- Connor Burns, (not to be confused with the disgraced MP), is about to embark on his first ever UK tour with new show Vertigo, coming to the North Wall in January.
Hilarious, relatable and a bit rude in places, Connor’s quick wit entwined with his sharp material has seen him become one of Scotland’s fastest rising comedy stars.
‘Stand-up was always what I wanted to do. I’ve tried everything else and I’m useless at it, So I’m just trying not to mess it up’
- In terms of whether he’s funny, Vertigo sold out at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year, and the 29 year-old had to add an extra 2000 seats to meet demand, the punchline-packed show featuring relationships, submarines, and the inevitable family drama. From his highly controversial suggestions on coping with the cost-of-living crisis for a big family, to his side-splitting fascination with accents and hilarious aversion to drinking with Millennials, Burns’ caustic observations on everything and anything, from the mundane to the meaning of life, are proving a big hit.
So who is Connor Burns and what why did he decide to become a comedian? “Stand-up was always what I wanted to do,” he shrugs, “and I’ve tried everything else and I’m useless at it. So I’m just trying not to mess it up…”
‘You couldn’t pay me any sum of money to go back and repeat the first two years. It was brutal’
Starting when he was 23, and never looking back, he says: “Being Scottish, we all grew up watching Billy Connolly, but it never really felt like something you could just do. Then I heard about open-mic nights where you just standup and try.
“You couldn’t pay me any sum of money to go back and repeat the first two years. It was brutal. Doing gigs to the back of people’s heads sitting at a bar. I once drove three hours for a gig in Inverness and there were nine people there, six of them other comics on the bill!
“But I loved performing and I love the job now. I’ve been full-time for about a year and a half now,” he says, “and being a stand-up is still the dream, being on stage telling jokes. I love the challenge of something new.”
‘I like the riskier stuff and my show tends to be slightly on the darker side’
As for Connor’s material, it’s personal and wide-ranging, so is nothing off limits? “It’s all risk vs reward,” he explains. “The riskier the topic, the more interesting my angle needs to be to justify the joke. I like the riskier stuff and my show tends to be slightly on the darker side. I always like to have a few lines where half the audience laughs and half go, ‘Oooh!’. But, generally, I’m an absolute idiot and there’s zero message.”
Connor Burns: Vertigo is at North Wall, Oxford on January 26. Book at https://www.thenorthwall.com/whats-on/connor-burns-vertigo/
