update on BALD PERSONALITY DISORDER

I’m spending most of September prepping for my October 13th WIP (BALD PERSONALITY DISORDER – link here) at the Lambeth Fringe, which has included the outdoor performance photographed in the above photo at Emma Cons Gardens.

As someone who lived for performance from childhood through to the end of university, stopping that abruptly when I moved to London was probably the worst terrible decision (of, tbf, many terrible decisions) I ever made. Though I did some live poetry in 2017-19, I allowed the pandemic to arrest that burgeoning personal-cultural renaissance and it collapsed again, though that time the entire world fell apart around me, too…

I continued to write and publish, and although no meaningful change occurred because of them, the positive feedback I received re: the longer works from that period – the pleasure of regret, hip-hop-o-crit (from Broken Sleep Books) – gave me a sense that I was doing something with a small amount of value beyond writing as linguistic mastication of thought/feeling slash narcissistic literary onanism.

In 2023, I knew I had to do something both creative and off the page, tho rather than returning to the poetry scene (or joining whatever it had become in my 5 year absence), I took an improvisation class. I did this for a few months and concluded with a single public performance. I enjoyed this a lot, the play and the chasing of laughter, but the loss of the rigour of the writerly process left me feeling unsatisfied. That sense of play was enjoyable (and so refreshing for me at that point in my life), but the medium wasn’t suited to what I look for in cultural works, which is catharsis and human connection from, I suppose, a singular voice opening themselves to an audience.

So I decided to try stand-up comedy. In the 15 months since then, I’ve performed comedy just over 100 times, including 45 minutes of fully naked #FlatEarth poetry. 

It’s been refreshing, reinvigorating, and with this show, I’m excited to re-incorporate seriousness into my practice, as this won’t be (just) an hour of chasing laughs. This does mean that the risks and opportunities of the piece are different from the mode of performance I’ve been practising for the last year. But I’m excited. Hopefully see you there!

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scott manley hadley aka SOLID BALD live

Here’s a video of me recently performing at the prestigious (it has a Wikipedia page) comedy night, Quantum Leopard. Listen to how much fun the crowd is having. You could have that much fun, too!

Forthcoming gigs include the following – there may/will be others:

20th November: Jest Another Comedy, Watford

30th November 2025: Mirth Control, Covent Garden

3rd December: Cheshire Cheese Comedy Night – 30 min excerpt of BALD PERSONALITY DISORDER

18th February 2026, 7.30pm: Laughable, Wanstead Library

26th February 2026: Mirth Control, Bexhill-on-Sea

12th March 2025: BALD PERSONALITY DISORDER 30 MIN WIP at Glasgow International Comedy Festival

26th March 2026, 7.30pm: Comedy @ Cosmic, Plymouth

May 2026: BALD PERSONALITY DISORDER FULL LENGTH WIP at the BRIGHTON FRINGE