The great outdoors and Scottish comedy came together this week when more than 100 hill walkers climbed to the 3196ft summit of Ben Lomond for the UK’s highest comedy gig.
Summit Funny has also attracted some 11,000 viewers of the subsequent video of award-winning Glaswegian comedian Gary Little being interrupted mid-set by a barefooted National Trust for Scotland Ranger called Fraser.
The Ben Lomond climb and gig, which featured five Scottish comedians in total, has so far raised almost £1000 for the charities, Scottish Mountain Rescue and Trossachs Search and Rescue Dogs.
Gary and Mark Nelson – the past two winners of Best Headliner at the Scottish Comedy Awards – were joined by BBC Scotland Scot Squad’s Chris Forbes, Vladimir McTavish and Alan Anderson on the mountain peak on May 25, 2015.
Gary, Chris, Alan and Vladimir are all experienced Munro Baggers. It was Mark’s first attempt at climbing a mountain. Later, Mark said: “That was amazing, definitely one of the high points of my comedy career.”
Munro bagger Paul Duncan, who had no idea about the gig until he arrived at the summit, posted on Facebook: “Last thing I expected to see at the top of a mountain when I set off this morning. Hilarious stuff.”
Organiser Alan Anderson said: “Driving up to Rowardennan at the base of Ben Lomond, we speculated that we might get a dozen or so nutters to make the trip to the summit with us.
“On arriving at he summit we were blown away by the number of people who were already there, sitting in the wind, chatting and having lunch while waiting for us to perform.
“Normally you might spend five or 10 minutes at the top of a climb but 100 hardy, and very generous, souls stayed up there with us for more than an hour. Well done to all who made the effort and thank you for your donations.”
To add to the fund-raiser see: Gary Little Just Giving and Summit Funny Just Giving.