JOHN BURNS speaks to writer and poet RODY GORMAN about his project to translate the songs of Bob Dylan into the Gaelic language. Recorded in January 2008 on location on the Isle of Skye.

Highland Lives, Highland Voices
JOHN BURNS signed up to take part in the BBC Scotland’s Highland Lives project. In the first of three articles tracing his progress, John wonders exactly what he has gotten himself […]

Blog On
JOHN BURNS looks at the burgeoning world-wide lure of the blog.
IT’S THE figures that scare me. One hundred million on-line blogs, with 100,000 new blogs every day. The biggest blog in the world, by […]

OneTouch Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 18 April 2012
SOME comedians are instantly recognisable by their voice alone. 

FOR example Joe Pasquale, sounding like a budgie on helium.  Reginald D Hunter, with his […]

Here Comes the Revolution
JOHN BURNS recommends joining the Podcast revolution
 
PEOPLE ARE TALKING – in bedrooms, in kitchens, in garages, fields, garden sheds and just about anywhere else you can think of. […]

Creative Thinking in the Business World
JOHN BURNS ponders the relevance of creativity in the hard-nosed world of business.
RECENTLY I was sitting in a Royal Bank of Scotland seminar about creativity in business […]

Can you tell what it is yet?
JOHN BURNS reflects on HI~Arts Showcase and the Edinburgh Fringe
 
I KEEP ASKING myself the question, “Why am doing this?”. It is the evening of the last day of the Edinburgh […]

OneTouch Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 4 June 2012
THE DROLL Northern comedian, Bernard Manning, one said, “Once you are on stage all you’ve got is that,” pointing to his mouth.

SAM WILLS has taken the […]

Inverness, 23-2 May 2012
SOONER or later there had to be an eruption. Bill Bailey is a comedy volcano.

OVER the last four or five years the build-up of comedy in the Highlands has been steady and unrelenting […]

A Poet in Exile
CHOMAN HARDI is the first poet in residence at the Moniack Mhor Writer’s Centre. JOHN BURNS profiles the poet and her role within the new developments taking place at the centre.
ALL WRITERS are […]

Stepping into the Light
JOHN BURNS dispenses some sage advice on handling the fear factor inherent in the business of stand up comedy, and reflects on what it all means.
I AM LEANING against a wall in a small, […]

Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness,  15 March 2012 RICH HALL’s genius for being grumpy was much in evidence as the dead pan comedian took to the stage at Eden Court. HE HAS developed his irascible bad temper into an art form that fits perfectly with his laid back southern drawl.  He delivers his act with the air of mid west gas station […]

Just Laugh, Hush Comedy Club, Inverness, 2 February 2012 EVERY now and again I go to a comedy gig that reminds me why I watch and, sometimes, perform stand up. IT’S because, when it works, there is nothing quite like it, and on Thursday night at Hush it worked superbly. Bruce Fummey has been emceeing stand up […]

JOHN BURNS updates Northings on progress – and the value of a good director – on his one-man show about Aleister Crowley THE wheel turns a full circle when I bring my one-man show about Aleister Crowley, A Passion for Evil, back to the Little Theatre in Nairn on 30 September, the venue where it was first performed two […]

Ironworks, Inverness, 23 July 2011 AL MURRAY burst on to the stage at the Ironworks in a shower of lager.  Throughout the whole show he drenched both himself and any members of the audience who were unfortunate enough to come within range with pints of his beloved golden nectar. For those in the front row Murray was […]

Dores, Loch Ness, 10-12 June 2011 I ALWAYS thought that comedy didn’t belong outdoors.  I imagined comedy like something you kept in the dark, preferably in a cellar, in case it escaped and went streaking through an old folk’s home. Stand up is usually best when it’s hidden, like some guilty secret, away from the light of […]