Investigation Report

The Stand Comedy Club Investigation - 21st February 2008

In attendance were:-

Ian McCallum - WOSPR Founder

Alison McCallum - WOSPR Co-Founder

Susan Cocozza - Investigator

Tommy Miller - Investigator

Vince Cocozza – Investigator

Reported Activity

Taps going on in the ladies toilet, also in the bar area. Noises of stools falling/being stacked.  A member of staff heard a growl next to him after hours, in the bar area. A large water cooler container fell on floor and spun round in “blue room”. Two female members of staff standing at bar reported seeing a man near to curtain area (corner of eye). An old man sighted standing next to “tech box” in a “jannies” brown coat. 

Claims of PIR motion sensor clicking on and off for no reason, also that it responds in a pseudo rapping style manner.  Woman spotted in ladies bathroom mirror, but toilet door never opens. Paul saw a haze type movement near mezzanine level on CCTV monitor.  A comedian reported “someone” behind him on stage; he looked round but no-one there. Paul reported “blue room” door opening 1/3 the way - no draughts or anything. 

A pair of legs spotted near bar a few years ago from the cellar area - brown trousers.

Investigative Report

Having arrived shortly before 11pm, we all descended into the basement that is the Stand Comedy Club, located just below the STUC buildings.  We introduced ourselves to Paul Docherty (Owner) again, having met him a few weeks previously for a pre-investigation recce of the location.  We were warmly received by the assembled staff and some remaining members of the audience who’d stayed behind.

After bring down our equipment into the building and starting to setup gear and conduct the baseline tests, we were greeted by Michael Jackson’s Thriller.  Fun and hilarity aside, time was marching on and we still had the setup and other tasks to crack on with.  Susan and Tommy recorded an odd 4.5mG EMF (Electro Magnetic Field) reading in the stage area that seemed to be “free floating”; this reading vanished quickly and couldn’t be traced to anything electrical.

We have 4 CCTV cameras setup to a DVR system.  The four cameras where located to cover the following areas:-

1. Covering the main floor area and stage, looking from the “tech box”.
2. Up towards the mezzanine level, again from the “tech box”.
3. Right Wings (wireless).
4. Left Wings.

After completing the setup with the audience members still milling around, we set about trying to debunk the various claims of activity.  From our base area at the back of the mezzanine level, we moved off towards the “blue room” behind the stage area.

Whilst in the blue room we decided to start an EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) session, but due to the sound levels from other sources, we had to curtail this for a little while. Vince set about trying to debunk reports of the blue room door opening by itself.  Earlier on during the setup phase, Susan and Tommy noticed that this door looked as if it had a bit squint, which was later confirmed by me with a spirit level. The door was hung incorrectly so that it could open under its own weight aided by any draughts.  This door has a spring on the back of it, but it’s not that particularly strong.  We also noticed that it had a tendency to blow open slightly, this happened numerous times during our time in the blue room.

I tried another EVP session in the blue room, but again due to the ambient noise levels, this proved fruitless.  During this time, the comedian decided to join us for a little while.  Vince reported a draught coming in from the left wings; we later found out from Paul that there were no air vents in either of the wings.  There was however a hatch in the wall of the left wings that was opened during business hours for patrons to leave coats in the left wings which doubled as a cloakroom. At this point, two audience members joined us briefly.

Vince tried to recreate the empty water container that had reportedly fallen onto the floor and was seen spinning.  Susan and Tommy had tried to recreate this earlier on, but only succeeded in getting it to bounce and roll as we expected it would.

Vince being in “debunk” mode set off into the right wings at this point, with Tommy following closely behind.  Vince took some environmental readings in here, namely ambient air temperature.  After just a few minutes of being in here, he complained of a sore head, this being one of the reported symptoms of Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS).  With large overhead power cables just inches above our heads and EMF readings in excess of 10mG, the longer he spend in there – there worse he felt.  Back inside the blue room, Vince measured the EMF at ceiling height and found high levels in the older metal “piped” wires – especially near an open junction box.

Tommy and Vince headed into the left wings looking for high EMF and other environmental factors that could help explain what’s being reported.  There was some EMF, but nowhere near as strong as down the right wings.  Vince had no ill feelings in the left wings.

Back in the blue room, Paul came in and relayed to the rest of the team what the reported activity was.  It was at this point that Vince and I explained to Paul the theory behind Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity and how it could relate to the paranormal field.  We elaborated upon this by explaining that some of the experiences that the staff and others were reporting could be due to the claustrophobic environment of the wings, some of the corners being darker than other areas and combined with the possible effects of EHS (nausea, headaches, irrational fear, feelings of “presence”, etc). One area of interest we wanted to look at was a PIR motion sensor up on the mezzanine level which had some bizarre activity allegedly attached to it.  This activity was reported to be an intermittent flashing on and off of the red LED in it, more precisely that it was “responding” to yes/no question etc.

