A man in touching distance of his 60th birthday, alone on a basement stage in Teviot Row, talking about love, regret, and fatherhood, was the surprise hit of last year’s Edinburgh Fringe.
It’s not the usual “comedy” show, with perky young stand-ups deconstructing the Zeitgeist in the hope of a slot on the next panel show.
This was comedy but the kind that can only come with experience. Not only life experience but around 40 years of performing and writing.
Nothing But is Jack Docherty’s first solo play. He said it needed that blend of humour but with “some serious bits I had never really tried before.
“Thank goodness the audience laughed in the right places and were quiet in the right ones too. At first I thought ‘oh they’re awful quiet’ and then I realised they were meant to be! That was a frightening thing to try for me.”
Nothing But is set in Edinburgh, his home city, and Docherty is playing a man of his own age, who is putting on a show at the Fringe.
But not for the reasons you might expect.
“It’s more about me trying to reconnect with someone. More specifically with a certain woman, who I had a brief fling with – a one-night stand even – in the 1980s during the festival. She’s coming back to the festival so I decide that the best way to reconnect would be to put on a show there in the hope of bumping into her.”
So it’s a tale of trying to rekindle a long-lost romance. As it unfolds, however, he realises there is a much more important reconnection he needs to make.
Docherty says it’s not completely autobiographical, but of course there are elements of his own experience from which he can draw. In fact the themes of unrequited love, obsession, the Internet’s effect our lives, parenthood and poor relationship choices will resonate with many people of his age, and younger.
The play was in the top ten lists of many critics and even though venues were still playing at half-capacity the audience reaction let him know that he was on to something. Gilded Balloon founder and artistic director Karen Koren suggested that it could be an ideal vehicle to take around Scotland – from the smallest hall to the largest theatres.
“Instead of 160 in the Gilded Balloon last year we could only have 80. Of course it made it even more intimate but the only thing was we had to keep the back door open for ventilation. It’s just weird being able to see an audience!”
His career began at the Fringe of course. He was twice shortlisted for the Fringe’s top award, the Perrier and then began that journey into the writers’ room, refining his craft on a wide range of shows from satire with Spitting Image, sketches for Mel Smith and Griff Rhys-Jones in Alas Smith and Jones, broader humour for The Lenny Henry Show, and finally beautifully surrealist nonsense in Vic Reeves’ Big Night Out.
Bizarrely you can see all of those elements coming together in the four series of Absolutely which also saw a spin-off for two Docherty and Hunter characters, Mr Don and Mr George.
It’s often overlooked that he was the first five-nights-a-week talk show host when Channel 5 gave him The Jack Docherty Show, but he seemed to retreat into writing and producing for a good while after that, even deciding not to take part when the Absolutely cast reunited for a few Radio 4 series.
“It just wasn’t what I wanted to do at the time. I gave them my blessings to use characters that I had created but I didn’t go down to any of the recordings. It would have been weird for them – and me really.”
To a generation, Jack Docherty is simply Chief Commissioner Cameron Miekelson from Scot Squad, perhaps the most successful Scottish sitcom since Still Game.
He was tempted back to performing by Scot Squad. by the fact that he’s given so much freedom with the character and his dialogue.
It’s been running since 2012 and the self-important Miekelson was the breakout success with several specials where the top cop covered current affairs, even interviewing the Scottish party leaders.
If Miekelson fans should venture on to YouTube, they’ll find him playing a cast of characters in Absolutely, the type of characters that created the catchphrases of the time.
To be fair the clips aren’t great quality but Absolutely has a pretty substantial cult following who bemoan the fact they haven’t got a DVD boxset. For them second-generation VHS clips are better than nothing. For that generation Docherty is a comedy pioneer.
Like many great performers, it starts with the writing and Docherty recalls the early days when he and his writing partner and Absolutely cast member Moray Hunter would be trying their hand at sketches.
“We would type them up, put them in envelopes, buy stamps and send them off… then wait for a letter back. My kids howl with laughter about that.
“At that time we had to make the move down here. I have a family here now so it’s where I am at the moment. My wife and I do talk about making the move back to Scotland at times though. I’m up quite a bit for Scot Squad but this tour is taking me to places I’ve never been before.”
The 19-date tour for Nothing But goes from Galashiels to Ullapool and everywhere in between before heading to London.
“I’ve been looking forward so much to getting on the road with it. It’s such a simple set up that the crew and the set and me all fit in one vehicle. It gives us so much more time and space to stop off and actually have a look at places!
“In your neck of the woods it will be great to see St Andrews, Perth, etc. When I visit family it’s in Edinburgh so I never really see outside of that.
“It seems Dundee is the place to be just now so I’m looking forward to having a nosey around.”
It isn’t his first time alone on a stage, as Miekelson has performed solo at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow. He’s more comfortable with that then the idea of straight stand-up. “Oh god yes… the thing about doing the Chief like that is it’s still a character. Even though it’s written as such I still have a lot of freedom about where I take him.
“He’s still a character – it feels like that strange territory between a play and straight stand-up. The first time I did was strange for me though. Any time I had done stage work before it was part of an ensemble or at least it was with Moray (Hunter). At first I would turn and look and see where Moray was.
“It also let me see what hard work it was to do it on your own. With someone else you can have a break and wait for them to do their bit, but here it was just relentless. You don’t have to share the laughs though – or the cash,” he laughs.
Taking the Chief on tour was never really on the cards. If Docherty’s career has shown anything it’s that he’s keen on a challenge and Nothing But has certainly been that.
“It has been but I’ve loved it and especially the idea of taking it to so many corners of Scotland.
“From a writing and performing point of view, it’s been great as I’ve had the chance to explore that light and dark more. As I said, to me it’s a success if people laugh in the right bits and are affected by the serious bits. That’s scary to me but then comedy can be a serious business.”
- Nothing But is at Perth Theatre on Saturday, March 19; Dundee Rep on Sunday, March 27; Birnam Arts Centre on Friday, April 15; Webster Memorial Theatre, Arbroath on Sunday, April 17, and Byre Theatre, St Andrews on Friday, April 22. For more information and tickets, visit gildedballoon.co.uk.
