Gig 35: Open for Laughs @ Bar 1:22, Huddersfield – 16th February 2012

February 19, 2012 Leave a Comment

Open for Laughs was my fourth gig in 8 days, and, stupidly, the fourth different routine. As I’d already performed at this gig in October (Gig 18) and January (Gig 25), doing similar sets at both, it seemed like a good opportunity to give an airing to the new material from Gig 27. I didn’t exactly have a lot of time to prepare, and I was increasingly knackered as the week went on, but I felt I knew the material well enough to not cock up, but with enough of an element of doubt for something interesting to happen.

My opener was going to be my Roy Walker joke, previously described as “a long (90 seconds-ish) jokeless, serious story capped off with a fairly lame punchline.” This description doesn’t exactly sell it, but I definitely know what I wanted to achieve with it and how it might be funny. Starting with such an inherently risky bit, however, did mean that I was going to have to play it just right or I’d just look like I was just terrible. My main concern was if a high percentage of the audience were too young to know who Roy was, then it would just be a long, unfunny story and it would be almost impossible to make work. My plan was to poll the audience at the beginning and if the consensus didn’t know who he was then I’d sulkily go into my joke book as an alternative.

As the show started the MC (Lovely Lee Moore) talked to a table of 4 seventeen year-old lads sat at the front. They didn’t know who Roy Castle was – despite him coming from Huddersfield – so I didn’t hold out much hope for their knowledge of Mr Walker. I was third on the bill, so I had a little time to decide what to do. The majority of the audience probably would have known enough about RW to give the bit a go, but because the lads’ youth (and lack of 80s pop culture knowledge) had already been discussed, I felt like I would have to address it. I concocted a plan where I would spend so long talking about the fact that they wouldn’t get it, that I wouldn’t have time to actually do it and faux-exasperatedly be forced into to an abridged version. And making a big deal out of how the abridged version would make even less sense than in full. I didn’t know whether it would be funny, but I was excited to see how it would pan out.

Just before I went on, three guys arrived and sat at the back. They gave a somewhat prickly response when Lee spoke to them, and they gave off the vibe of being unimpressed by what was going on. I thought there was a chance they would heckle (they didn’t), and I was a little distracted with what approach I would take should they interrupt. I don’t really know how much of an effect this distraction had on my performance, but I was conscious enough of it to mention it, so I think it must have done something.

I kicked off by explaining what I had planned to do, but that the youngsters were making me think twice about it. I sneaked in a Roy Castle reference which got a laugh – but obviously not by the teenagers – and I felt in control of this bit. I wasn’t necessarily getting loads of laughs, but I was taking it in the direction I wanted to. I then
complained that I’d have to do the abridged version of the bit and was too bumbling in trying to work out which bits I needed to tell and which to drop. In many ways, bumbling could really have worked here, but just not the way that I did it – this is something I can’t really quantify. Although a few people laughed at the rather lame pay-off to the story, I think perhaps I hadn’t made it clear enough that it was being done on purpose. I do like to do bits which intentionally have a component of incompetence, but I’ve found that I really have to underline the intention in order to keep the audience on-side.

After Roy Walker, I launched into “personal bit”, followed by the new “personal bit 2″. Although there were decent laughs peppered throughout the rest of the set, I never really felt like the audience were with me. It was a startling contrast to when I had done “personal bit” only a week earlier at Gig 32 – and indeed to the previous times I’d performed it at Open for Laughs. This means I now really don’t know which bits really work out of either of the two personal sections. Is the material weak but I can sometimes make it work through performance? Is the material fine, but sometimes I blow it by how the rest of the performance goes? Is it just one of those things that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, depending on the audience? I really don’t know.

In hindsight, I should probably have done the Roy Walker bit as originally intended, and then made the deal out of how the lads wouldn’t have got it after I had finished. I think this would have declared my intent more strongly.  I think I need to ensure that if I’m going to persist with material that could easily be interpreted as unintentionally shoddy (and I am), that I make sure the audience know that I know what I’m doing – even if they don’t actually like it. There’s just so much to learn to get this right.

