A comedy journey – from Bragar to Barcelona

While the life of a professional comedian may seem from the point of view of a casual observer a rather glamorous one, the reality, as is often the case, is somewhat different.

Apart from the lucky few who are able to make it to the very top, most who dedicate their lives to this craft spend years pounding the beat, perfecting their art, and even then only able to scrape together the barest of livings. For every Kevin Bridges millionaire comic, there are dozens who, often through no fault of their own, are simply unable to make the big breakthrough.

So there’s a huge amount of kudos for even trying. Recently, island fans of comedy might have noticed a familiar accent making big strides in the scene, though admittedly not in this country. But that’s the power of social media for you.

Stuart Kennedy, raised in the crofting village of Bragar in Lewis, now lives in Barcelona and spends his weekends travelling throughout Europe performing to live audiences in English, a reminder that outside the UK bilingualism is the norm. Now 41, he has been performing, he says, for around nine years and it’s been quite the journey – and none of it in any way planned.

After leaving school, he stayed on the island “until I was 23”, which makes him a relatively late developer in terms of spreading his wings into the big wide world.

“There’s not really a lot going on in Bragar,” he said. “It was very quiet and remote and not much to do, except go for a walk to the shore or take the bus in town. You had to make your own fun.

“I went to Lews Castle College and did three years of computing. I stayed on the island a little bit longer to try and get work but couldn’t so I just moved to Glasgow.”

There he found himself fixing mobile phones for 02. But the new life in the big city offered him the chance to pursue one of his greatest passions, music and playing the guitar.

“I didn’t have a huge desire to leave the island immediately; it was only after I got a bit older. When I was struggling to get work on the island I thought I had to go somewhere.

"But once I made that move I realised, ah, there is a lot of stuff out there and I got interested in travelling as well. When I was on the island it was OK, it was fine, I had no complaints or massive desire to leave, but once I did, I discovered new things.”

Then came more itchy feet.

“I was a bit fed up in Glasgow and felt like I wasn’t really going anywhere. I’ve played in bands my whole life – basically that was my whole life in Bragar, playing guitar and hanging around in bands, like a lot of guys on the island do.

“I tried to do a bit of it in Glasgow but it wasn’t really working out. I was getting a bit stressed and anxious. I came to Barcelona for a festival; one of my friends from the island was already living in Barcelona and he was going so I was like, right I’ll go over.

“I had such a good time I thought screw it. I got my flight back from Barcelona to Glasgow but quit my job that day, gave away all my stuff to my friends and moved out to Barcelona. It was only meant to be for a year but as I was considering moving back to Glasgow got a job and been here ever since.”

That was 10 years ago and he certainly seems to have found his feet. But how on earth did the boy from Bragar get into the world of comedy?

“I met my girlfriend, Kerry, here in Barcelona. She’s from Bristol. We met at a party and she told me she was a comedian and I thought oh wow that’s interesting.

“Now she might remember it differently but the way I remember it is she put me down for a show without telling me. Two days before she said: ‘You need to be there and you have to have jokes written down’. So I panicked and wrote five minutes of jokes. I did the show and ended up loving it.”

It wasn’t, however, all straight-forward. There were some harsh, if valuable, lessons along the way “because it is the only art form that you can’t practice on your own, the only practice you can get is in front of a live audience”.

“For a lot of people that’s just too much,” he continues. “But I enjoyed it so much. There’s a whole craft underneath it which I had no idea about. For a lot of people, which would have included me, you think that you just go on stage, say some funny things and that’s it. But there’s a whole science behind it which really fascinated me and it’s really why I got stuck into it.

“But it’s super hard. You’ve got to learn so many things: the writing; how to present yourself on stage; show promotion and advertising; video editing; there's a million things. But it’s super fun once you get into it.

“The first time I did it, it went very well. For some reason my set went very, very well with very mediocre jokes and a very mediocre performance but everyone laughed. I was like God; I can do this now.

“I signed up for my next show two days later and I just jumped on stage thinking I was brilliant. I absolutely died. I had five minutes of absolutely zero laughs. I was like, oh, this is something you actually need to learn.

“I was questioning what the difference was and why it happened (that I died on stage). I was determined that the next one I had to get back to how the first one was. But that happens to a lot of people – the first one is amazing and you think you’re there.”

But that’s only when the real hard graft starts in developing a set that works for the long term. It also demands a rather punishing schedule. As the interview ends he was preparing to fly to Lisbon and will be “travelling to the end of the year”.

“I go to Athens next week for more shows and then I’ve got Sweden the weekend after that, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, back to Lisbon. I fly out every single weekend to the end of December. I’ve got the Barcelona festival in two weeks as well. It’s extremely tiring and to keep your costs low you’re staying in cheap accommodation. But it is fun.”

One of his main aims next year, though it’s still in the early stages of the planning, is a tour of the Highlands and Islands which has been inspired after a recent trip home to Lewis where he performed two gigs, one at the Rangers Club in Stornoway and one in the Clan Macquarrie Hall in Borve, as part of a new Island Fringe initiative.

“It was brilliant,” he said. “The Rangers Club one was particularly wild. I have stuff that I plan, material that I plan and jokes that I plan on telling.

"But it ended up that I didn't do any of the stuff that I actually planned. I was just talking to the audience the whole time and getting all sorts of stories. I never filmed it – I usually film all my sets but I had no space on my phone – and I’m gutted cause it ended up being amazing.”

In terms of the planned return home to Scotland in 2027 he says that “I haven’t quite figured it out yet but I’m hoping it will be sooner rather than later”

“I had such a good time that I need to get back as soon as possible, plus it gives me an excuse to go home to Lewis and it can fund the outrageous cost of travel - thanks Loganair!”

For those that have not seen any of his videos or been to any of his gigs, what can they expect?

“I just kind of tend to tell stories that happen to me or to someone I know. It’s yarns basically. I write jokes and that kind of stuff but what I like is stuff that happens to people.”

The use of the term “yarns” offers a little bit of insight that his island upbringing may still provide an influence on his material, even if he is a well-travelled individual these days.

“I would say so, yes. When I was back in Stornoway, man, the two shows that I did reminded me of the kind of thing I grew up with. Everyone was so funny. Everyone had something funny to say in reply.

“It just reminded me that people from the island are hilariously funny so that must be where some of this comes from.

"It’s not something I’ve spent a long time learning or analysing but it’s just something that island folk have. I mean when it’s raining every other day you kind of just have to have a laugh, don’t you?”