After returning to the base area on the mezzanine level to change a video tape, Susan set off to look at the reported activity in the ladies toilet.  Meanwhile Tommy, Vince and myself decided to take a closer look at this errant motion sensor.  Vince noticed the high EMF reading given off by the electricity box just below the sensor.  I’d noticed this some 3 weeks earlier whilst Alison and I had conducted a preliminary investigation of the club – the EMF reading was in excess of 10mG then as it was now.  We moved around the main floor area in an arc to see whereabouts the motion sensor trigger threshold lay. After a wee while, we were unable to get the motion sensor to trip erratically by moving in front of it – time to take closer look again.  Some more rational thoughts of what could be triggering it other than a “ghost” could be small insects or a spider making its home inside the sensor between the “eye” and the Fresnel lens.  The sensor appeared to be an older model and maybe prone to electrical interference from the electricity box just below it.  Right above the sensor is a large air conditioning vent blowing out cold air right in front of the sensor.  This in itself could trigger the sensor and that’s why they are often sited away from blown air heating, etc.  Any of these more logical explanations could cause the sensor to trigger falsely without the need of a ghostly explanation.

Next on the list of reported activity that we tried to tackle was the sighting on an older man in a janitor’s coat standing next to the “tech box”.  Vince positioned himself in the same position as the reported figure.  His thoughts were this figure was a combination of the curtain and some of the stools giving the impression of a man standing here.  Personally, I think this one is harder to debunk than some of the other reported activity in the club.

Susan returned from the ladies toilet and told us that the taps are quite tight and hard to turn on; this seems to rule out the possibility of a faulty or worn washer.  Further to this, the taps are reportedly turned fully on.  The water pressure is quite low meaning that the taps require a lot of turning before the water flow become adequate.

We checked the EMF levels at the bar and found them quite high again due to the beer coolers.  This could explain the sighting of a figure out of the corner of the eye by people standing at the bar.

At the back of the bar is the cellar where the beer barrels are kept.  Paul, Vince and myself entered the cellar whereupon Vince took and EMF reading that was in excess of 10mG.  Paul told of us a reported sighting in this area of a pair of brown trousers.  Whilst this area was being painted a few years ago, someone thought they saw a pair of legs go by wearing a pair of brown trousers.  Upon investigation they found no sign of anyone in the building and the only door into the place was still locked.

We were also told the story of one customer who was using the ladies toilet who saw another woman behind her, reflected in the mirror.  Upon turning around, the witness didn’t see the lady anymore and no-one had left the toilets as the door had never opened.  With this in mind, Susan had already been into the ladies toilets to try to debunk this and her report follows…

On arriving in the ladies toilets, I had a good look around. The toilets were particularly cold, but I found this to be due to the air conditioner above the door. I knew there had been reports of a figure being seen in the mirror in the toilet...so took a closer look at the mirror itself.
I found that there was some vertical scoring in the mirror, that when looked on at a certain angle, gave an outline of a white female figure, standing about 5 feet tall in the doorway of the toilet cubicles. I decided that if a person was not aware of this scoring, it can seem that on movement of the person looking in the mirror, it gave the scoring an element of movement, seeming as if the figure was walking across the toilet room behind them. I recorded this on still camera and on camcorder to highlight the movement element of the scoring on the glass.

Results: 

Baseline test results were as follows: - Maximum temperature of 19.5°C at the start of the investigation, falling to a low of 14.3°C.  Relative Humidity ranged from a high of 55.9% to a low of 48.1%. There was a constant reading of 0mG throughout most areas, but with a random “spike” of 4.5mG at the stage.  Some areas had higher EMF readings of over 10mG such as the bar area, right wings and parts of the blue room.

No video anomalies were detected.

One anomalous sound was detected that we can't account for.

Blue Room Anomalous Sound Video Clip

Blue Room Anomalous Sound File (amplified)

Conclusion…  We collected no video evidence of anything anomalous and only one sound that we couldn’t explain. One anomalous sound does not a ghost make. We feel that that if The Stand Comedy Club is indeed haunted, then it’s only a very occasional occurrence. Much of the reported phenomena appears to be misidentified natural occurrences with a lot of possible environmental factors contributing to the air of a “haunting”, in fact our remit is to look for environmental and psychological factors first before resorting to anything being “paranormal”.  There may well have been some paranormal happenings at one time, but after this anything unusual seems to have been misattributed to the resident “ghost”. We can’t overlook the obvious alcohol connection too as this is a working licensed premises. 

Copyright © 2008 WOSPR.