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Gig 33: SAS Comedy @ Lass O’ Gowrie, Manchester – 11th February 2012

February 13, 2012 3 Comments

I say it every time, and I sound like a broken record, but I bloody love SAS Comedy.  This month I was performing as Den Kodd.

The genesis of the character started in November last year when I received an email from the lethal duo of Victoria and Uncle Dave saying that I’d been they’d booked me for a gig in February, which was great news.  However, further on in the message was the line “You are Den Dodd and you will be supported by the Daddy Men.”  At first, I freaked out at the prospect of performing a character that I didn’t actually do and had no material for.  But it seemed like a really good gig to be involved with, so I resolved that I’d be able to come up with something.

My basic plan fell into place pretty quickly. I’d essentially be a reluctant Ken Dodd tribute act called Den Kodd.  I’d use the gags from my joke book and fill out the set with asides about how much Den didn’t like comedy and didn’t understand it.  The gig was planned for the day after SAS, so I planned to do a test run there (assuming I would be allowed to!).

In January I found out that I wouldn’t be doing the original gig, but was still wanted to do the character at SAS.  I also knew that I’d need to buy some fake teeth if I was going to fully evoke the essence of Dodd, so, you know, I bought some.  The second I popped the peggies in my gob, I instantly transformed into a somewhat sleazy, scouse bloke whose main goal in life was to unnerve my girlfriend.  This character was soon to take on a life of his own as Terry, “star” of a couple of YouTube videos that I’ve posted (see here and here).  It soon became clear that I wouldn’t be performing as Den Kodd; I’d be performing as Terry who would be performing as Den Kodd.

I had a gig on Thursday (Gig 32) and a busy week generally, so I didn’t feel like I’d had enough time to prepare.  I slightly freaked out on Wednesday night because I felt I had too much to do, but once Thursday was out of the way I managed to relax enough and was pretty confident on what I’d be doing.  I was going to use 18 jokes from the “Joke Book”, many of which I had used at Gig 1, also at SAS.  Although I knew the jokes, there was no way I was going to be able to remember an order, so I jotted down a word for each and had them on a small slip of paper to jog my memory.  As Den was intended to be a bit shambolic, it felt like an appropriate compromise.  I only really had a couple of run throughs, but felt pretty confident in improvising as Terry and had an idea of things I might say.

I was a little nervous on the way over to Manchester, but I totally relaxed as the show started and was just really looking forward to giving it a go.  The hair\teeth combination I had going on meant that people were laughing before I started, and luckily it continued throughout.  The jokes worked well; the character of Den Kodd was almost made for them.  I was also inhabited by the spirit of Terry and his endless quest to shut up his (imaginary) noisy neighbours.  Lots of the ad-libs worked really well, especially when I corrected my pronunciation of book (from buck to the traditionally scouse “buke”).   All in all, it couldn’t have gone much better.  And, yes, I know I wrote the same about last month’s SAS Comedy (Gig 26).

The last two gigs have certainly wiped out the memory of the previous two stinkers (Gig 30 & Gig 31).  It’s also made me think more about the type of comedy that I want to do, as I mentioned in the write up of Gig 31.  Perhaps I should try a bit of character comedy at my next assault on Beat the Frog…

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Gig 32: Radio Fallout Comedy Night @ The Railway Venue, Bromley Cross, Bolton – 9th February 2012

February 10, 2012 4 Comments

Some of you (and by “some of you” I mean “me”) may remember my infamous Gig 8a; a night with so few audience members that it didn’t count as an actual gig.  Last night looked like it was heading the same way. At 8:15 – the scheduled start time – there were two people in attendance. The comics all braced themselves for the prospect of performing for each other; something none of us really wanted to do. Then, due to the good grace of some crazy comedy god, it turned into a lovely gig of the loveliest proportions. It appears miracles can (and do) happen.

