​
On The Road with Laura Pryde
​
Came for the funny, stayed for the cool people
By Laura Pryde
​
Growing up I had two main obsessions.
The first was the theatre. As a teenager I read plays, went through a strange (strange by anyone’s standards, not just a 14 year old,) phase of studying theatre design and architecture (i mean this nerd was reading Vitruvius for pete’s sake, get a bloody life!) but most of all I loved performing, I studied acting and musical theatre at college and for a while I even managed to make a career out of it, working in education, using theatre skills to teach school kids about Scottish history and culture. I still take the odd spin back to the theatre with the occasional acting role, such as appearing in the debut of A Waiting Game by Lori Delany last year.
My second obsession was funny stories. I loved reading and writing them, I loved hearing them told by the stupid boys at school and the drunk aunties at family parties and of course I adored stand up. I went to my first gig when I was 11 (Norman Lovett) and that was all I needed to know. I grew up in Edinburgh so I was spoiled for stand up; while my music nerd friends were collecting Slipknot and Korn patches to stitch onto their school bags, I would hang around the Pleasance and other big fringe venues in the summer, cadging free tickets when I could and getting star struck when Sean Hughes walked past.
Somehow it didn’t ever occur to me to put the two passions, stage and laughs, together.
It wasn’t until I was well into my thirties, one night after a gig my husband casually said “you’re funny, you should do that”. Initially my reaction was to say don’t be so daft, but the idea sort of stuck. A few years went by while I thought about it but I just didn’t know how to get started.
Aat some point early in 2024 I saw an Insta advert for the Ultra stand up course and thought well, maybe I could give it a go. My swimming buddy had already signed us up to do a big fundraising event in the summer (a group of us swam the full length of Loch Lomond) so I thought I would just top up the funds by doing the comedy event and then I’d get to tick ‘tried stand up’ off the bucket list.
That was the plan honestly. Say yes, do the thing. One and done. Cheers.
When I signed up for Ultra, I guessed that I would enjoy the performance, because of the whole being a disgraceful show off thing, and while I did enjoy that first gig, it passed by in a blur and I knew I could do better, I just needed the energy to prove that to myself. But life is busy, energy is limited and I have a young child to look after. I loved writing material about my mad wee mammy life, but at that point I was so knackered with the whole mum gig, that I just didn’t have the brain capacity to really consider a comedy future.
What I didn’t account for, when I started Ultra course, was that I would make friends. I never expect to do that. In fact I usually make a point of not doing that. But someone added me to a group chat and suddenly I have comedy mates. Creative types, all with different performance experience and energy levels, all encouraging each other to “say yes and do cool shit”. With their encouragement I started to apply to open spots and gigs and suddenly it’s two years later and I’m still performing as often as I can.
I can’t really explain the difference it makes having a gang of comedy brains in my pocket at all times. They offer creative solutions: punch ups when your idea is good but the execution is iffy, honest feedback when the execution is fine but the idea sucks. Someone to knock sense into you when you’re in a mood and someone to celebrate with when you absolutely killed it.
We share the practical stuff too; introductions, gig opportunities, lifts, and some of us started to organise our own gigs. Not me obviously, I can barely organise a spoon in a teacup, but the organised ones invited me to join in! Last year we took our girls only show, Lady Bits, to GICF and sold out, so we took it on a mini tour, finishing with two insanely fun nights at the Edinburgh Fringe.
I came for the funny, stayed for the cool people.
Without them I wouldn’t be all over this year’s GICF like a rash.
Without them I wouldn't be performing comedy at all.
Where to see Laura.
Feb
PLEASE LAUGH - NICE N SLEEZYS Monday 9th February 7.30pm
COMEDY KLUB - BRITANNIA PANOPTICON Friday 13th February
March
THE CRACKING COMEDY COMPILATION - TENNENT'S LAUGHTER LOUNGE - Wednesday 11th March 7:00pm
​
CHEEKY HOOTENANNY OF ONSCREEN NOSTALGIA – THE TV AND MOVIES SING-ALONG SHOW - COMMITTEE ROOM NO.9 Sunday 15th, 22nd &29th March 2:00pm
SCOTTY AND CHOPPY’S VERY SILLY SHOW - COMMITTEE ROOM NO.9 Sunday 15th March 3:30pm
MIAOWAOKE: TAKE A LOOK AT MIAOW - SLOUCH BAR Tuesday 17th and 24th March 7:30pm
LADY BITS - THE GRIFFIN Saturday 21st and 28th March 9:15pm