MY Dad used to say: “Son! Yer heid’s full of wee motors” ... and I once got a school report that said “Raymond dreams a lot”!

Now, I have no idea if the two were connected, but I think they had a bearing on the path my life has taken.

On November 30, 2019, I turned 52, and when I look back, I note that I gave up full-time employment to go and be a comedian and actor at the age of 35.

Now, first and foremost, I will deal with the age thing; you’re not alone in looking at my picture and saying: “no way is he ever 52, he’s much older!” I know, I get that all the time; Patrick Stewart of Star Trek and X-Men Fame said that his drama school teacher once told him that he would never be successful as an actor until he looked his age, so I reckon I should hit the big time by about the year 2030.

Anyway, I was 35 years old when I gave up a well-paid, full-time job with a good pension, great prospects and a company car in the summer of 2003 and everybody told me I was mental!

I was married with two kids and although, from time to time, it was tough, I never missed a mortgage payment and I was always able to pay my bills – mostly on time, with a wee bit of robbing Peter to pay Paul just like the rest of us. But most of all, I was making a living doing something I love.

I don’t really know where it came from but, ever since I was about eight years old, I always wanted to be an entertainer. I imagined (or dreamed) I would be a singer or a guitar player, and though I have dabbled in both of these areas, it is abundantly clear I would starve to death if I ever tried making a living from them!

In my first year of secondary school we infrequently got some drama classes as part of the English syllabus and it was these classes that really gave me a buzz like no other thing on Earth.

It was basically just improvisation, where two or three of us were given a location such as on a train or in a workplace and we would just have to imagine we were someone else, make things up as we went along – and it was magical! We could be absolutely anyone else we wanted to be and we just did it, and thinking back now, over a span of about 40 years, I can still remember the joy I personally got from these classes, it was absolutely exhilarating!

I then went on to university in 1988 and joined Strathclyde Theatre Group, and for the best part of the next three years (whilst getting my degree) I did a few plays and musical gigs, hung around with actors and musicians, and this was the point in my life where the acting/performance bug really bit into me.

Along the way I discovered that I had a talent for comedy, and eventually in 1994 I did my first real stand-up comedy gig at Blackfriars in Glasgow.

Ironically, I was quite shy as a child and, even though I still

have a degree of social anxiety

as an adult to this day, it seemed the most obvious thing in the world for me to stand up and

make a complete fool of myself in front of an audience of complete strangers.

I have always believed it’s a form of self-therapy, but I was always very driven just to stand up and do my thing. To put myself up there to be shot at and, despite all of my self-doubt and the ridicule of my friends and family, I just didn’t care (the truth is I did care, it hurt, but I just didn’t show it). To my mind it was a risk worth taking and I suppose I was lucky to be so single minded about it.

I think a lot of people have a dream and sometimes, being a nosy person, I get information from them about what they love to do as opposed to what they have to do!

You would be amazed how many people paint brilliant canvasses, or take great photographs, or play an instrument expertly, and we’ve all been in the company of hilarious people or brilliant amateur dramatists – but what stops them from taking it just that wee bit further?

Most people, I suppose, are happy just as they are – doing their 9 to 5 and then doing something else in their spare time, and that’s a good balance, but I always wanted to take it further, and despite the fear of failure or ridicule or rejection I just carried on!

I had no idea sometimes what I was doing, and looking back I was at times a bit deluded, but I just kept going and I managed it. Though I am far from being a millionaire superstar, making a living doing something I love is its own reward.