Attention Deficit, Sexual Fantasies & Racism

Live at East Kilbride Arts Centre on February 9 2007

More Janey Godley videos

Janey Godley was brought up in the East End of Glasgow. Aged 19, she married into a gangster family. For 14 years, she and her husband ran a pub in the tough Calton area, a venue which saw the first performances by Jerry Sadowitz. In 1994, she turned to stand-up herself and has since played everywhere from the Glastonbury Festival to inmates at Scottish prisons. She was also a contenstant on the 2004 C4 reality show, Kings Of Comedy

In 2002, she won Best Show Concept at the New Zealand Comedy Festival and, in 2006 won the Spirit of The Festival Award. Also in 2006, she was a finalist for the 44th annual Scotswoman of the Year Award.

Her autobiography Handstands in the Dark, a top ten bestseller both as hardback (2005) and paperback (2006), covers her pre-showbiz life.

She writes non-comic features for The Scotsman newspaper, has written and performed a one-woman play The Point Of Yes, and continues to write a successful blog, which she started on Chortle in 2004.

Janey Godley: Godley's World - Fringe 2009
Live Review

Janey Godley ushers the audience to their seats herself, creating a persona for each as they arrive. There are chuckles over Tam’s aversion to plaid and Betty’s shoplifting habits, and a cheery tea party atmosphere to be going on with. Everyone is immediately glad to be in the room with her.

But when the show starts it all begins to crumble. A long story about bus a bus journey in Los Angeles is studded with eccentric characters and brought to the stage with empathy and humour, but the actual gags are so sparse that it never quite takes off. It is periodically amusing rather than funny and something of a letdown after the jovial overtures. It’s a story that might go down better in a busier room, but falls flat in this quiet one.

The show hinges loosely on Godley’s inner dialogue and the effects it has when that voice escapes out into the real world. She describes encounters with Christians in Nottingham she successfully offended, the Irish community in New York who didn’t take kindly to a joke about balaclavas.

There is some good stuff here, but much of it gets lost in a dearth of timing. Not even the mental image of Godley washing out her smalls in the confines of an aeroplane loo catches the audience.

Godley is funny when she talks about her husband, or an ill-fated journey from Pitlochry to her stepmother’s deathbed in the depth of snowy winter. Towards the end, the laughs pick up some pace; her observations of the monosyllabic Scottish approach to the service industry are deliciously accurate.

She is a likeable stage presence, a charming host , but the whole suffers from the badly-constructed beginning, especially the rambling LA story that lets her down.

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Best female comic to get outta Scotchland.

Comedyfan, October 2020

Tough but warm-hearted compere and comic, Janey Godley makes me miss Glasgow with the way she settles down an audience in a way that makes you feel at home but lets you know not to mess with her. Her material and improvisation are also really good. Worth watching.

Alain English, June 2008

Heard she was good, but was somewhat dissapointed. Her overly-zealous and self-righteous stories are only designed to paint her in a good light, and are so grating and patronising that she needs 20x the amount of self deprecating to make up for it. Her 40minute set wasn't all bad though, I laughed once or twice.

Gavin, May 2008

Watched her getting wee kids up for a funny chat at her book event at Borders Books, the kids loved her and she never swore nor offended anyone. Her running commentary of the customers coming and going was genius, I had never seen her before but being able to make very young and very old laugh was astounding. Her book is also awesome

Cosmo, March 2006

Saw her on the Glasgow Comedy Pub Crawl and she was amazing, never laughed so much. Just makes ordinary things so funny

Mitch, March 2006

Absolutely dire. A prime example of "emperor's new clothes" I'm afraid. All bluster but absolutely shockingly poor material.

Jim Stoneham, January 2006

Saw her recently at Blackfriars, was boring and rubbish. Couldn't wait to get out.

KP, June 2005

No holds barred. She's great with quality personal material thrown in - making her one of Britain's top comediennes.

Wayne Howard, January 2005

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