This Review is from August 2025

Marc Jennings was proclaimed Scottish Comedian of the Year in 2019. Back then reviewers, industry types and comedy nerds already knew the Glaswegian had the comedy chops, the ‘it’ factor.

What is it? everybody recognises it. That intangible, ‘it’ that makes a great singer, painter, actor – whatever – any artist – a star.

An alternative universe that didn’t live through Covid-19 lockdowns has Marc Jennings selling out major international theatres and, if the money is right, hosting Live at the Apollo.

Post pandemic, we all stepped back, questioned our life choices and gave up being baggage handlers for airlines that paid the minimum wage. Marc retook the stage and worked hard. Really hard. It paid off, in 2023, he sold out Glasgow’s King’s Theatre, where he recorded his debut stand-up special, Original Sound.

Bread and Circuses is about contradictions and about change. The Glaswegian celebrates diversity, but bemoans the number of posh English folk that inhabit his city. His solution was staggeringly hilarious. Intelligent and very funny stuff. I saw the show during a sell out preview and so yes, there were a couple of gags, as the comedian acknowledged from the stage, that didn’t quite hit. But this is one of those shows that, down the line, you brag about to your mates. “I saw that at the Fringe in the Monkey Barrel before everybody saw it on telly”.

He sold-out his Edinburgh Festival runs in 2022, 2023 and 2024. He will sell out Edinburgh this year too. Surely, nothing can stop him now.