Limmy - Game On

“I want to be on the telly. Not 'at any cost' though. I don't mean getting on the telly shooting somebody. I want to write something and be something, kind of do a Ricky Gervais thing."

It's not just a pipe dream. Brian Limond has more reasons than most to seek his fortune in media land. His website limmy.com has been flaunting techno-comic flash games and homemade videos to comedy addicts worldwide. He also created Limmy's World of Glasgow, a daily podcast that launched him into the UK itunes top ten, putting him alongside Gervais as a podcast pro. As we sit in The Social, the setting of World of Glasgow's grand finale, I look forward to seeing which of his characters the real Limmy resembles most.

The website is catchphrase friendly, (“Gies yer jaicket!", “What would you do?") but Limmy's comedy doesn't fit into comfortable BBC territory, such as that occupied by Chewin' the Fat. World of Glasgow features nine characters, from coke-fuelled marketing strategist Benjamin, to dole-bound Dee Dee, who populate a Glasgow tainted by disappointment and cynicism. It is frequently explicit and features nasty bouts of violence, but the hilarity is caused by their skewed observations on the random absurdities of life. Limmy is a natural performer: not only does he master a spectrum of accents and patter, he seems possessed by the personalities.

In person Limmy is a curious mix of a faster talking Dee Dee and the aspirational Veejay, producing obsessive yet ambitious statements like; “I want to get on the telly, I like the telly, I watch the telly a lot. I like watching the comedy on the telly. I would ultimately like to be on the telly."

Yet the enthusiasm and energy he puts into storytelling makes him as entertaining as his creations. He gets particularly animated when discussing his most abhorrent and vile character, John Paul, who he describes as being on a Darth Vader scale of evilness. “I thought: there you go, have a ned, and you can get all the violence in. Have good people, people minding their own business, and this fucking horror comes into their life. That's John Paul: unapologetic, absolutely psycho." The Scottish ned is an endless source of amusement this side of the border but Limmy's humour is searching beyond the stereotypes. For his upcoming Edinburgh show he's looking to appeal to an international audience. “I don't want to do 'Scottish comedy'. I don't like those kind of words; 'glaikit', 'eejit', 'bampot.' I happen to use them occasionally but that's not the joke."

Although Limmy isn't a seasoned performer he's not lacking in audacity, something he confirmed at Australian band Jet's recent Glasgow gig. Pre performance, Limmy strolled on stage and told 2000 Jet fans that the band couldn't make it and proceeded to play 'Are You Gonna Be My Girl' on air guitar, taunting the crowd into mass booing and pint throwing. The band, being huge fans, loved it. “It was a baptism of fire", Limmy remembers. “But then I thought: don't kid yourself that that's you fucking tough now, that it makes up for all the touring you've no done, and doing gigs that didn't work out. That was in front of people who weren't there to see you. Imagine if that had happened with people who liked you!" What Limmy has proved so far is that he doesn't do anything conventionally. At this year's Fringe you can expect to see his anarchic, cheeky face on posters everywhere. And who knows, maybe even on the telly.