Elaine C Smith calls Two Doors Down 'real blessing' ahead of new show

The beloved actress and comedian will be reflecting on her 40 years in showbusiness as she returns to the theatre with her new stand-up show 65 as part of the Glasgow International Comedy Festival in March.  

She initially had "no intention" of creating a show for the festival, saying it feels like there hasn’t been a lot to laugh about in recent times. 

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"Given a pandemic and a world run by Trump, Putin and Boris Johnson, there wasn’t a lot to laugh about," she says. 

"You couldn’t even satirize that. It was beyond comedy because you’re watching the telly going ‘this canny be real’. 

"And the level of misogyny out there is huge.  

"The way people talk about women and the way women are treated, particularly older women, it’s like at 65 you’re supposed to knitting and sitting in your house and shutting up.  

"And most of the women I know at 65 don’t shut up. They’re running companies, they’re doctors, lawyers, professors, just getting on with their lives."

Despite not originally planning a show, Elaine says she was convinced by her daughter to get back on the stage and look back on what a climb the last four decades have been, especially as a woman in comedy.  

"It’s not going to be a lecture on poor me, but this has not been easy as a woman in this city to survive and do comedy,” she explains. 

"It was just so male dominated and at 65 I’m still here, so that’s why I decided to do it."

She continued: "It was never deliberate, I don’t think men were sitting in a room rubbing their hands going, ‘what are we going to do to exclude women?’.  

"It was just the way it was, men talked to each other and a woman coming in usurped it, it altered the order of things and the way they wanted it. 

"In Naked Video there was Helen Ledger and I, so there were two women – but there were six men. 

"Even something like Still Game, brilliant as it is, you had Isa and Naveed’s wife who you never see and that’s basically it. 

"People loved it, and it’s great, but I think that’s what’s different about Two Doors Down. It’s fresh."

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Elaine has starred as Christine O’Neal in the popular BBC Scotland sitcom since the first series aired in 2016. 

She says the show, which she initially thought she would only be in for one episode, has been a "real blessing" in her life and credits the creators with having a "much more inclusive" view of what comedy should be.  

"I’m also working with Arabella and Doon who are in their 60s as well, and women are really funny in it," she says. 

"And that encouragement not of my own generation but of the generation of men behind who don’t have that baggage of not thinking women should be funny or not giving women gags has been great. 

"Particularly the gay men that were involved in it and their encouragement and love of female humour, that it wasn’t that macho and a much more inclusive view of what comedy should be, that has really helped."

While Elaine has worked alongside some of the most well-known faces in comedy, it’s still every day people who have delivered some of the funniest lines she says she's ever heard. 

She believes comedy is in the DNA of Glaswegians and is a necessity in what can sometimes be a hard place to live.  

"A sense of humour is a necessity in this city. It’s a hard city to live in, it’s got a lot of problem it’s got a lot of poverty, it’s got a lot of difficulties,” she says. 

"But it’s a wonderful city, a city I love and I choose to live here and I don’t want to live anywhere else. 

"Everybody’s got something to say and some of the funniest lines I’ve ever heard back been in cafes and buses, things like that.  

"The people are genuinely funny but the sense of humour is a necessity. Maybe they deal with the weather, deal with what’s going on by having a laugh."

The Glasgow International Comedy Festival will take place from Wednesday, March 13 until Sunday, March 31. 

Elaine C Smith’s sold out show 65 will be at the King’s Theatre on Friday, March 29.