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

February 3, 2012 4 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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Terry’s Dating Profile

January 30, 2012 Leave a Comment

Scouse Terry is, quite literally, lonely and has decided that he finally wants a woman of his own. What does he want her for? Well, how about a loving, long-lasting, boob-based relationship? Watch his video and see if you fit the bill. Or, more accurately, see if you fit the Terry.

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

January 30, 2012 4 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 29: Beat The Frog @ Frog & Bucket, Manchester – 23rd January 2012

January 24, 2012 2 Comments

PRE-GIG:  I thought I’d write a few thoughts prior to this gig since I’m not sure how I feel about it and my opinion is likely to change drastically depending on now it goes.

The last time that I tried a gong show was at Beat The Frog in Preston, way back at the end of September (Gig 12). It didn’t go well; out of 8 acts, 6 lasted the full five minutes, one lasted 3:40 and I lasted 2:09. In retrospect, there were lots of reasons why I didn’t do well: it was only my twelfth gig, I hadn’t done a straight stand up gig for two months and I was completely taken aback by the size of the venue and the brightness of the lights on stage. Oh, and I performed 3 jokes about Dragons’ Den where the joke was that the jokes weren’t very funny.  Not the wisest choice of material under the circumstances.

So, I’ve decided to give it another go, and, even ignoring now badly it went last time, I’m more than a little concerned about it. The conflict with the gong show is that you want to always want to stick to your ‘artistic vision’ (just to make me sound like a complete wanker), but there’s the pressure of having to change it in order to meet the instant approval required.  It’s only natural that you really want to last the distance, so what do you do?

I’ve decided to try and stick to my own style, but have cut out anything too obtuse, especially at the beginning of the set. It will be interesting to see if my increase in experience and confidence as a performer will bear fruit or whether the pressure will get to me.

I genuinely have no idea how I’ll do, so I guess there’s only one way to find out.

POST-GIG:  Let’s cut to the chase, I ‘beat the frog’ and lasted the full five minutes, I got one card (out of 3) held up and I didn’t win the contest.  I’m more than happy with how it turned out.

My set list was essentially the same as Gig 25, only I changed the opening joke for my “stretched cat” one.  I managed to get as far as “Scooby Doo” before my time was up.  While I was undoubtedly nervous, I was also looking forward to giving it a go, and the difference in confidence and stage presence to my previous attempt was like night and day.  The opening joke went down well – I was getting laughs just from how I approached the set-up and was confident enough to take my time with it – and most of the stuff went down well from there.  I was even able to throw in a few of the elusive ad-libs that I’ve been searching for.

The point where I got a card against me was at the “Controversial-Incomplete Joke”.  I’ve done this bit since Gig 2 and I’m very fond of it, even if it doesn’t get that much of a laugh (seeing that sentence written down, does make me wonder why I’ve stuck with it for so long).  I set the “joke” up by saying that it is controversial, but incomplete and I fully deliver on that promise (well, the incomplete part, at least).  I think it’s really funny to leave it unresolved (that’s the actual joke, in my mind), but I was aware enough to know that I should have a way of addressing it for a gong show.  I did this by then pointing out that I knew it wasn’t funny (that bit was ad-libbed) and then telling them the way that several people had suggested I could resolve it (this bit was planned) – 3 separate people have genuinely suggested the same tag line to me – and this got a big laugh.  Although, I’d prefer to leave it unresolved, this experience has made me think about how it could be tweaked, so that I can keep it.

Although it would have been nice to win (since it secures you an 8-minute non-gong spot), I’m really pleased to have done the full five minutes.  At least I know now that I can do it, so that if I try something in the future that gets me gonged off then I won’t feel so bad about it.

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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 27: Comedy Balloon @ The Ape and Apple, Manchester – 18th January 2012

January 20, 2012 1 Comment

Although I hadn’t performed at the Comedy Balloon since October (Gig 14), I had already done several bits (“Luke, I am Yor Father”\Arnie\Controversial-Incomplete Joke) on all my previous gigs there.  As such, I thought it was only right to ditch them and try something new.  As luck would have it, I had some new things to try.

