Gig 5: Comedy Night @ The Lounge, Warrington – 21st June 2011

You may remember that gig number 4 – just over a week ago – didn’t go too well, but that I was quite philosophical about it all. Well, rest assured that as gig number 5 rapidly approached, I soon lost any sense of perspective and panic well and truly set in.  There is a saying that you’re only as good as your last gig, and, you know, I knew where it was coming from.

I felt that the main thing that went wrong with gig 4 was that as I was unprepared I didn’t perform it as I should have.  I was determined to make sure I was well practiced this time, as this had worked out so well for gig 2.   This set was going to be largely based on gig 2, with a few tweaks from the failure of gig 4 and a couple of new bits thrown in.  I also found out a few days beforehand that this would be an 8-minute spot, so I had to cut some stuff out and ensure that I had the running order down pat.  One consequence of the abundance of rehearsal – coupled with my now fragile confidence – was that I became so familiar with the material that I was struggling to work out if any of it was remotely funny. Luckily I managed to persevere and got through to the other side.

By the time of the gig, I was a bit of a wreck. I had a couple of last practices on my drive into Warrington and messed quite a few bits up, even though I knew it like the back of my hand. I tried to keep it going in my head, but I had the fear that I was going to forget it all.  Oooh, what’s going to happen?

Don’t worry, it was fine.  I was first on in the second half of the show and somehow I ended up being well up for it despite the nerves.  Once I was on stage then all the practice kicked in and I was able to perform the set just how I wanted to.   I got a decent amount of laughs, without blowing them away, but I was really pleased with how it went.  Importantly, I really enjoyed myself.  The new bit that I tried – which intentionally didn’t contain a joke – didn’t entirely fail, so that was an interesting experiment.

Interestingly, The Lounge was the first open-mic night that I ever went to, just over a year ago.  I wrote about it, here.  In the post, I wrote:

Somewhere in the far reaches of my mind, a thought has always lingered that I’d probably be pretty good at stand up if I ever gave it a go.  Of course, I’ve never actually acted on that thought because it would be far too scary and I was all too aware that I was probably wrong.

Well, it is scary, but it’s a year on and I’ve given it a go.  Bully for me.

Related articles

• Gig 2: Comedy Balloon, The Ape and Apple, Manchester – 8th June 2011 (poursomegravyonme.co.uk)
• Gig 3: SAS Comedy, Lass O’ Gowrie, Manchester – 11th June 2011 (poursomegravyonme.co.uk)
• Gig 4: Mirth on Monday @ Iguana Bar, Chorlton – 13th June 2011 (poursomegravyonme.co.uk)