Gary Pollock: Starting Comedy Clubs, The Fight Project & First Standup Special

Gary Pollock is not only an ever growing club promoter, creating shows & clubs from the grassroots level into established venues but also a top standup comic who's looking to grow his own brand alongside his successful comedy nights.

Gary runs two very successful comedy clubs in NI: Kiwi's Comedy Club at Kiwis, Portrush & Clean Affronted Comedy at The Grand Social, Bangor.

Kiwi's had been running a comedy night starting just before Covid where Gary was initially booked to play it in April 2020 before the impending Covid lockdown halted his chance. 

"I had went up to see the show in February, I think Shane Todd was on, Aaron Butler & a few boys. It was great, I was really looking forward to getting it done. It felt like a really good venue, I love Portrush obviously but then during Covid everything died.

It was 2021 where I bumped into Sam who does the door he used to be the bar manager there at Kiwis. We just got chatting & I was starting to get back doing a few gigs, like a couple of gigs then shutdown again for a month then a few gigs then shutdown at the end of 2020/start of 2021. So we were like what about getting the comedy club going again & it snowballed from there. 

We did our first show in August 2021 & I booked it & organised it all. Then July 2022 I decided we'll do a full rebrand & separate it form being just a comedy night in a bar. My background is in sales & marketing so I naturally had that background so it worked out perfectly. So from there we made the standalone socials, ticketing on Eventbrite & building up the profile; trying to get the best headliners I could."

Safe to say Gary's done a great job in under two years as he's managed to create not only a go to spot in the North Coast for Comedy but an established comedy club which sells out every month; where the biggest names in the Comedy scene want to headline & perform tour shows too. The likes of Paddy Raff, Chris Kent, Andrew Ryan amongst others have chosen Gary's clubs to host their tour shows.

After seeing the work he had done transforming Kiwi's into the beast of a club it is today from scratch, a former colleague of Gary's from his PR days who now is the marketing lead for a new company who had bought The Grand Social in Bangor reached out to him; essentially headhunting him as the man to start/run a new comedy night.

"He said 'I want to do comedy in it & I think you're the man for it if you can do what you're doing up there down here, I think it'll be a great success'.

That was pretty much it, I went down to see the room & they let me pick whichever one I wanted. It's a little like Lavery's it's got two floors, pool upstairs & nice room downstairs; its a lovely setup & brand new facility. That launched in July 2023 & we've had 5-6 shows in there now."

The Clean Affronted Comedy club isn't a monthly show as of yet due to Gary still juggling full time work, Kiwis' monthly show, gigging & parenthood.

However, in less than a year, like he managed with Kiwi's; The Clean Affronted Comedy club has started to establish itself attracting the biggest of names to the club itself.

"We've Andrew Ryan booked in for two shows in there for his tour & he's sold them out & is looking to do a third so there is demand there for it & we've had great feedback from the locals.

Like in Magherafelt with the Terrace there isn't much to do midweek & you're bringing the biggest names to their home town & the demand is there. Our first night we had Andrew Ryan it sold out, second night we had William Thompson it sold out & we've had other big names like Colin Murphy too."

Gary's looking to also move into this full-time in the future with potentially running 3-4 different nights. Something he's already clearly shown he's capable of but just needs the demand, the town & the 'vibe' all to be right before he takes on another.

He's not only MC's comedy nights but is also the resident MC for The Fight Project which he does with his longtime friend & successful MMA fighter, Rhys McKee.

"Me & Rhys would've met in Rodney Moore's Next Generation gym in Ballymena. We've been mates ever since, training partners, sparring partners & I cornered him in his first 4/5 fights & went all over the country with it.

I'm a jack of all trades, master of none but I have plenty of surprises in my locker. Me & Ro Boyle are the ones who know it cause our teams used to fight each other back in the day. We're both on a similar journey now, both finding comedy a little later on in life; I didn't do my first set until I was 28, he was maybe in his mid-late thirties.

Whenever Rhys had the very first fight project in mind I was the first guy he texted to say 'I need a bit of help, I need an MC' I had just started my standup then too. We meet up every couple of weeks & try support each others careers when we can, so it was great to do The Fight Project, good fun & something different too."

Since the introduction of his Kiwi club Gary has spoken of his deliberate ploy to happily sit behind the brands that he's created because he wasn't ready to do the shows that he potentially would've been offered. However, now after getting the 'wounds' of doing the open mics and learning the craft he's now ready to build his own brand as a comic.

