By Lisa Clark 
Andrew is always a big bundle of joy on stage, especially as he seems to be in a pretty happy place at the moment, Â so you can go along with friends knowing you can relax and just have a jolly time. Nothing nasty is going to be flung at you, he’s not going to grab you inappropriately or make you get on stage, though he might challenge your mind and you may learn some new big words.
Eschewing the black Tshirt and jeans, Andrew is always dressed to the nines, usually as a man in the Nineteenth Century and his comedy style does often, come across as if he has descended into the Forum in his time machine (possibly shaped like a pizza oven) from an earlier era. However, his talk about his penchant for dead languages & tweed tends to be undermined somewhat by his love of computer games and modern pop music. He gradually becomes more dishevelled as he strips away the tweedy layers of clothing in the sweltry Pizza Room to find his way to the twenty first century talking about SIMs and David Duchovny.
In the past Andy has concocted phenomenal shows about his love of history and his passion for music as well as heart-achingly personal storytelling shows. This is a little of everything and seems to go some way further into becoming a more cabaret style performance with silly songs breaking up his stories, quips and quizzical notions. He doesn’t quite have the vocal chops of his mate Oliver Clark, but he’s not going to let a little thing like that hold him back and makes up for it with debonair dance moves, enthusiasm and endearing charm. Andrew’s opening song is definitely a winner, a little bit rap, a little bit funk and with a reprise of last year’s catchy theme tune in the middle, so you get to singalong with that again if you wish (and we do!). His closing song is a pretty repetitive and catchy singalong too but I still manage to drift off to sleep murmuring “Andy, Andy McClelland” to the tune of I Dream of Jeanie.
For some reason over the past couple of years or so I didn’t make it to Andrew’s shows until near the end of the Festival and they have always ended up on my list of favourite shows of the festival. I made myself go see him a bit earlier this year, so I can encourage you all to get out early and see him being funny & adorable at you. Unless you are a magician. You might want to steer clear of this if you are a magician.
Andrew McClelland performs We Really Must Do This Again Sometime at the Forum (we saw it in the Pizza Room)
For more information see the MICF website: