Jamie MacDonald marked 10 years as a professional stand-up comedian recently when he achieved one of his ambitions by performing on the BBC’s Live At The Apollo.
“It was a dream to do it,” smiled the Glasgow comedian. “When you start out, that’s the one you want to get on – it’s the show the pros do. And it was just awesome, everything I wanted it to be. There was a massive crowd there and they were brilliant.
“What’s nice about playing to a big crowd is it gives you the time and space to allow jokes to land. Everyone who’s been on Live At The Apollo also knows what it’s like to play a 100-seater venue with only four people in attendance – you need to be pacier with the jokes.”
The days of playing to four people are in the past for Jamie, who is preparing a new stand-up show which he’ll preview you at next month’s Glasgow Comedy Festival, before taking it around the UK later in the year.
© BBC“The show is called Toxic B*****d, because my contemporaries – middle-aged white guys – are assumed to be toxic whether they are or aren’t,” he said.
“But not me – I’m assumed to be lovely because I have a disability. I’m not toxic, but what if I want to be? If I say something that’s off, people think it’s my disability flaring up.
“Thirty years ago, when I was losing my sight, people apologised for being disabled, and now in 2025 people say sorry for me being disabled. The flow of apologies has changed direction.
“I remember being helped through an airport years ago by someone who didn’t want to be there, and I was left stranded.
“Whereas recently I was in a restaurant in London and I wanted to go upstairs to the bar, but the maitre’d wouldn’t let me and dragged me round the back to a special needs lift.
“I was annoyed both times for totally different reasons, and that’s what’s inspired the show. I realised that in neither situation, although the attitudes have changed, the control was not mine.
“People nowadays do the wrong things for the right reasons, which is difficult because then you can’t get angry! For example, I got a roasting hot cup of tea from the train trolley and the lady next to me blew on it for me. What can you do? I thanked her and drank round the saliva.
“I always try to entertain first and then if you can highlight anything, that’s a bonus. I try not to get preachy in this game, because I don’t want anyone leaving the show thinking they’re a bad person.”
Jamie was a contestant on Celebrity MasterChef last year, going far in the competition.
“I loved it. I know it’s been in the s**t recently, but I watched it for 20 years, so when I stepped into that MasterChef kitchen it was a little overwhelming,” he recalled.
“Then the first person got figs, and you could feel everyone else in the room thinking: ‘Thank God I didn’t go first!’ I got mushrooms, which can take a lot of pain. I was quite gutted to go out at the quarter-finals; I would like to have gone on to the semis, but the other guys put on a better dinner. It was a magic experience.
“Having someone help me out in the kitchen, who did the things that, if I’d done them, I would have killed myself, made it a level playing field.
“I quite like to normalise it, although not too much so that people are OK with the disability, because then I wouldn’t have anything to rail against! I still want people to be awkward around me on certain occasions because that keeps me writing material!”
© BBCAsked if he would like to do any other shows of that type, he laughed: “Well, Strictly Come Dancing is out now, isn’t it?” referring to Chris McCausland, the blind comedian who won the latest series.
Jamie filmed a pilot for ITV last year called Evil Escapes, with fellow comics Lee Ridley and Eshaan Akbar, who also live with disabilities, and he would like to do more with that.
“I like being a guest on shows, but it would be great to have my own show and have a bit more influence,” added Jamie, who also starred in BBC Scotland comedy The Scotts.
“But I enjoy doing anything, and you just don’t know what’s going to come up in TV and radio. I’m in an episode of the new series of The Chief, with Jack Docherty, which is coming soon, and I’m also doing a lot more corporate work. I quite like doing keynote speeches and motivational speaking.
“But the new tour is going to be the focus this year. You’re effectively a mirror when you’re on stage – if you’re having a tough time up there, so will the audience, but if you’re having a good time, so will they, and it becomes a joyous thing.”
Jamie MacDonald: Toxic B*****d, Blackfriars, Glasgow, March 13-14
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