My preparation this week was relatively lax. I’d decided to go pretty much with the same set that died on its, and my, arse in Winsford (Gig 30); the only change was that I’d open with “stretched cat” instead of “I’m sat at a desk…” My reasons for sticking to it was partly because I had a busy week lined up (and so couldn’t face sorting something new), and partly to try and prove to myself that it did work as a set. I only had time to do a few run-throughs while driving about, so hadn’t timed myself. I knew this might be a slight issue as my re-jigged “incomplete joke” had lengthened quite a bit. This made me think about keeping an eye on my watch – something I don’t usually do – and assessing the points in the set where I could potentially drop bits. This is a skill I definitely need to learn – the more you improvise and mess around, the more your timing goes – so it was a good place to start as any.

The other thing I wanted to concentrate on, with regards to performance, was to make sure that I took my time and that I really sold it. I don’t know how much the failure at Gig 30 was down to me getting rattled and then rushing and not committing to the material.

So, it was showtime and there were two fellas in the audience. Two of the comics had travelled all the way from Newcastle and so were understandably dismayed with the prospect of effectively playing to the other acts. It wasn’t something that I was particularly thrilled with either. It seemed like a no-win situation given that my last couple of gigs hadn’t gone well, but the organisers had been good enough to give me a gig and, like the others, I was committed to giving it my best anyway.

The decision was made to delay the start – as seems traditional at comedy nights – and eventually a few more people trickled in. It got to a point where there were about 10 audience members, which is pretty much the minimum for giving it a go. I was a little concerned at this point as these 10 people seemed to cover every possible demographic and I wasn’t sure quite sure how it would play. Then, from seemingly nowhere, there were about 30 people in attendance, and with the venue being perfect for comedy – raised stage, low ceiling and the audience all tucked in tight – it looked like we had a gig after all.

The show was effectively split into 4 sections: two acts in the first three followed by the headliner. I was on second in the third section and by that point it was clear that the audience were really warm and very receptive to different styles of comedy. So I did my stuff and it went really well (sure, this sentence is a bit of an anti-climax, but screw you). I really took my time with it and made sure I didn’t talk over the laughs (yes, I got enough laughs for that to be an issue). As a result, I totally over-ran and had to end up ditched the part of “personal bit 2″ I was going to do, and “One Day in Liverpool).  But, I felt I was it control of droppping the material, so that was a win.

An excellent night was capped off by headliner Lewis Charlesworth, who literally blew the roof off the place (not literally). And so we all went home happy.

Ah, isn’t it great when you’re not rubbish?

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Gig 31: Beat The Frog @ Frog & Bucket, Preston – 1st February 2012

February 3, 2012 5 Comments

So it was time again for Beat The Frog – the superior frog-based, comedy gong-show.  Last week I successfully lasted the full 5 minutes at the Manchester BTF (Gig 29), but this was my first return to Preston BTF since September last year (Gig 12).  If you want to know the format of the night then follow either of those links.

I had decided to do pretty much the same material that I performed in Manchester, but with a few minor tweaks; I removed a joke that was based on a 1980′s reference and added in a stupid impression (more on that later).  I had the running order sorted and it was all material I was familar with, so I felt confident that I knew what I was doing, even though I wasn’t confident of beating the Frog.

The venue was already bustling when I arrived and on an initial scan of the audience I thought there was a good chance that my stuff wasn’t going to play particularly well.  The vibe was one of people out for a general night out with a bit of free entertainment thrown in, rather than one who had specifically sought out comedy for the love of it.  I’m not currently at a level where I can convince this sort of crowd that my penchant for jokes that appear to be bad and\or that fail is done on purpose rather than through ineptitude.  My instincts seemed to be proved correct based on the reaction to the first few comics on (who were non-gong), and which of their material the audience went for (and, more pertinently, which bits they didn’t).

Although I thought my chances of success were slim, I didn’t let it deter me and just went for it as I normally would. I started my set with some of the usuals: “stretched cat”, “this really shifty looking bloke came up to me” and “can’t fight the moonlight”. There was a mixed reaction – as is often the case – with some people were going for it, some sitting blankly and with a few people “ribbiting” in an attempt to get me gonged\frogged off.  The next bit I decided to do was something I hadn’t tried since Gig 2, where it didn’t really work, but  it was something I thought I might be able to sell better now. This is the bit that got me gonged off.  As I’m unlikely to perform it again, I’ll reproduce it in it’s entirity to allow discussion:

(Normal voice) I’m going to have to lighten the mood now, so I’m going to do some impressions. Everybody loves impressions. I’ll be honest, I’m not an expert, but I’m going to give it a go. Who is this?

