JoJo Sutherland recalls her most memorable gigs

Worst gig

My fifth gig in the State Bar in Glasgow, which was packed and rowdy and I had five minutes. I was so nervous that I did set-ups without punchlines and punchlines without set-ups to complete and utter silence, which was only broken by a voice from the dark saying: ‘Is she still talking?’

Gig that taught me the biggest lesson

My first fringe show to an audience of four (two of which were Radio Forth competition winners). I offered them to come back another day but they agreed they were happy to watch the show with just them. It was probably one of my favourite gigs ever and I stopped worrying about playing any room because if you can have fun with only four people your odds are always going to better with more! 

Most unusual location

A shopping mall in the middle of Glasgow - stupid idea, stupid to agree to it, stupid to think I’d learnt anything about playing any room

Best gig as a punter

Watching Terry Alderton do a work in progress gig and just gazing in awe, knowing I could never dream of being that amazing and not hating him for it

Least Welcome Post Show Comment

After a gig at Top Secret in London a man complimented me on being funny but was thrown by me just accepting the compliment. So he kept elaborating as to why he thought I was funny and how he didn’t normally like women and I was the funniest of the night.

When I didn’t really say anything other than ‘thank you’ he came back with ‘but then, because you’re a woman, maybe my expectations were lower’. You don’t need to know what my response to that was ;-)

• JoJo Sutherland plays the title role in Madame George, a play about a psychic in a slump, is on at the Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose at 1pm. Her solo show Riches To Rags is on at Gilded Balloon Teviot at 16:15

Published: 22 Aug 2019