Scottish ex-miner tickles Thailand

Mr Innes enjoyed performing as a side job while mining

A former miner from Scotland has been voted the funniest comic in Thailand.

John Innes, who left Scotland nine years ago, is one of the most popular performers in the country and has been given the title of Tah Man, the bringer of happiness and joy.

His sell-out stand-up shows secured him a place on national television, and his talents have now won him the affectionate nickname.

"The reason might be different, but for me obviously it's a great honour to be given that name," Mr Innes told BBC World Service's Outlook programme.

The title Tah Man - bestowed by fellow comedians in the country - cannot be used by anyone else while Mr Innes is alive.

He explained that the word came from ancient folklore, and a story about a man - "I would say he's a bit like Mahatma Gandhi" - who would travel around spreading happiness.

"He would see someone a bit down in the dumps, so he would stop and cheer them up, and then he would move along to the next person and do the same thing," Mr Innes said.

Standing ovation

Mr Innes' comedy is mainly visual in style, crossing cultural boundaries in a way similar to Mr Bean.

But he said that when he first moved to Bangkok in 1994, he intended to be mainly a singer, not a comic.

Thais have been hooked on Mr Innes for nearly 10 years

"In Scotland we used to do a lot of work in folk music with a couple of friends of mine - we'd do hospitals and old pensioners' homes and all of that kind of thing," he said.

"I wanted to learn how to speak Thai, so because I had been a vocalist or a singer for many years, rather than go to school I decided to buy some tapes and learn how to sing Thai.

"I was performing and singing Thai, but I couldn't actually speak Thai."

Mr Innes added that the Thais had loved his style right from the start.

"The comic element followed on that because I wanted to do some work in the comedy theatres, but mainly with English songs," he said.

"But then the first night that I went up there one of the comedy teams invited me up at the same time, and said 'it's very easy for a foreigner to sing an English song - why don't you do something in Thai?'

"I did, and they were totally surprised - and so was the audience.

"It was practically a standing ovation, so within 10 minutes, I had half a dozen people ask me if I wanted to join comedy teams."