A comedian who was born and bred in Perth has spoken of how his large YouTube presence helped him land a prominent film role.
Bruce Fummey, who now lives in Blackford, plays Hamish in new release The Lost King, written by and starring Steve Coogan.
The Stephen Frears-directed film fictionalises the 2012 discovery of King Richard III’s remains beneath a car park in Leicester.
It is currently showing in cinemas across the UK.
Bruce, 58, was in Edinburgh for five days filming his part and in the final cut he talks regularly to Sally Hawkins, Coogan’s co-star who plays Philippa Langley.
Bruce was a stand-up comedian and tour guide before Covid lockdowns hit.
He then spent the next two years building up a YouTube audience of as much as 436,000 viewers.
This gave him the unexpected break into acting and he is now eyeing more projects.
Already Bruce has since performed a 10-minute monologue for BBC series The Wedding.
But he said: “This isn’t something I sought. I have become an actor by accident.”
In this feature Bruce talks about his Perth background, life as a mixed-race Scot and his “accidental” successes.
Ghanaian background
Bruce says that his background has been an advantage in his career.
“If I’d been a peely-wally white Scotsman I probably wouldn’t have got the role,” he said of The Lost King.
His father Vincent came to Scotland in his early 20s, arriving from Ghana to work for ACS Flight Training at Perth Airport.
The intention was for residents of former colonies to develop skills in the UK – in Vincent’s case, aeronautical engineering – to help develop their newly independent homelands.
But he met future wife Valerie and stayed in Perth.
Bruce grew up in the town and was initially a physics teacher before a 14-year stint in the finance sector with Scottish Amicable Insurance.
Gaelic voyage
“Towards the end I hated it,” Bruce said.
So he became a stand-up comedian while returning to the classroom as a supply teacher in Perthshire and Argyll and Bute.
He spent three months living on the Hebridean island of Islay, where he sought to learn the indigenous language.
“I was a half-Scottish half-African stand-up comic teaching maths at Islay High School in order to learn Gaelic,” he quipped.
Local comedy awards
Bruce ran the Just Laugh comedy clubs in Perth, Dundee, Inverness and Stirling for more than a decade.
He was named Scottish Comedian of the Year in 2014 and his Edinburgh Fringe shows were nominated for Scottish Comedy Awards in 2013 and 2014.
He was also nominated for a comedy award at Perth Fringe Western Australia in 2015.
Macbeth tours
Bruce launched himself into the International Burns circuit after an acclaimed fringe show About Tam O’Shanter which culminated with a stirring rendition of the poem.
In 2017 he performed at Burns suppers at the European Parliament, Bangkok and Jakarta before taking his History of Scotland show to Australia and New Zealand in a three-month tour to the other side of the world.
That same year he performed ‘Macbeth…without the Shakespeare B******s‘ at the Fringe.
“I realised I could take people to places that I knew Macbeth had walked,” Bruce said.
“So I started doing Macbeth tours and became a tour guide.”
Lockdown ends career
But everything changed when the first Covid lockdown was announced in March 2020.
“I was a tour guide during the day and stand-up comedian at night – when Covid came along both jobs were unviable,” Bruce said.
“Some of my friends got jobs stacking shelves at Tesco but because Covid targeted middle-aged fat people my wife told me I was not allowed to leave the house.
“So I had a year to do something and I thought I can’t take people on tours so I will make videos.
“I will go places and tell stories of Scotland’s history. I started doing it and it started taking off.
“It changed my life.”
Kilt video gets 437,000 views
The first videos on his YouTube channel Scotland History Tours were made from his house or on his one permitted walk each day.
As restrictions were relaxed he made visits to the likes of Stirling Castle and the Trossachs, where he told stories about Rob Roy.
“At the beginning you would be excited with 400 views,” Bruce said.
“Now if I don’t get 20,000 views I am upset!”
The channel currently has 158,000 subscribers and his most-watched video – What they don’t say about the kilt – has amassed 437,000 views in five months.
“People from all over the world watch my videos,” Bruce said.
“You get a lot of Americans, Canadians and Australians who look back to find out about their ancestry and you hear the story from a mixed-race Scotsman, which is a bit different.”
Zoom chat with Stephen Frears
It was this combination of a history buff with a cosmopolitan background that landed him the role on The Lost King.
He was contacted by a member of the production team.
“They said they were looking for a Scottish person with an ethnic background and an interest in history,” Bruce recalled.
“I had to speak to this guy who I had never heard of and they said I would be perfect to the part.”
This “guy” was Stephen Frears, who won an Oscar nomination for directing The Grifters and has directed other notable films such as My Beautiful Laundrette, Dangerous Liaisons, High Fidelity and The Queen.
They spoke on Zoom.
“I don’t really get to watch films, which was a good thing because I was naïve about the whole thing,” Bruce said.
Becoming a ‘proper actor’
In The Lost King, Hamish is a member of the Richard III Society who encourages Philippa Langley to follow her dreams and undertake her own research into the burial place of the former monarch.
Off-set, Bruce was urged by one of his fellow “proper actors” – as he calls them – to get an agent.
“The next week someone asked me if I would be in a radio play about Cowdenbeath Football Club called Black Diamonds and Blue Brazil,” he recalled.
“So I thought I’d better get an agent.”
He was soon contacted to feature in The Wedding, a six-part BBC Scotland series about a black Scottish wedding.
Bruce’s monologue can be watched here.
Inspirational message to children
Reflecting on his career, Bruce believes he has been on an accidental journey.
“I was tour guide by day and stand-up by night but when Covid came along both were unviable so I became a YouTuber by accident,” he said.
“And then people asked me to be in films so I have become an actor by accident.
“I have a new career. And throughout life I keep getting these new careers by accident.
“You never know when something’s going to come your way but at the same time as a YouTuber you need presentation and business skills.
“For my channel you also need historical knowledge. All these things have built up over the course of my life and they have come together.
“If I was still teaching I would say to the kids ‘keep working hard and following your passions’.
“Because with the skills you build up you never know when fate is going to provide you with an opportunity to work for you.”
‘If I can do that until I die I would be happy’
Bruce has a simple philosophy for future work engagements.
“I will keep making YouTube videos,” he said.
“Whenever someone asks me about doing an acting role I may do it.
“I will just continue enjoying life doing stuff that I would be happy to do even if I don’t get paid for it.
“If I can do that until I die I would be happy.”
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