Liam McGough, who reached the final of Big Brother 8 and left with £100,000 despite not winning, is set to perform at Edinburgh Fringe for the first time. He will appear alongside fellow comedian Dave Vaughan in Two Guys, One GCSE, a show described as a celebration of underachievement, misplaced confidence and glorious mediocrity by a pair of self-described "lovable halfwits" from London and Newcastle.
From Reality TV to Comedy
McGough came third in the eighth series of the popular reality programme in 2007, behind runner-up twins Sam and Amanda Marchant and winner Brian Belo. Now, almost two decades after finding fame, he is hoping to make a name for himself in the comedy circuit.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Star, McGough shared: "Every now and again somebody will mention Big Brother to me and it's not like I'm trying to hide it or anything like that but the hope is that I get so good just based on effort and its own merit that one day, hopefully not too long from now, I get the opportunity to speak about it in a way doesn't seem like somebody 20 years later trying to cling to this small amount of notoriety or whatever."
He added: "It really was a wonderful, amazing, exciting chapter in my life but in the 42 years that I've been alive, there have been so many chapters that it really does feel like just this portion of time 20 years ago that was really unique experience."
The Show and Its Themes
McGough, who runs a tree services business, has been a stand-up comedian for three years. The synopsis for Two Guys, One GCSE reads: "Dave and Liam are thicker than your average chancers: men of misplaced confidence with the audacity of blokes who've never let a GCSE get in their way. Join these lovable halfwits from London and Newcastle as they aim high, miss low and celebrate a life of glorious mediocrity."
It continues: "From the bottom of the class to the back of the bus, their pursuit of crappiness is relentless, unapologetic and dangerously enthusiastic. Expect big egos, questionable judgement and a masterclass in regrets, debts, detentions and delusions."
What to Expect
Opening up on performing at Edinburgh Fringe, McGough explained: "If it wasn't for Dave I might have dragged my feet a little bit longer but when the opportunity presented itself, and somebody had already started with some of the admin and things, I thought this is probably the push that I need to do it because I've done comedy for the last three years. I've done hundreds of gigs and really spent a lot of time and attention and had a lot of interest in it."
He said: "The show is kind of loosely about school. I will have a uniform on and there will assembly songs and things like that. There's some crowd interaction at the beginning, but generally speaking I would just say it's a story of somebody who you'll realise is smarter than they seem and not as dumb as they look."
McGough added: "It's a mouthpiece for this lad who spent most of the time in the corridor having been kicked out of the lesson early on. I'm thick skinned enough that if people don't laugh at the jokes, then the jokes aren't for them but I would love it if the people watching it were to give me a pat on the back and say 'that was really funny', 'that was quite smart' or 'that joke was original' or something like that."
Two Guys, One GCSE runs from August 20 until August 30 at The Bottle Room.