(Bruce Forsyth voice) You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off. (pause). You’re a big man, but you’re out of shape…but didn’t he do well? (pause). My name…is Michael Caine….alright, my love?

(Normal voice) It was Michael Caine. As I say, I’m not an expert…

And that was that (they didn’t say how long I lasted but I would guess between 2 and 3 minutes).  Now, you know the bit doesn’t really work when your girlfriend asks you “what the fuck was that bit about?” So, you know, I’m happy that the audience made the right decision. To clarify the intention of the “joke”: I thought it would be funny if I did an impression which was supposed to be one person but just had the voice of someone else.  It made me laugh, anyway.

I don’t blame the audience at all for my demise, I just wasn’t giving them what they wanted. The questions that arise from this are: a) am I able to give them what they want, and b) do I actually want to give them what they want?  Undoubtedly I have a long way to go in my development as a performer and my material can get much stronger, but barring a drastic change in direction, will doing this kind of gig help or hinder my development?

I’m next booked in for Preston BTF on March 7th.  I’ve no idea how I’m going to approach it, but it should, at least, be interesting.

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Gig 30: Buzzin’ @ De Bees Music Bar, Winsford – 29th January 2012

January 30, 2012 6 Comments

I’ve had a string of really successful gigs recently, so I knew that I was well overdue to die on my arse. And, boy, did I ever die on my arse last night. Obviously, this isn’t the greatest thing to happen, but it should, at least, make for a slightly more interesting blog post.

Preparation for the gig was fairly relaxed as I was largely performing tried and tested material, which I know like the back of my hand (or so I thought). There were a few tweaks to a couple of bits, but overall I was pretty confident with the set list, which was:

1. “I’m sat at a desk..” Previously only performed at Gig 25.
2. My “this really shifty looking bloke came up to me and pointed at my wrist…” bit (previously know as “the joke that unjusticely got me gonged off at Beat The Frog” (Gig 12))
3. The “Can’t Fight The Moonlight” bit.
4. The “Arnie\Controversial-Incomplete Joke” bits that have been in pretty much all my straight stand up sets.  There was a bit of a change to the ending of the “incomplete” part, inspired by last week’s tweaked version for Beat The Frog (Gig 29).
5. New joke “So she lost her job…” Although this was new I’d tried it out on a couple of people and felt confident that it would get some kind of laugh.
6.. My “Personal” bit, plus a bit of “Personal Bit 2″ from Gig 27.  On doing a timed run through, I needed a couple of extra minutes and decided that the first part of “Personal Bit 2″ would fit nicely.  There are a few points in it where there are quite natural breaks, so I could always drop bits depending on how time was running.
7. Short play “One Day in Liverpool.”  This has worked really well in Gig 26 and Gig 28, so I thought I’d give it a whirl in a straight set.  It seemed a nice way to finish.

I got a bit nervous on the afternoon of the gig – I think because it was a gig I’d never done before and there was the element of the unknown. I’d calmed down by the time it came to perform, though, and was really looking forward to it.  There wasn’t a huge audience, but the first three bits went down OK – not great – but I felt it was fine given the audience size.  I then got to the Arnie stuff, which isn’t my cleverest but of material, but generally gets a decent laugh, and it got no reaction whatsoever.  It was certainly disconcerting.  Although it’s amazing your stuff goes down a storm, it’s still perfectly fine when you get muted laughter, but nothing at all is a nightmare.  It makes you realise how much the material relies on some response from the crowd and that without it your rhythm and timing become completely shot.

I ploughed on with the tweaked “incomplete joke”, but I really didn’t get any reaction from this point onwards.  The nadir of the set came early on into the “personal bit”.  As I was starting off, someone on the front row’s phone fell out of his pocket and onto the floor.  I instictively felt like I should reference it, which I did, but it threw my timing and, combined with the blank faces, I think I made a bit of a hash of the subsequent bit.  Directly following on from this is a part where I start explaining my feelings on something and this builds up into something of a rant, but, by this stage, I was sufficiently put off that it didn’t really flow as it should.  The punchline to that rant, is actually the start of the next bit and that also got no reaction.  It was at this point that I forgot what to say next.

Now, I’ve done this section on stage a number of times and probably at least a hundred times in practice.  I could probably do it in my sleep, but on this occasion it completely disappeared.  The fact that I conscious of how well I knew the bit, somehow made things worse, and less likely that I would remember. I was genuinely panicking but then I kept repeating the line to stall and because it was the thing to do that made me laugh most.  It perhaps wasn’t the best way to react but I kind of liked the honesty and lack of slickness of it.  My mind was also reeling at this point; I couldn’t decide whether to ditch the thread and try and just do something else or whether to try and stick with it.  The decision was made more difficult because the personal bit all flows, so it’s not like I could skip to a later section of it and it still make sense. In hindsight, I should have perhaps just said that I knew it wasn’t working and then dived into my joke book (which I had in my pocket as a security blanket).  But, I didn’t.  Eventually the line came back to me, but the performance was all very half-hearted from then on.  ”Luckily”, I had used so much time up in forgetting that I didn’t have time to try any of “personal bit 2″.  I ended with the play (to little reaction) and was pleased to get off.

When I died in my first handful of gigs, it was soul-destroying. Now that I have slightly more experience and have done a number of successful gigs, it’s still horrible but I’m able to deal with it relatively easily. I think it does dent the confidence a bit, but it’s also a really good leaning experience. It also highlights how much I still have to learn, particularly in how to deal better with cocking up and having different material to fall back on.  The question that always strikes me in this situation is how can material that has worked so well on other occasions fail so badly? (truly baffling)

It struck me last night that the audience members will have left the gig thinking that I’m awful, and they probably would not be able to believe that the same material has worked really well in front of other audiences.  It’s all a very strange business.

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Gig 28: Spotlight @ The Storey, Lancaster – 20th January 2012

January 23, 2012 5 Comments

 

 

 

Ste Price was born in 1975. Yes, I know, it’s really hard to believe that he’s that old, but he is. Get over it.

 

Despite showing a flair for acting daft at an early age (he once pretended to be a Russian on the play area of a Hoseasons’ holiday park, aged 9).  It wasn’t until 2011 that he decided to perform in any sort of official capacity.  Since that decision (the one about performing in some form of official capacity), he has tried his hand (and the rest of his body) at stand up, character comedy, improv, poetry, short plays and erotic fiction.  There’s literally no limit to the number of ways that he can adequately convey material.

 

He is very much looking forward to performing some jumble of the above at the January’s Spotlight.

 

P.S. ‘He’ is really ‘me’.  It’s ‘me’ writing this, but I’m pretending to be, like, a journalist or something.

After performing at the open-mic at November’s Spotlight (Gig 20), I was kindly asked to return for a guest spot.  As the evening isn’t a comedy night – it encompasses any performed writing and music – it was the perfect opportunity to try some material that was a bit different.  Primarily, I took some of the blog posts from The World of Sherby57 and decided to see if they would work in front of an audience.

My set list was:

1) A joke (“stretched cat”) following by the return of the Joke Book.  I mixed this bit up by numbering each joke in the book and asking the audience for a number to randomise which joke they got.

2) 2 Poems:  A limerick and a political piece.

3) An “essay” called “Times and Trains – An Essay”

4) An “essay” describing my sense of humour.

5) An extract from my, allegedly, upcoming autobiography.

6) A short play: “One Day in Liverpool”.  This was performed as per Gig 26.

Because I was covering a variety of different types of writing, I tied the act together under the mock-pretentious banner of “An Odyssey\Journey Through The Arts”, and this allowed me to assume a strong on-stage persona.