"Ive done gigs in front of 400 people & it was water off a ducks back, the bigger the better for me. My social media accounts weren't to the level my standup was which is the opposite of some of these ones who are big on TikTok etc who post crowd work, their material is actually shite when you go see them live. The amount of people who say 'I went to see your man who does all them reels & he was pure shite' or they're posting a wee bit of crowd work that happened to get a laugh that night. Whereas I know if you come & see me do a 10-15 minute set you're going to laugh at some stage."

"I've written a shit ton of sketches that I'm starting to get shot & get out there as well. I've shot a couple last week so just waiting on getting them edited & through so hopefully get to start seeing them.

Eventually I'd like to do enough that there's enough for a pilot for a sketch show & send it off to a few producers or commissioners."

As the Ballymena comic is beginning to focus more on his standup career he is doing his debut work in progress show next month.

"Paddy [McGaughey] was there at my first gig, we didn't know each other before that but he happened to be opening at the Pav that night, we've stayed close friends since & meet up once a week to do a bit of writing & chat about ideas. 

I'm very ambitious whereas he's very happy to do his own wee thing so I feel I push him on a little which he likes. So we decided to do a split show, I've seen my mates Johnny Bow & Ian Thompson do it before at The Limelight & they're two guys who started around the same time as me & value them a lot.

I thought me & Paddy would be a good recipe for that. We often get booked for the same lineups because they know we can travel up together & that we're reliable solid acts.

People are always at me to do a show in Ballymena so what better opportunity to do one early enough in the year that we can bill it as a split show & if it does well we can take it around the clubs. We'll certainly do one in Portrush, maybe in Bangor. Ro Boyle has offered us up to his club in Strabane & further afield."

Gary's work in progress show is at the Studio Theatre Braid Arts Centre in Ballymena on Friday 24th May. Ticket link will be at the bottom of this article.

How does MC'ing differ to normal Standup?

"It definitely is different but something I was lucky enough I did fairly early in my comedy career. I probably started MCing in my first 5-10 gigs which is kind of unheard of. I sort of have that no fear attitude with life, like fuck it what's the worst that can happen & my hand was sort of not forced but happened organically/by accident.

I was doing some open mic nights in 2019 after my first couple attempts with Luke McGibbon at the Pav. My friend was then looking to raise some money for charity. Her & her husband unfortunately lost their baby the day after it was born, they had a very rare syndrome called Patau Syndrome & they were looking to raise money for a new ventilator for The Royal Victoria Hospital, the unit they were in.

I had just started standup & she worked with me & she said why don't we just do a standup comedy night in Ballymena here, we can raise money & the proceeds can go to the Royal. So I organised it with the Grouse in the town & we did it in their nightclub up the stairs in Origin. I booked Paddy McGaughey, Mark McLernon, Luke McGibbon & George Firehorse; there's a bit of variety but who will I get to host it? So then I hosted it, it went great. There was a hundred people in, we raised £1500 for charity but was easy enough.

The venue thought it went well & fast forward 6 months, we had done 6 shows it was going great until Covid happened."

What would be your dream venue to play?

"I love doing the clubs but they'll come and go. Obviously there's the iconic Comedy Store in LA that I'd love to do some day. I'd love to go to Austin & do the Mothership if that was possible.

But there's something about doing those big arena's that has that allure for me, you've properly made it if you can do an arena in front of thousands of people. Locally obviously the SSE would be amazing, The Waterfront would be the one I'd look at as a theatre & say is absolutely beautiful & then The Grand Opera House in Belfast. Paddy has spoken to me about doing The Grand Opera House & it's such an iconic venue, so beautiful & there's something about the architecture of the room that when you walk in is set up perfectly for performance; whether its arts, drama, music or comedy.

Further afield would be the Apollo in London. It's just iconic with being on TV & you've sort of made it if you get on that show, you're proper mainstream."

What would be your favourite venue to play?

"Probably The Braid in Ballymena because a) it's my hometown & b) it's the biggest room I've ever played. It's 400 when it's packed out & there's no buzz like it when it's a gig in your hometown. I've done it 5-6 times now & I done it probably before I was ready for it because Paddy is my mate & would throw me a bone like 'there's a wee ten as a guest spot' but now I've been booked properly & gotten a good run doing it. The last few times I've walked out the wall of noise just hits you. For the first time when they announce your name you can hear them cheering for you rather than just clapping because you're a new act & he's telling you to.

