Interview: Darren Connell prepares for headline show at the King's Theatre for Glasgow Comedy Festival

Growing up in Springburn he went from his first open-mic gigs, after encouragement from other local comedians, including Kevin Bridges, to acting in Scot Squad and touring his stand-up shows while becoming part of the local comedy scene over the last ten years.

GlasgowWorld sat down with Darren to talk about his latest show and taking inspiration from the city around him. The last tickets for his show on Thursday are available here.

How do you feel about walking out on stage at the King’s Theatre?

A lot of misery and awful gigs have led up to the King’s, and I'm getting to a point now in my life that, I'm 37, I refuse to be too nervous. I'm going to enjoy it. I have worked really hard for this. I was very much part of the Glasgow Comedy Festival since I started, essentially sold out every show that I've done at the festival, and it feels really nice to get a chance to do the King’s, the history behind it and all that stuff is just unbelievable, and I'm looking forward to it.

What was your starting point for coming up with this show? What was your initial idea that became what you're going to deliver on stage?

Well, lockdown happened, and I, like everyone else, lost a lot of things in my life, lost my flat work and all that stuff, and I found myself teetering around being quite bitter and getting jealous, and I've never been that person. So instead of sitting back and just becoming bitter and jealous, I just made my own work by creating gigs, doing a podcast, and when you're an actor, they do these things called self tapes now, and self tapes can be pretty horrible. You have to film your own audition in your house, essentially. So I kind of want to treat it like it's a self tape audition going through different stages of my life. I'll talk about how I first started, first gig to how I got to The King’s. Obviously, I talk about the family quite a lot. That's a big thing. And yeah, so it'll be like my own self tape edition with stand-up as well. I don't want to give too much away, but there might be songs and stuff in that as well, and dancing.

Right. Well, you need to update your actor CV as well, to include that you are musical ready basically. What how you take inspiration from everyday life? Is it a case of something happens and it's a fully formed bit of the show, or do you have to work through it and try and get some angles on it, how do you do your writing?

I know a lot of comedians sit down and they treat it like a nine to five. I don't feel like I do well under those circumstances. I like to go out walking, and when I go out to clear my head and find myself daydreaming, or the moment when I'm just about to fall asleep, ideas will pop into my head and then it could be a word or I find that phrase really funny, and then I'll go to my Wednesday night gig and figure it out on stage. But that's how I write. I keep it really loose, real life stuff. I joke about family being, working class, being sober, back in the day, mental health issues, and seeking help and getting help and getting out the other end of that, and just being able to joke about it and then realising that essentially you can actually make a joke about anything.

What are some of your favourite places in Glasgow, some of the places that you do go and wander and just let inspiration come to you?

I like to see the old graveyard. The Necropolis, that’s nice for a walk. I like down near the Trongate and stuff. I see you cutting about all the time. There's been 10 times we've walked past each other on the street, and I've been like, I think I follow you on Twitter [laughs]. I like a good walk and a bit of inspiration.

What about just Glasgow as a place that is full of inspiration, that you can find the humour? Do you find that this is a city where it's got community and camaraderie, so is there enough people around that you can base yourself here, you can be a comedian and you can build things up. You can find inspiration and be in a funny city?

I mean, look, you look at some of the comedians have came out of Glasgow and you know that you can be a comedian and live here. I know some comedians that have left here and went on to be very successful, amazing comedians. I think it's just up to that person. I don't think you need to leave. I think to be a professional comedian, you do need a lot of travelling. So if you are okay with constantly going down to Liverpool, Manchester, London from Glasgow, and you can do that, then good on you. But I don't think you need to leave here.

You're from Springburn. You spend a lot of time in the city. You write from your own experience. Do you think that you shouldn't be afraid to speak in your own voice? Because if it's funny enough, it will translate in Liverpool, it will translate and someone can watch it in Australia or anywhere. Sometimes people from Glasgow try and soften their accent and soften the way that they're explain things to make it more universal. But people like yourself have been able to translate a very local story into something that people connect with in a broader way.

The way I look at it is everybody's got a mental family member. In my case, it's numerous. Everybody's got a funny dad story, funny mum story. Unfortunately, I think everybody's got stories about maybe mental health problems or family members with mental health problems. I've got personal stories myself and family members. I do a joke about my Uncle Jerry who had issues, but he was one of the most kindest, funniest people I ever met in my life, and he was so talented and so funny, and I felt like people judged him. But I joke about it to be like there was more to him than that, which has helped people, helped myself as well. So the only thing I would try to change if I was going to Liverpool or something, or London, was maybe just not talking in slang, but in terms of jokes, I'd never change the joke.

Crowd work has been a big part of comedy success online. How do you feel about that in terms of being able to include clips of stuff like that or how it's perceived?

I think it's definitely changed standup comedy. I think a lot of comedians will go to a gig with a camera and they'll be like, I need crowd work. And this is comedians that have only done 10 gigs. If it was 10 years ago, I'd probably be like, it's not real standup comedy. You're disrespecting the art form. But see, because I'm nearly 40 now, I'm just like, ah, who cares, man?

If you get a crowd that enjoys your stuff, then go for it. As long as they enjoy it and you're enjoying it. I've recently started putting crowd work clips up before that. I was like, I would never do that. But then one gets 60,000 views, you're like, where's my next one? I need more clips. It's definitely changed.

It's absolutely changed the world of standup. I think it's becoming saturated when I'm looking at TikTok and all I'm seeing is crowd work clips, it's a bit boring. And this is from somebody that's been doing standup for 15 years, but it is changed some people's lives unbelievably, and that's nice to see as well. Everybody's hustling, man. If it helps you, then go for it. I am just late to the game. I only just started, everybody done it about six years ago. I only started five months ago or something.

Doing a show at the level of the King’s, that must give you encouragement in terms of what comes next with the comedy side of things. Is there still space for the acting, do you think?

Yes. At the King’s, it's only going to be 90 minutes of crowd work, by the way [laughs]. Yeah, hopefully. I would like to do acting again. I would like to see about getting an agent and going on a tour, and it's really nice to know that there's just plenty of work for everyone, plenty of space for everyone. That's the good thing about TikTok. It's not as cutthroat anymore, so I would like to go on a stand-up tour again.

I'd like to get an acting agent and try that again. It's not that I'm not acting. There's things coming up. I've got a Channel Four short that I'm going to be filming, but I am certainly not in the acting scene. I'm not doing auditions or anything like that, but I'd love to get back into it. I'd love to do serious acting as well. I love horror. I absolutely love horror, and I would love to maybe write a horror movie. So yeah, absolutely. I'd explore everything.

Live at the King's Theatre, Glasgow on Thursday 27 March 2025. Last tickets are available here.