My planned set was:

1) New bit about Roy Walker’s autobiography.  I was originally going to open with this at Gig 25, but I decided against it as it seemed a little too obtuse to try out on that particular night.  It basically consists of me telling a long (90 seconds-ish) jokeless, serious story before capping off with a fairly lame punchline.  This kind of material is, somewhat unfortunately, the type of stuff that I find funniest.  I had a burning desire to give it a try, even though there was a good chance it wouldn’t work at all.  I had to get it out of my system, if nothing else.

2) My “personal bit”.  This is about 3 minutes of stuff that generally goes down well.  The stuff I had planned next, follows on directly on from this, and it seemed a good idea to stick something in that usually works.

3) A new section that I’m going to call “personal bit 2″.  This material came from several sources.  Firstly, there are a few things that I say in “personal bit” that I thought might be funny to address in a “meta” way.  I then had a couple of relationships things.  The first of these was just a random note that I had jotted down.  The other bit was inspired by the warm-up improvisation that I performed in Gig 22.  I felt happy enough with how all this hung together, but, as always with new material, I wasn’t really sure whether or not it was punchy enough.

As this gig came just a few days after the last one (Gig 26) – which was also new stuff – I’d had to practice the material in parallel.  The advantage of doing a chunk of material on a theme – rather than some of the more random stuff I do – is that it does make it easier to remember.  I do find it really important, though, to run through it as many times as possible in order to get the wording as tight as possible, and to hopefully generate additional toppers to jokes.

There was a fairly small audience (I think I counted 13, not including the other acts), but it was enough to continue.  I was on third and, from the two acts on before me, it seemed that although the audience were enjoying it and appreciative, they weren’t making a huge amount of noise.  So, when it came to my performance, although I got a reaction, and definitely didn’t die, I wasn’t fully able to judge which bits really worked and which didn’t.  This isn’t an attempt to blame the audience,  just a symptom of my lack of experience.

As a whole, I was happy with how it went. I enjoyed doing the Roy Walker stuff and was able to get a laugh out of it (mainly by highlighting the ridiculousness of it).  I’d like to try it again, but might possibly change where I put it in the set.  The “personal bit 2″ stuff seemed to work sufficiently well and it at least felt like it was stand up material (I’ve done stuff in the past where it’s apparent that it’s not going to work when you actually perform it in front of people).  I look forward to trying it again and hopefully gauging where it can be improved.

All in all, it was a fun night.  Yes, this is a really lame way of ending it, but that’s all I’ve got.

 

 

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Gig 26: SAS Comedy @ Lass O’ Gowrie, Manchester – 14th January 2012

January 16, 2012 3 Comments

S.A.S. Comedy is my favourite night of the month (as an act and as an audience member), so it was nice to be back after missing the last two.  What wasn’t so nice were the nerves that I had prior to unleashing new character Simeon Gold (The One Man Theatre Company) on the world.

The basis of the material was some of the short plays that I originally performed at Magical Animals (Gig 6 & Gig 11) and which have cropped up in a few straight stand up sets.  They’ve usually gone down OK, but in the past I’ve just read them out, so it was a bit of a leap to base an entire act on them in which I’d be acting them out as an idiot.  The character of Simeon Gold was quite OTT, and so the performance was crucial.  My worry was that if the audience didn’t go for the first few minutes thenI might lose confidence in the persona. Being a character act, it’s not like I could just switch to a different type of joke, like you might be able to (if you’re competent enough) with straight stand up.

Luckily, the audience did go for it and I was able to relax into it once the first laugh was out of the way.  The beauty of the “plays” is that they’re supposed to be a bit rubbish, so it does give some scope for messing about with them and improvising around the ideas.   To be honest, it couldn’t have gone much better.  Which, you know, was quite nice.

