A full decade of life as a stand-up comedian has crept up on Jim Smith. He’s in the mood for celebrating the landmark with a couple of special shows on his home patch.
The rural Perthshire funnyman first broke out from Young Farmers’ shows and onto Scotland’s comedy circuit back in late 2012 and his stock has been on the up and up ever since.
Buzzing at the prospect
He plays sold-out shows at Perth Concert Hall tonight and tomorrow.
Jim, 44, admits he’s buzzing at the prospect – even if he would have made sure to swerve the Fair City early in his career.
“When I first started comedy I would gig down in Glasgow and Edinburgh where no one knew me,” he says.
“There was no way I wanted to do it in front of folk that knew me, but now I’m over all the confidence issues and am really looking forward to Perth.
“The beauty of it is you can add in local references like you can do in a pantomime. So it’ll be full-on Perthshire Jim, it’ll be no holds barred and it’ll be some craic.
‘A poor tenant farmer from Perthshire’
“It still bowls me over that folk want to come and see a poor tenant farmer from Perthshire, and the Concert Hall has a lot of special memories for me,” adds Jim.
The checked shirt-wearing favourite actually made the first of numerous appearances on the Perth stage back in 2005 when he was taking his first steps in comedy as part of the agricultural social scene.
He performed three nights at the venue in 2019 but then, of course, the pandemic hit, putting subsequent touring plans on long-term hold.
Now, having got engaged and become a father-of-two, he’s back with his latest show, The Hills Have Ayes, which he describes as “a mixture of farming and family” that’s been around three years in the making.
“My last tour was really the best bits of my first six years of stand-up – this show I’m doing now was basically written through lockdown,” Jim explains.
“Covid was a pretty bad time for everyone and I wasn’t gigging so I got the pen and paper out and got some new jokes written down as well as more stories to tell.
“It took me six months to get it into shape, just taking it out to various clubs rehearsing it, dropping jokes that weren’t working so well and adding ones that were.
“It’s been about a year performing it, but really some of the stuff was written two or three years ago.”
The funny side of rural life
Jim reckons rural life is a subject even Scotland’s most city-bound comedy fans can relate to.
“Everyone’s still got a granny or an uncle that worked at the berries or tatties, or had a farm or something,” says the Loggerheads presenter.
“And of course, living in the country is getting quite trendy itself now, with the amount of farm buildings that’s getting converted.
“It’s quite cool – you only have to look at all the TV shows that are based around living in the country or farming.
“It seems to be pretty popular, but dinnae worry, even if you think you’re dead trendy you’ll hopefully get a laugh at all the teuchter references.”
Jim Smith, December 9 and 10, 8pm.Perth Concert Hall.
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