Workdays and Weekends: James Irvine

James is the Business Development Officer at the Birnam Arts Institute. He works Monday to Friday 9-5 with the odd weekend thrown in of they have larger functions or performances on. Every time we chat to James he makes us laugh, whether its over an email or in person he always manages to make us have a right good chuckle.

He's refreshingly honest, charming and hilarious.  The sort of person that you could share a packet of crisps with, have a pint and a crackin night!

1. What does a typical day at work look like for you?

Generally arrive between 2-7 minutes late despite living less than 100 yards away, I’ll make myself a strong cappuccino to wake up then get going – As we are such a multi-purpose venue work days can be pretty varied but generally I’ll do the boring stuff like checking emails first before getting on with a little bit of marketing – I’ll check things are okay with the website, perhaps write a quick blog about an upcoming performance or a function that we may be hosting that day.

I’m constantly getting notifications from our various social media profiles so keeping on top of them is a constant task whether I’m at work or not. If we’ve a function on I’ll lend a hand with the setup if necessary. Generally I’ll try to ensure that all sides of our business are getting the attention they need to raise our profile.

Afternoons again are varied, today I’m putting in a small funding application, on other days I may be meeting with agencies we work with such as Small City or the local tourist association. More recently I’ve spent afternoons trying not to be too distracted by Euro 2016…

2. What signals the start of your weekend / days off?

There’s usually a mad rush on Friday evening to get finished in time to nip off for a quick blast on the mountain bike in the hills around Dunkeld with some mates before we gather in The Taybank for our regular Friday night pints!

3. What makes for a perfect night in?

A good football match or film with some good food. I enjoy cooking for small groups of my friends but my anti-social flatmate makes this difficult. (The ape in the picture is James and the cat is the aforementioned flatmate, we just had to share this picture with you all!)

4. What makes for a memorable day or night out?

Lots of friends, music and alcohol, maybe a wee BBQ thrown in!

5. Tell us about the weekend you’d love to live again?

Probably a weekend about 8 years ago that recently popped up on my Facebook memories – we’d hired a campervan and were working our way up the West Coast of Australia, we spent the weekend camping in a small town called Exmouth, went snorkelling with whale sharks and swam through coral in the turquoise waters of the Ningaloo Reef, a stone’s throw from the beach. Since then life’s felt a bit drab!

6. And now your best ever day at work?

We meet a lot of talented performers here, occasionally we’ve been out for a few drinks with some of them after their shows. It’s nice to bask in their reflected glory….

7. Any workday or weekend rituals?

Aside from the aforementioned 9.07am Cappuccino I’m struggling to cut out the Sunday night ritual of a donner kebab!

8. What’s in the perfect day off breakfast?

Either spaghetti which I love or fruit salad maybe with a dollop of ice cream for starters with orange juice and fresh black coffee, followed by a full Scottish fry up and if there’s any space left I’m quite partial to a croissant with raspberry jam.

9. Any words of wisdom for us?

I’ve googled this for ages and still haven’t thought of anything inspiring or funny I can pass off as my own so, afraid not!