[6] Barclay's disillusionment with traditional anti-establishment arts - "there must be a more honest, less patronizing way of getting ideas across to people"[7] – led him to move to political comedy.
[11][12] By 1981, Barclay was compering shows at the Comedy Store, an article from The Sun noting his skill in this role: "Jim is a pro.
[15] Tony Allen has described how he, Barclay and Andy de la Tour supported each other in developing their respective stand-up acts: "All three of us were struggling to understand what we were doing and we gave each other valuable feedback and helped nurse each other's wounds.
[20] He evolved an "agitprop" style he described as 'wacky and zany', adopting a costume which included yellow tights, T-shirts with slogans like 'Loot British', and a hat which incorporated both a joke nail-through-the-head and deeley boppers.
[21] A review of a show at Brickies Club in Poole in January 1984 describes Barclay's act: 'All "come on", chat and cheerfully manic aggression, with his silly hat, yellow lyrics tights and massive physical presence, he seemed more like Alternative comedy's answer to Tommy Cooper.
'[22] In June 1984, Barclay appeared in three different guises in an event staged by the Labour Party at the Wembley Conference Centre called A Night for a Nuclear Free Europe.
[28] The University of Kent holds material relating to Barclay's career as part of the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive.