From playing Still Game’s iconic lovable rogue Winston to improvising with Robin Williams, Paul Riley’s comedy career has, in his own words, been “quite the ride”.
And this March the BAFTA-winning actor will be telling Livignston theatre-goers all about his glittering 30-year career as part of his new solo tour.
Auld Before My Time promises an evening of fun, laughter, music and memories with a surprise celebrity guest each night.
And audience members are given the chance to ask anything they’ve ever wanted to know about Still Game, as Paul regales hilarious tales of his time in Craiglang playing the part of the much-loved Winston Ingram.
Paul described the evening as a good old-fashioned variety show and said: “The thing about the show is it’s very organic, it changes all the time.
“It’s mainly about my career and my life really and how I got to where I am.
“Then there’s a Q&A section where the audience can ask whatever they like.
“It’s all about variety, it can be whatever it wants to be. You’re in control but not in control if that makes sense.
“I love it, it’s very fresh, very natural and it keeps audiences interested.”
Paul (53), added: “When I started this about 18 months ago I wasn’t sure how it was going to go down but the audiences are really attentive, they want to hear that journey.”
Starting out at Glasgow Schools Youth Theatre when he was 15, Paul landed the principal role of Jesus in Godspell, before moving on to the Perth’s Scottish Youth Theatre, of which he is now a proud patron.
He then beat off competition from 20,000 applicants to secure one of only 20 places at Glasgow’s prestigious Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) where he honed his craft on a three-year course.
Paul went on: “When I left there I just started working as a jobbing actor. I did a lot of theatre and, through a friend of mine, I met Greg Hemphill. About six months later he called me and said ‘I want you to meet this guy Ford. We’ve written a play and we want you to be in it’.”
And Still Game’s original stage show was born.
Created by Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill, the sitcom centres around two Glaswegian pensioners Jack Jarvis, Esq and Victor McDade, who first appeared in the pair’s TV sketch show Chewin’ the Fat.
Following its debut in September 2002, 62 episodes of Still Game were aired, including Christmas and Hogmanay specials, as well as almost 50 live shows.
Paul revealed that Greg took inspiration from The Simpsons when creating Still Game’s beloved characters.He continued: “Greg said he wanted to make it like The Simpsons. There’s hundreds of characters in The Simpsons but every single one of them you know.
“Still Game is totally relatable; everybody knows an Isa, everybody knows a Navid. People just love it.
“We’ve got this generational thing. I did a comic con about five years ago and a five-year-old came up to me with a Spider-Man outfit on and said: ‘Shut it tadger’. Well if the parents let him watch it because he loves it, it’s nothing to do with me!
“Sajeev (Kohli – who plays Still Game’s Navid Harrid) put it best when he said ‘it’s never going to go away’.
“Still Game will outlive everybody.”
Affirming that he is “absolutely” proud to have played such an iconic TV character loved by young and old, surprisingly the highlight of Paul’s career came not with Jack and Victor in The Clansman, but on a movie set in the Scottish Highlands in the 1990s with none other than the late legendary comedy genius Robin Williams.
Paul and fellow Still Game star Gavin Mitchell (Boaby the Barman) became firm friends with the comedy icon during the filming of Being Human.
The show comes to Howden Park Centre on March 10. Tickets can be purchased via www.howdenparkcentre.co.uk.
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