Glasgow

I arrived in Glasgow just in time for their International Comedy Festival. I have tickets for a couple of headliners and I’ll go to other shows when I can. Last night I saw a stand up show at Blackfriars. It was an up and coming English comic who usually does warm up for bigger names. He was great. Today I did a tour of the city. There’s a definite Glasgow sense of humor that sets it apart from the rest of Britain. The comedy festival boasts that it is the “funniest city in the world,” and I can see why. There’s a bridge across the Clyde that crosses on an angle so they call it the “Squinty Bridge.” Part of the narration of the tour today involved a statue of Queen Victoria with this commentary: “Glasgow was not Victoria’s favorite city and she rarely came to visit.” There’s a statue of Lord Nelson in the city center but they put a traffic cone on his head and everyone’s happy to leave it there because it’s a good joke. Billy Connolly is one of their favorite sons, and they have three murals honoring him, who they call the “Big Yin.” Although I can’t understand them when they speak quickly, I do like hearing the Glaswegian accent. In the Riverside Museum today, one real highlight was a recreation of a Victorian street in Glasgow. It was so well done. When you entered each store, they had videos playing of people involved in typical conversations from the time. I took a couple of videos of the ones playing in the pub because they were such good examples of the accent and the humor.Read more