If you like daft comedy, then S.A.S. is definitely the night for you, and is a bargain at just £3.  Get involved, you won’t regret it.

P.s.

In fairness, you might regret it if you don’t like daft comedy, but it’s only £3, so give it a try anyway.

 

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Gig 25: The Best of Open for Laughs @ Bar 1:22, Huddersfield – 7th January 2012

January 10, 2012 4 Comments

The Scooby-Doo Show

Image via Wikipedia

Not only was this was my first gig of the year, it was the first “proper” stand up gig I’d done since the end of November (Gig 21). With such a long gap, I wanted to make sure I was well prepared and had my set list worked out well in advance.

As this was “The Best of Open for Laughs” (people who had done well at the regular Open for Laughs), I wanted to find a balance between doing stuff that I know works and not doing the exact same set that I’d performed at the venue last time (Gig 18).  After reviewing the material that I wanted to do, I knew I’d have to drop the “Joke Book” section, which I love doing, but it would be interesting to not fall back on it.

I only managed to do a timed run through on the day of the gig, so had to drop one of my “short plays” at the last minute, so the running order was:

1. New joke about “being sat at a desk..” (It’s not actually about that, but I don’t want to ‘ruin’ it).

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. Only previously done at Gig 14.

4. My “Luke, I am Yor Father” bit, also last seen at Gig 14.

5. The “Arnie\Controversial-Incomplete Joke” bits that have been in pretty much all my straight stand up sets,

6. “Which 3 Foods would you take on a desert island?” – I think I’ve only done this previously at Gig 5.

7. The Scooby Doo bit – previously thrown into Gig 21.

8. My “Personal” bit – this was pretty much the same as usual but with a new tag line thrown in.

Although my practices had gone well in the week, I seemed to be making a lot of unprecedented and inexplicable mistakes on my Saturday afternoon run-throughs.  I think this helped to set in a bit panic and I was the most nervous that I’d been for a long time.  Put it this way, I had soup for tea. On a Saturday.  I know, I know.

As usual, by the time I got to the venue I felt there was no way I could possibly remember my material.  Luckily, also as usual, I actually did remember it.  It all seemed to go pretty well and it was a nice return to the stage.  I feel slightly awkward talking about how it went – I’m not sure why – but I was pretty pleased with my delivery and my pacing.  If I had to pick an area where I’d like to improve, it would be to be able to play around with the material a bit more.

Bah, I’m getting a bit bored of writing this now.  See you later.

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TGB 30\Gig 24b: Dr Brian Sox on BBC Radio Leeds – 2nd January 2012

January 4, 2012 Leave a Comment

What better way to usher in the New Year than another strange quiz on the radio?  Well, I’m sure you could think of a better way, but I can’t.

I didn’t have much notice prior to this radio appearance, and I was back at work the next day, so it took all my might to create “hilarious” comedy character Dr Brian Sox (senior lecturer in quizzes at the prestigious Torben Piechnik Institute).  As always, the show was hosted by the wonderful Vic McGlynn and this time we produced perhaps the oddest segment ever.  So much so, that one listener text in to say how bad it was.  How proud I was.

Anyway, have a listen for yourself and find out just how awful radio quizzes can be.

You can listen to it on iTunes here: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=340803894

Or, if you prefer, you can just listen to it here:

http://thegravyboat.podbean.com/2012/01/04/the-gravy-boat-30-dr-brian-sox/

Or, if like me, you have got rid of your iPhone and have realised how great Google Reader\Listen is, the RSS feed is:

http://thegravyboat.podbean.com/feed/

 

 

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Gig 22 Update: Let’s See What Happens – The Video

January 1, 2012 Leave a Comment

So, you may remember that a few weeks ago, I performed some improvised monologues for Let’s See What Happens.  If you don’t remember that, then click here.   Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, you can now watch one of the monologues and the subsequent improvised scenes.  Errr, I don’t really have much more to add, just have a watch of it:

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