Gig 11: Magical Animals @ Sandbar, Manchester – 12th September 2011

September 13, 2011 5 Comments

With the summer holidays interfering and a distinct lack of organisation, it had been almost a month from my previous gig until last night’s Magical Animals.  This is way too long between performances, which is something that I will, hopefully, manage to avoid in the future (although, knowing how crap I am, there is a good chance it will happen again). The main concern with a month’s absence is that I would be really rusty and so nerves would take over.

You may remember that I performed at Magical Animals – the spoken word\poetry night – a couple of months ago (see here for details), and that I used the 4 minute spot to try out some “short plays”. The beauty of it not being primarily a comedy night (although with some comedians performing) is the opportunity to try out material that you might think twice about trying in a “standard” stand up gig. I’ve actually used a couple of the “plays” that I did at the last M.A. in my “straight” stand up set, so I thought I’d try a few more.

One of the plays was an unused one from last time (which were all from The World Of Sherby57), but I also did a couple more that were brand new. They were all written pretty quickly, but I was happy with the basic idea in each. Because it’s perfectly acceptable to read your material in this sort of gig, I did surprisingly little practice. I’d like to think that I didn’t over-rehearse or tweak the material as I was feeling comfortable and wanted to give the performance space to breathe. In reality, laziness probably had a major part to play.

I was a little nervous before I got to the venue, but the atmosphere was relaxed and I felt good as I took to the stage. I accidentally stumbled over the opening line of my first play, but was able to come up with a quick ad-lib which got my bigegst laugh. I really enjoyed the performance and felt that the audience went with it too.

Afterwards I had some feedback which wasn’t negative but didn’t perhaps match up to how well it had gone in my head. Oooh, perception. It’s a right bitch.  I suppose the fact that it went OK at all is pretty good considering I didn’t exactly slave over the material and did very little preparation. I really enjoy doing the plays (I know it’s ridiculous to keep calling them plays but I don’t know what else to call them) and I’d like to try developing them as a character act. The more I do them then the more I can pick and choose which ones work and hopefully hone it into a much tighter set.

The main thing I took from last night is that I was really relaxed while performing and actually enjoyed it. Hopefully I can carry this over to my next performance, which is likely to be the much scarier straight stand up.

 

 

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Gig 6: Magical Animals @ Sandbar, Manchester – 12th July 2011

July 13, 2011 11 Comments

There was an argument (in my own head) that this could have been gig 5c (see gigs 5a and 5 b), as it wasn’t a comedy night, but I’ve already got bogged down in nomenclature as it is.  Anyway, it’s my decision and it’s officially gig number 6. (Yes, I realise that I’m arguing with myself here, what of it?)

Anyway, I was asked if I wanted to do 4 minutes at Magical Animals, a spoken word (mainly poetry) night and I immediately said yes.  I then had to work out what stand up material I could do in 4 minutes. I realised that there wasn’t any, and so thought it was the perfect opportunity to try out some of my “short plays” that I’ve published on The World of Sherby57.  I’m a quick thinker, so I’d decided all this within about 30 seconds of accepting the spot.

It had been exactly 3 weeks since gig 5 until this, so I was unexpectedly nervous when I arrived at the venue.  Luckily, the plays were written down, so I didn’t have to worry about forgetting them.  I was also second on, so I didn’t have too long to worry about it.

I had practised performing the 3 pieces (yes, 3 plays in 4 minutes.  I told you that they were short) and I’d been able to do it only glancing at the paper, so was able to act it out pretty well.  In reality, I think nerves took over a bit and I was far more reliant on reading.  Also, I wasn’t entirely sure where to look when I was doing them.  I wanted to engage the audience, but also the characters had to be “looking at each other”.  I think this element of the performance would improve with a few more goes.

The plays got some laughs and I enjoyed doing them.  The last one in particular worked well and I think I’ll give it a try in my stand up set.  I also got some good advice about how it could be improved.  I won’t tell you what the play was about, so I won’t ruin its majesty for you.

Most of the other performers were poets.  I guess I had been a bit pre-occupied with my own performance, because I didn’t really consider what everybody else would be doing, but, wow, they were really good.  I’m certainly no poetry expert, but the standard was really high – both in content and delivery.  I’ve never been to a poetry event before, and was surprised by just what good performers they were.  Yes, me being surprised just highlights my ignorance, but at least I’m man enough to say so.

Most importantly, there were free cupcakes.  Poetry and free cakes.  What more could you ask for from an evening’s entertainment?

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