Hello! Well, my Edinburgh Fringe run of When Billy Met Alasdair was certainly a success. Big turn-outs, happy audiences and a string of terrific reviews! According to the The Guardian it’s a “A thoughtful and entertaining evening in the company of two much-loved Scottish icons,” and there’s also the following starred reviews: 5***** British Theatre Guide. 5***** – The National 5***** – Sinners Reviews 5***** – Northwestend.uk 5***** – Mervyn Stutter’s Picks of the Fringe 4**** – The Herald 4**** – One4Review

Well, Billy and Alasdair are now heading on tour, at the following venues.

13th Sept – Paisley Arts Centre. Tickets available here.

30th Oct – Falkirk, Behind the Wall. Tickets available here.

12th Dec – Oban, Corran Halls. Tickets available here.

13th Dec – Portree, LAS. Tickets available here.

7th Feb – Dumfries, Theatre Royal. Tickets available here.

13th Feb – Stirling, Macrobert Centre. Tickets available here.

21st Feb – Peebles, Eastgate Theatre. Tickets available here.

27th Feb – Kirkcaldy, Adam Smith Theatre. Tickets available here.

28th Feb – Aberdeen, Lemon Tree. Tickets available here.

Sat 28th Mar – Glasgow International Comedy Festival, Citizens Theatre. Tickets available here.

There will be further dates added in the fullness of time, so keep your eyes open!

FINAL MOIRA DATES

If you are one of the few people in Scotland who hasn’t yet seen any of my rip-roaring Moira ‘one-woman shows’, then it’s your VERY LAST CHANCE to catch the great lady’s final few shows.

3rd Oct – The Moira Monologues / More Moira Monologues double-bill @ Stewarton Area Centre, Ayshire. Tickets available here.

24th Oct – More Moira Monologues @ Websters Memorial Theatre, Arbroath. Tickets available here.

20th Feb – Moira in Lockdown @ Websters Memorial Theatre, Arbroath. Tickets available here.

And, also, if you are in the Moray area and want to hear me talking about my book Lads…

18th Sept – Elgin, University of Highlands and Islands. Tickets available here.

And finally, a play I co-wrote with Rhona Mitchell, set in Inverurie, called The Concert Party, has been shortlisted for Best Stage Production at the Scots Language Awards! You can vote for it here.

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While the main event this year is my new solo show WHEN BILLY MET ALASDAIR at the Edinburgh Fringe this August, I will be doing a few other random events dotted throughout the country later in the year that you’re welcome to pop along to.

The Moira Trilogy tour has come to an end, I will be doing some (final!) guerilla performances of the individual shows at the following venues:

Sat 19th July – Moira in Lockdown @ The Big Lit Festival (Faed Gallery), Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries and Galloway. Tickets available here.

Fri 3rd Oct – The Moira Monologues / More Moira Monologues double-bill @ Stewarton Area Centre, Ayshire. Tickets available here.

Fri 24th Oct – More Moira Monologues @ Websters Memorial Theatre, Arbroath. Tickets available here.

Fri 2nd Feb – Moira in Lockdown @ Websters Memorial Theatre, Arbroath. Tickets available here.

That last one is the final performance of Moira ever scheduled. She’ll be taking a looooong break after that, folks. Hopefully see you at one of these!

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Here we go, folks! Tickets for my new Edinburgh Fringe show WHEN BILLY MET ALASDAIR are now LIVE, and I’m very excited! It’s been named by The Guardian as one of their “Must See” plays of The Edinburgh Fringe 2025, and has been called by The Times “a captivating new play”.

In my first solo show (that isn’t a Moira Monologue) since 2013, I’ll be playing both Billy Connolly and Alasdair Gray in a story based on the famous photograph by George Oliver, about the day that Connolly attended the launch party for Gray’s Lanark in 1981.

It’s directed by Kirstin McLean, who some of you might know from Limmy’s Show, and is on at the Scottish Storytelling Centre from 31st July-24th Aug (excluding 1st, 6th, 8th, 13-14th & 20th-21st) at 8.30pm.

31st July is the preview (cheaper tickets!), you can get a 2-4-1 deal on 4th & 5th Aug, and there’s a special Captioned performance on 7th Aug.

This play derives from a commission by The Alasdair Gray Archive and Glasgow International Comedy Festival, for which I am very grateful. It’s already been covered by The Sunday Post:

Hopefully see yous there for the Big Yin and the Wee Yin! Link for tickets here.

Hello folks! I’ll be going to the Edinburgh Fringe again this year, for my first solo show (that isn’t a Moira Monologue) since 2013! More of that later. But just to let you know what I’ve got coming up this summer.

15th May – An Evening With Makar and Friends @ Stirling University Library. This is an event hosted by Kevin P. Gilday, the Stirling Makar and all-round good bloke, with various Stilring University alumni, including myself, Hannah Lavery and Jane Borges. Tickets available here.

24th May – The Moira Trilogy @ Crieff, Strathearn Arts. Ths is the last performance of my three ‘one-woman shows’ before the summer, and very probably one of the very last ever. Now’s yer chance, folks! Tickets available here.

8th June – Launch for Passages @ Linlithgow, Architecture Fringe. This will be me reading my selected works with musician Ciorstaidh Chaimbeul, to launch Passages: An Audio Culture Trail on the National Cycle Network route 754, on the Union and Forth & Clyde canals. PLEASE NOTE. THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

18th June-22nd June – The Concert Party @ Inverurie, Garioch Heritage Centre. This is a new play I’ve co-written with Rhona Mitchell for the young people of the Mitchell School of Drama to perform, about the ways in which World War 2 impacted the population of Inverurie. Tickets available here.

