Kirkcaldy comedy champion’s life from caravans to band called The Cheesemongers

Born in St Andrews in 1972 and brought up in Tanshall, Glenrothes, Jay’s route to becoming the man behind Bearfoot Comedy in Kirkcaldy has taken in caravans, architecture, photography, radio, acting, music, Italy, Glasgow, and a band called The Cheesemongers.

Their first song? Put Out the Cheese.

“I’ve always been creative,” Jay tells me. “I love the process of creation.”

That creative streak started early. When Jay’s parents bought a run-down farmhouse outside Kirkcaldy in 1986, the family lived in caravans while they renovated the house. Jay was studying for his exams in one of them.

School wasn't exactly his favourite experience either.

“I went to Balwearie for fifth year,” he said. “I always joke that they asked me to leave because I knew more than the teachers.”

From architecture and civil engineering, Jay eventually moved towards photography, video and media, later studying media technology in Paisley and spending time in Glasgow.

There was music too. Lots of it. Jay and his flatmates began sampling and creating their own tunes, eventually becoming The Cheesemongers.

“It was like a game,” he explains. “You were putting stuff together and making songs out of other bits.”

And that, perhaps, sums up Jay’s approach to creativity.

“I was never really interested in, ‘oh, you want to be famous?’” he said. “If you're writing a book, it’s for yourself. You should do it for your soul rather than just for any goal.”

Comedy arrived later with after forays as a radio DJ.

Jay was 40 when he performed his first gig, following the reaction to his wedding speech. His brother, who was best man, had threatened to tell stories about him, so Jay decided to get his retaliation in first. “The whole room just burst out laughing,” he recalled.

Watching the speech back afterwards, he had a thought. “I was like, if I could do that, I could memorise stuff. I could actually do stand-up.”

A friend he’d met on a bus back from Rome in 1998 gave him some simple advice 14 years later: write five minutes and perform it as much as possible. After six months, he would know whether he wanted to continue. He did.

“I was kind of having my midlife crisis,” Jay laughed. “Because I couldn’t afford a motorbike.”

That journey eventually became Bearfoot Comedy.

Originally created in Morningside as a community comedy night, Jay wanted to bring comedy to people who might not necessarily want to travel into Edinburgh city centre. Local businesses became involved, even providing chocolate and cake during the interval.

“It was about trying to create that community,” he says.

The name came from one of Jay’s jokes about bears. (Bears in general)

“I find it amusing that bears don’t wear shoes, because they’re quite literally barefoot.”

Today Bearfoot Comedy is a monthly fixture at The Kings in Kirkcaldy. The first shows attracted around 27 people in a room designed for 100. Jay quickly realised that the room itself mattered.

“Laughter is contagious,” he says. “You want people sitting close together.”

Bearfoot has grown through word of mouth and now regularly attracts returning customers, with some shows selling out.

For Jay, though, it isn't simply about putting comedians on a stage. He wants performers to have a proper audience, a professional production and, importantly, to be paid.

“Coming out on a stage knowing that you've got an audience is much better than coming out to five people and a dog.”

He has also created opportunities for new comedians through the Bearfoot Comedy Academy, taking particular pride in seeing people progress from learning the craft to securing paid gigs.

And after all these years, what keeps him going?

“I just love creating things,” he says.

Whether it is music, comedy, film or one of the many ideas still sitting on his back burner, Jay is still doing what he has always done.

Making something where there wasn't something before. And making people laugh along the way.