Scottish comedy club promoter Alan Anderson of Rotunda Comedy Club, The Comedy Cabaret and Scottish Comedy Awards has purchased the iconic Cowboy With Gun backdrop from rival club The Stand. Anderson won the auction on Monday with a bid of £5,500 but added an additional £2,000 donation to the charity price.

 

The Stand decided that after 25 years it was time for the cowboy to lay down his gun and replace him with a "bare forearms" cowboy.

 

Anderson plans to use the backdrop at Glasgow's Rotunda Comedy Club, saying "The Edinburgh Comedy Cowboy has become the 2nd most iconic image in Scottish Comedy after Billy Connolly’s Banana Boots." Anderson adds that the decision to remove the Cowboy, juxtaposed with Glaswegian Jerry Sadowitz's show being cancelled in Edinburgh, illustrate that comedy is losing its cutting edge. "A comedy club should not be a safe space for ideas. It is where comedians should shoot down both themselves and the establishment. Glasgow is the real beating heart of the Scottish Comedy scene. We will ensure that this beloved image remains intact at a Scottish Comedy club to help inspire the next generation of comedians."

 

Replacing the cowboy at The Stand is a new painting by its original painter Thomas ‘Mac’ Macgregor – the same trademark image, just without the gun. New backdrops will also be completed in their Glasgow & Newcastle clubs.