The Stand Comedy Club Podcast · The Stand

Karen Dunbar

·1 hr 15 min·4 clips

Karen Dunbar drove the M8 to see Oasis with no ticket and still got in.

1. The Stand Comedy Club Podcast episode centers on Karen Dunbar and her reflections on fame, performance, memory, and meaning. 2. The episode features Karen Dunbar as guest and the Stand Comedy Club hosts as conversational partners, with Chris noting a recorder cutout and a switch to camera audio near the end. 3. The core question becomes how Karen handles public recognition, live performance, and the pressure of being known for catchphrases. 4. Karen describes deciding at about six in the evening to go to Oasis, driving up the M8 with no ticket, and getting in after using her own recognition to get past staff. 5. She links that story to Kirsty Wark's phrase "fame tax" and says public attention can be useful, awkward, and invasive at the same time. 6. Karen explains that people shout her catchphrases, ask for videos, and expect her to perform in ordinary places like streets and shops. 7. She says she made a private rule not to stand in the middle of Gallowgate and act like she is on stage for strangers. 8. The conversation turns to a night with a famous singer at Red Raw, where a request for a photo turned into everyone going outside and singing a song. 9. Karen also talks about handling encounters by taking the phone and making a selfie herself rather than letting people fumble through the request. 10. She recounts meeting Josie Lawrence, calling herself a massive fan and admitting she became properly starstruck. 11. The episode shifts into Karen's route into performance, including hosting karaoke at 19 and building routines from stories, not from a stand-up template. 12. She says she used to work out material from life events, such as a sister taking acid, and later learned to trust structure and repetition. 13. Karen discusses touring with catchphrases like "I smell shite" and "he's a sweartshirt fanny," then says audience shout-outs can interrupt a planned show. 14. She says she has done 80 dates on one tour and prefers discovering what works by telling stories repeatedly rather than forcing a script. 15. Memory becomes a serious theme when Karen discusses menopause, stage fright, and the fear of drying on stage in front of an audience. 16. She describes learning Samuel Beckett's Happy Days over three months and then compares that kind of memorisation to the anxiety of forgetting lines in live theatre. 17. The tone stays conversational, self-aware, and loose, with the hosts interrupting, laughing, and pushing into digressions rather than formal interview questions. 18. The format feels like a long chat rather than a standard promotional interview, and Karen keeps moving between comedy, theatre, and philosophy. 19. Listeners who like Glasgow comedy, showbiz stories, and sharp talk about fame will probably enjoy this episode. 20. Listeners wanting a tightly structured interview or a fast-paced joke set may skip it.

As heard by us

A cold, funny chat that turns stage graft, karaoke, and comic memory into a loose, lived-in conversation.

Karen Dunbar's Stand Comedy Club podcast appearance is a cold, loose, funny chat that keeps circling back to the small realities of performance: biscuits, free bits, karaoke, stage graft, and the patience needed to carry long pieces.

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Why you'd press play

You want Karen Dunbar, cold-nose banter, karaoke logic, and a chat that keeps finding the joke.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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