Falling For It Every Time
Ten o'clock this morning and I'm in an Inverness bar, talking funny stuff with Suzanne Fraser. Suzanne, you may recall, presented a series on comedy and parenting a while back called You're Kidding. She's now based down south but we meet up from time to time to discuss possible ideas. Today she was visiting friends and family in Inverness and was able to fit me in to her schedule before heading down to Drumnadrochit to buy some toy Nessies.
We met in the lounge bar of the Beaufort Hotel where we sipped tea and talked about Suzanne's recent comedy workshops for children in Darlington. She told me that the Primary 7 kids there had a sophiticated understanding of modern comedy and were able to discuss everything from Scooby-Doo to Peter Kaye.
Somehow the conversation drifted on to Suzanne's own childhood in Ayrshire. Her primary school was across the road from Burns' Cottage in Alloway and she still retains a fascination for the Bard and his infidelities. She also talked about her days working in the Butlin's holiday camp and her resentment of the Glasgow hordes who would descend every summer to steal the beach-space at Ayr.
"We couldn't quite understand why Glasgow people came to our town on their holidays, " she said, "but then again our family tended to escape the Scottish seaside and spend two weeks in Blackpool!"
That made me smile but Suzanne's research has revealed the one single thing that's almost guaranteed to make children guffaw.
"People falling over," she told me, "it works every time."
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