I've visualised selling that room out on my own that would be an amazing feeling. It's such a lovely room the way it's set up, similar to the Grand Opera House; there's lovely curved ceilings & the draped lighting etc of it is a lovely room to play. Every time I've played it I've had the best gig of my life so there's special memories in there & certainly more to come."

Who would you say is the best Comedian in the NI scene?

"There's so many coming up it's hard to keep track but I always try & gig with pretty much everyone in the scene big or small & Colin Murphy is one for me that I can't get away from; just a master of his craft.

I've gigged with him maybe 4-5 times now & every time I'm expecting him to do the same set & he just does a different set or he just drops material out there that he might have made up that week but feels like it's polished. You saw the crowd work he did up in Kiwi's (yes I did I was there) & he was so so good, 32 years in the game you can't underestimate that. As a youngish comedian he's one I watch like a sponge like if I can get anywhere near his level I'm doing all right. When everyone else is out playing chequers he's playing chess because he's 3-4 moves ahead of you.

The first time I did The Braid with him he was booked to do the Comedy Club in the November & then he had his tour booked for the March in The Braid. There's two rooms there's the big room that's 400 & then there's the wee studio room that takes 50-60 which we're doing our work in progress in. There's a film on that night they normally shows films etc in there, he came in & goes 'who's all these people for is there something else on in the big room?' Paddy goes 'aye you it's sold out there's 400 people to see you'. 

He goes 'aw shit I can't do my tour set, I'm back here in march' so got The Braid to print off his set list material, like 8 A4 pages, & he took it on stage & workshopped it. Just with a pen if it worked tick, tick, tick & if it didn't he'd scribble it out. It's just amazing to watch because it was just pure craftsmanship."

Who would you say is the most underrated comedian in the NI scene?

"One of my favourites who doesn't live here anymore but he's probably not like known mainstream is Robbie McShane. One of the funniest guys I've ever met: his set, his material, his mannerisms & how he goes about things. We started out around the same time again & he's a top class act & love working with him."

What was your worst ever gig?

"Probably my second ever gig. First set I done was in the Pavilion, went really well & Luke was really happy with it was like this guys taken to it like a duck to water. Normally there's a big waiting list to get back in there but he invited me back two weeks later there was a pull out, this was on the Friday, would I fancy come down doing that spot 'I was like fuck yeah' you can't turn that down.

I had no time to plan my set out that weekend I was flat out with work. Monday came & I was sitting in work at five o'clock like 'I need to write my set out, I've no idea what im going to talk about here'. I didn't know then that you could just do the same set again, I was like I'm going to have to come up with all new shit they've already heard this old set. So I went right I'll use the last five of the ten I did previously in the first half & then the second half I'll figure it out. That day I got a cold call from someone from England trying to sell me a boiler & they thought my address was in England cause it was my uni address. I ended up doing it the first 5 went great, I had the audience on the hook for this story, I was doing the English accent and all. 

The room was packed, bright lights beating down on me & I remember getting to the part in the story & could hear the wee voice in my head like 'Gary where you going with this mate?' & it was the worst feeling in the world because I have no idea where the punchline is here, I'm just telling a story. I ended up rushing the ending of it & was the worst feeling in the world, feeling I was so unprepared there & I don't like that feeling. It wasn't that I bombed but it was certainly a harrowing feeling that made me never unprepared for a gig again."

Beer or Stout?

"Has to be a pint of Guinness all day. If i'm driving at a gig it'll be 0%."

If you would like to see Gary perform here are some of his upcoming gigs:

April 19th - Kiwis Comedy Club

April 25th - Boiler Room Strabane

May 3rd - Chris Kent Playhouse Portrush (tour show)

May 24th - Work in Progress solo show w/ Paddy McGaughey @ The Braid Ballymena

May 29th & 30th - Lavery's Comedy Club

June 7th - Comedy at The Cosh

June 21st - Kiwi's Comedy Club

June 28th - Stephen Large tour support at Kiwis Comedy Club Portrush

Big thanks to Gary for his time & the interesting conversation. Must say I've seen Gary live doing both standup & MCing & both times was left thinking he was excellent at both so will certainly be going to see him again soon. Grab your tickets to see him at some of the spots above & check out his socials listed below.