A poet, a stand-up comedian, an author, and an ex-politician walk into a bar… to induce gasps and laughs with such intensity and regularity you’ll wake up the next day feeling like you’d done one of those ruthless 1,000-rep ab workout videos.
Curation is an act of creation, one that’s screamingly vital in our world of entertainment abundance and information overload. Who better to trust with the task of selecting, framing and hosting the best that Scotland has to offer across artforms than creatives Nasim Rebecca Asl and Kevin P. Gilday? The two are at the top of their game as award-winning poets, and much else besides.
Marginalia is a brand new regular evening from the duo, a welcome addition to the live cultural scene, plus it’s a Bilbo Bargain – four quality acts for the price of a single ticket, each artist having a full half hour slot to really dig into their respective craft and connect with the audience.
This inaugural Marginalia event began with the beguiling Hannah Lavery, performing poetry from her recent collection Unwritten Woman and a few newly penned pieces. Her sibilance slips through her lips – silk ribbons, wending their way round the audience, gentle and caressing at first. You welcome it, sway with it, and even when she intermittently snaps them back, quick and taut, cutting into your body, you’re pleased she has done so.
I’ve been a big Lavery fan for a while, and I’m mad into poetry, so I was already totally sold on the event as she was on the bill, and that is part of the joy of this evening – come for one act and you find loads more, like the next performer, comedian and writer Stu McPherson.
I’ve seen wee clips and had tastes here and there, but never before sampled a full menu from him. It was even more wonderful experiencing his comedy a few feet away from me rather than through a screen, and him utilising, like Lavery, expert audience control. It probably helps that we are only a couple of years apart, but McPherson’s astute, jocular observations tore amusingly through my everyday experiences, like watching a runaway lawn mower spiritedly lopping the heads off the neighbour’s carefully planted geraniums.
Threads woven and called back to through his set included: being willfully at the mercy to the whims and needs of a dog, searching for something – anything – to occupy hands to replace mindless scrolling (and instead being faced with your own inadequacies), and the difficulties of getting even a small band of mates together, in the same place and at the same time, in your thirties.
Next, Kevin P. Gilday interviewed crime writer Callum McSorley. McSorley is just so bloody affable! We were treated to a couple of readings from his new book Paperboy, elevated by the conversation between him and Gilday. One excerpt featured two men who were unquestionably the ‘bad guys’, yet the conversation between the two characters was highly comical and almost like any other work chat you might have in a down period on a shift. He said himself that he was thinking about the demarcation of good and evil in real life, that these people probably still have a laugh and a joke about, even when undertaking horrible acts.
The evening was rounded off by Mhairi Black, who impressed upon us that there exists only two reactions to a choice, and to listen carefully to them when they arise: ‘fuck it! (why not!)’ and ‘fuck that!’ For her, the former led her to now, several sold-out shows under her belt, after being offered a run of Fringe shows last year upon her exit from politics. The latter was thoroughly resounding when she considered whether to continue working with some of the, um, characters of Westminster. Her tales of political life and its many figures, no matter how grim, wild, or shocking, were conveyed in her utterly charming, authentic, and hilarious fashion.
Marginalia’s deft combination of literary and comedy creates an evening which reaches all corners of our capacity for emotion, and is set up to help you discover beyond your usual genres and preferences. It might even be an easy way to get you and your over-30 mates in the same room at the same time, since there’ll be something for everyone.
Follow @wearemarginalia on Instagram to keep up-to-date with future shows. You can book tickets for their next one on 9th July 2025 on The Stand’s website.
Photo credit: Natalie Jayne Clark
