Christopher Macarthur-Boyd: The Boyd With the Thorn in His Side

• Brian Donaldson
• 10 August 2017

This article is from 2017.

Gallus Glasgow comic finds humour amid the threat of nuclear annihilation

Christopher Macarthur-Boyd is understandably somewhat bamboozled when there's a lack of recognition in the room about the Smiths. It certainly takes the sting out of his line about there being just one joke about the band that facilitated his punning title against 40 regarding the end of the world. With North Korea and the US at loggerheads on weapons testing, the threat of a nuclear apocalypse is at the forefront of many comedians' minds at this year's Fringe.

Glasgow guy Macarthur-Boyd is no exception and while his baby-faced visage would suggest he won't have any memory of the last time mushroom clouds loomed large in the west's collective psyche (during the Cold War stand-off in the 1980s), he's riven with anxiety at our impending doom. He's also pretty hacked off about splitting from his girlfriend and he has several fine lines on how he's feeling about that scenario.

Amid standard source material about racist grandparents and the point of Paisley, Macarthur-Boyd unveils some good gags about his tattoo and that fear of becoming more of a bigot as he gets older. At 45 minutes long, it's a compliment to suggest that the crowd could easily have heard more.

Gilded Balloon at Rose Theatre, until 28 Aug (not 14), 9.45pm, £7.50–£9 (£7–£8).