Only my opening gag and the play were performed off-paper meaning there wasn’t that much for me to remember.  Combined with the audience not being there for comedy, this seemed to take a lot of pressure off and I could really get into the material and mess around with it.  A lot of the laughs I got came from completely off-the-cuff asides, and this is something I’ve really wanting to do more of (as I said in my write up of Gig 25).

I was really pleased with how it all went – apart from the essay about my sense of humour, which got nothing – and it was probably the most confident and relaxed that I’ve been on stage.  I know need to think of a way for me to translate this freedom onto my straight stand up sets, as I think it would really mark a big improvement in my performances.

Hopefully I’ll be asked to perform at Spotlight again soon as my mind is reeling with what sort of nonsense I can try next.

You can find out more about Spotlight, here.

 

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Gig 18: Open for Laughs @ Bar 1:22\Bar Maroc, Huddersfield – 20th October 2011

October 21, 2011 3 Comments

Last night was a significant gig because I think it’s the first time that I’ve ever done the same set as in a previous gig.  My repetition was mainly motivated by a lack of time to prepare, since I also had a gig on Tuesday (Gig 17), so I decided not to stress myself by learning anything new.  It was also good timing, since it went really well on Tuesday, and I was intrigued to see how the same material would go down in front of a different audience.

The gig was over in Huddersfield and because I didn’t go on my own, I didn’t get to do my usual practice on the drive over.  This was probably a good thing as I knew my stuff and you can be over prepared.  It also took my mind off any nerves that might have otherwise been brewing.

Open for Laughs usually takes place in Bar 1:22, but last night was transferred to Bar Maroc.  The bar is upstairs in a 1960s concrete monstrosity, but the unpromising exterior gave way to a relaxed, friendly interior.  And there were loads of poofs to sit on.  And I got a free cup of tea.  It was great.

The performance area was cordoned off and so gave a nice intimate feel for the 20-30 people in the audience.  I was on fourth in the first half, but luckily my nerves were under control and I was looking forward to performing.

It was a slightly strange gig for me in that it was hard not to compare with Tuesday.  The audience was much smaller and perhaps not as warmed up as in Salford.  It would have been almost impossible for it to go as well.   That’s not to say that it went badly – it didn’t – and I got plenty of laughs in the right places.  There were a few moments where I couldn’t help thinking “that got a big reaction on Tuesday and now it’s not” and it may have thrown me slightly, but I don’t think I let it affect me too much.

I perhaps should have done better with my “Joke Book” section.  The idea is to use some of my bad pun jokes, but dress it up a bit.  I don’t think I talked enough or do enough asides around the jokes, so it might not have been entirely clear to the audience that my fumbling through the book was part of the act.  One of the earlier acts had been working mainly from paper and stumbled  through some bits, so my section might have been a bit too reminiscent of that.  I think I probably got a bit complacent with the section and focused too much on the jokes and not enough on the stuff around them.

The only other bit to note was that the “short story” section didn’t get as much of a reaction as I would have hoped (even when not directly comparing to Tuesday).  I perhaps powered through it to get to the end, when the better option would have to just relaxed and taken my time – just having faith in the material.

Overall, it was an enjoyable gig and one I hope to play again soon.

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Gig 12: Beat The Frog @ Frog & Bucket, Preston – 28th September 2011

September 29, 2011 6 Comments

Let’s get this out of the way:

Preston. Frog & Bucket. Beat The Frog.  It’s a gong show.  You have to try and last for 5 minutes.  3 audience members are given cards.  If they all hold them up then you’re off.  Last night there were 8 acts.  6 of them managed to “beat the frog”.  I lasted for 2:09 (yes, two minutes and nine seconds).  The other chap who didn’t make it lasted for 3:40.  I was officially, and by some margin, the loser.

It’s been a full two months since my last “straight” stand up gig (see here), and it wouldn’t take an expert to tell you that this is far too long a gap.  So, what better way to get back into the groove than a gong show?  Errrrr…. probably any other way at all.