Thereafter it’s the Edinbugh Fringe! Maybe see you at one of them? Do say hi!

My book LADS: A Guide to Consent and Respect won the School Library Association Information Book Award for the category 13-16, plus the overall Judges Award.
This is me collecting it doon in London toon. Nice way to end 2024!

The book has also been shorlisted for the Society of Authors Educational Writers’ Award 2024.

(photo: Dilyana Tankova)

You can buy a copy for the young person in your life here, should you wish.
Also, an interview with me about the book and the work I’ve been doing in schools with young people on it has been published in The Herald.

Many of you will know that there are now three of my award-winning ‘one-woman shows’, The Moira Monologues (2009), More Moira Monologues (2017) and Moira in Lockdown (2022). In 2025, I’m continuing my tour of Scotland to perform ALL THREE SHOWS IN ONE NIGHT (two intervals included, obviously). Joyce McMillan in The Scotsman calls it “an absolute classic of Scottish working-class comedy.” 4**** The Guardian also gave the Trilogy a 4**** star review, commenting that, “The three shows together could have been overwhelming, but instead paint a fuller, funnier picture of this singular character.” Come and see Moira do her thing on the following dates:

2025

1st Feb – Arbroath, Websters Memorial Theatre. Tickets available here. (Moira pt.1 only).

7th March – Paisley Arts Centre. Tickets available here. MOIRA TRILOGY.

14th March – Lochwinnoch Arts Festival, McKillop Hall. Tickets available here. MOIRA TRILOGY.

22nd March – Peebles, Eastgage Arts. Tickets available here. MOIRA TRILOGY.

4th April – Oban, Corran Halls. Tickets available here. MOIRA TRILOGY.

5th April – Musselburgh, The Brunton Theatre. Tickets available here. MOIRA TRILOGY.

11th April – Dundee, Gardyne Theatre. Tickets available here. MOIRA TRILOGY.

12th April – Aberdeen, Lemon Tree Studio. Tickets available here. MOIRA TRILOGY.

26th April – Kirkcaldy, Adam Smith Theatre. Tickets available here. MOIRA TRILOGY.

24th May – Crieff, Strathearn Arts. Tickets available here. MOIRA TRILOGY.

These will be among the last Moira shows I will be performing…for a good long time anyway. But hopefully see some of you there for this epic undertaking!

Got a handful of Moira shows coming up in the rest of the year, plus I’m promoting my new book Lads: A Guide to Respect and Consent, which you might want a keek at as well. Details below:

CHELTENHAM

Sun 15th Oct – Living Your Best Life, with myself, Natasha Devon and Michelle Elman @ Cheltenham Literary Festival, 2pm. Tickets available here.

EIGG

Thurs 19th Oct – The Moira Monologues 1 @ Eigg Community Hall, Doors 7pm / Show 7.30pm. Tickets available on the night.

SKYE

Tues 14th Nov – The Moira Monologues 1 @ Edinbane Hall, Edinbane, Doors 7pm / Show 7.30pm. Tickets available here.

Wed 15th Nov – The Moira Monologues 2: More Moira @ Las Port Righ, Portree, Doors 7pm / Show 7.30pm. Tickets available here.

Hopefully see you at one of these. Do say hi afterwards!

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Not only was it nice to end the year as no.44 on The List magazine’s rundown of the Hot 100 creative people in Scotland in 2022, but….

Glasgow people… here is what you wanted!

Tickets are now onsale for MOIRA IN LOCKDOWN, my most recent show, playing at Òran Mór on April 2nd as part of Glasgow International Comedy Festival. And I’ll be doing a DJ set afterwards if you wanna get your groove on til midnight. Yaaaas!

More dates to be announced in the new year, but Glasgow will be the big wan.

I’m holed up writing stuff, but am venturing out for a few gigs before the end of the year.

For those of you in the Oban area, I will be appearing at the Bookends Festival on Sat 15th October, talking about my novella Lazy Susan. Also, I’ll probably take yous all to the pub afterwards. 7pm at the Victory Hall in Benderloch.

And for you lucky Falkirk peeps you’ll get to see Moira in Lockdown for its first ever performance outside the Edinburgh Fringe, PLUS I’ll be doing a DJ set til the wee hours if you’re wanting a bop afterwards!

2nd Dec, doors at 7.30pm in Behind The Wall, to get your Christmas season started with a bang! Link for tickets here.

Finally, I’ll be doing a table reading of my play from earlier this year, A Monstrous Regiment of Women, about Scotland’s most prominent suffragette, Caroline Phillips. It’s at Aberdeen Central Library on Nov 12th, 2pm. See below for ticket details.

Well! There was me worried about my new Edinburgh Fringe show, Moira in Lockdown, being the disappointing third chapter of what is now the Moira Trilogy. BUT! The reviews for it have come out and, fortunately, they are EXCELLENT! Whoop!

“Moira’s back-to-the-wall willingness to take on all-comers is the constant powerhouse of Alan Bissett’s humour.” – 5***** – Broadway Baby

“Heart-stoppingly funny, and heart-warming, Alan Bissett has created nothing less than an hour of storytelling perfection.” 5***** – The QR

“Hugely entertaining and strangely moving.” 4**** – Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman

“Bissett’s skill as a writer-performer with Moira has always been to take a potentially one-note character and add new dimensions to her, without ever intruding upon his vicious one-liners. For his 2022 show, he excels at Moira’s lived experience universal while keeping her edge.” – 4**** The List

“Keenly felt, dryly observed and hysterically funny.” – 4**** – British Theatre Guide

Well, that’s a relief! Moira in Lockdown is running at the Scottish Storytelling Centre til 23rd August, at 6.30pm. Tickets available here.