Crime writers put the ho-ho into homicide at The Glad Cafe

The crime writing improvisational comedy show comes to the Southside next month.

A quartet of Scottish crime writers are set to swap murder for mirth at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival.

The Four Blokes in Search of a Plot – Douglas Skelton. Gordon Brown, Neil Broadfoot and Mark Leggatt - will be in the Glad Cafe, armed only with a laptop, their creativity … and a teacosy.

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The show sees the writers take to the stage to improvise a crime story based on the audience’s suggestions for a protagonist and a murder weapon.

And while the four writers may deal with dark deeds and twisted motives in their own novels, the Four Blokes regularly divert into the bizarre, with missile-armed penguins, nuns and even frozen sausages all being used as murder weapons.

The Four Blokes in Search of a Plot have toured Scotland and northern England, appearing in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dumfries, Stirling, Bute and Newcastle.

They also performed in Javea on the Costa Blanca on in February. The team was invited to appear by the local council.

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Glasgow-based Gordon Brown said: “All authors write with a safety net in place – they only let someone else see their work when they are good and ready. Every time the Four Blokes have taken to the stage we do so without a safety net. We write and share our work there and then. And that makes it scary for us - but a heck of a lot of fun for the audience.’

Douglas Skelton said: “Writing a crime story is hard enough. Writing it in front of an audience while trying to block out what the other guys are saying makes it even more difficult. Although I have to say, the tea cosy helps.”

Mark Leggatt, who found the sacred artefact, explained: “The tea cosy was born out of a quote by Billy Connolly about never trusting a man who when left alone with one, doesn’t try it on.

“It means you can trust us.”

Neil Broadfoot says that the shows are an ideal antidote to their real fiction. “We spend our time being very dark and mysterious, at least on paper. The stories in the shows often start seriously but do eventually take a series of left turns.”

Four Blokes in Search of a Plot can be seen in the Glad Café, 1006a Pollokshaws Road on Wednesday March 18, 7.30pm. Tickets £6.60 and available from

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