Chris Henry, may be an award nominated Scottish comedian, responsible for three unique comedy brands and selling out shows around the world, but that’s only who he is now, its not who he’ll be in the future, and it certainly not who he was in the past.
Henry headed back to Scotland with a lot of stories, memories and secrets to keep, but no achievement in any discipline of entertainment. Would that stop our dreamer? Fuelled with an addiction of being on stage and a healthy dose of narcissism, he decided:I wasn’t going to do what other people told me to do, I wanted to live or die by my own effort.
And in June 2003, Chris Henry heard Jojo Sutherland say his name to introduce him to the stage at The Stand Comedy club in Edinburgh. The only support he brought with him was his brother Andrew (who to this day still doesnt laugh at his jokes, but could drive and loved him enough to make sure he got to his gigs for the next couple of years) and his friend Paul McCluskey (who had helped him write some of his material).
I don’t have many memories of the first gig. All I remember is one of the other acts trying to wind me up because it was my first gig, and Jojo being lovely and helping me relax back stage. The rest was a blur of sweat, heart pumping in chest, intermittent laughter, and most definitely me talking too quickly.
So the seal was broken, the cherry was popped, and the only way was up. It didnt take long for Chris to find himself on line ups around Scotland. There were lots of independent gigs at that time outside of comedy clubs, where anyone could get on if you had enthusiasm for performing in front of 14 strangers.
A “promoter” called Mac Star, would find comics starting out, who had a little talent, then take them out and have them perform in some of the roughest and most remote parts of Scotland I’ve ever been to. But he did this so many times, that it fast tracked what I was doing. The stage time I got from his gigs, was key in progressing as quickly as I did.
And progress, he did. In just a few years, Chris was performing in every comedy club in Scotland. By 2009 he was a regional finalist in The Scottish Sun’s Take The Mic competition, and finalist in the Scottish Comedian of the Year Competition.
Two things that prompted him to quit his job in recruitment (he got fired) and commit all his energy to stand-up. He even moved to London, and within a year Henry could boast that he had MC’d and/or headlined at Jongleurs, The Stand, Highlight, The Comedy Cafe and many other comedy clubs around the UK. As well as a packed out run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Fringe Festival.
