Comedians | Sean Grant
Sean describes his act as a mixture of fact, fiction and nonsense, inventive, sometimes cynical, often selfish, but with an underlying frivolity, carefully constructed and delivered with the enthusiasm of sporting pundit Alan Hansen.
Not bad for a comedian who, not quite 4 months after his first-ever open-spot in May 2007, and on only his 10th time on a stage, won the coveted Scottish Comedian Of The Year title, beating many more experienced, professional acts. There are very few comic writers who could be called a natural talent – Sean Grant is one of them.
Having spent most of his life avoiding speaking in front of an audience, in September 2006 Sean found himself giving the Best Man’s speech for his best friend of 20 years – he could hardly have said no. It went down extremely well and Sean got a huge buzz from making people laugh so he decided to try his hand at stand-up, with the tempting possibility that this was something that could perhaps become more rewarding than his boring IT job.
Inspired by this, in January 2008 he began writing in earnest and booked a place on a ten week comedy course. In April, the course was cancelled – one week before it was due to start, after the tutor suddenly died. But by then he had already written some good material that seemed a shame to waste – so he booked himself a 5 minute open spot on the Red Raw night at The Stand, Glasgow in May 2007. The set went very well and he was keen to get back on stage as soon as possible. So keen that the following week, he made a 300 mile round trip to Aberdeen for a 4 minute spot – and had to pay £3 admittance too.
Not one to be daunted by new challenges, Sean persevered at doing open spots and by March 2008 had created 30 minutes of original and extremely funny material which he showcased at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival to an appreciative audience.Sean was in the unusual position of performing at his first-ever Edinburgh Festival Fringe so soon in his career and in August 2008 he shared a double bill in the Gilded Balloon with London comic Tiernan Douieb, as well as participating in the So You Think Your Funny new-talent competition, due to his extreme rookie status. He has been working regularly in Scotland’s clubs and has also headlined with extended sets in several arts centre shows.
In addition to stand-up, Sean is a writer of sketch comedy. In 2008, he submitted three sketches to the BBC’s Recorded for Training Purposes programme. Two of these sketches were broadcast and Sean was subsequently invited to attend a writers meeting and to take part in a BBC sketch-writing workshop in May. He has since been included in ongoing BBC’s script development projects and is also working on a sitcom.
In 2009 Sean was invited by comedienne Jo Caulfield to write for her new sketch show, produced by Pozzitive Productions, producers of numerous Harry Enfield and Victoria Wood programmes.
Sean says: I am inspired by the conviction that if I sit down long enough in front of a blank screen, I will eventually write something funny – though this does not always happen. I am inspired by bad comedy too – it makes me want to try harder.