Stand up is terrifying enough under normal circumstances, but the added danger of being kicked off stage for ineptitude adds a certain spice to the mix.  I had plenty of time to prepare and thought about how to approach it.  I’ve mentioned in previous posts that my openers tend to be a little obtuse, but even I’m not stupid enough to try this in a gong show.  I decided to keep things snappy throughout – and this suited a lot of the new material that I’d come up with (which I was looking forward to trying out).

I got to the venue around half past seven and was a little baffled as there just seemed to be a small bar area (I’d never been before).  It was a few minutes later that I peeked through another door and saw the, already busy, larger room.  There were over a hundred people in attendance and so it was certainly the biggest gig I’d ever played.  The format of the evening was 2 acts (previous winners of BTF) doing 8-minutes each – break – 4 BTF contestants – break – another 4 BTF contestants.  I was the second act on in the final section, following on directly from Clean Dave  - a hard act to follow under any circumstances (more on him later).

I’d been suffering with nerves throughout the day, but they were pretty much under control as I went on stage.  The trickiest part was that, as it was a proper venue, there were very bright lights in the performers face – something I hadn’t really dealt with before.  I was conscious of trying to work out where to look; you want to appear to be engaging the entire audience even though you can only see the front two rows.

I started with my Loyd Grossman joke, which is a out-and-out gag, and which I’ve done a few times before.  It got a groan when I said “keyhole” (which hasn’t happened before, but I actually would have expected it to) but then the actual punchline seemed to get a good enough laugh.  I followed this up with a knock knock joke (with a non-punchline).  I had a bit of trouble getting the lad on the front row to help out with the “who’s there?”, but it seemed to go OK.  I’ve done this joke before, although with a slightly different (non-)punchline.  I then went into a series of 3 new Dragons’ Den jokes.  The idea behind them (and why I find them funny) is that they are ridiculously convoluted.  I did worry beforehand that this idea might be a little obtuse, but since they were still “gags” then I thought I’d try them anyway.  I’d hoped that as each joke progressed the ridiculousness of them would come over.  This plan didn’t work, and I ended up bailing on doing the third one (I just said that I didn’t think I’d bother doing the third).  Apparently I had one card up at this stage.  I then did another new joke (which I think is great) and it seemed to get a decent laugh, but it prompted the other two cards to go up.  It seemed a bit of a strange point for me to get booted off (and Dave also said the same, so it wasn’t just my ego talking), but that was that.

I wish I had held my nerve and gone with the third Dragons’ Den joke.  If my intention was that the jokes weren’t actually that good as jokes, then I should have played up to this idea.  I would have more than likely got carded off at this point anyway, but it’s at least made me think about how to present the material so it comes across as intended.

I think it’s only human to be a little dispirited by the experience.  Not only did I do worst out of the 8 acts, but six of them lasted the full five (two of them being first-timers), so it wasn’t exactly a harsh audience.  It’s hard to think otherwise than that I wasn’t any good.  When people try and console me they’ll suggest that my material isn’t mainstream and so it’s going to be harder for me.  There’s probably some truth in this – I like jokes that don’t quite work and the idea of the act being a bit shambling - but it feels like an easy excuse.

You can try and compare your style of comedy to that of other acts (especially those doing well) and there’s nothing that would make me want to change in an attempt to fit in better.  You can only try and stick to what you find funny and what stimulates you.  Plus, I don’t think I could do it any other way, even if I wanted to.  It’s easy to try and claim that I haven’t taken the easy route (and I don’t know how “different” my material\persona really is, in any case) but I don’t want to use it as an excuse.  If anything it means that I just have to work harder at it and do many, many more gigs.  The hard part is maintaining your “artistic integrity” whilst gaining the ability for that to work on a random room of people.

The highlight of the evening was the emergence of Clean Dave – a new character act by legendary comedian (and Terry Alderton impersonator) Dave Turquoise.  He made me laugh most, and even managed to produce one of my infamous “seal laughs”.  And I’m not just saying that because he’s a mate.

P.s. – His act was only clean by his standards.  I don’t think CBBC will be knocking on his door any time soon.

I’ll end with a worrying thought.   The more open-spots that you see, the more you see acts who you are mystified why they’re persisting with it.  When things go badly, how do you know you’re not one of them?

