The Jack Docherty Show (TV Recording): Whitehall Theatre, London, 1995 – 1998
Rob Deering’s Beat This: Assembly George Square, Edinburgh, 2013
Best of The Fest Daytime: Assembly George Square Gardens, Edinburgh, 2016
Up The Creek Saturday Night Comedy: Up The Creek Comedy Club, London, 2019
Twenty years ago, I used to go and watch TV recordings of The Jack Docherty Show for Channel 5 at the Whitehall Theatre in London. The chat show fronted by the Scottish comedian was popular and the warm-up man was usually Gordon Southern (the other warm up act was Michael Legge). I used to sit and laugh at him, as he would recall funny stories and jokes for the audience’s amusement. He was effortlessly confident with the crowd warming them up for the main event and he used to get me to go on stage and be his stooge. I can recollect a very happy time watching the shows.
I saw Southern years later at the Edinburgh Fringe where he came up to me as I was dashing between shows and he remembered me crying with laughter at him on stage in the stalls of the Whitehall Theatre all those years ago. Happy days.
It was an absolute joy to see Southern compere for the Up The Creek Comedy Club when I went along to a Saturday night showcase in September 2019. He was brilliantly funny with the audience as he tried and succeeded to warm them up for the main acts. With my friends, I was sitting next to someone who admitted to me that it was his first night at a comedy club. He then went onto to heckle some of the main acts and the compere and it was hilarious watching Southern calmly but firmly put him in his place. Southern came up to say hello after the show and it was great to see him.