Cult comedy pick of the month: November. Christopher Macarthur-Boyd - Fairfield Social Club.

 Still only in his early 30s, Glaswegian comedian Christopher Macarthur-Boyd has been carving out an unshowily impressive career in stand-up, with regular radio and TV appearances on BBC Scotland and beyond. The hit podcast Here Comes The Guillotine, which he co-hosted with Frankie Boyle and Susie McCabe, closed its doors earlier this year.

His two previous stand-up shows, 2022's Oh No and 2023's Scary Times, are currently free to view on YouTube, demonstrating his distinctive style - delivering intimate, often dark material with an assured lightness of touch. Earlier this year, Christopher was presented with the Next Big Thing award for 2026 by the British Comedy Guide, as judged by a panel of industry experts. But judge for yourself: this month he brings his latest full show, Howling at the Moon – billed as 'nocturnal stand-up about neurodivergence, sexuality and lunacy' - to Manchester's Fairfield Social Club. Images by Hannah Jay Brooks and Curse These Eyes

Cult Manchester: For anyone who hasn't seen you before, what can audiences expect from Howling at the Moon?

Christopher: It's kind of 70 minutes of observational stand-up about heartache and grief!

CM: There's been a big trend lately for stand-ups writing shows about dramatic and tragic things happening to them. Is it fair to say that Howling at the Moon comes from an unusually happy place?

Christopher: No, I wouldn't say so. I'm quite happy now, but I did go mental two years ago. I had a big break-up and people started dying, and that was certainly dramatic and tragic. I think you can't really laugh at things while they're happening, but it's that equation of tragedy plus time that leads to pretty good humour. So, I am quite happy just now, but the comedy is about a fairly awful time!

But I would say all my stand-up shows have been about that. Like Oh No!, that was about going mental during lockdown and pushing myself. And then Scary Times was a whole show about all the times I've been most scared in the world, from when I got abducted by a junkie as a teenager to when I got told I was going blind by a Specsavers employee. So, I don't think it's funny when comedy comes from a happy place.

CM: People often have preconceptions about the Glaswegian sense of humour. To what degree do you think you fit into them - or to what degree do you reckon you're fighting against them?

Christopher: Well, I think the Glaswegian sense of humour, I think about Billy Connolly, Frankie Boyle, Kevin Bridges, and they're all brilliant. So, I don't get offended if people say I have a typically Glaswegian sense of humour. I think the most important thing is, they're all brilliant and they're all completely themselves, and I think that's something that I aspire to - to be myself and to not pretend to be anything that I'm not. But I don't think I'm really anything like the three of them, as much as I do admire and love them and respect them as comedians.

CM: When did you first get into stand-up? Can you remember your first gig?

Christopher: Yeah, it was in February 2013. I was just about to turn 20, so I was a teenager. Now I'm 33. I signed up for Red Raw at the Stand Comedy Club, which is kind of the Glaswegian equivalent of Beat the Frog, or maybe the Comedy Balloon, in Manchester. It's just an open mic that anybody can do.

Basically, I'd decided to end my own life, but I thought, there's no point in killing yourself if you haven't tried everything you want to try first, so why don't you think about what you would actually like to do with your life? In a dream scenario, if money wasn't an issue. I decided I would like to try being in a rock band, being a professional wrestler and being a stand-up comedian.

Then, over the next couple of years, during my early 20s, I tried all three of them. I was a terrible wrestler, I was a terrible bass player in a punk band, and I was a pretty half-decent stand-up. So that's how I got into it.

CM: Your career is going very nicely at present, but do you still have burning ambitions you have yet to achieve?

Christopher: Well, I'm really enjoying it. I've slowed down my thing and now I do a new show every two years and a tour. I would love to perform stand-up in New York. I would love to perform stand-up in New Zealand. I would love to perform stand-up in Australia. I've done a wee bit of stand-up there, but I've never taken a solo show to Australia or New Zealand or America or Canada. So I'd like to do that - but really, I'm just happy doing what I'm doing. Putting out a special, self-recording them and then releasing them for free and building an audience. I just did a solo show when someone came up to me and was quoting quite an obscure routine that's become a vocal stim (self-stimulatory behaviour) for him. I was like, that's amazing.

So yeah, I'm just keeping on. I really enjoy the process. I enjoy writing and performing and doing the Fringe and touring. Do I have any burning ambitions? I'd like to make a comfortable living doing exactly what I'm doing now, but I'm kind of doing that. So... no, I don't, really. I'm moving to London in the new year, partly for my career, partly for romantic reasons. But no, I'm not the most ambitious person.

CM: Would you say - honestly - that Manchester is a significant stop on the comedy circuit?

Christopher: I couldn't really speak generally, but I'd say so. For me, it's one of the first places I went to when I was trying to gig outside of Scotland. I'd get the Megabus down to Manchester to do King Gong at the Comedy Store, and Beat the Frog at the Frog and Bucket, and XS Malarkey. These were some of the first places I gigged outside of Scotland, when I was in my early twenties. I'd get the 2.30 bus from Shudehill Interchange back up to Glasgow and get home for seven or eight in the morning. I met loads of cool people - your Tom Lawrinsons and your Phil Ellises and your Mick Ferrys.

It's an amazing city. Coming from Glasgow, a post-industrial city that's had to reinvent itself as a cultural hub in the wake of the de-industrialisation in the 80s and 90s, it's quite similar to Glasgow in its sense of humour. I think it's brilliant, and now you've got Fairfield Social Club and all the other stuff that [local promoters] A Lovely Time do. So yeah, I'm buzzing to do it.

Christopher Macarthur-Boyd brings his show Howling at the Moon to Manchester's Fairfield Club on 13 November 2026. Tickets here.