Life according to... comedian Christopher Macarthur-Boyd

Comedian Christopher Macarthur-Boyd on following the path of Boyle and Bridges, carb comas and forgetting his lines…

2023 was a good year for you – how’s your 2024?

It was a great year last year. I was on tour with Frankie Boyle, opening up for him from February until December, and now it’s January to June most weeks I’m on the road with him. It’s been great. He was one of my favourite comedians when I was a teenager.

It’s nice to do your apprenticeship! You do the clubs and the circuit for 10 years and you think you’ve figured out what stand-up is and then you see how somebody who’s the best in the country does it and it’s a different thing. Playing different venues instead of wee pubs and clubs, big theatres… My eyes definitely got opened last year in terms of the next level. I’d love to get there.

How pleased have you been with the reaction to your stand-up special?

It’s been amazing. You’re just so scared when you put something out that nobody’s going to care. Fortunately almost nobody hated it that I know of.

I’m a comedy geek and I remember when I was working zero-hour contract jobs, handing out flyers in the street or just running errands, I wanted to skive for longer, so I’d walk between jobs listening to the likes of Frankie, Doug Stanhope, Maria Bamford, John Mulaney and Hannibal Burress, all these people who have amazing specials.

I had life-changing experiences with these people’s comedy and never gave them any money whatsoever so it’s nice to have something to pass forward!

Was it stressful filming it?

To have a special is kind of like putting your first album out. It was one of the most stressed out days I’ve ever had. I was freaking out. I was ironing my shirt backstage frantically, just hoping it would go well.

I only had one chance to film it and I made a pretty egregious error! I left out a big important bit but I’m still really happy with how it came out. Nobody knows that I made that mistake except me and now the people who read this…

How has working on the new podcast, Here Comes The Guillotine, with Frankie and Susie McCabe been?

I’ve toured with both of them and they’ve shown me the ropes of how to do it. It’s good to do it with your pals. There’s a lot of podcasts out there that have been clumsily pushed together but this one’s a bit more organic. We all love each other.

We do what we call the French method of podcasting, where you do an hour and a half then have a two-hour lunch where the microphones aren’t rolling.

Then we go back in for the sleepiest hour and a half of podcasting. Every even-numbered episode is really upbeat and every odd one is basically in a carb coma.

How good is it to have a blueprint of successful Glasgow comedians to follow?

It does make me realise the argument about representation and how important it is. When I was a child I’d see Billy Connolly and I’d think it was something you could maybe have done in the 70s and 80s.

When Frankie was on Mock The Week and Kevin Bridges was on the Comedy Roadshow, I was a teenager and saw a speccy guy and a guy from Clydebank on TV doing it.

My life fell apart at 19, such a silly age to have a breakdown, and I thought I’d give stand-up a bash. It’s good to see the path ahead of you and that people have walked it before, so why couldn’t you?

How are you feeling about your show at the Pavilion later this year?

I’m absolutely terrified. The biggest room I’ve ever done a solo show in is about 220 people. This is a 1,400-seat theatre.

Between opening up for Frankie, Susie and others, I think I’ve done sets at the Kings Theatre about 10 times in the last year, and I really want to try it for myself.

I’d rather fail at doing something big than do something wee quite easily. Hopefully it’s not a horrific nightmare.

Christopher’s special Oh No, produced by 800 Pound Gorilla Media, is available to watch here now. He is at Glasgow’s Pavilion on November 8. Visit linktr.ee/macarthurboyd