TikTok's 'Perth accent man' confesses he 'owes Alan Cumming an apology'

The Courier

a day ago

Actor and well-known TikTok creator Tyler Collins does a killer Alan Cumming impression.
The talented mimic, whose uncanny impressions of regional Scottish accents have won him online fame and more than 30K followers on TikTok, hasn't met the Traitors star yet.
But that could all change as Tyler is set to spend the summer on stage at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, where A-lister Alan is artistic director.
'I actually think I owe him an apology,' Tyler, 36, says sheepishly. 'I said in one of my videos (demonstrating a Perth accent) that Alan was from Perth, but he's actually from Aberfeldy.
'A lot of people corrected me on that one!' he laughs, before becoming serious.
'People do get pernickety over this stuff, but one of the things I want to do with my videos is make people from each region feel seen.
'Scotland has more than just this West Coast, Glasgow mish-mash we see a lot on TV.'
Born in Alaska, Tyler's party trick as a child was his spot-on impressions of Peter Griffin (Family Guy) and ability to mimic voices of friends and family members.
When he moved to Scotland at age 18 to attend the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, he developed an ear for Scotland's different regional accents.
And his demonstrations, from 'chewy' Glasgow Uni to more 'back of the throat' Dundonian, saw him go viral on social media, with approval even from the harshest critics – Scottish people themselves.
But how does someone whose natural accent is American differentiate between the likes of Dundee, Perth and Fife?
'I think of Perth, Dundee and Fife as all having interconnecting rubber bands of varying strengths, indicating how much they don't want to sound like each other,' laughs Tyler, who has worked for stints at the Dundee Rep and Dunfermline's Alhambra, but still lives in Glasgow with his partner and their senior cat, Freddy.
'So Perth has a very strong rubber band stretching in the opposite direction to Dundee. Over there, they want to try as hard as they can to not sound Dundonian.
'I suppose Perth is in the kind of touristy belt too, which means the accent becomes clearer and more homogenised over time.'
He draws parallels between the Perth accent and Edinburgh accent, highlighting they're both 'softer' and closer to received pronunciation, albeit with a slightly harder 'R' sound in Perth.
To hear him slide in and out of different cities across one sentence is mind-boggling; never mind when he eases back into his natural Alaskan tone.
'Meanwhile Dundee and Fife don't want to sound like each other either,' he observes. 'But they both have that East Coast pride.
'This is our sound, eh?' he demonstrates, heavy on the Dundee 'eh'.
Up in Pitlochry, where he's been staying with other repertory cast members in a their hillside 'oasis', Tyler hasn't had much of a chance to actually study the town's accent.
'You don't meet people from Pitlochry in Pitlochry,' he says. 'But one of the cast members, Eden (Barrie) is from there. She was told at uni that her Scottish accent 'didn't sound Scottish enough', which is not fair.
'I think that's part of the identity crisis of Scotland,' he muses, sliding into a nasal Glaswegian: 'I don't want tae hear masel on the telly!'
During his stint at Pitlochry Festival Theatre this summer, Tyler is taking on the roles of Ally in Sunshine on Leith, Kenickie in Grease, and Tom in The Great Gatsby.
For the latter two, Tyler is thrilled to get to speak 'in my own accent' but admits his ear for voices is helpful when bringing to life characters from different eras.
'In Gatsby, one of the hardest things is that the language is so specific. There's no contractions – you wouldn't say 'we're', you'd say 'we are'. There was a clarity of the time.
'The danger is slowing down, because although the words were very clear, people actually spoke incredibly quickly.'
And when it comes to singing, Tyler's talents transfer over, meaning he can sing in a perfect Proclaimers impression for Sunshine On Leith, or a convincing Chicago-based Danny Zuko.
'I only got to audition with an American accent for the first time two years ago,' he reveals.
'There aren't a lot of American plays put on here, eh?' he jokes in Fife-ish.
'Literally the only reason I've been able to live and work here is my ability to do a good Scottish accent.'