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Gig 9: Comedy Knight @ Mello Mello, Liverpool – 1st August 2011

August 2, 2011 7 Comments

So, after last week’s strange interlude of Gig 8a, I’m pleased to say that I made it to the next integer and completed Gig 9.  That’s not to say that there weren’t hiccoughs on the way, but I’ll get to that.

The set for this gig was going to be largely the same as last week, with a couple of exceptions.  Firstly, I changed my opening (again), going back to more or less my original “Picasso” opener.  After realising that I couldn’t start with a direct question, I tried to tweak last week’s opener by reframing it.  However, this just led me to completely lose faith in it.  For inspiration, I looked back at my notes for Gig 2 (so far my most successful performance, which is a little depressing) and I realised that I opened with a gag that led into the Picasso bit.  I duly decided to do this.

The other change was that I would not read the “play” from a piece of paper to see if it would aid the performance – and I went back to the play from Gig 8 as it was set in Liverpool and so played the local knowledge card.

Aside: Strangely, in my gig report from last week, I mentioned that I might stop reading the plays from paper because it didn’t seem to work, but, in the comments on the post, Dannie, “the lovely young German lady” from the audience, said that she liked that I read from the paper.  Trying to make sense of this comedy lark is a nightmare.

I had a pretty busy weekend, so didn’t have much time to practice, but at this stage I know all this shizzle pretty well.  That is until I get to the venue, of course, when I feel like I’ve forgotten it all. It’s a horrible feeling, but luckily, so far, it’s always come back to me when I step on stage.

Comedy Knight is an alternative comedy (i.e. sketches and characters, as well as stand up) night held at Mello Mello in Liverpool.  It’s a lovely studenty type venue with a proper stage to make you feel like you’re Live at the Apollo (maybe I’m exaggerating).

There were 9 acts scheduled to perform but, incredibly, 6 dropped out.  Yes, 6.  That’s two thirds.  Totally unacceptable. The three acts that were left were Matty Delaney (who I believe was performing his first gig, but I could be wrong), Me and resident sketch group Legion of Doom.  Fortunately, there was an actual audience, so we pressed on.

As I sat waiting to go on, I came to the realisation that I was probably old enough to be most of the audience’s dad.  I’m exaggerating, but only slightly.  What should have been a low pressure set, in a lovely venue with a nice audience, now became a pressure cooker of terror as I desperately reeled through the myriad of cultural references that I’d use that they’d be too young to get.  In the end, I decided to just plough on and make the occasional reference to the age inappropriateness of my material.

As is becoming the norm for my self-reviews, it went “OK”.  I find it genuinely hard to judge, and if you don’t absolutely kill it, how do you rate the performance?  Some jokes got big laughs all round. Some bits got good laughs from some sections of the audience and not a lot from others.  Some bits got good laughs from audience members I wouldn’t have expected them too and not a lot from audience members I might have.  All in all, it went OK.

Oh, I should probably mention.  The opening is still a bit obtuse, but I’m sure there’s a way I can make it work.  I just don;t know what it is yet.  Thinking cap to the ready.  The short play definitely flowed better without the paper, but perhaps lost a bit of its charm.  I think the Liverpool play might have worked better from paper, but the one I did last week better without.

After I’d finished, I went into my usual bipolar mindset.  Half of me thought: “I’m shit.  I need to throw away all my material and start again.”  The other half of me thought: “He he, that was amazing.  I loved it and doing all the stuff that I think is funny. He he.”  I have issues.

When the show was over, I was approached by an audience member, who also happened to be an open mic comic, who gave me some positive feedback.  A bit of feedback makes all difference, and not in an ego stroking way.  It’s just nice to know you’re doing something right when you only think you’re doing OK.

Comedy Knight was fun, despite the dirty drop-outs and I suspect that it’s a different beast when the students are in town. I’d love to give it a go then, although perhaps in character and perhaps with some more up to date cultural references.

P.s.

I’ve just remembered the best bit.  The biggest laugh came when I used my favourite and only modern cultural reference.  It usually doesn’t work with people who have jobs.  God bless the students.

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