Kevin Bridges has revealed he once lost his dog at a gig – then found she had wandered on the stage.
The comedian was warming up for a show in Inverness when he realised his golden Labrador Annie was missing.
After a frantic search of the venue, he heard noise from spectators taking their seats in the auditorium.
Kevin, 33, from Clydebank, discovered the pooch had made her way to the stage area.
He brought her out again after appeals from the crowd and since then Annie has graced the stage at the end of a lot of his gigs, including the final night of his record-breaking run at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro.
Kevin said: “About 20 minutes before a show in Inverness, the dog was missing. I’ve got enough on my mind having to do the gig and I’m like, ‘Where the f*** is Annie?’
“It was about half full and we heard the audience give a collective ‘Awwww’. Annie had walked straight on stage.
“I had to sort of coax her off. Eventually my tour manager came on and grabbed her by the collar.
“She was loving it. She was enjoying the, ‘Everybody is here to see me’ sort of feeling. Obviously, half the crowd have seen there’s this lovely labrador in the building so we had to bring her on at the end for the encore. Everybody gave her big applause.
“That was a highlight for Annie’s showbusiness career. She wasn’t fazed at all, she found her calling.”
Kevin adopted Annie from the Dogs’s Trust charity in 2014 after she had been found abandoned on a street in Ireland. It is believed she may have been born on a puppy farm in Cork. He has described Annie as his “best mate” and takes her on tour with him. He says regular walks with Annie help him come up with new comedy material.
Speaking on Nicky Campbell’s One Of The Family dog podcast, he said: “Having Annie is a distraction. You just drift off, let your mind wander and it’s on our walks that I start getting ideas and taking wee notes.”
