serve any alcoholic drink to Kevin Bridges’, and I think that letter is still there behind the bar in The Stand.”

He had a take-it-or-leave-it attitude to that first gig. “If it went well, then that was fine, but if it hadn’t gone well I would have chucked it entirely,” he says. He did well enough to be invited back, and gradually picked up a few more local gigs. “I never called myself a comedian, though – if I met a friend in the street and he asked me what I was doing, I’d say I was unemployed. Anything was better than saying you were a comedian.”

There’s nothing edgy or subversive about Bridges – this is not Mighty Boosh territory. He’s old-school in his manner and delivery, but it’s the sharpness of the material that impresses most. Like all inspired comics he can make connections that you never thought were there, but when he presents them seem blindingly obvious. He’s as far from being the urbane, slick panel-show comic as possible. There’s a robust earthiness to his material that isn’t very mainstream-TV friendly.

“The panel-show thing is huge now, but it can get very competitive, with everyone trying to outdo each other. They are a great way of raising your profile, but it’s not the sort of format I enjoy.”

Bridges is a beneficiary of the new comedy order (see panel, below), where shows such as Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshowand Live at the Apollocan see a successful turn greatly increase box-office power. "It can make you a bit dizzy going from playing to 100 people in a club to 10,000 people. These programmes, because so many millions watch them, reach an audience who wouldn't normally go to comedy clubs."

Despite the occasional rawness of the material, there’s a warmth to Bridges and how he presents his comedy. And the Scottish accent helps. “It can’t be a coincidence that Scotland has produced so many comics,” he says. “The accent seems to be suited to stand-up. But the problem I still have doing shows in England is that I really have to slow down and enunciate the words. There’s nothing worse than doing a show in Peterborough or somewhere and the heckle is ‘speak English, please’. But I do think a regional accent is a big plus in this job. And if you look around there’s John Bishop with his Liverpool accent, Dara O Briain with his Dublin accent and Peter Kay with his Manchester accent.”

A frequent visitor to Ireland, Bridges says he was very close to recording his DVD in Dublin’s Olympia Theatre because of the reaction he gets from Irish audiences, but opted for a homecoming Glasgow gig in the end.

“Irish audiences seem to appreciate more of a storytelling approach, so my stuff goes better there. I’ve done all the venues, the Comedy Cellar and the Kilkenny Cat Laughs festival included. I did my first Olympia show this year and was so happy with it that I’ll definitely be recording my next DVD from there.”

For now, though, there are meetings with TV people about having his own show on the small screen next year. “You have to be really careful with TV, as a lot of comics get star struck, take the first thing they’re offered and end up in a pile-of-crap show. I’m being very careful with what I might or might not do because I don’t want to be known as the guy from the crap television show. You do as many great gigs as you like, but one crap TV show and you’re forever known as that wanker from the TV.”

What’s so funny? Irish comedy reborn

“There’s a massive property boom in comedy at the moment,” said Sean Lock in an interview this year, and the figures show that live stand-up has never been in a healthier state. If you go back to 2004 there were roughly 100,000 tickets sold for big comedy shows in the UK and Ireland; in 2009 that figure has gone up to one million tickets. Sales of live comedy DVDs have jumped about 35 per cent in Ireland.

With name comedians now able to pocket a €300,000 advance for their DVD, and with acts such as John Bishop and Kevin Bridges selling more tickets than well-known rock bands, the old “alternative” circuit has been bulldozed out of the way by the new mainstream.

In Ireland this year – while the top-tier comics such as Tommy Tiernan, Dara O Briain and Des Bishop all consolidated their position with sparkling new shows – what really surprised was the amount of new comedy clubs opening up all around the country. Granted, audiences were hard to find and some disappeared as soon as they arrived, but there is a new fresh wave of Irish comics chasing the spotlight.

As it stands, there are waiting lists of over three months for even unpaid open-mic spots in the established clubs, with the result that a lot of people are going the DIY route and hosting their own comedy night in order to get stage time. Exciting new names are beginning to emerge: Eric Lalor, Aidan Bishop, Gearóid Farrelly and Chris Kent.

* Kevin Bridges plays Derry’s Millennium Forum on Saturday, Galway’s Róisín Dubh on Sunday and The Cork Opera House on Monday

* Live DVD Kevin Bridges – The Story So Faris out now